VR training simulations (VRS) are on the verge of becoming an absolutely mass product. It is becoming a new way to develop skills in many areas. Previously, people could not fully immerse themselves in the event until they were involved in it. With VRS, we can immerse people in a virtual environment so that they can gain practical experience in their profession before they begin to put their knowledge into practice. Especially in healthcare education VR is a new technology that allows researchers and teachers to simulate different learning scenarios in a less costly and elaborate way. Compared to traditional methods, virtual reality makes it easier to change the smallest parameters of nursing and caretaking training. It also allows the lecturer to use more accurate methods of assessment and result analysis that were previously unavailable. It is crucial for them to be able to practice their nursing skills in a reliable and safe way. VR training gives us the opportunity to safely immerse the students into the process as much as possible so that they are as ready as possible to treat real patients.Problem:Although the new technology has definitely arrived for some time in different areas of healthcare and medical training on the high-end level, its practical implementation in nursing and caretaking educational programs or even the curriculum itself in the European countries is very low, especially comparing to some Asian countries and North America, where it has become a part of many training programs in hospitals, colleges and universities. Most of the technological trials are currently at the level of experimentation and prototype development. A more time-efficient integration of VR applications in the teaching and training practice is partly slowed down by the lack of efficient and convenient testing and optimization environments. The mechanisms of cross-discipline collaboration of subject teachers, media didactics specialists, software developers etc. in the process of VRS design and production has also not been fully worked out in most of the nursing and care education institutions.Main goal:Adoption of advanced digital technology, such as immersive virtual reality, in nursing education and training in Europe. This should be achieved through development of a standardized procedure, including technology, testing protocol, organizational structure, operation mechanism and digital tool set for efficient multidisciplinary collaboration throughout the development and implementation of the modern Virtual Reality Simulators into nursing education and training. Based on the experiences and findings of the project a demonstration and learning courseware on VR applications opportunities in Nursing Tertiary Education will be developed. This shall enhance an effective collaboration between the educational institutions and software developers and close the current gap between the needs of nursing education and training and the great potential of the VR technology.Objectives:1. Mapping the contents of nursing curricula suitable for transfer to current state-of-the-art consumer-grade VR applications to identify digitization potentials.2. Development of the customized collaboration procedure for trainers, teachers and media didactics specialists facilitating co-operative elaboration of concepts and scenarios for instructional design and implementation of VRS in nursing education skills training.3. Development of testing and demonstration toolkit for:- experiencing and understanding of the technology;- bringing up basic operational skills to the teaching and training staff of the nursing education institutions;- selection and adoption of functions and settings provided by VR simulation technology corresponding to the specific requirements of training programs suitable to train particular professional skills in nursing and caretaking.4. Development of a mixed technology VR Simulator, based on 3D graphics (CGI) and 360-degree videos for practical application of haptically tangible learning scenarios in nursing and caretaking based on the elaborated procedure.5. Pilot implementation of the VR-supported application into curriculum and/or teaching and learning practice and empirical study on their impact on skills learning success.6. Development of the up-to-date extensive training course on design, development, adjustment and integration of VR training modules into teaching & learning. Results and impact:Through collaborative project activities of researchers, lecturers, trainers and software developers, joint learning and teaching a Pan European expert network to share skills and experiences of VR applications development and integration in education will be built. Use of synergy effects of the 6 partners with diverse backgrounds from 5 EU countries shall facilitate faster and deeper integration of VR technology in European higher education in the healthcare field in general and nursing training,

"In response to the effects of the economic crisis, curtailed public budgets and the magnitude of future challenges, social entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility (CSR) emerge as a key policy priority in the EU. They are sources of social innovation and a contributing factor to building up the innovation capacity and competitiveness of EU economies. This turns them into increasingly critical elements of the EU development strategy. Yet business and economics education and training does not adequately reflect this trend.The interdisciplinary academic field of social entrepreneurship has not been well developed in the EU. The term itself is often understood poorly or narrowly. The study of CSR is limited in terms of academic hours and content. The project was built on the rationale that for business to be motivated and able to achieve a social impact, the very content of CSR and Social Entrepreneurship as