Videoconferencing

VENUS - 'Virtual and E-mobility for Networking Universities in Society'

• Funding programme and duration
  The VENUS project is supported by the European Commissions’ eLearning Programme and runs from March 2006 until March 2008.
  
  
• Objectives
  VENUS aims to internationalise prestigious courses, with international scope and importance, in each member university through virtual mobility, open to both students and citizens. The content will focus on promoting European citizenship, collaboration and personal development.
  VENUS aims to implement two different models of international virtual seminars (a seminar series during the academic year and a one-week summer school) and evaluate their sustainability.
  VENUS aims to enhance international clusters of educational institutions each strongly embedded in regional networks, in order to stimulate inclusion of citizens. Through the elaboration of the contents on two levels (general European and region specific) the European identity will be enhanced and at the same time local aspects will be valued.
  VENUS aims to become a world-class example of cross-border collaboration between higher education organisations, businesses and citizens. The overall objective is to create a sustainable best-practice example of the 'Faculty of Extension', extended both in the sense of methods and target public.
  
  
• Main activities
  The organisational approach in VENUS is that each partner institution will select a topic that has a “European focus” and that contributes more in general to the education of all students, citizens and employees. Each partner invites internal or external top experts to deliver the seminar together with a content expert from within the own institution (the “local moderator”).
  In order to reach a wide and diverse target audience, each partner will form an international and regional cluster by linking up with their own partners and networks (in the region and on an international level).The seminars will consist of 3 main parts: interactive preparatory activities, seminar delivery (presentation, localisation and debate), and interactive follow-up activities.
  
  
• Available outputs
  The project partners are jointly developing training materials on virtual instruction. These training materials will draw as much as possible on existing materials and will be bundled in a modular Virtual Seminar Organisation Handbook (~150 p., EN, FR, DE) supported by online interactive tutorials, specifically on the organisation and facilitation of virtual seminars for higher education and lifelong learning. It will include modules on
  • Suitable instructional design models,
  • Case-studies
  • Technical guidelines
  • Guidelines on using, sharing, re-purposing and storing virtual and collaboratively developed seminar content,
  • Guidelines on multilingualism and multiculturalism in a networked university environment
  
  
• Partners
  EuroPACE ivzw (BE), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Catholic University of Leuven) (BE), Audiovisual Technologies, Informatics and Telecommunications bvba (ATiT) (BE), University of Cologne (DE), Teknillinen korkeakoulu, Koulutuskeskus Dipoli (Helsinki University of Technology, Lifelong Learning Institute Dipoli) (FI), Nyugat-Magayarorszagi Egyetem, Geoinformatikai Foiskolai Kar, (University of West-Hungary, College of Geoinformatics) (HU), West Pomeranian Business School (PL), Technical University of Kosice - Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics (SK), Consorzio Nettuno Network per l'Università Ovunque (IT)
  
  
• Project website
  www.venus-project.net
  
  
• Contact details
  contact name: Bieke Schreurs
  organisation: EuroPACE ivzw
  e-mail: info@europace.be