Digital at home: new steps in internationalization of education
Internationalization has become one of the main priorities for universities and other educational establishments. As it is widely discussed, most universities work on the implementation of this notion into their structure and work. At the same time, digitalization of education has been on the agenda for many years. And a need for digitalization became urgent due to recent circumstances brought on by Covid-19. Therefore we applied for, and were given a grant from the Swedish Institute for the project “Digital at home: new steps in internationalization of education”.
This project deals with Internationalization of higher education: we aimed to re-thinking the concept of internalization and how it is being conducted in education at universities. Thus, we introduced the concept of Internationalization at Home, Internationalization of Learning and Teaching, and Virtual Exchange with the main focus on enhancing the digitalization of education. Project partners learned about these concepts as well as developed and applied relevant methodology for internationalization and virtualization on the thematic areas of Climate Change and Baltic Sea Regional Studies. Working in international groups, the partners further developed or created new digitalized content for the courses. They also pilot the virtual exchange as a part of their existing syllabi at university.
Outcomes from the project
The project resulted in these deliverables:
1. The MOOC course Introduction to Virtual Exchange https://catalog.studium.uu.se/browse/bup/courses/intro-ve
The course not only describes basic concepts of Virtual Exchange (VE) but also deals with internationalization: how universities and university teachers can improve digital mobility and improve the internationalization of education. The course provides an introduction to the concept as well as discusses some best practices and experiences from VE projects in the Baltic Sea Region and around the world.
2. The MOOC course Re-thinking the Baltic Sea Region: trends and challenges
https://catalog.studium.uu.se/browse/bup/courses/re-thinking-the-baltic-sea-region-trends-and-challenges
The course aims to analyse the Baltic Sea region, its common history, culture, social, economic, and political development as well as to provide an overview of the issues that have been subject to change over recent years.
3. The book Re-thinking the Baltic Sea Region: trends and challenges.
This publication aims to critically (re)approach the classical understanding of region and region-building processes during the difficult time of war within the region itself. The publication also aims to chronicle the processes that have taken place in the region over the past two decades. The book has had Tomasz Branka, Adam Mickiewicz University, and Victor Shadurski, University of Wrocław as editors and in total, twelve colleagues from the Baltic Sea Region and BUP participating universities have been involved.
The book is available via DIVA, https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-508835, and in a printed form.
The publication of the book was not planned from the beginning. However, the working group of colleagues decided that publication would be valuable in addition to digital materials. Also, it can contribute to better dissemination of the project results.
4. The MOOC course Climate Change in the Baltic Sea Region
The course was created within another project (BSRCCC) and further developed by the team from Kaunas University of Technology within the current project. The course offers an introductory and interdisciplinary knowledge of climate change in the Baltic Sea region and connects it to regional problems and solutions. The content chiefly focuses on regional perspectives, although global issues are also addressed to a lesser degree.
These resources are open not only to the project partners but are disseminated and accessible to all BUP members. The materials developed within the project will contribute to the possibility of teachers and students accessing education online. Therefore, we expect that the project results will contribute to internationalization/internationalization at home at many universities in the Baltic Sea Region.
This project finished in August 2023.
Project Partners
- Uppsala University, Sweden (lead partner)
- Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine
- National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine
- Södertorn University (CBEES), Sweden
- Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania
- Adam Mickiewic University in Poznan, Poland
Associated project partners
- Marie Curie – Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland
- University of Gdansk, Poland
- University of Tartu, Estonia
Questions and more information
For questions and more information regarding this project please contact Project coordinator Lyudmyla Babak via lyudmyla.babak@balticuniv.uu.se
