Unlocking the potential of online learning in the internationalisation of higher education

The Digitalisation of higher education has been underway for decades and increasingly also affecting international education and collaboration. Many funding schemes supporting internationalisation have funded and are funding projects within digitalisation, digital campuses, on-line learning as well as virtual/blended mobilities for individuals.
  
In 2019-2020 the Nordplus Higher Education Programme, funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Baltic countries, had a special highlight on the theme “Digital competence and computational thinking”. This resulted in an increased number of projects on digitalisation and on-line learning. As a main administrator for this programme, The Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI), commissioned a research team at University of Oulu to conduct a study on this phenomenon.

In this report, the potential of utilising international collaborations to organise online learning programs will be discussed. The report presents findings drawn from an analysis of data collected through phenomenographic interviews with seven practitioners selected from successful Nordplus cross-border online learning programs and an online student survey sent out to students participating in those online programs.