subjects in education would need to develop and business education needs to grow more responsive to what have until now largely been public agendas for dealing with the pressing challenges facing society. BEST project has had the overall objective to promote cooperation and exchange of good practices among relevant organizations from 7 Program countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, UK), in view of enhancing the quality and relevance of education in the field of social entrepreneurship and CSR, fostering social innovation and supporting the social impact and responsibility of business.The specific objectives of the project were:- to support research and best practices exchange in the field of social entrepreneurship, social innovation and corporate responsibility, in view of making business/economics education more relevant to sustainable regional and local development;- to initiate cross fertilization between business/economics studies and sustainable development studies in order to develop an innovative curriculum that fully integrates the subjects of social entrepreneurship and CSR into business/economics and entrepreneurship education;- to develop a model certification procedure allowing business to evaluate and certify the skills of volunteers that contribute to CSR initiatives;- to maximize the impact of the integrated innovative curriculum by demonstration initiatives, training of trainers and the development of a pilot e-learning platform for training in CSR and Social Entrepreneurship;- to contribute to the promotion of social entrepreneurship and corporate responsibility among business, society, media and education providers.This project was a partner initiative involving 7 Higher Education Institutions, a NGO and 2 institutions providing non-formal education and professional training. The activities of the project included development of intellectual outputs, transnational project meetings, sustainability activities, dissemination activities, a joint training of staff, and evaluation activities. The main project outputs and results were: - Research report ""Involvement of business in promoting sustainable development at the regional and local levels in Bulgaria, Greece, Lithuania, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and the UK"";- Compendium of good practices for corporate responsibility, social entrepreneurship, and social innovation;- “Millennial Business Europe: Entrepreneurship for Sustainability” good practices electronic database - Course syllabuses for Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development;- Training/teaching materials for courses on Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development;- E-learning platform with online courses for training in Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Entrepreneurship;- Model procedures for recognition of skills and competences acquired through internships and volunteering in CSR and SE initiatives;- A Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship;- 7 national-level conferences “Business Education for Sustainability” in the 7 project countries;- Blueprint label for business education “Business Education for Sustainability” (BEST);.The project’s longer-term impact has been:- to create public awareness of both the support needs and the potential of social business;- to create an “image” of social entrepreneurship and social business as a pragmatic and solutions-oriented approach that is nevertheless oriented towards social action and change;- to contribute to improving the visibility and credibility of social entrepreneurship and corporate responsibility, and to foster a more adequate understanding of this business field, including through research, sharing of good practices, and credibility enhancing labelling;- to underscore and enable the importance of incorporating “social” business studies into mainstream education, in view of both building skills and changing the mindset of the future business leaders."

The project Experiential Live Project Enhancement (ELPE) will develop and create a new model for live projects, whereby consultancy groups will comprise of students from different countries acting as both consultants who are implementing new ideas, businesses etc as well as external consultants to advise them. This would further enhance the experiential learning environment. This project - is a continuation of the TARSI (Tailored Applied Research System Implementation Project, LLP-LDV-TOI-2009-LT-0030, 2009-2011). The aim was to develop the TARSI in colleges to strengthen cooperation links with social partners-companies, to improve the study process in terms of practical training. Partners working together and monitoring the results obtained; the system is useful but it is necessary to develop and introduce new methods to encourage students' creativity, the ability to work in a team, cooperation between higher education institutions and countries. In this project the main part of Partners Network from the project TARSI is involved – it is leader partners: Centro Internazionale di Studi e Ricerche sull’Economia Turistica (Italy), Utenos kolegija (Lithuania) and for transferring innovations and for getting new experiences, practice cases there are involved two new partners: HAAGA-HELIA OY AB (Finland), Fundació Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain). THE AIM OF THE PROJECT is to build a strategic partnership to support the adoption live projects in the role of students’ consultancy at a European and regional level and to integrate this innovative methodology with e-learning, thus positively contributing to quality and modernization of undergraduate and post-gradute curricula, youth employment, and the engagement of HEI’s with businesses and local authorities. Furthermore, the project aims at fostering creativity and innovation in the study process. OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT: to integrate academic and prior experiential knowledge with that of personal development attributes and employability skills by supporting and promoting the use of live project within EU HEIs. THE METHODOLOGY applied in the project will promote science and business synergy and create appropriate conditions for interaction of educators, students and business entities. For the external partners (community and business enterprises) there is an opportunity to get to access to university expertise and resources; contribute to the study programmes and in some cases encourage academic staff development. And for the HE benefits include building links and networks in the wider community; a better understanding of employers’ requirements with respect to graduate skills; opportunities to contribute to the economic and social strength of the local area; active learning programmes for the students. EXPECTED IMPACT is to gain experience or to renew and update the participants experiences in student live projects within an experiential learning environment; for participants to gain or renew their training in student group consultancy, to apply this experience in some form of academic environment together with up to date and relevant business contacts. The participants will gain international partnership experience and be able to share this with their home students. Collaborative business partners will be able to gain significant research and consultancy expertise to develop and solve their problems and opportunities whilst gaining an opportunity to mentor and encourage young people to work in their chosen industry. Collaborative partners will have an opportunity to increase their professional working relationships with academics and seek further creative outputs with students. Students improved level of transversal skills, especially team - working, relationship, communication, stress management, etc.; improved level of employability, managerial and entrepreneurial skills and meta-skills, better understanding of the relationship between “theory” and practice” and of the utility of the higher education content. Better access to information not only on the present needs of the industry in terms of skills, but on the future ones, thanks to the combination of the innovative drive brought by HEIs and their stronger links to the industry created by live projects. The main project TARGET GROUP is HEI's academic staff, then students and business representatives. The project is based on live projects innovative approach to develop relevant and high quality skills and competences. Its application in higher education will innovate the teachers' skills and methodologies, and provide opportunities for the learner to develop competences and skills essential in a professional career context.

<< Background >>The future of Europe depends on how well it will succeed in securing and expanding the skilled labour base, to a large extent. This is especially true for nursing and caretaking professions. The labour situation in this sensitive area is already extremely tight today. In the future, the need for skilled workers will increase even further due to demographic change. At the same time, the number of employable persons will decrease. In Germany alone, depending on the forecast model, there will be a shortage of 150,000 nursing staff by 2035 or even 500,000 by 2030 (2021 - Bertelsmann Stiftung). One of the possibilities to compensate for this deficit is to attract more workforce from the other EU or even non-EU countries, who need to posses or acquire not only the required minimum qualification, but also the professional language skills. One of the emerging opportunities to accelerate the development and improvement of the learning competences has been lately recognized in using the digital reality instruments, including augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) or a combination of both (mixed reality or MR) along with the integrated speech recognition applications supported by Artificial Intelligence (AI). It allows a learner to engage with interactive digital enhancements - individually or in a group - in real or digital worlds simulating a typical working environment and standard situations of the nursing profession. Virtual highly valuable didactic environments comprehend an important number of learning-related strategies and realities, provides freedom in the development process and several valuable and applicable features for foreign language education (Peixoto et al 2021).The use of gamification along with MR technology in foreign language education has already emerged in recent years, but needs yet to be included in the teaching and learning practice of foreign language education (FLE) for professional use across Europe. The aim of the project is to support digital transformation in FLE in the EU, whilst focusing on filling the existing gaps and raising efficacy of foreign language education by nursing and caretaking students, as well as already qualified professionals, through Immersive learning environments that can address the challenges of digitization in educational systems (Hein et al 2021).First of all, new digital skills are required for the new technologies - the more efficient integration of MR applications in the teaching and training practice is slowed down by a lack of technological knowledge, experience and convenient testing and demonstration environments. Secondly, mechanisms of the cross-discipline collaboration of foreign language teachers, media didactics specialists, software developers etc. in the process of MR applications design and production is needed. Thirdly, in order to achieve the main goal which is a successful integration of MR applications into FLE for healthcare professions, the partners want to collect, analyze and systemize the current knowledge and experience gathered at the partner organizations, other HEIs and VET institutions across Europe and around the globe, defining and adopting best practices and finding new solutions of MR applications development and integration into teaching and learning. MR-supported FL instruction facilitates language learning and significantly improves student learning outcomes.Previous evidence-based research (Scrivner et al., 2019) has shown that immersive technologies such as VR are “an ideal instrument for language instruction”Thanks to the complexity of the set objectives, the project responds to both priorities of the Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027): “Fostering the development of a high-performing digital education ecosystem” and “Enhancing digital skills and competences for the digital transformation”.