Erasmus (“European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students”) is the European Commission’s educational program for Higher Education students, teachers and institutions. It was introduced in 1987 with the aim of increasing student mobility within the European Community, subsequently the European Economic Area countries, and the Candidate Country of Turkey. In 1995 Erasmus was incorporated into the Socrates program which covers education from school and university to life-long learning.
Published in Chapter:
The Use of Communities in a Virtual Learning Environment
Lut Baten (K.U.Leuven, Belgium), Nicolas Bouckaert (K.U.Leuven, Belgium), and Kan Yingli (K.U.Leuven, Belgium)
Copyright: © 2009
|Pages: 19
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-190-2.ch008
Abstract
This case study describes how a project-based approach offers valuable new opportunities for graduate students to equip them with the necessary competencies and skills for bridging the gap from university to company performance in English. The project focused on the development of a Web 2.0 learning community in a virtual learning environment (VLE) using Google. Throughout the project, a group of business and economics students reported to each other and to external experts about their progress. Google was compared to Blackboard, the official university VLE. Google does not score as well as on privacy and structure, but a qualitative results questionnaire revealed that it performs better as a learnerpulled VLE. Our Google community led to (i) intensive interaction in discussion forums in the target language, (ii) confidence building as to spoken and written performance in an international business setting, (iii) meaningful content learning, and (iv) successful project management skills. The strengths of a Google community lie in user-friendliness, interaction, and the application of new technological tools and means.