e-Learning as an Opportunity for Virtual Mobility and Competence Development Within European Universities

Article presents case studies of e-learning courses in higher education and examins them with respect to the added value they bring to the learning environment. Main benefits from the use of virtual environment in university teaching/learning are following: E-learning is a tool for development of higher order thinking skills through the support of an active learning process and mutual communication. In terms of teaching practice, it upgrades planning and organization of the learning process. On the content side, the virtual environment is supportive for understanding complex issues - it gives an access to diverse resources and possibility to link different information and reflect mutual relations. On the side of teaching method, e-learning provides students with an opportunity to develop knowledge independently by researching relevant resources and working with texts and materials in a process of reflecting and re-formulating ideas, building on them and amending them by personal contribution. It supports the interdisciplinary aspect of learning, enables students to approach problems from different points of view and actively handle the themes in a "scientific" manner. Students explore new ways of learning and prepare themselves for more decentralised learning and working arrangements. Also efficiency of meeting some of the learning objectives is being raised in electronic media by using diverse instructional strategies. Thus, the e-learning environment could be a starting point for "university level pedagogy" to value development of competences as much as acquisition of knowledge, which is currently neglected. In addition to this analysis, networks of European universities that create open spaces for virtual student mobility and represent a functional model of collaboration on different levels of education are introduced as models of "best practices". The virtual space opens opportunities to train collaborative competences and communication skills in a multi-cultural, international context. Description is focused on the existing higher education networks for sustainable development, the Virtual Campus for a Sustainable Europe (VCSE) and the PASDEL (practicing Sustainability through e-learning) network.