The exploration of city culture and heritage has gone through a fundamental transition in today's digital world, boosted by the introduction of extended reality (XR) technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), and augmented reality. These developments have provided new opportunities for individuals to profoundly engage with historical narratives and artistic expressions inherent in urban environments. Despite these technical advancements, a critical research gap remains in properly combining these immersive technologies with gamification principles to improve cultural exploration. This study seeks to fill this gap by studying the integration of gamification into XR settings, with the goal of increasing participant engagement, cooperation, and interaction while digging into the various layers of a city's history and artistic heritage. Two complementary use cases are presented: one centred on VR and the other on MR, both of which provide unique immersive experiences customized to exploring city culture. Gamification ideas are implemented into these use cases, with game elements used to encourage user involvement and participation within historical and artistic settings. Students are actively involved in the development of cultural heritage applications, highlighting the value of educational engagement. To assess the success and validity of this approach, a system usability scale (SUS) questionnaire is distributed to users participating in these immersive experiences. The survey findings evaluate user perceptions, satisfaction levels, and the effectiveness of gamification aspects in improving their understanding and connection to the city's heritage. The VR application received a score of 71.77 (out of 100), while the MR application received a score of 65.94 (out of 100), both being very close to the average SUS score of 68. Moreover, to improve the rigour of our evaluation, the user engagement scale short form (UES-SF) is also incorporated. The UES results indicate that participants felt more immersed in the MR application (4.33) compared to the VR application (3.57). This difference may be attributed to the MR application's ability to integrate interactive elements with the real-world environment, enhancing the sense of presence and relevance for users. Both applications had similar perceived usability scores, while the MR app slightly outperformed the VR app in aesthetics and rewarding factors, suggesting a better overall user experience.

This paper introduces the analyses of Open Education experiences and strategies in the six universities part of the Ent-r-e-novators E3UDRES2 European Universities Alliance. It is part of a study performed in 2023, for 6 months, and includes a SWOT analysis to assess the strengths, weaknesses and overall adequacy of open education tools, resources and training against the needs of the E3UDRES2 alliance, which is comprised entirely of technical universities. Based on these findings, the partnership shows diversity in its commitment to Open Education (OE), with some universities actively participating in Open Education initiatives. The Open Education policies, activities, training and resources are not integrated in the universities (with one exception) and we indicate a mixed level of awareness and utilization of tools/resources/practices for OE. While some universities have a higher level of awareness and use of OE, others show uncertainty or limited knowledge; there is however a preference for using open-source software, and the adoption of OERs (open educational resources) varies in terms of barriers and satisfaction among faculty and staff. In summary, the responses from the universities align with the general landscape of Open Education policies and practices in Europe and worldwide.

This paper applies Moore's Model of Distance Learning interactions to the TalkTech project, whose recent iterations have included the creation of open educational resources in the form of virtual reality scenes. Using digital tools and technologies for research, communication, and creativity, with guidance from their instructors, learners engage with and produce original digital content, build bridges with students at a university across the ocean, to participate in an effective distance learning experience.

In recent years, the use of internet and communication technologies in the workplace for collaboration has increased. Working as members of international teams is not only common, but necessary. This paper examines the TalkTech 2022 project, a global collaboration between universities in the United States and Romania, in which students participated as members of international teams to explore and share local cultural artefacts through the co-creation of virtual reality scenarios. The authors present the TalkTech project through the lens of a five-point inquiry model, an inquiry-based approach based on constructivist learning which empowers students to develop digital competencies and build knowledge through active participation and co-creation of digital artefacts and open educational resources. The authors conclude that the TalkTech project is a catalyst for developing critical thinking and digital competencies, which will serve students well in their future careers.

Closely related to the resonating innovation cycles, the European Universities Project E3UDRES2establishes I-Living-Labs for future universities and smart and sustainable regions. The “I” stands for inspiring, innovative, intercultural, international, interdisciplinary, intersectorial, inclusive and intense. The paper presents the methodology and experiences on running the first i-Living-Labs in an international setting, sharing resources, teachers and students among 6 different universities, and performing projects in areas from Circular Economy, Human Contribution to Artificial Intelligence, Wellbeing & Active Ageing. It introduces the structures of Living Labs, and Design Thinking, Co-creation, experimentation methodologies, the Agile process and experiences of running the first international i-Living-Labs. In these I-Living-Labs, various types of learners, ranging from students to external stakeholders and educational entrepreneurs, are challenged to co-ideate and co-create innovative smart and sustainable solutions to local challenges. They do this in international transdisciplinary teams, bringing international knowledge into their communities.

