Trainings Archives

Aurora Staff Training in Ohrid Equips Academics for International Teaching

Written by Niels Hexspoor on 2024-05-10. Posted in Events, News, Trainings.

On 18 April, the first Aurora Capacity Development Staff Training took place in Ohrid, North Macedonia. In a bid to enhance global learning opportunities, the COIL Staff Training aimed to empower educators with the necessary tools and knowledge to implement Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL).

This event is the first in a series of trainings, organised within the framework of Aurora’s Capacity Development Programme. These are organized by Palacky University Olomouc and VU Amsterdam, together with Aurora associate partners. The aim of these training events is twofold. First, we aim to strengthen the capacity of the Aurora associate partner universities for academic excellence and societal relevance. Second, we support them in establishing themselves as regional hubs for sharing best practices.

Bringing together a group of 30 participants, mainly from the University of Tetova and South-West University “Neofit Rilski”, the Aurora Ohrid Staff Training marks a significant step towards fostering cross-cultural educational collaboration. Led by COIL expert Marina Vives from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, the workshop offered participating academics a deep dive into the utilisation of COIL, opening the doors to internationalise their curriculum together with other Aurora universities.

The training started with an icebreaker exercise, an important best practice when setting up a COIL. Then, Marina introduced the participants to the concept of COIL, and shared more best practices. The participants were then divided into groups and encouraged to start building a COIL course on their own. In a short time, the participants created promising, interdisciplinary COIL course concepts. The participants were excited to develop these concepts further and put them into practice.

Preceded by meetings between Aurora representatives and the management of the University of Tetova, the event set the stage for future collaborations. The staff training event empowered our associate partners to unlock their international potential through COIL. Through this initial step, they will be able to further develop the internationalisation of their institutions.

Fostering Community Building through Blended Intensive Programme at Universität Innsbruck

Written by UIBK on 2023-10-30. Posted in Events, News, Trainings.

Foster community building: This was the overarching theme of the first Aurora BIP Staff Week, which took place at Universität Innsbruck from October 2-6, 2023. Participants from almost all Aurora partners – coming from both academia and administration – exchanged manifold ideas with colleagues from Universität Innsbruck to develop new activities and projects.

With more than 50 members of staff, the first Aurora Staff Week at Universität Innsbruck was a great success. In different formats and settings, the main topics of Transformative Education, Innovation Management, Societal Engagement, and Internationalization were explored in depth over several days. Best practices from Universität Innsbruck and the Aurora partner universities served as the basis for the exchange, stimulating a mutual dialogue in the sense of peer learning and opening space for creativity and new ideas.

“Personal encounters are incredibly important for a network like Aurora to be filled with life,” emphasises Rector Veronika Sexl, who is responsible for international affairs at Universität Innsbruck. “I am very pleased that so many colleagues, both in-house and from the Aurora partner universities, have actively taken up the invitation to exchange ideas and that new projects are already in the pipeline.” The “matchmaking sessions” were particularly fruitful, where concrete new activities, such as the development of joint courses, could be discussed in individual smaller settings.

First Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) hosted by Universität Innsbruck

The Aurora Staff Week, which was funded and organised as an Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP), took place in Innsbruck after a virtual exchange of participants in September. For the first time, the Universität Innsbruck served as a hosting institution for the event. The Aurora Staff Week will conclude with a virtual follow-up meeting at the end of October.

BIPs are teaching/learning formats jointly run by several universities and combine virtual components with physical short-term mobility (“blended”). BIPs are a new mobility format embedded in the Erasmus program, implemented as part of the Erasmus program generation 2021-2027. Within Aurora, the general goal is to develop more joint BIPs between Aurora partners in the coming years. These can be used for training as well as teaching purposes.

Open Aurora course at Universität Innsbruck

Written by rostanetek on 2021-09-03. Posted in News, Trainings.

For the upcoming Wintersemester 2021/2022 Universität Innsbruck is offering two new courses to all Aurora partner Universities students. The application period is between 30 August and 12 September 2021.

Sustainability & Climate Change

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

Be able to think critically about their own lives and situations with respect to climate change and sustainability
Improve their knowledge of sustainability and climate change with respect to other cultures and be able to enter into discussion on the topic with people of other cultures
Understand the background and structure of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
Improve their knowledge of sustainable earth systems, lifestyles and mobility with respect to SDGs and be able to reflect critically with respect to their own lifestyles
Be able to engage with a real business and undertake a sustainability assessment for a business
Understand communication strategies with respect to communicating research to the public and implementing policy changes

Structure of the course (limited number of participants!)

Interactive format

The course will comprise five key components.

Introduction
Frontal lectures and small discussion groups on sustainability and climate change
Workshop on undertaking a sustainability assessment for a business
Seminars and discussions with external stakeholders on communication and policy implementation
Synthesis and critical thinking of topics covered

Cultural Encounters and Conflicts: Doing Diversity in Higher Education in the Aurora European Universities Alliance (Aurora Brown Bag Lecture Series)

Learning Outcomes

Students will learn about: diversity and its use as a societal resource, different approaches to diversity studies and their application in the context of higher education, current networking initiatives of the universities within the European Universities Alliance and much more.