<< Objectives >>The increased use of the AR/VR /MR technology in FLE has already been a trend for a number of years. Previous studies have reported that the application of MR in education, immersion, presence, and affordance must be considered (Turchet et al., 2015). These are essential factors that facilitate learners' engagement (Shin et al.,2019). It is crucial to understand that both effective and efficient MR learning can only be achieved through proper integration between pedagogy, technology and organization’s culture and needs. The consortium aims to create a relevant, innovative and handy set of tools to provide the most crucial elements, to consider and implement the technological advantages of MR in FLE for healthcare more actively, following the principles based on the simplified form of the Bloom’s classical taxonomy: inspire, inform, activate and then support by implementation and multiplication. Once the acquaintance phase is completed and the new technology begins being implemented on a mass scale, the software and hardware investment, as well as an overall cost of organizational effort will inevitably sink per student. In this way the profound integration of MR used in combination with other technologies of digital learning and teaching, such as open educational resources, mobile learning etc. will provide a sustainable improvement of the education systems on the European level.The main goal of the project is the adoption of immersive MR, combined with speech recognition and artificial intelligence in FLE for med. professionals in Europe. This should be achieved through the development of a standardized procedure, including technology, organizational structure, operation mechanisms and a digital tool set for efficient multidisciplinary collaboration throughout the development and implementation of the modern MR simulations into language education for healthcare professions. Based on the experiences and findings of the project a demonstration and learning courseware on MR application opportunities in FLE will be developed. This shall enhance an effective collaboration between the education providers and software developers and close the current gap between the needs of FLE for healthcare professionals and the great potential of the mixed-reality technology.The added value of MR is its three-dimensional representation, construction, and visualization of the learner’s concept. Therefore the goals of this project are to bring the MRtechnology closer to the main target group(those involved in FLE for nursing and caretaking) by developing an efficient way to understand the potential and main advantages of MR, adopt this advanced digital technology in educational practice and teach to conceptualise, design and develop customized MR-based training applicationsIn the above mentioned context the following main objectives shall be reached within the project:1.Identification of the appropriate contents of medical language courses suitable for transfer into MR applications2.Development of the customized collaboration procedure for design and implementation of immersive MR simulations in FL training3.Bringing the technology closer through a developed demonstration toolkit for its experiencing and understanding4.Pilot development of mixed technology LE modules, for practical application of training scenarios in professional language skills improvement for nursing and caretaking, their implementation into the training curricula of partner institutions and evaluation of its efficacy5.Online training course for FL teaching staff and management helping those interested to create the required tools together with software developers and implement MR into the teaching and learning practice By the end of the project, the participating institutions should have significantly improved their know-how and will be in a position to use and design MR-based teaching and learning materials for the purpose of FLE for med.professions.<< Implementation >>DR FLEMP is a complex project that includes different types of activities throughout corresponding stages of the project development. These include among others:- Desk research- Data collection & analysis- Dissemination- Survey with focus group interviews- Curriculum development- Learning course development- Software Design- Software Prototyping - Software development- Empirical study- Evaluation - Exploitation, etc.To successfully conduct these and achieve the overall project objectives, the work scope will be divided as following: - all actions were split up in smaller manageable tasks, sequenced and prioritized (refer to work plan)- for each project result (PR), the lead partner and support partners who are responsible for the result quality and timely implementation have been assigned based on expertise and in accordance with the project goals (refer to work plan). - the project management strategy, monitoring tools and communication infrastructure have been prepared and successfully implemented in the previous Erasmus+ projects