Learning Evaluation of Online Micro@Masters Programs of Internalisation at Home: Application of the Upgraded Kirkpatrick’s Model

Proceedings of ‏The 3rd International Conference on Applied Research in Education

Year: 2021

DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/3rd.areconf.2021.06.150

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Learning Evaluation of Online Micro@Masters Programs of Internalisation at Home: Application of the Upgraded Kirkpatrick’s Model

Pedja Ašanin Gole, Ahmet Kadri Kusum, Dejan Andonov, M. Adela Gjorgjioska

 

ABSTRACT: 

We evaluate internationalisation at home (IaH) as a means for bridging the ‘mobility gap’ in countries, which are outside the core of Europe. It draws on the experience of two six month long international Micro@Masters programs, which were conducted jointly within the virtual campus of four higher education institutions (University of Istanbul, Turkey; Institute of Communication Studies, North Macedonia; DOBA Faculty of Applied Business and Social Studies, Slovenia; and Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania) in the period between 2018 and 2021. We have developed and implemented two six-month online micro master programs: (1) entrepreneurship and innovative strategies, and (2) digital communication and marketing. For both programs we have provided the virtual campus with online learning management system, teaching and learning e-materials, 20 lectures from four countries, 273 students from 9 countries who carried out learning activities within mixed international teams. We used a questionnaire (n = 153 students enrolled in one of the two Micro@Masters programs) and semi-structured interviews with lecturers (n = 9) and students (n = 17). Using the updated Kirkpatrick’s model in order to assess the utility and effectiveness of IaH, we concluded that, by effectively delivering IaH, the Micro@Masters programmes have contributed towards addressing the ‘mobility imperative’ in countries that fall outside of the core of Europe. As a result, they represent the ways in which online education can be used as a tool for bridging the inequality gap in the provision of a more equally distributed internationalised higher education across Europe.

Keywords: learner’s learning outcomes; learning transferred into practice; mobility gap; online learning experience; ultimate impact of training.