Structure of the course (no limitation of participants!)

Lecture series

Further information on the program and participation can be found by clicking the button below

ACF training coming this October

Written by rostanetek on 2021-09-01. Posted in Trainings.

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Aurora Student Champions and Ambassador End of the Year Event

Written by rostanetek on 2021-07-23. Posted in Calls, Trainings.

As you know, the Aurora Student Champions and Ambassadors Scheme has finished for 2020/2021, and we are already looking forward to welcoming returning and new Champions and Ambassadors for the next academic year.

A celebratory event was held on the evening of 16 June and was well attended by Aurora Students, Aurora Staff and the Aurora and University of Iceland President, Jon Atli Benediktsson.

A number of Champions and Ambassadors shared personal reflections of their Aurora journey representing their own Universities on areas of importance to the Network and Alliance.

For those of you that were unable to attend, please view the recording of the evenings’ event here:

Aurora Service Learning Toolbox

Written by rostanetek on 2021-06-07. Posted in News, Trainings.

At the core of the Aurora is its cardinal goal to equip students with the right knowledge, skills, mindset, and experience to address societal challenges as agents of change. The Service Learning (SL) and Co-creation approach can help bring this core mission of the Aurora alliance to fruition. Service-learning is an academic teaching/learning method that connects meaningful community service with academic learning, personal growth, and civic responsibility. Co-creation is a form of service-learning that entails the collaboration of diverse stakeholders in the co-production of value/knowledge (concepts, solutions, products, services). Together these two approaches foster engagement of academicians and students with societal stakeholders to address societal challenges.

This toolbox provides relevant tools, resources, and inspiration to foster understanding and application of service-learning and co-creation in Aurora universities. We hope these resources will help interested teachers and students to apply service-learning and co-creation in their academic practice. Information on how to use the toolbox is presented below.

How to use the Aurora Service Learning Toolbox

Please choose from the three modules below what you would like to do. The three modules provide pertinent information, tools, and support to foster service-learning and co-creation in Aurora Universities.

The first module provides information, tools and inspiration on service-learning and co-creation.

The second module provides information on available service-learning programs, courses, and practices in Aurora Universities.

The third module helps connect those who seek advice or support on service learning or co-creation to experts and their counsel.

Service-Learning Programme: Opportunities and Challenges

Written by rostanetek on 2021-03-26. Posted in Trainings.

At the core of Aurora Alliance is its cardinal goal to equip students with the right knowledge, skills, mindset, and experience to address societal challenges as agents of change. The Service-Learning Programme (SLP) work package (WP 3.1.3) supports bringing this core mission of the Aurora Alliance to fruition. Service-learning (SL) is an academic teaching/learning method that connects meaningful community service with University learning, personal growth, and civic responsibility. It provides an opportunity for both teachers and students to engage with society in a meaningful way that entails knowledge sharing, experiential learning, and problem-solving. The SLP is working to support academics and support staff in the use of SL and fostering its value and application in Aurora universities. It is also involved in linking students with SL courses and equipping them with relevant competences to tackle societal challenges as social entrepreneurs and innovators.

As the first part of our effort to foster SL in Aurora universities, we identify SL courses across different faculties/departments and pilot domains in universities. While most universities already have existing SL or SL-like courses, they are either obscure or not identified as such. We seek to bring visibility to these courses. We are also identifying SL champions – teachers and students who have found value in SL and effective social engagement strategies that have enriched their teaching/learning experience. We aim to amplify their voices and lessons learnt to provide both inspiration and motivation for others.

The SLP is also working towards a Service Learning Toolbox that will provide relevant tools/resources to interested teachers and students to learn about SL. These tools could further strengthen existing SL courses and provide teachers with inspiration on how to transform an existing course into an SL one. It will also have resources for both teachers and students to learn about the essential concepts of SL, participation, reflexivity, and community engagement.

Another important initiative of SLP is the International Learning Lab on the 17th June 2021 [15:30 to 18:00 CEST]. The event is open for students, teachers and experts from the Aurora universities and other national/international guest Universities for a wider discourse on SL and the official launch of the SL toolbox. The event will include talks from international SL experts: Prof. Robert Bringle (Professor Emeritus, Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis, USA), Prof. Wolfgang Stark (Professor Emeritus, Universität Duisburg Essen, Germany), and Prof. Marjolein Zweekhorst (Professor, Athena Institute, VU Amsterdam). The event will also include presentations of students from Interdisciplinary Service Learning (iCSL2) – an “Aurorised” course open to Master students from any discipline/program across Aurora universities. You are invited to participate in this event (more information here).

The opportunities provided by SL in universities is undeniable. However, there is still not enough recognition of the importance and benefits of SL in universities, which is the main challenge we are currently facing. It is imperative to promote service-learning as a tool for societal engagement to change the mindset of both teachers and students and an essential paradigm of teaching/learning in universities. Let’s join hands in promoting and fostering SL in our universities.

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