VALIANT & UNICollaboration

VALIANT is an Erasmus+ Key Action 3: European policy experimentations in the fields of Education, Training and Youth led by high-level public authorities. 

VALIANT developed Virtual Exchange programmes which brought together teachers, student teachers and experts in facilitated online collaboration around real-world educational issues. The objectives of the project were to test the efficiency of these Virtual Exchange projects as an approach which will contribute to overcoming teachers’ sense of isolation and low motivation in rural areas and isolated contexts and also to developing teachers’ ability to operate effectively in online international networks of professional collaboration. The second objective of the project was to test the efficiency of this form of Virtual Exchange for providing students of Initial Teacher Education with access to the realities of the teaching profession through regular interaction with in-service teachers integrated into their study programme.

UNICollaboration is a cross-disciplinary professional organisation for telecollaboration and virtual exchange in Higher Education. The organisation was launched at the Second Conference on Telecollaboration in Higher Education at Trinity College, Dublin in April 2016.

It has two main objectives:

• to promote the development and integration of research and practice in telecollaboration and virtual exchange across all disciplines and subject areas in higher education

• to actively engage in awareness raising of telecollaboration and virtual exchange at institutional and policy making level