Study abroad in the digital world: an online open module in digital learning for exchange students

Abstract

The pressure of the labor market, the change of professional and personal life of learners because of the intense interaction with information and communications technologies (ICT), correlated with the consistent impact of Covid-19 pandemic, determined an accelerated growth in the use of e-learning platforms for higher education. The adaptation process wasn’t always smooth and revealed a strong need for development of certain dimensions of digital competences of the students, such as information navigation, social, creative, online safety and problem-solving abilities. One of the most affected cohort of students during the Covid-19 crisis was made up of the exchange students (both incoming and outgoing). In this spirit, the paper presents the Online Open Module in Digital Learning developed in the Erasmus+ project „CONFIDENT - Enhancing Intercultural and Digital Competences of Mobile Students in Times of Crisis” (project no. 2020-1-RO01-KA226-HE-095384). The Digital Learning module is designed to address the needs of students to get accustomed to different online teaching and learning platforms and tools, thus ensuring a better inclusion in their study groups at home or at the host institutions during study exchange. By acquiring these digital learning skills the integration at the partner university will be smoother and challenge-free. Another goal of the module is to tackle the topic of ethics and information security in order to ensure the students’ welfare in the digital world, and to help them fighting against cyberbullying, wfake news, online violence and other means of online disinformation.