The digital platform for the Unite! Alliance: The Metacampus

Abstract

Nine European technology universities constitute the Unite! alliance, a network that creates a new model for a virtual and physical European interuniversity campus through close cooperation, physical and virtual mobility of members, joint programmes, communities that support teaching innovation, and open and entrepreneurial innovation networks. The Metacampus virtual campus platform is an important aspect of this framework. All participants in the Unite! community can join at the Metacampus, which coexists alongside other universities' virtual campuses. It must become a valuable and useful tool for a wide range of users who are used to very different tools and processes, which is only one of the many difficulties it faces. The Moodle platform was chosen as the base for the work, and it was decided to maximise its features while minimising the amount of new innovations required to achieve the goals. After four years, the number of users who have registered and taken part in the activities that have been suggested enables us to draw the conclusion that the path is the right one for handling a challenge like the design and execution of a multi-university virtual campus.