Abstract:

The LACE (Literature and Change in Europe) partnership wants to improve the international experience of master students and staff of the participating institutions through Erasmus exchanges and the elaboration of an open curriculum in the fields of literature, film and theatre. Universities involved in this project are: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Aarhus University, Tartu University, Lisbon University, Universidad de Granada, University of Bologna and K.U.Leuven.

In this network we are working towards a joint and double international master's degree. We want to improve the 'internationalization at home' by stimulating the number of incoming and outgoing international students and teachers in the master programs at the arts departments of the involved institutions. The partners of LACE are progressive universities, with a long-term planning. Our biggest ambition is to start an Erasmus Mundus to attract more foreign students. In this common cooperation and mobility programme our aim is to enhance the quality and diversity in our study field. To reach that goal, we started last year with a more intense collaboration, which we want to increase year by year.

It's our ambition to keep our eyes open for new input and remain a moving consortium in a moving society. An important step in this is a joint course between all partners. Starting from the academic year 2011-2012 on, the LACE partnership developed a full virtual common course 'Changing cultures in Europe'. This course consists of 7 modules (one taught by every partner) on the broad topic of “Changing Cultures in Europe”. For the alpha version we started with pre-recorded sessions (web lectures) which are available on our website, making intense use of Moodle with interactive chat sessions and forum discussions. The first students will graduate from this experimental course by January 2012, followed by an evaluation and possible adaptation of this course.

Keywords:

Networked curriculum, Moodle, international cooperation, arts.