OLA+ Steering Committee and Conference in Vienna
A Steering Committee of the Online Learning Agreement+ (OLA+) project was held at the University of Vienna, Austria, on 24th April 2019.
Launched in September 2017 and followed by a kickoff meeting in October in Madrid, OLA+ builds on the previous OLA project, which ran from 2015 to 2017. It aims to improve efficiency of mobility management thus allowing institutions to successfully cope with constantly increasing numbers of student exchanges and to simplify the process for students. Partners have developed an innovative tool which enables students to prepare their learning agreement (LA) within an online system through which they can liaise with the coordinators of sending and receiving Higher Education Institutions to finalise, approve and sign their LA online.
Alongside Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, seven other European universities (Philipps Universität Marburg, Universität Wien, Universidad de Alcala, Université du Luxembourg, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Politechnika Łódzka and Universitetet i Bergen), Erasmus Student Network (ESN) and the European University Foundation (EUF) are involved in the project.
Since 2018, the Sorbonne School of Economics and the Sorbonne School of Management of Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne have been using the Online Learning Agreement tool with their students involved in exchange programmes.
16 representatives from partner institutions met in Vienna last week to discuss the progress of the project and define upcoming priorities, including the next features of the platform, the development of toolkits and dissemination activities, and the creation of surveys for users of the tool in order to measure the success of the project.
On 25th April 2019, more than 100 representatives of European universities and National Agencies attended the Online Learning Agreement Conference at the University of Vienna. A plenary session about the digitisation of student mobility in the 21st century was held in the morning, introducing future developments of the OLA system and the synergies between OLA and other digital projects supported and funded by the European Commission, such as Erasmus Without Paper (EWP) and the European Student Card Initiative.
Practical sessions were organised in the afternoon, enabling participants to try out the tools in hands-on workshops. Participants also had the opportunity to share experiences and good practices on how to introduce the digital mobility infrastructure in Erasmus+ workflows.
The last Steering Committee and the final OLA+ conference will be held in Brussels in January 2020.