VEREAD – Virtual Exchanges in Religious Euro-African Dialogue
The EU project promoted by FSCIRE starts with Capacity Building in online pedagogy for Lecturers and Facilitators
In a significant step towards promoting intercultural dialogue among university students, FSCIRE has launched VEREAD, a project supported by the EU (Erasmus+), focused on a series of online training sessions and interactive activities in the field of Euro-African Religious Dialogue.
The project's first activity, a Capacity Building program aimed at empowering identified teachers and facilitators, will run from February to May 2024; both senior and junior lecturers will be equipped with the necessary skills to effectively design, implement, and evaluate on-line learning programs based on virtual exchanges. Participants will then lead the main activities (courses, project works, debates, etc.) engaging students from the participating universities. This three-year initiative indeed involves academic institutions from over 12 different countries in Africa and Europe.
Concrete objectives of the project include encouraging dialogue among students from diverse backgrounds, offering a highly interdisciplinary approach in religious studies, and stimulating a multi-perspective approach through international and interdisciplinary collaboration. Over 2500 international students are expected to participate.
«This is an innovative project, and its effectiveness is guaranteed by the fact that it responds to the concrete needs of the involved academic institutions», explains Ilaria Macconi, VEREAD project coordinator and senior research fellow at FSCIRE.
After a period of organization and co-design to ensure the correct implementation of the planned actions, the first phase of training is now starting: «By training the selected facilitators and teachers», clarifies Macconi, «we will ensure an effective online learning environment, including specific engaging activities for cross-cultural students’ interaction and tailored evaluation approaches for the unique context of the Virtual Exchange, in line with the VEREAD Project's objectives».
The Capacity Building program includes 8 sessions, each lasting 2 hours, with participants engaging in diachronic activities between sessions to improve their competencies.
