Lemmens The Virtual Challenge to International Cooperation in Higher Education Bernd Wächter (ed.) Aca papers on International Cooperation in Education The V irtual Challenge to International Cooperation in Higher Education

Virtual Education
As the results shows, the most common reference is that to “virtual educa-
tion” – a new form of educational provision and educational practice – diffe-
rent from traditional residential and teacher-centred knowledge transfer, in
schools, universities or the workplace. The expression refers to totally new
digital learning environments and to the introduction of new forms of
learning, centred around the individual learners as the most prominent part
in the educational process.
The structure and features of the Internet and the web are also the charac-
teristics of virtual education, virtual institutions and virtual mobility. It is
dispersed, it is global, it is networked, it is accessible and it is independent of
time and place. Among the important features of virtual education is the use
of the Internet as the global information and communication network, with a
common interface; the desktop web browser, accessed trough learning por-
tals (URL), the use of learning management systems (LMS) to describe
course content, course structure and working methods, to register students,
90
Net-based learning could be perceived as the didactical use of information
and communication technologies to support individual and collective
learning processes, manage learning, provide flexible delivery and more
accessible and user-oriented learning experiences, adaptable to different
learning situations and learning styles, e.g. campus, home and workplace.

---

organise groups and track student performance through online tests, group
work assignments, portfolio indexing etc. Under this generic level different
types of standard or proprietary applications are used as didactical tools that
best suit a specific groups of learners, accommodate appropriate learning
strategies and learning activities, such as self expression and inter-activity
through writing processes (individual, pair, group), simulations (role play and
game participation), and production of electronic presentations/publications,
etc. In this context the development of ICT skills has become just as impor-
tant as the more traditional skills of reading, writing and the use foreign lan-
guages.