Between accelerating technological advancement and the societal and environmental challenges we face, the next decade will transform the way we live, learn and work. Such advancements are disrupting labour markets, altering our social fabric, and the future of work. The World Economic Forum contends that whilst there is a continuing need for sector-specific skills, increased importance is placed on cross-sectoral skills with the prospect that only 40% of the jobs that exist today, will exist in the future. The crisis triggered by Covid19 has accelerated these changes. To successfully navigate this time of uncertainty, we need strategies that support the development of resilience, imagination, and adaptation as key characteristics and the digital competencies required to support this transition. The high-level objective of EULab is to co-design and build a pan European blended exchange programme delivered through a series of ‘Futures Labs,’ that will enable active global citizenship, using a digitally enabled heutagogical instructional design. EULab is the name for the strategic partnerships between the University of Limerick, Audencia Business School, Oulu University Business School and Universidad de León. The aim is to extend the educational offering of VE programmes to include heutagogical challenge-based approach in a studio learning environment. The objectives of EULab include: the development and refinement of a ‘Futures Lab’ methodology; the development of the competences of learners and educators to operate and lead in this environment; and the influence of policy in the area of virtual exchange to incorporate a more active, design-based modality. EULab therefore includes, ‘Futures labs’; train the trainer CPD training including a toolkit and a digital working environment to support students and faculty. Futures Lab is the descriptive name for the type of learning space and content that the EULab partnership will support. Key characteristics include: a design studio-based learning environment; development of self-determined learning and intervention in real world problems. Participants include 100+ learners and 24+ faculty from the partner institutions. Both undergraduate and postgraduate learners will be recruited from across the four partner institutions. EULab comprises a number of key activities including: test and implement innovative practices in the field of Higher Education (HE), with activities to deploy digital tools and methods to deliver quality and inclusive education through online/virtual means, including blended teaching, training and learning; and activities to support learners, teachers, and trainers in adapting to online teaching and learning. EULabs are built around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) framework, and will enable cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary collaboration to address complex real-world problems. This proposal is built around two foundational innovative approaches. HEUTAGOGY: While pedagogy and andragogy are teacher-led approaches, where instructor determines what, how, when and where learning takes place, heutagogy is a self-determined instructional strategy that emphasises the development of autonomy and capability to self-determine learning. Learners are regarded as problem finders; they know how to find and set their destination and become increasingly independent (Hase & Kenyon, 2013). COSMOLOCAL: EULab is built on the notion of cosmo-local, described as a circular system of knowledge which involves; 1) the sharing of knowledge across national, sectoral, and disciplinary boundaries, 2) testing these in the local setting and 3) sharing the learnings from these settings (Waddock, 2020). EULab will help to achieve this and thus answers the call for EU universities to do more in address the UN SDGs. Building on its transnational partnership EULab will work towards the development of a platform to support its partners as well as working to influence policy on the role of a heutagogical virtual exchange programme as part of the EU Erasmus+ suite of activities. The aim being to create the conditions in which the proposed community of practice can thrive and drive forward the EU’s HE sectors response to the SDGs.Building on the DigCompEdu, the EULab strategic partnership will result in the development of digitally competent, future-facing, and active citizens. It is both innovate in delivery and approach and will increase our institutions’ on-going capacity to anticipate, understand and respond to emerging skills needs of enterprise and society more broadly. Following the completion of this proposal EULab’s ultimate ambition is to grow the network beyond the initial four partner organisations. EULab has the potential to deliver scalable digital mobility across the EU and develop widespread capacity amongst HE institutions to deliver on the ambitions of the UN SDGs. Please see EULab PDF Visual in Annex.
EULab's primary objective was to create a pan-European blended exchange program, the EULab Sustainability Challenge, centred on studio-based learning and heutagogical instructional design. Collaborating with strategic partners we worked to foster active global citizenship and equip learners for regenerative futures. Further, to equip educators to make a transition toward challenge based learning in a Business School context. EULab Objectives included to Enable meaningful change and empower Higher Education (HE) students and faculty to tackle complex SDG related challenges, to Create mission-led, place-based ‘pop up’ studio learning environments and Foster interdisciplinary collaboration and intercultural interaction. The project leveraged an education module - the Digital Futures Lab (UL) and adapted its design as a VE and Blended exchange program. EULab aimed to foster a community of educators and institutions sharing similar goals. At its inception, EULab served as an experimental platform, yielding valuable insights into the implementation of a pan-European challenge-based exchange program.
We applied for this project to address the urgent demand for transformative shifts in higher education. The fast-paced technological advancements and evolving challenges necessitate a fundamental reimagining of how we equip learners for the future. Hence, the pressing need for strategies that cultivate resilience, imagination, and digital competencies for navigating uncertainty. By introducing 'Futures Labs'—now referred to as the EULab Sustainability Challenge—as a studio-based learning environment, empowered by heutagogical instructional design, our aim has been to foster active global citizenship and prepare learners for regenerative futures. This initiative involves key strategic partners: the University of Limerick, Audencia Business School, Oulu University Business School, and Universidad de Leon. With the engagement of 100+ learners and 24+ faculty from partner institutions, EULab has focused on deploying innovative challenge based practices in higher education, aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The results of EULab will to enhance HE institutions' capacities, significantly contributing to the realisation of the UN SDGs, and steering the future trajectory of higher education.