that were delivered in the planned quality, amount and time (refer to project timeplan)All project activities are developed based on the Successive Approximation Model (SAM), a cyclical model with three iterations on the familiar instructional design steps of evaluation/analysis, design, and development. The activities are distributed within the project life cycle to achieve the set goals.Starting from M1 the following activities will form the solid base for a successful project implementation: development of partnership agreement, project’s management handbook (MH), communication plan (CP), dissemination plan and infrastructure, evaluation and monitoring schedule. The MH and CP should be ready in an early phase of the project and therefore these tasks will be finished in M2. The overall project management, dissemination and exploitation plan and activities and the evaluation and monitoring activities will last until the end of the project. During the project the internal audits will be conducted in months 7, 13 and 22, based on progress reports that will be submitted by partners to the coordinator in months 6, 12, 19 and 26. Financial Reports – every 6 months, action list review and update will be done on a monthly basis.Development of the results will be performed in an SAM iterative approach combined with prototyping, frequent evaluations and, if necessary, reconceptualization steps. Using this basic, iterative approach, everyone’s ideas and assumptions can be discussed, prototyped, and tested early on bringing all partners closer to a usable product more quickly. Evaluation will be based on usability and technology acceptance, with test persons from the partner institutions. Furthermore, the developed MR scenarios and collaboration framework will also be examined for their effectiveness and efficiency with regard to competence development. In addition, materials will be tested to ensure the ‘transnational use’ of them (for detailed activities refer to the PR Section and Timeplan).<< Results >>The expected overall result would be improving the speed and efficiency of language education for healthcare professions, thus securing external replenishment of the labour market in fields of nursing and caretaking, i.e. overall quality of healthcare in Europe. To achieve this the consortium plans to solve the following problems and achieve the following tangible outcomes:1. Develop methodology and recommendations on selection of the educational contents best suitable for transfer into a mixed reality format. This methodology is required to map the contents of medical language courses suitable for transfer to current state-of-the-art consumer-grade immersive MR applications to identify digitization potentials.2. Develop methodology and a set of tools for a productive cross-discipline collaboration between teaching personnel in nursing and care and language education specialists involved in design, programming and testing of MR applications. The mechanism is required for a time and cost efficient production of the digital learning materials.3. Developing a testing and demonstration toolkit for:- experiencing and understanding of technology;- bringing up basic operational skills to the teaching and training staff of the language education providers;- selecting and adopting of functions and settings provided by MR simulation technology corresponding to the specific requirements of training programs suitable to train particular professional language skills in nursing and caretaking.4. A pilot development of mixed technology language education modules, based on 3D graphics or computer-generated imagery (CGI), augmented reality with integrated speech recognition functions for practical application of training scenarios into medical language teaching curriculum and teaching and learning practice.5. Conduct of an empirical study on the impact on learning success of training scenarios in professional language skills improvement for nursing and caretaking.6. Development of the up-to-date guidelines based on the implemented procedure.7. Development of a training course on design, development, adjustment of MR training modules and their integration into language teaching and learning.These outcomes will be implemented in the following four project results: 1. DR FLEMP Guidelines: Methodology and Recommendations on development of Mixed Reality applications for foreign language education for nursing in caretaking2. DR FLEMP Mixed reality testing and demonstration toolkit3. Two MR-supported language training modules4. DR FLEMP Training course Additional value on the European level will be achieved through use of synergy effects of the partners to facilitate faster implementation of MR technology in European professional language education, build a pan European expert network to share skills and experiences of MR integration in education through collaborative project activities, researchers and teachers exchange, joint learning and training activities. Support deeper integration of MR technology in European language education for healthcare professions and nursing, in particular. These results should serve as a further contribution to the Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027), fostering the development of a high-performing digital education ecosystem, including three of four required elements:- effective digital capacity planning and development, including up-to-date organisational capabilities;- digitally competent and confident teachers and education and training staff;- high-quality learning content, user-friendly tools and secure platforms which respect privacy and ethical standards.The expected results also follow the provisions of the European Skills Agenda in general and, especially, the Osnabrück Declaration focusing on establishing a new lifelong learning culture – relevance of C-VET and digitalisation.

