There has been an increased interest in science and engineering education due to: (1) the shortage of professionals required in scientific and technical areas; (2) the considerable low ratio of students opting for science- and engineering-related degrees, when entering higher education; and (3) the number of dropouts exhibited in the initial years of undergraduate studies. All stakeholders have devoted a great deal of attention and concern to this problem, considering the high number of reports published about and initiatives taken in recent years. In sum, the solutions have been dealing with: raising the society awareness for such a problem (1); increasing the interest for STEM among youngsters (1 and 2); and, promoting new teaching and learning methodologies, especially student-centred ones involving the use of ICT-tools, for coping with a new generation of digital natives (3).This project targets the broad area of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, and, within it, the subject of circuit theory and practice. It aims to define, develop and evaluate a set of educational modules comprising hands-on, virtual, and remote experiments, the later supported by a remote lab named Virtual Instruments Systems In Reality (VISIR). The nature of each experiment (hands-on, virtual, real-remote) has an impact on the students’ perception of circuits’ behaviour, being therefore mandatory to understand how these different learning objects can be arranged together in order to scaffold their understanding and increase their laboratory-based skills. This is the concern of the underpinning teaching and learning methodology, favouring in particular the students’ autonomy for discovering how circuits work, through an enquiry-based approach.VISIR+ brings together the power of the best remote lab for experiments with electrical and electronics circuits and the long history of collaboration among the consortium partners from Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Portugal Spain, and Sweden.

The objective is to establish a global network of remote controlled pendulum experiments for science education purposes and capacity building in higher education.The project main innovation will consist in the deployment of a network of pendulums distributed across the world.These pendulums are therefore remote experiments will allow students/general public to directly collect data from distinct points of the globe and study the physical characteristics of our planet on their own.The pendulum experiment has always been used transversely in different school levels and contexts, due to its simplicity yet rich in scientific information, making it a great experiment to provide diversified objectives, encompassing various educational levels and for developing a project able to promote cooperation for innovation and exchange of good practices between the involved actors.Experimental apparatuses will be accessed remotely via a public web portal, enabling real-time access to the pendulums and experimental data collected, watching live videos stream and provide access to digital quality educational content, seamlessly integrated with the experiment.The main outcomes are: Establish the 1st global scope scientific remote experiment (Collecting experimental data in real time at a planetary scale; Students will be able to measure and conclude about one of earth’s physical characteristics on their own; Accessible to all students/general public via a dedicated web portal).Improving Science Education (Deliver high quality on-line remote experiments: serving education anytime, anywhere.Supporting scientific promotion by providing a modern, state-of-the-art educational asset Deliver open e/b-learning activities and supporting content); Capacity building in experimental learning (Promoting the professional development of staff and youth workers in ICT methodologies;Achieve a low-cost maintenance network, which operation and evolution can be supported sustainable by its participants)

This is a project-based on cooperation between 5 European and 10 Latinamerican universities. The main objective of the Project is to integrate social innovation in academic curriculum and learning environments in Latin American Universities to promote quality improvement in academic programs through fostering competence to solve regional social problems. This implies: 1. Design and apply educational models to promote competences on social entrepreneurship and social innovation amongst university students.2. Design and offer academic strategies to develop competences on social entrepreneurship and social innovation.3. Design valuable methodological tools for academic programs to improve understanding of the community`s needs and offer inclusive, sustainable solutions for detected problems.4. Design a monitoring system to evaluate curricular development on social entrepreneurship and innovation competences.5.Design and implement institutional policies and programs for administrative, academic and support management to promote social innovation in Latin American Universities.6. Create alliances between Latin American and European Universities interested in promoting social entrepreneurship.7. Support existing social incubators in participant universities to improve links between educational tools and students learning process to foster creativity and sustainability in social projects.With these activities, the Project will achieve short and long term impact at four different targets: institutions, teachers, students, external/Social Stakeholders. Then, the Project has some specific key indicators that serve to review the progress and the impact of the actions:1.Reporting the state of art of Social Entrepreneurship in participant institutions2.Guidelines of competencies on social innovation. 3.Toolbox for teaching social innovation including methods for working with different external stakeholders (NGO’s, Companies, Communities) 4.Selection and Confirmation of pilot courses and teachers that will implement social innovation methods or activities inside their courses. 5.Teachers’ participation in the training program on how to design and implement social entrepreneurship within selected courses during the pilot period.6.Implementation and monitoring of pilot projects7.Identification and early development of institutional support actions to enhance innovation and social entrepreneurship in HEI. 8.Results and impact of pilot projects To accomplish this, there are seven important moments or milestones in the project. 1.Kick-off meeting- Mexico (Starting Point, Clarification on Tasks & Expectations)2.Valencia meeting (Progress and Difficulties of the Project)3.Teachers online training (Expectations)4.Porto Alegre’s meeting (Satisfaction and Usefulness)5.Pilot’s implementation (Progress and Difficulties)6.Talca’s meeting (Results and Impact, this meeting changed from the city of Talca to Bgotá). 7.Final Meeting (Results and Impact)By now, we have passed through all the moments mentioned above covering 8 key indicators listed before. There were changes to some of the actions conceived at the beginning. These changes were discussed with the Steering Committee, as part of our internal quality measures; and later, were discussed with our Project Officer, to grant here authorization. The changes imply an improvement in the impact and the results of the project. The previously expected impact was: the implementation of a methodology in SI and SE in 20 pilot courses, 450 students implicated, 55 trained teachers, the reinforcement of social incubators in the participant universities with an impact in the communities, and the implementation of measures for the mainstreaming of social innovation. The final impact overpassed these numbers: 70 courses, 1614 students, 56 teachers trained.