Description
One of the problems in current public administration is lack of competence in electronic service delivery. Since this is a new field, and since public sector turnover is low, it is necessary to update employees on the new opportunities of digitalization. This is the reason why we want to develop modules that can be delivered online. Students in Romania are average users of their own mobile phone but there is little use of their own laptop in school. The objectives of the project are: strengthen the competence of the three partners involved in the field of electronic government; enrich the educational offer through on-line modules on ICT as a solution to the renewal of the public sector; enrich the educational offer and the quality of teaching with a foreign language as a language of instruction; modernize and develop the administrative and organizational capacities of institutions dealing with education and training; increase the international dimension of teaching offered by the Romanian education establishments. The target group, consisting in 180 Romanian students, was given access to the on-line module. The students benefited from the experience of the Norwegian professors who designed the content of the module and published 3 papers (two articles and a book chapter). Our aims related to this cooperation project consists in strengthening the institutional cooperation in higher education between Romania and Norway and thus, establishing structured, intensive and long-term cooperation, especially regarding curriculum development, the development of additional course offerings for the romanian students and research projects with Buskerud and Vestfold University College from Norway.
Summary of project results
One of the problems in the current public administration in different European countries is the lack of competence in the electronic service delivery. Students in Romania are average users of their own mobile phone but there is little use of their own laptop in school. Nonetheless, the high use of their own mobile phone for learning in class places Romania in the upper half of countries in this respect. Not surprisingly, students report using interactive whiteboards far less frequently than in other countries. With regard to students’ ICT based activities during lessons, Romania is among the middle ranking countries as measured by frequency of use at grades 8 and 11 vocational, but ninth at grade 11 general. These findings support the overall objective of the project of the designed on-line modules for learning and thus develop the e-learning practices in higher education. The percentage of objectives reached is 100%. All activities were organized: elaboration of on-line materials for developing the partners’ curricula, two workshops (1 in Norway and 1 in Romania), creation and the distribution of the video clips and other materials and the final dissemination conference (in Romania). The partner from Norway included the content developed on-line in his module on E-Government, thus students from Norway would also benefit. - 3 papers are sent to be published in different journals (one book chapter and 2 articles). - a website was created in view to explain the project aims and objectives and to disseminate information about project activities and results (
www.psr-ict.eu). The learning outcomes were: a. for students: personal fulfillment, international competence, academic fulfillment in terms of progression, employment, language competence; b. for staff: career advancement, language competence, collaborative research, curriculum development; c. for the universities involved: international profile, quality enhancement.
Summary of bilateral results
The most important achievement is the fact that the academic curricula was renewed, moreover, it was adapted to the current trends of teaching. At the same time, the Romanian and Norwegian professors had the great chance of sharing their knowledge and best practices, which, in the end created valuable manuscripts defended in different conferences organised by the partner universities. Also, certain articles were presented in international conference outside the project. There were three publications reported on the project: two papers and a book chapter. Both of the papers have been uploaded as course materials. The book chapter will appear in the forthcoming Springer book, “Smart Technologies for Smart Governments. Transparency, Efficiency and Organizational Issues”, authors: Berntzen, L.&Johannessen, M.R. The transparent smart city: How city councils and city administrations can apply smart technology for increased transparency – With case evidence from Norway. The collaboration has continued beyond the project's life for both organizations: the Norwegian students were given access to the module on E-Government, and the partnership turned to account other research and mobility projects. The primary impact to be considered is that upon the students, namely the access that this project would allow them to modern classes on such a fresh topic, in a foreign language, which would only provide them with the added value demanded by the current labour market. Secondly, the professors taking part in the project had the valuable opportunity to enlarge their scientific network, get to know a different academic system, develop precious collaborations, common researches, publications etc. Last but not least, the institutions are given the chance to open the doors for new cooperation be it either in the same direction and financing opportunity provided by the EEA, Erasmus+, or new developed research projects that used the current one as a block start.