Partners

Ljudska univerza Velenje established in 1959 is a public non-profit adult education institution providing education and support to various target groups. LUV takes an active part in regional community by improving the educational structure of the population, by motivating and informing the members of the community and by involving them in the formal and non-formal educational programmes. Staff of 22 is supported by over 60 contractual teachers. Programmes are intended for adults and youngsters. Programmes include primary school for adults, programmes for vocational secondary education, professional secondary education, language and ICT courses adapted to various target groups (NEETs, business sector, seniors), labour market orientation programmes, social activation programme, study courses, workshops, and national and international projects. LUV is actively involved in various local, regional and national initiatives and actions (Life-long learning week, educational festivals and other events). LUV has years of experience in participating and coordinating European projects and is currently involved in 18 international projects (mostly Erasmus+ KA2). 

Within LUV also operate 2 Centres for Intergeneration learning and over 20 volunteers and Pattern City – an ecosystem for education, experimentation, prototyping and innovation. The unique, interactive digital learning environment is focused on providing interdisciplinary content with learning by doing and playful learning methodologies. LUV also delivers social integration programme for people with distance to labour market focusing on improving their employment chances. LUV is active in local environment by supporting rural areas through development programmes and trainings to improve basic and entrepreneurial skills.

As a new European member state, LUV is the gateway to the Eastern European education system, where simulation is still relatively unknown as a pedagogical method. 

Artevelde

Arteveldehogeschool (AHS) is one of the biggest universities of applied sciences in Flanders (Belgium), counting over 15.000 students, 1.400 paid staff members and 11 campuses located in the city center of Ghent. AHS is an open institute where creativity, innovative ways of thinking, self-directed learning and entrepreneurship are key values. As an institute based on a culture of internationalization, AHS is an active partner in diverse international networks, attends various international conferences and collaborates intensively with international partners for educational and research purposes. 
AHS has five Centers of Expertise (CoE) which offer a wide variety of study programs in the fields of Business & Management; Communication, Media & Design; Education; People & Society; and Health & Care.  

ENVISION is a project submitted by the Nursing Department, widely known for its innovative way of teaching and one of the Belgian pioneers in simulation education. The SIM@RT nursing team of AHS consists of 13 trained simulation instructors and facilitators organizing more than 500 high-fidelity hands-on simulation sessions to nursing students in a monodisciplinary and multidisciplinary setting. 

During the COVID-19, AHS was promptly forced to make the shift to remote and blended learning, often leading to suspension of in-person simulation activities. 
In this new pedagogic era, a worthy online alternative for in-person simulation will be developed offering teachers and students of ‘Health and Care’ a complementary tool in the simulation pedagogy as critical educational component in practice-oriented curricula. 

Artevelde University of Applied Sciences is the project leader of this European project: European Network on Virtual Simulation Online – ENVISION. AHS is also the leader of the first intellectual output in which the first European VGS is developed.

OAMK

Oulu University of Applied Sciences (OUAS) educates genuine and competent professionals for the needs of working life and has approximately 9,000 students and 650 staff members. OAMK serves the needs of the working and economic life and culture, and maintains the diversity of polytechnic education in Northern Finland. Alongside teaching, research, development and innovation work (RDI work) is the second basic task of the university of applied sciences. The aim of the RDI work is to support the development of the Oulu region and the whole of northern Finland by providing a new competent workforce, by supporting business activities, by developing innovation activities and by increasing international interaction. RDI work is steered by the focus areas and development targets whereas most relevant to this approach are ICT, culture, and cross-media. The active research, development and innovation as well as close international links help the whole university to success on these goals.

The URV was created in 1991 by the Parliament of Catalonia from the already existing university faculties and schools. In this way the Tarragona University of the 16th century was restored. From the very first day its aim has been very clear: to place knowledge at the service of society so as to contribute to the social and economic development of its environment, which has gradually transformed over time.

Social and cultural changes have opened the doors to a new framework in which our students and future workers are obliged to interact in Europe. At the URV we train professionals under the precepts of European harmonization, a key factor for opening the doors to a world of work without frontiers. And we do so by providing a full range of educational possibilities with more than 40 undergraduate courses and 50 master’s degrees (many of which are interuniversity), an extensive doctoral programme and a flexible lifelong learning programme so that professionals can constantly update their knowledge and improve their skills. Altogether, our courses are being enjoyed by over 15,000 students.