This paper analyzes the results of two consecutive years (2020 and 2021) of an international collaboration between students at universities in the United States and Romania from the perspectives of comparing digital competencies and future skills. Offered annually since 2009, TalkTech is a project based learning scenario requiring students to use synchronous and asynchronous communication tools to research a topic and share their findings in a jointly-created digital artefact. During the last two years, 110 students researched topics related to international businesses and creative industries and presented their results using virtual reality. To complete the project, students made use of open educational practices and communicated, analyzed, developed, demonstrated, shared compared and discussed their work using several different digital tools. This paper investigates how students perceive their use of digital tools how these influenced them, especially during pandemic times.

This paper investigates the experiences of integrating the analyses of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in traditional education as an open book method for exam, during pandemic times. Since 2013 we have developed models and structures to include MOOCs in campus based, traditional education. A case study on integrating the analysis of MOOCs and of different digital tools in exams at Master level is presented and discussed based on questionnaires, reports, and live discussions with students. We proposed an asynchronous open book exam method to be integrated within Master Courses, delivered online during beginning of the 2021-2022 academic year. The paper analyses the students’ interaction with MOOCs and different digital tools and discusses topics such as students experience, activities for career and skills development, and the creation of digital resources.

Technology and digital pedagogies have changed how business, education and individuals communicate and interact. 2020 has seen an unprecedented change to ways of working globally and increased remote working and online teaching are likely to remain as positive outcomes of COVID19. In addition to making connections between people, technologies can influence cultural awareness. Immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) create a real world, sensory environment that can allow people to be anywhere virtually, to experience the world through the eyes of others, and to respond in ways that were previously not possible. This paper draws upon the findings of an international projects that used immersive technologies to encourage cultural and digital competences.

The shortage of digital skills in Europe ignited the development of the DigiCulture project, as to develop 13 different course modules all dedicated for training in digital competence for young adults in creative industries. The courses are planned, developend to be hostes in UniCampus, online learning environment started in 2014, as a MOOC-like Massive Open Online Courses. The DigiCulture project develops free, online short courses dedicated to adults with low digital skills. As there are big differences between the countries that are partners in DigiCulture, we propose an integrated approach for course development, but with national personalization as language, study cases. The implementation, course scenario are presented in this paper.

Full Paper. Virtual reality has become a new platform for communication and engagement to share knowledge. This paper describes the TalkTech 2020 project, in which students at two universities on different continents partnered to use CoSpaces EDU, a beginner's VR authoring tool, to develop virtual visits to international businesses in their home countries. They researched their assigned companies' innovations, products, and services, and conveyed their findings in an original digital story presented in VR. The project represents a convergence of learning about business and technology with arts and sciences, as students develop skills in digital literacy, creative thinking, problem solving, teamwork, and cultural awareness. These experiences will help students prepare for their future careers in many disciplines. The VR experiences that students created for their partners enabled them to learn about and virtually visit international businesses in each other's home countries. They discussed cultural similarities and differences during a video call with their international partners, managed the challenges of working as international team members arranging online meetings across time zones, and chose the collaboration tools that they thought would serve them best to complete the project.

Using Open Educational Resources (OER) provides further opportunities for collaboration both in higher education, especially during the last year, in pandemic times. Many universities have embraced video conferencing tools such as Zoom, WebEx, Teams, Skype and Google Meet for everyday learning activities with students. Virtual Mobility (VM) has a great potential to contribute to the internationalization, innovation and inclusion in higher education. This paper describes an ongoing collaboration between two universities, one in the United States and the other in Romania, where students use synchronous and asynchronous communication tools to work in a project-based learning model in information technology. Team members demonstrate, share, compare, and discuss their work, a virtual reality product, using online communication tools of their choice.

Developing new methods of learning about culture and heritage, dedicated to the new millennial generation can be a challenge. The project "Jecza Museum - the Sculpture collection" created a complex virtual identity of technology, art and culture education, by digitizing images of 100 sculpture works, adapting principles of open data and art archiving metadata, combing it with digital storytelling of artworks and virtual museum tours. This paper presents this development, the digital learning paths created and their evaluation. It identifies methods of creating art approachable for the young generation and validates the far-reaching impact of open digital storytelling.

In this article we will use Charles Handy’s sigmoid curve to bring into discussion a rethinking of the roles we have in digital and online education when we are confronted with a crisis situation – as educators, students, parents, managers or policy makers. The S-curve is a metaphor suggesting that many of our traditional ways of solving problems need a second type curve thinking. Therefore, we will apply this concept to three clusters of problems which arose during this period: stability, safety and connectivity. Moreover, we would like to propose a checklist to help develop an effective online education strategy during pandemic times. Applying these S-curves to crises can be an innovative and powerful way to enhance teaching and learning.

