ViMaCs

The project ViMaCs is a cooperation between the Fachhochschule Dortmund (FHDO), the Kiev National University of Civil Engineering and Architecture (KNUCA), the Ternopil National Economic University (TNEU) and the National University “Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic” (NU-ZP).

The aim is to build a digital master module portfolio in the field of "data science" and the inherent IT infrastructure (a cluster of appropriately equipped servers). The modules will be integrated into master programs for digital transformation at all four partner universities, and it is intended to establish double degrees on this basis. The four partners know each other from a cooperation in project management. In addition to a cooperation in an ongoing DAAD Eastern European Partnership and an Erasmus+ KA107 programme, they have launched the Erasmus+ KA2 CBHE project WORK4CE. The Ukrainian partners are, moreover, associated with the FHDO, which is a core member of the European EuroPIM consortium (within the framework of a DAAD Strategic Partnership at FHDO). This is one of the largest academic networks in project management in Europe.

The common goal is to establish an international Master School on the topic of "Managing the Digital Transformation" at the interface between project management and digitalization. The ViMaCs project creates the necessary conditions for the Ukrainian partners for a digital and virtual teaching and learning infrastructure in the area of data science, which is very important for digital transformation. In relation to the funding objectives of the call for proposals, ViMaCs contributes to establishing the model of the virtual cross-border Master School as a cooperation and internationalization instrument in Ukraine.

The combination of interdisciplinary and international teaching modules with a networked IT environment is innovative. It creates a practice-oriented lab and training environment and, at the same time, supports the cooperation of the partners. Thus, not "only" digital didactics and teaching are being supported, but the conveyed contents are inherently digital, international and interdisciplinary. This means that digitalization and service offers are not in the focus of ViMaCs, but they support the emerging “Digital Education Ecosystem (DEE)”.

Core of the project is the development and implementation of a digital teaching and learning offer in the field of the versatile and highly up-to-date "Data Science" by developing an innovative and inherently digitized structure of a Master School. Through its development and utilization, the digital competence of the partners will be further developed, among other things through a planned pilot teaching programme with evaluation, training offer and, above all, through the establishment of expert groups (so-called Communities of Practice – CoP) as "owners" of the modules and IT environments. The cooperation in these virtual CoPs leads to a continuous development of digital competences among the partners. ViMaCs will be accompanied by a digital public appearance. Scholarships will not be provided. The focus is on short-term mobility (teachers and some students) in a sequence of block courses coordinated via an academic calendar. Participation of students in the block courses is therefore primarily virtual. The ViMaCsconsortium is open to further partners. By selection of Ukrainian partners a national teaching and research network in the area of "Managing the Digital Transformation" will be strengthened and expanded, which is both European-cooperative and also attractive to other Ukrainian universities. Some of the tools, processes and tools have already been tested in the EuroPIM-Consortium or are due to be introduced there, providing extensive synergies and knowledge transfer. 

On the part of FHDO, the central scientific Institute for the Digital Transformation of Application and Living Domains (IDiAL) is involved as project manager. It has a comprehensive digital competence in research and teaching and operates its own virtualized IT environments. By joining EuroPIM and IDiAL, the Ukrainian partners will be, through ViMaCs, even more closely involved in the European higher education and research area.