COWEB aims to contribute to Digital Transformation of HEIs, as one of the overarching priorities of the European Commission, which is at the same time one of the pre-defined overarching Western Balkan Regional Priorities to be tackled. The project encourages the development and implementation of digital education strategies by mainstreaming digitalization in  education systems and reinforcing programs that develop digital skills.

There are two key concepts in this project are Virtual Mobility and Virtual Exchange.

• Virtual mobility is defined as “the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to obtain the same benefits as one would have with physical mobility but without the need to travel” and focuses on the cooperation of educational institutions as well as the recognition of achievements.
• Virtual exchange instead focuses on the interaction and communication of geographically separated participants.

In order to achieve the objectives of this project, a virtual collaborative learning (VCL) approach, which is a hybrid learning arrangement combining elements of blended learning, flipped classroom, and a fully online experience will be utilized (Schoop, Clauss, & Safavi, 2020). COWEB project addresses the development of soft skills such as self-organization collaboration, digital and intercultural competence, which are central components of 21st Century Skills.

The four interlocking components of the VCL framework are:

• 1. Professional pedagogical support;
• 2. Realistic student-centered case scenarios;
• 3. Technical interactive collaboration platform;
• 4. Learning analytics and assessment dashboards.

The project aims to create a flexible, time and place-independent collaboration of participants with different backgrounds, cultures, and time zones.

The COWEB project is coordinated by 𝗘𝗣𝗢𝗞𝗔 University and co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union under the Capacity Building in Higher Education framework. COWEB will contribute to Digital Transformation in education as one of the overarching priorities of the European Commission, which is at the same time one of the pre-defined overarching Western Balkan Regional Priorities to be tackled.
The Project Consortium is composed of 10 partner universities. Three HEIs are from the #EuropeanUnion, respectively @Technical University of Dresden (Germany), the International School for Social and Business Studies (ISSBS) Slovenia, and the Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Innovazione UniSalento University of Salento (Italy), and seven other partner HEIs are from the #westernbalkans region, respectively Epoka University as Project Leader (Albania), European University of Tirana (Albania), UBT - University for Business and Technology (Kosovo), @Biznesi College (Kosovo) , International Burch University (Bosnia & Hercegovina), University of East Sarajevo(Bosnia & Hercegovina), and University of Montenegro (Montenegro).