The NewM Experience

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New Modes of Mobility Project Concept

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Target Groups
The main target groups of the ‘New Modes of Mobility Project’ concept were Bachelor students, HEI lecturers, Curriculum Designers, and International office staff.
The main objective was to develop mobility concepts using digital technologies that can be made available to all participants of the project, focusing mainly on students.
The project was also targeted at external institutions, lecturers in higher education institutions, curriculum designers, and international office staff by providing support in implementing new modes of mobility and fostering internationalisation.

Goals
The New Modes of Mobility Project Concept focused on various complementing goals:

Promoting internationalisation - The New Modes of Mobility Project emphasized internationalisation and mobility, as essential parts of modern higher education.
Promoting internationalization at home  - To tackle the declining trend of outgoing exchange students, the New Modes of Mobility Project  proposed a novel framework of internationalisation at home. The project aimed to showcase that internationalisation at home should be considered as a vital option for educational institutions at all levels.

Developing digital mobility concepts - The project focused on the use of innovative and interdisciplinary pedagogies, as well as digital media to expand the international curriculum for project participants.
Experimenting with intercultural digital practices – Participants in the New Modes of Mobility Project were able to build up their international competencies at their home institution and gain cross-border experience in digital settings.

Enhancing inclusion in higher education - The project placed particular emphasis on the inclusion in higher education by targeting students that were unable to gain experience abroad due to various barriers.

Developing tools and guides for teachers and curriculum designers – The project was aimed at establishing a package of tools and guides for teachers and curriculum designers to incorporate internationalisation at home in their courses.

Elements
There are various differentiating elements of New Modes of Mobility Project. Mainly, the project aimed at the internationalisation of participants in virtual mobilities. This aim was achieved through the cooperation of partner universities and the enhancement of the relationships with the higher education institutions involved in the project. The cooperation among HEIs extended in the form of innovative and international teaching and learning models that were carried out, tested and developed with the target groups of the project.
As the main target group of the project, the students had the opportunity to enhance their critical thinking skills, problem-solving abilities, digital competencies, and communication skills by using online technologies and interaction tools and by being exposed to young people from other cultures.
Additionally, an essential element of this project was the inclusion of those stakeholders who were unaware of the international teaching and learning models or did not have the possibility to participate in physical mobilities, due to various access barriers. Thus, the New Modes of Mobility Project provided a key solution through virtual mobilities and internationalisation at home.

Implementation
For students, New Modes of Mobility Project focused on virtual learning experiences in a multicultural digital setting. For HEI lecturers, Curriculum Designers, and International office staff, the implementation phase of the project involved various activities, such as internal seminars, curricula re-design, adjustment of internationalisation processes, concept development, analysis the pedagogical experiments. Moreover, surveys and virtual training sessions were implemented for different target audiences.

Output
New Modes of Mobility Project ensured the development of various outputs, such as (1) virtual mobility models for implementing the ‘internationalization at home’ concept; (2) online guidelines for teachers including the concepts, pedagogical scripts, and flowcharts to help support future implementations of the concept; (3) curriculum re-design with input from each partner to increase the cooperation between the participating institutions in course implementation and curriculum planning; (4) Ebook based on the experiences gained  in the project that aims to provide open access to the material developed and a guide to build the capacity of the teachers in adopting the ‘internationalisation at home’ concept.

Impact
By enhancing the opportunities for internationalisation, New Modes of Mobility Project generated multiple impacts for the different identified target groups by enhancing their transversal skills, such as international and digital skills.
Additionally, the students were highly impacted by the New Modes of Mobility Project in terms of their opportunities to participate in virtual mobilities that surpass the barriers associated with physical mobilities, to gain an intercultural experience, and to acquire new digital competencies that would benefit them in their future careers.
Also, for the teachers involved in the project, the impact led to an extended understanding of intercultural interrelations and enhanced pedagogical competences in an international digital setting.
Moreover, curriculum designers and international office staff were impacted by the project in the sense of gaining new perspectives on internationalization processes and curriculum planning across Europe.