Open educational resources (OERs) have been around for around 20 years and their use has not fully reached its true potential, according to education specialists. This paper presents the results of a study of creating Open Educational Resources together with students, with the purpose of reusing them in future iterations of Higher Education programs. The students have to become co-creators of learning content, as part of their year assignment in several Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) programs, both at bachelor and master levels. Our study seeks to identify if creating original OERs as multimedia artifacts will facilitate students' understanding of open education principles and apply them in the future. We tested several approaches on how to realize this assignment, individual or in pairs, one OER per team or several OERs, and we applied connectivism theory as to validate our results. The results of our study indicate that by exposing students to open education, encouraging them to become OER co-creators and allowing them to connect in multiple ways, improves their digital lifelong learning abilities and inspires them to use open education principles or resources in their quest for knowledge.

UniCampus, online learning environment started in 2014, as an attempt to provide the first Romanian language MOOC-like Massive Open Online Courses. For the development of the DigiCulture project we decided to extend the existing UniCampus platform with a new DigiCulture theme. This paper presents the technical development, based on the Moodle framework, with new user interactions. The DigiCulture project develops free, online short courses dedicated to adults with low digital skills. The shortage of digital skills in Europe reported in 2016 in “European Digital Progress Report EDPR” of the European Commission: 45% of Europeans have insufficient or no digital skills. As there are big differences between the countries that are partners in DigiCulture, we propose an integrated approach for course development, but with national personalization as language, study cases. These implementation and personalization are presented in this paper.

This paper further continues our work in a new concept of integrating Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in traditional education as an open education approach. A study case on integrating MOOCs in courses at Master level is presented and discussed based on questionnaires, reports and live discussions with students. Studying online, open education and MOOCs still represent terms students are not familiar with, in Romania in particular. The authors proposed, for several years, an asynchronous course work to be integrated with the traditional in-class instruction. Every year the method is refined and enhanced with new models. This year the novelty was to empower students to become co-creators. The paper analyses how students use MOOCs for their own personal learning and to increase their ability to learn digitally and online, and how creating Open Educational Resources improves students' abilities to become co-creators.

The global economy with technological developments, mobility incrementation and new financial and working models affects the higher education at its core. Not only the education system, policies, or delivery models are influenced, but also students' and staff mobility. A new era of online and mobile learning, of massive open online courses (MOOCs), created virtual mobilities or internships. Virtual Mobility (VM) has a great potential to contribute to the internationalization, innovation and inclusion in higher education. This paper presents the development of the Open Virtual Mobility Learning Hub, a European-funded project, as an integration of several interactive technologies in an open source learning environment based on Moodle. The Open Virtual Mobility Learning Hub is a collaborative online and mobile environment for promoting and assessing VM Skills of educators and students in the European Higher Education Area. The OpenVM Learning Hub includes several interactive tools in components, services and technologies. This paper analyses different open-source software and tools, essential for the OpenVM Learning hub, as its development is based on open education principles.

This paper further investigates the new concept of integrating Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in traditional education as an open education approach. Since 2013 we have developed models and structures to include MOOCs in campus based, traditional education. A study case on integrating MOOCs in courses at Master level is presented and discussed based on questionnaires, reports and live discussions with students. Studying online, open education and MOOCs still represent terms students are not familiar with, in Romania in particular. However, the students' possibility to learn online and to use the valuable knowledge as to enhance the teaching in higher education, gains increased focus. The authors proposed an asynchronous course work to be integrated with the traditional in-class instruction. The paper analyses the students' interaction with MOOCs and discuss topics such as students experience, design, difficulty, and the MOOCs impact. The conclusions present both strengths and deficiencies of both MOOCs and also of this blended learning study case, therefore consisting in good practices for interested tutors.

Virtual reality engages participants through immersive experiences of imaginary or real three-dimensional physical environments. The combination of globalization and technology is transforming the international economy, altering the demand for skills and knowledge required from today's university graduates. To improve students' skills we have developed in the last ten years the TalkTech project, as an open virtual mobility, a project based learning with the aim of creating a multimedia artefact. The 2017 study examines how students, working to create virtual reality artefacts, also develop digital skills and critical thinking. The paper also examines how participating in open virtual mobility project enables an online multicultural educational environment that changes the students' abilities to learn and acquire knowledge. In this collaborative study, students create virtual reality artefacts using CoSpaces, a web-based virtual reality development platform, share them with their international but also local partners, and discuss similarities and differences in their work. The findings indicate that by real-time mixing of different tools and online and mobile technologies and apps students' digital skills are improved.

