ONLINE COURSES FOR MOBILE STUDENTS (ErasmusX) is a European KA203 project coordinated by The University of Alcalá ^{(Dr. Mercedes Burguillo, Dr. Soraya Garcia-Esteban, Dr. Elisa Rojas)} in cooperation with the European University Foundation ^{(Mrs. Liga Kuzame)}, University of Napoli Federico II Federico II ^{(Dr. Ettore Napoli)}, Lodz University of Technology ^{(Dr. Aleksandra Januszkiewicz)} and the University of Latvia ^{(Dr. Ieva Stūrmane, Dr. Alina Grzibovska)}. The project has been devised to offer students the possibility to increase the impact and add professional value to the Erasmus period abroad by combining certified on-line academic studies with professional/sport/social experience overseas. This new scheme supports study + placement mobility as an additional value to the current internships being done abroad.

This project will allow exchange students to do placements abroad combining online and traditional on-site courses with possible hands-on learning experiences in companies or further events overcoming incompatible and scattered course schedules. In this way, when students study abroad, they will not only be able to benefit from studies at the host university (which is their primary goal), but on top of they will be able to do placements and have a systematized infrastructure of online courses to support such opportunity to happen easier, thus gaining this online learning experience as well.

The aim of ErasmusX is to increase Erasmus student opportunities creating a joint online catalogue of courses jointly developed and evaluated among partner HEI to ensure a wide variety of options for certified formal training. This action will provide an opportunity for students to study at their pace and at the most convenient time while still having an opportunity to gain practical/professional experience abroad.

The initial areas will focus on Education, Business, Economics, Engineering, and Computing but will be extended to further disciplines. The project aims to allow universities to open their curricula for placements, therefore achieving and ensuring stronger focus on employability of the future graduates and their acquisition of essential professional skills in a second European language thus broadening their linguistic diversity and intercultural awareness. Relevant added value to the programme will be the institutional recognition of the on-line courses facilitated by the transnational cooperation among universities.

The results derived from the development of on-line courses for Erasmus students on several pre-defined topics are expected not only to facilitate Erasmus internships abroad, but also to enhance quality education with the use of open educational resources following current distance education methodologies.

Some of the many benefits of adopting online educational resources for the development of ErasmusX placements are:

• Possibility to offer a common educational platform open to any registered Erasmus student
• Affordable learning free of extra transnational cost
• Course visibility before enrolment
• Flexible study times not restricted to weekly timetables
• Learners can learn and work at their pace
• Accessible from anywhere; with no limited access to college or university
• Provide access to a variety of study materials and resources
• Offer of reusable intellectual capital

This project will contribute to a major innovation in the European Higher Education Area by filling an existing gap and implementing innovative online training for Erasmus students during their placements abroad, which implies the establishment of multilateral agreements on formal education recognition and certification.

ErasmusX is supported by Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership project funding (2018-2021) in cooperation with the following partners:

• The University of Alcalá
• University of Napoli Federico II
• Lodz University of Technology
• University of Latvia
• European University Foundation

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