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Abroad@home programme concept

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Abroad@Home offered an innovative approach of a completely virtual semester abroad in which interested students from partner universities could participate from home. In addition to 6 Modules which are cumulating to 30 ECTS, social activities were also offered. The program started not only as a reaction to the Corona situation but also to meet the general change of the world and offered an inclusive semester abroad for everyone.

Target Groups
For advertising and recruitment Abroad@home focused on targeting students enrolled in the partner universities: FHWS Germany, SeAMK Finland, Fontys Netherlands, UZ Poland, ULBS Romania and University of Debrecen Hungary. Thus, the primary target group consisted of Bachelor students studying business-related subjects.
The secondary group consisted of lecturers and other expert visitors teaching six different modules:

MODULE 1: Speaking Europe (provided by: Debrecen University, Hungary & Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, Finland)
MODULE 2: Nailing it – design, develop and communicate your idea! (provided by: Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, Finland & Wurzburg-Schweinfurt University of Applied Sciences, Germany )
MODULE 3: International Marketing (provided by: University of Applied Sciences Wurzburg-Schweinfurt)
MODULE 4: Management Gaming in virtual cooperation (provided by: Fontys University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands)
MODULE 5: Marketing Research (provided by: Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania)
MODULE 6: Strategic Management (provided by: University of Zielona Góra, Poland).

Goals
The specific goals of the Abroad@home programme were to develop module specific skills and to offer a complete virtual semester abroad. These objectives were added to the initial ones - internationalization at home, transversal skills and digital competencies.

Module specific skills
MODULE 1: Speaking Europe - Online International Communication Skills in English. This module served as a prep module for the rest since the skills gained here are needed throughout.
Topics covered: online negotiation skills; professional writing online (different online platforms); relevant Intercultural Communication skills, e.g. Online Meetings and Online Negotiations.
MODULE 2: Nailing it – Design, develop and communicate your idea! The students worked in international teams and as a result introduced a new product online.
Topics covered: developing their idea into a product; teamwork skills; preparation of an online presentation for an international webinar; feedback skills.
MODULE 3: International Marketing - Students faced the fundamentals of Marketing and experienced basic models of cross-border marketing by solving tasks in a simulated scenario.
Topics covered: advertising fundamentals and marketing strategies; preparation of international marketing plans; collaborative working on marketing challenges in a cross-cultural context.
MODULE 4: Management Gaming in virtual cooperation - Students faced the basics of management with all instruments that were needed to analyze and solve integrated marketing and supply chain plans.
Topics covered: establishing well-founded marketing plans (promotion and pricing); defining operations management plans (sourcing and channels); evaluating financial performance of the organisation (report to shareholders).
MODULE 5: Marketing Research - The students worked in an international team to develop a marketing research project.
Topics covered: marketing research based on secondary and primary data; questionnaire design and construction; using marketing research data to guide business strategies.
MODULE 6: Strategic Management - The main objective of the course was to provide knowledge on the methods and tools of strategic analysis and the importance of formulation and implementation the development strategy in a company.

Topics covered: analysis of a closer and further environment (benchmarking, balance scorecard, PEST); analysis of the company‘s potentials (product life cycle, SWOT analysis, strategic balance); development strategy for a new product.

Virtual semester abroad - Students could have participated in any number of modules and received a transcript of records. If they participated in all courses, they were able to earn an additional certificate for a complete virtual semester abroad. For each university, 10 places were available for student enrollment. The participation in the project did not require any additional costs for the students.

Internationalization at home – Due to a challenging environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Abroad@home provided students the opportunity to participate in international learning experiences with Professors from various European universities. Students could participate in this project from the comfort of their home, working in international teams and experiencing the cultural differences without the challenges of the physical mobilities.

Transversal skills - The Abroad@home emphasized the importance of expanding the transversal skills of targeted groups, such as: critical and innovative thinking, presentation and communication skills, organizational skills, online teamwork, perseverance, self-motivation, intercultural understanding, etc. In addition to enhancing these transversal skills, the students also benefited from credit recognition for their participation in various Abroad@home modules.