<< Background >>The COVID-19 pandemic has not only limited the way people can relate to each other and perform their most basic everyday-tasks but has also had a significant impact on the regular delivery of education and training. At such a critical time for societies, access to education is proving, more than ever, to be essential to ensuring a swift recovery, while promoting equal opportunities among people of all backgrounds. Apprenticeship / work based learning is important and popular form of learning. But its value has often been assessed on the viewpoint of students or employers. However, work-based supervisors play as important role as the others. The survey implemented in Tallinn Health Care College, Estonia revealed that work-based supervisors/ mentors/ tutors at workplace/ organizations are competent practitioners but their pedagogical competencies are rather modest. It means that they need additional support to develop their digital and methodological knowledge and skills. The same problems arose also in other partner states as well.In apprenticeship training the supervisor is appointed by employee. Sometimes due to the hierarchical relationship the supervisor who is appointed by the employer and is not at all interested in this additional task, but is afraid to reject the task.. It means that the conflict is there from the beginning.Mainly the reason is inadequate pedagogical preparation of the supervisor. Moreover, there has been a long gap between their own learning period, and they are not used to innovative digital solutions. They lack skills in using new teaching technologies, their competences in this field are rather modest and employers have no understanding what are the requirements for supervisors.So by this project all six parter states prepare and compile blended learning training programme which covers topics of digital ethics, assessment process, motivation procedures, tandem supervision and others connected with pedagogical and digital issues. The training programme gives an opportunity to choose individual time for learning but it also gives opportunities to get direct on-site instructions and feedback. The prepared profile of supervisors will facilitate employers work to appoint suitable supervisors and also avoids conflict for appointing a person who has no wish and characteristics to become a supervisor.<< Objectives >>The main aim of the project is that non pedagogical staff (work-based placed supervisors) in all partner states who have been appointed by employees following the suggested criteria for selection have improved competences for supervising supervesees at work. So we can say that with our project we aim at equipping education and training systems to face the challenges presented by the recent sudden shift to online and distance learning, including supporting work-based supervisors to develop digital competences and other pedagogical skills. The focus will be on building capacity to implement online, blended and distance teaching and learning. Which means that we aim to develop digital pedagogical competencies of supervisors, enabling them to deliver high quality inclusive digital education; and to develop and/or use high quality digital content such as innovative online resources and tools. Particular attention will be given to promote innovative methods and tools for teaching, training, learning and assessment as drivers of improvements in lifelong learning. And the target group will meet the criterias suitable for motivated and competent supervisors. By this project we try to achieve that WB supervisors are satisfied due to the right selection process in all partner states have better digital and pedagogical competencies that will help them to supervise their supervisees with more competence having the ability to give constructive feedback, motivate them and use digital tools by improving time management and supervision process.<< Implementation >>Within the project there are two main outputs which require different activities: the preparation of a profile of s supervisor and training programme, (more information in section Production of Project Results). Additional activities like management, risk management, quality control and dissemination activities will support the implementation of two main activities.<< Results >>The main result of this project is that after passing the course the supervisor communicates by using alternative web based Technologies and understands the teaching and learning process.He/she knows to motivate supervisees and is able to give constructive feedback. Expected wider results of the project would be a subject programme for e-learning course in English that includes study materials and science-based recommendations for the criteria of the selection of supervisors. Other outcomes would be a self assessment test (tool for the employer and supervisor to asses her/ his suitability for supervising); - interactive format of an overview about WBL in partner states. Additional outcome of this project would be extended and improved digital competences of supervisors plus improved professional English language skills of participants through expanded lifelong learning opportunities and internationalisation of education.