About
Why focus on the co-creation and sharing of
doctoral courses in an online and blended context
across universities, and across countries?
Cooperation
on courses (and programmes) has been on the internationalisation agenda of
universities for many years. What is new and may partially justify the work of
IDOCOS, are some very important trends that have become increasingly visible:
- Digital transformation of learning and teaching of universities was growing slowly, and has been accelerated through the Covid-19 Pandemic. Still, a lot has to be done.
- More comprehensive university networks, e.g. the European University Alliances, are entering the international scene – and courses are often a key component in their collaboration.
- A new trend penetrating higher education, in particular the US and Oceania, but also Europe, known as ‘platforming’ is increasing. In platforming, Online Program Managers, OPM, is a key phenomenon. To have university control over content becomes more important.
- Virtual exchange (VE) in different formats has been mushrooming, pushed by the pandemic and the EU. The Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange (EVE – 2018 – 2020) program led by the European Commission, strongly recommends the promotion of virtual exchange throughout the European Education Area. Similarly, a specific form of VE CollaborativeOnline International Learning, COIL, has become more widespread throughout the world.
- The IDOCOS partners experiences in developing partnerships between universities in the global north and the south, put the issues in this handbook on our agenda. Nowadays, in light of recent concern relating to de-colonisation, rethinking is necessary for collaborative courses and programmes.
IDOCOS, Innovative Doctoral Courses for
Sustainability, focuses on how to secure both quality enhancement, an increased
number of PhDs and increased efficacy. IDOCOS combines an innovative approach
in co-creation and sharing with relevant existing building blocks and has the
following five objectives:
To support and facilitate university staff
and doctoral students across universities in different countries
- In co-creation and sharing of digitalised courses and open learning materials prepared for quality online, flexible and blended teaching and learning.
- For adopting a scalable and
robust methodology for co-creation and sharing of digitalised courses.
- Access to shared courses and
open learning materials for teaching and learning.
- For access to relevant tools, (open when available) for co-creation and sharing of open courses and learning materials.
- In building competencies for digital transformation.
Four
partners have joined in partnerships to deliver solutions for the European
Education Area:
KTH, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, one
of Europe’s leading technical and engineering universities, as well as a key
centre of intellectual talent and innovation Sweden.
UiB, University of Bergen a leading
university in international cooperation and SDG commitment, Norway
IAU, International Association of
Universities, the global association for universities, France, and
Nordic
Insight, a
company specialised in higher education, Norway.
Through
the project we bring together complementary competencies and actors that have
links to many crucial networks in Europe and globally.
To
achieve these objectives, IDOCOS will create 4 Intellectual Outputs, IOs:
- IO1 A robust handbook for co-creation and sharing of courses in an
international context.
- IO2 Construct, based on the handbook, a doctoral course in Digital
Transformation in an Organisational Context.
- IO3 Delivery of the doctoral course in through the digital platform
(IO4).
- IO4 A digital platform that support the methodology and availability of
course and open learning materials.
This collaborative
and sharing model, of online teaching and learning within networks of universities,
should when adopted, adapted and further developed, lead to significant
improvements, beyond the project. It promises cost-efficiently transfer
teaching abilities, not the least to under-serviced regions and socio-economic under-privileged
groups. The addition of a transnational cooperation allows for reciprocal
exchange of research capacity and resources, while increasing the local
competencies as well as providing solid high-quality research education and
cross-border cooperation.
IDOCOS started in March 2021 and will be
closed by end February 2023.
Gard Titlestad
PROJECT MANAGER
titlestad@nordic-insight.com
Tore Sætersdal
COORDINATOR
tore.Satersdal@uib.no
Johan Thorbiörnson
KTHjohanthor@kth.se
Trine Jensen
IAU
t.jensen@iau-aiu.net
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What is IDOCOS?
The IDOCOS project seeks to leverage this opportunity by proposing an innovative approach to co-creation and sharing of doctoral courses among universities in different countries.