International Virtual Education & Learning (IVEL)
The International Virtual Education & Learning (IVEL) project aimed to design a series of digital badges as part of a non-credit bearing Global Teaching & Learning faculty CPD credential to prepare and support ATU faculty practitioners in the effective design and delivery of Virtual Exchange (VE) and COIL projects.
In partnership with Georgian College (Canada), and supported by Higher Education 4.0, the initiative proposed the development of five non-credit digital badges leading to an overall International Virtual Education and Learning (IVEL) Global Teaching and Learning Certificate, while also establishing a VE-COIL community of practice across both institutions.
The Challenge
The project responded to the growing importance of Internationalisation at Home strategies and the barriers many students face in accessing physical mobility opportunities. While the EU Bologna Process targeted 20% participation in study abroad by 2020, the actual figure was only 8.4%.
Students cited financial constraints, poor second language competency, caring responsibilities, part-time work and other factors as barriers to mobility, meaning physical mobility often “privileges the already privileged”.
Within ATU, faculty was already participating in VE-COIL and blended mobility projects, but identified the need for training, support and recognition to effectively design and deliver these initiatives.
The project also required the alignment of matched resources — including faculty developers, instructional designers and licences for a neutral e-learning design platform — across both institutions during a 10-month project period.
The Solution
Due to departmental constraints within ATU, the two project faculty developers funded under Higher Education 4.0 were only available for the first five months of the project. Despite these limitations, instructional design support provided by ATU enabled the completion of the first three digital badges. These were developed in Articulate Rise 360 and exported to Moodle (ATU) and Blackboard Ultra (Georgian College).
The completed modules included: Introduction to Virtual Education & Learning, Intercultural Knowledge & Communication, and Introduction to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Each module comprises up to 20 hours of asynchronous learning and is available through the ATU Free Courses platform.
The Result
With HE4.0 support, the project successfully delivered three of the intended five digital badges in partnership with Georgian College. Supported by a €1,500 IVEL voucher to encourage curriculum internationalisation, 25 ATU faculty enrolled in Modules 1, 2 and 3.
Additional support from international subject matter experts, ATU Global and NTUTORR enabled the development of Module 4 – Masterclass, which launched in October 2024.
Once faculty learners implemented their VE-COIL projects in Module 5, it was estimated approximately 500 ATU students per academic year could gain valuable international and intercultural learning experiences without leaving ATU.