Society expects from the educational system to provide a new type of worker able to learn independently, online for their entire life - the new open life long learning student, but the traditional higher education is not equipped for this. Recently one possible solution was the development of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). While in Europe the MOOCs development are still behind the North American ones, in Romania they are non-existent. Started in 2014 the development of Romanian MOOC - UniCampus - by the Politehnica University of Timisoara is now running its first courses. This paper presents a course in Trends in Open Education, Tools and Technologies, developed by a group of professors with limited experience in online education, from its initial development phases to its first pilot. The course evaluation shows that shorter videos, short essay answers are preferred by students, multiple choice test are recommended after each course unit or video and they considered the UniCampus environment as familiar and easy to use (being based on Moodle, the platform most of students used also during their degree).

Current research proves that using a virtual campus as a learning management system (LMS) can increase the students' sense of community and enhance student performance, all the while LMSs have become a main component of how traditional teaching universities interact online with their students. We developed our university virtual campus CVUPT continuously since 2008, based on new technological developments but also on new Open Education Tools. Since our university is a research-oriented university, we used data to inform and guide an LMS review and strategic development process. This paper analyzes the use of this Moodle based virtual campus by a traditional university and how the implementation of different Web 2.0 technologies as open education tools have affected students-teacher interaction.

Augmented reality technologies are becoming widely used in educational and business contexts. This paper shares results of the TalkTech project, in which first-year introductory technology students from a university in the United States and fourth-year multimedia students from a university in Romania research applications of augmented reality in various industries, develop original augmented reality artifacts, and share their findings with international partners. Based on a project-based and collaborative learning approach, students communicate, research, develop together with the main goal to improve their digital literacy skills. By creating augmented reality artifacts, students better understand the impact of this technology and its business applications, and express their technological creativity in an innovative way.

Augmented reality technologies are being used in education to create engaging and memorable learning experiences for the students. To boost the adoption of such technologies even further, educators need access to augmented reality authoring tools that do not require programming skills, are under constant maintenance and development, are easy to use, are free and whose outputs can reach a wide range of students. Over the recent years, several such products have been launched on the market and have been used successfully in creating learning activities. In this paper we look at the current options, with a focus on what features have yet to be implemented in order to expand the possibilities of augmented reality in education.

The increased availability of online collaboration tools enables participants in different locations to create knowledge and work together. This paper shares the results of a project in which first-year introductory technology students from Bentley University in the United States and fourth-year multimedia students from Politehnica University of Timisoara in Romania worked together in an online global educational environment to research technology trends and create multimedia artifacts that shared their findings.

This paper describes the research results of a training needs analysis for university academia in 12 universities, within the aim of designing a training course for improving the use of ICT in 12 universities. The results indicates that even if some tools are widely used in universities, they are not fully implemented in delivering education and there is also a digital divide between the different academia generations.

Web-based tools are now widely used by both companies and individuals for communication and collaboration. This paper shares the results of a project in which first-year introductory technology students from Bentley University in the United States and fourth-year multimedia students from "Politehnica" University of Timisoara in Romania worked together to evaluate two similar online collaboration tools. The instructors created a learning environment for students to meet, socialize, exchange information, develop, and publish their results online.

This paper describes the experience of using several web 2.0 tools as part of academic assessment for teaching students in engineering at Master of Science level in "Politehnica" University of Timisoara Virtual Campus. The students used blogs, wikis and several other open source tools as part of their academic assessments, for a semester. They reported this as a positive experience and we believe that integrating some web 2.0 technologies in the academic activity facilitated innovative explorations, experimentation and profound thinking and analyse from students.

This paper describes the results of piloting an online - mobile phone environment -ViCaDiS - Virtual Campus for Digital Students, as a co-operation between 6 universities from European Union to develop a common online learning environment enhanced with Web 2.0 tools for supporting the online international co-operation at academic level. Digital students are young adults who have grown up with digital technologies integrated as an everyday feature of their lives. It presents the evaluation of this new learning environment for digital students.

This paper describes a study performed in a British university designed to identify the unique features of 'digital students', as a move towards building a customized model of an e-learning environment. To what extent might its students be described as 'digital'? How might their characteristics influence the development of an adaptive and adaptable e-learning environment? Likely features of an e-learning environment where the student can take advantage of all the communication technology available are presented.

In recent years the higher education system in Romania has been through a series of transformations. These transformations reflects European tendencies but also the growth of the Romanian economy. The changes affect also distance education, which is the actual form of delivering several specializations, as off-campus solutions. The "Politehnica" University of Timisoara is at the avant-garde of these changes and promotes innovation in education. E-learning is seen as a further step in high-education delivery. But are the prospective students and the universities ready to take the challenge? And is it e-learning going to be a viable model for an International Masters degree in Multimedia? A study, which focuses on the historic and economic development, legislation, and ICT penetration, was conducted recently in order to answer these questions.