Abstract:

The COVID-19 circumstances limited physical mobility not letting students to attend regular classes neither to travel for studies abroad. Therefore, it became more complicated to develop students’ skills. Three universities from the Czech Republic, Croatia and Lithuania proposed the way to deal with these challenges. They implemented the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education project ‘Virtual Visiting Professors’. The implication of digital techniques, integration of different educational methods and creation of a viable network of professionals allowed to develop a set of nine business related study courses taught virtually including complete teaching materials and eliminated obstacles to teach joint classes of international students from all three universities.

This paper aims to present the way of students’ skills development through virtual mobility based on project results. The classification of Peterson and Van Fleet (2004) is taken for skills description and includes technical, analytic, decision making, human, communication, interpersonal, conceptual, diagnostic, flexibility and administrative skills. The paper presents good practices of teaching online and implementing different digital techniques, educational methods, and networking for students’ skills development. The challenges of teaching organizing process and organizational measures are discussed as well. Summarizing, we could note that what have been formerly considered limitations turns out to be completely new opportunities and such kind of sustainable virtual mobility is a good opportunity for skills development despite geographical location, different health issues and other dangers and obstacles.

Keywords:

Students’ Skills, Virtual Mobility, Digital techniques, Educational methods, Viable network.