Empowering Student Mobility with OpenCourseWare

With this handbook, our aim is to show how students, teachers and universities throughout Europe can get the most out of OpenCourseWare to participate in new learning communities and facilitate virtual exchanges across borders. This handbook is one of the results of a European education project funded by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union entitled "OpenCourseWare in the European HE context: How to make use of its full potential for virtual mobility". More information about the project can be found at www.opencourseware.eu/background. The focus of this project is to lay the foundations for a strong European OpenCourseWare framework. A stronger framework also means closer cooperation between European institutes, which results in the mutual use of material and even joint degrees. A better functioning OpenCourseWare system will enhance quality and increase the usage of online courses while facilitating virtual mobility through increased co-operation and the removal of barriers to higher education. A virtual mobility experience can be a valid alternative for the many students who cannot travel for studies abroad for financial reasons. This handbook offers a number of resources, guidelines and scenarios to increase the use of open educational resources for student mobility in European Higher Education. In the first chapter, we define a number of frequently used terms, such as Open Educational Resources, OpenCourseWare or (Virtual) Student Mobility, and outline the context of student mobility, both physical and virtual. In the second chapter, we offer a number of scenarios for the use of OpenCourseWare both in the context of on-campus education and that of (virtual) student mobility. This handbook ends with a description of current (and future) trends in Open Education.