Table of Contents

University “Aleksandër Moisiu” Durrës

1. VCL

General

In the winter semester 2021, the VCL was implemented in two different Programmes at the AMU University. A VCL course was implemented on the “Multimedia and Digital Television” study program in the 3rd year of the bachelor’s degree. Students are required to develop a manual for the Adobe Photoshop software within the course. Students have defined two ways to accomplish this task: by video tutorials and digital flipbooks. In the end, the final projects will be published online. The course is evaluated with 100 points out of 1000. The general assessment of the students was done based on the assignment’s deadlines, organization and the quality of the materials prepared.

Evaluation

The results of the VCL implementation in the course, were important for students because they learned another interactive way to work in group to achieve the desired goals. This experience helped students to better understand how good practice develops reciprocity and cooperation among them. Students sometimes interacted without collaborating due to a lack of mutual respect and trust. To encourage collaboration, different groups were organized for different tasks, which helped students work with new people. Working transparently was challenging, but students had to provide their own ideas independently while collaborating interdependently. Successful groups had good communication and shared ideas, while unsuccessful groups lacked communication. Students learned that working without collaboration can lead to disruption and a loss of individual thinking.

Recommendations

The VCL implementation was not only achieved through online meeting because students were tired of almost 2 years of online learning, and they mostly preferred to work in groups in the multimedia laboratory. The project was implemented in both virtual and face-to-face meetings. Through, the implementation of the VCL and the task given to students, they better learned to use different ICT and multimedia tools.

Based on this experiences students need to be trained for implementing VCL and the templates about tasks and evaluation should be ready and published for all the students many weeks before.

2. VCL

General

In the winter semester 2021, the VCL was implemented in two different Programmes at the AMU University. A VCL course was implemented on the module of Business Communication. This course is taught at the first year of bachelor’s degree in business administration and the first year of master’s degree in business administration. At the first year of the bachelor’s degree students familiarize with the core theoretical concepts of Business Communication and the challenges of organizational communication in the framework of the Albanian business environment. In the master’s degree the approach of the course is more practical and in focuses in applying the core concepts acquired in the bachelor level. It was more appropriate to apply the VCL to the master’s degree course because VCL itself has a more pragmatic approach and students were supposed to have a certain level of readiness for this course. The VCL project consists of 100 points out 1000 points.

Evaluation

The VCL module is a paradigm shift in the evaluation of the students and in content generating through group work especially in courses such as business communication. Learning processes in such courses could enhance content co creation and action learning especially in Albanian universities where students struggle in applying theoretical concepts into practice. One factor that can be considered as weakness was the risk of low student motivation. In Albania were students have classes only online since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. They could experience a burn out from online learning. Also, a factor to be considered as a potential weakness was the level of readiness of students for VCL. Another was the absence of student e-tutors because, the e-tutors of Business Faculty have changed of university at the start of academic year 2021.

Recommendations

Innovative evaluation methods and tools increase student creativity and motivation. VCL courses can be used as a platform for developing and implementing different business-related courses in the curricula of business faculties to enhance learning satisfaction. Future VCL courses should combine different platforms and allow students to choose their online tools. Students and lecturers should assess their readiness at the beginning and end of the course. Local teams should be diverse and not just focused on one university. The issue of retaining e-tutors even after they leave the university needs to be addressed. Better coordination, especially regarding technical aspects, is needed between local teams.