Teaching staff of Skytte Institute showcases examples of virtual exchange programs at the EnVision training at Vilnius University

Between April 24-25, the teaching staff of Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies participated in the final training of the Nordplus project “Building virtual exchange capacities in the Baltic Sea Region” at Vilnius University.

The project is coordinated by the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies at the University of Tartu (UT), in partnership with the University of Helsinki, Uppsala University, and Vilnius University, which form EnVision consortium.

The EnVision network brings together social science teaching staff to gain practical training on virtual exchange (VE) implementation and facilitation. It also aimed to foster the sharing of best practices and collaboration in the development of VE teaching materials. The EnVision project addresses the need for social sciences departments to expand international and intercultural opportunities for students, creating competitive, inclusive, and diverse study environments. The project also aims to integrate digital competencies and transferrable skills, such as intercultural communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork, into course curricula to enhance graduate employability.

A total of thirteen teaching staff members from partner universities participated in an intensive two-day training program in Vilnius, led by instructors Dr. Ana Beaven (University of Bologna) and Anna Beitane (Manager of Online and Continuing Education Projects, J. Skytte Institute of Political Studies). The program introduced lecturers on enhancement of transferable skills as well as students’ perspectives on participation in the virtual exchange programs. Moreover, lecturers from EnVision consortium had a unique opportunity to showcase their scenarios and cases of virtual exchange collaboration, which they have worked on for over the five months.

According to Anna Beitane, "as we enter the final stage of the project, our focus shifts to crafting a virtual exchange toolkit. This toolkit aims to support lecturers in enchancing the design and planning of their virtual exchange programs. It will encompass a variety of teaching aids, checklists, and guidelines to streamline the process of creating such programs. Moreover, a summary of the toolkit will be available in Estonian, Finnish, Swedish and Lithuanian languages”.

More information could be found on the website of the project. For additional questions, please contact Anna Beitane at anna.beitane@ut.ee

This training is part of the Nordplus-funded project "Building Virtual Exchange Capacities in the Baltic Sea Region (NPHE-2023/10034)."

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