The data show that the URV is not only one of the leading universities in Catalonia but also one of the leading universities in the European area for the quality of its teaching, its commitment to continuous training and the excellence of its research, development and innovation.

ENVISION has given the opportunity for collaboration between two departments (nursing and pedagogy) with complementary expertise in simulations in the area of pediatric care, and educational technology. Members from a multidisciplinary team will help meeting the outcomes of the project and giving a strong methodological and pedagogical base to the VGs.

Toronto Metropolitan University

Toronto Metropolitan University is committed to ensuring that students’ classroom learning is enhanced by real-world knowledge and experience; and is a champion for diversity, entrepreneurship and innovation. Toronto Metropolitan has over 45,000 students attending 62 undergraduate and 55 graduate programs (Master’s and PhD). The Toronto Metropolitan, Centennial, George Brown Collaborative Nursing Degree Program, established in 2001, is the largest program in Toronto Metropolitan University’s Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing, with over 2000 students enrolled across the four years of the program. The Program has established strong and effective practices to promote collaboration within and across teaching teams, ensuring that students receive the same high-quality nursing education regardless of which site they attend. 

This commitment to collaboration and teamwork provided the foundation for the development of Virtual Gaming Simulation (VGS). Since the first VGS was developed in 2013 by three faculty members, one from each site of the collaboration, countless Collaborative Program faculty members have had the opportunity to participate in the development of VGS and research how VGS can be effectively embedded in the program. The Collaborative Program is a leader in the integration of VGS into nursing curricula, developing VGS specifically designed to address course objectives and support students’ learning. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the value of virtual gaming simulations, and nurse educators nationally and internationally have used our VGS to enhance students’ learning during the move to remote learning. To date, there have been over 1.5 million plays of our VGS worldwide. The virtual gaming simulations are housed in the Virtual Healthcare Experience, an open access resource (https://games.de.torontomu.ca/hospital/).   
The virtual gaming simulations have undergone considerable testing and evaluation to enhance the design and enrich the learner experience.  

Ghent University (Dutch: Universiteit Gent; abbreviated as UGent) is one of the biggest Flemish public research universities consisting of 46.000 students and 15.000 staff members. Ghent University is an active partner in national and international educational, scientific and industrial cooperation. The University supports also Ghent University Hospital, which is one of the largest hospitals in Belgium (6.000 staff members). Ghent University consistently rates among the top 100 universities of the world. Ghent University consists of 11 faculties with over 79 individual departments. Ghent University aims for top-level education and therefore uses innovative teaching methods and modern technology. Blended learning has been introduced into each faculty. Projects in different disciplines enjoy an international reputation, proof of this are the many co-publications, the more that 40 ERC grantees and the hundreds of projects financed by the European Framework Programme.

Joubel founded the H5P project and works towards the vision of empowering everyone to create, share and reuse interactive content. Joubel’s leadership of the H5P project involves supporting the community, networking within the community, communicating with the community through newsletters, social media and the H5P.org forum and providing software updates for the community. 
Joubel is hosting the current H5P-hub that distributes H5P content types (templates) to the community members. Joubel has six full time employees and hires consultants in various countries. 
H5P is changing how people think of rich interactive content. H5P makes it easy for everyone to create and share interactive content with a great user experience for both the content creators and the content consumers. 
An exponentially growing number of websites in the world use H5P to provide their users with interactive content. 
H5P may be plugged in to existing publishing systems like Canvas, Brightspace or WordPress and empower the users of these systems to create better content faster. 

Unlike many interactive content development tools, H5P enables academics to produce engaging and stimulating resources without the need of educational technologists. It enables academics to better present their content to students and gain vital information about student engagement and progress. H5P may at first appearances seem simplistic, but the impact on learning and teaching is profound. 

With newly developed H5P interactive content the platform for the VGS will be developed so that these new educational tools find their way to the audience of teachers and students accessible in open access.

ERASMUS+ KA2 – KA226 HEI Digital education readiness: Innovative practices in a digital era

Envision is supported by a grant of the European Commission. In order to respond to the circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Erasmus+ programme supports this partnership for digital education readiness.

Projects on digital education readiness aim at equipping education and training systems to face the challenges presented by the recent sudden shift to online and distance learning, including supporting teachers to develop digital competences and safeguarding the inclusive nature of learning opportunities.

The goal is to reinforce the ability of education and training institutions to provide high quality, inclusive digital education.

Disclaimer: The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.