Digital competencies - By studying in Abroad@home modules, participants were able to use different platforms, digital tools and online resources for learning and engaging with teachers and other students.

Elements
The core components of Abroad@home concept were creating an international online environment, fostering online collaboration for teamwork among students from various countries, and using advanced modern technology in different project-related tasks. To simulate a physical mobility, students were encouraged to participate in extracurricular activities in virtual settings, such as virtual tours of the campuses, online activities with student associations, and similar other initiatives.

Implementation
Abroad@home concept followed the guidelines of NewM implementation, by adapting the framework to each module and phase. Each of the six virtual modules were coordinated by partner universities, and different types of co-teaching were used, providing a virtual teaching mobility experience. For all modules, English was lingua franca, teamwork involved multidisciplinary tasks and were developed through online tools. Additionally, participants were engaged in networking and socializing activities, such as Christmas party and games that enhanced their virtual studying abroad experience.

Impact
The Abroad@home concept enabled participants from various countries to benefit of a comprehensive virtual mobility as established in the guidelines of the NewM project, especially given the restriction related to physical Erasmus mobilities and unfavorable travelling environment caused by the pandemic.

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The key concepts of NewM virtual mobility

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Target Groups
The advertising and recruitment for the NewM virtual mobility focused on targeting students enrolled in the partner universities. Thus, the primary target group consisted of Bachelor students interested in business-related subjects.
Moreover, the NewM project also targeted a secondary group consisting of lecturers from higher education institutions, curriculum designers, and other staff that might contribute to the expansion of the project. This secondary group was involved in different initiatives, such as workshops, seminars, and other research-related activities for the development of intellectual outputs.

Goals
The structure of the NewM project consisted of three main goals that complemented each other, namely:

Internationalisation at home – This goal focused on unifying the international and intercultural dimensions to enhance the target groups’ perspective of virtual mobilities.

Transversal skills - The NewM virtual mobility also emphasized the importance of expanding the transversal skills of targeted groups, such as: critical and innovative thinking, presentation and communication skills, organizational skills, online teamwork, perseverance, self-motivation, intercultural understanding, etc.

Digital competencies - By participating in the virtual mobility, target groups were able to gain new digital competencies by using a comprehensive spectrum of digital technologies for knowledge acquisition and communication with teachers and other students.

Elements
The key differentiating elements of NewM consist of (1) online student collaboration in teams and (2) simulated student mobility, including extracurricular activities. Participating students had the opportunity to collaborate with other peers while accessing module resources and engaging in chat, audio, or video meetings, and other online tools that were meant to expand their learning experience in digital settings. Additionally, NewM focused on simulating physical student mobilities, by engaging participants in extracurricular activities in virtual settings.

Implementation
NewM Project focused on developing mobility concepts using digital technologies that were available to all participants in virtual study modules, namely:

• Speaking Europe
• Nailing It
• International Marketing
• Management Game
• Marketing Research
• Strategic Management

In NewM, students could participate in any number of modules and receive a transcript of records. Thus, students were awarded certificates for a completing a whole virtual semester abroad or only a certain module. Each study module was awarded 5 ECTS and certain modules were implemented based on co-teaching practices in virtual settings.

Students were able to learn, cooperate, and gain experience in the context of an international exchange due to the program’s adherence to the English language and the use of a various of digital and collaborative technologies.

Impact
NewM Virtual Mobility ensured many positive impacts upon the participating HEIs and students.

The mission of NewM was to provide an inclusive environment for participants. NewM focused on developing novel strategies for involving students in virtual mobilities and giving them the chance to improve their digital skills in a multicultural setting, as a form of internationalisation at home.

Innovative learning techniques were created as part of the NewM initiative focused on amplifying digital competencies of participants.

Enrolled students had the opportunity to meet, work, network, and collaborate with students from other countries, thus emphasizing the international dimension of the project. Moreover, through online teamwork skill development, participants were able to assess the similarities and differences between their home institution and partner institutions.