Virtual mobility is the only solution available for offering an experience abroad during the pandemic using online tools. To manage the unexpected scenario, HEIs have developed online tools for teaching and interacting, and the faculty members were trained to use them.
For almost all the universities, the pandemic required them to develop their virtual mobility offering from scratch because, before Covid-19, the courses were practically not offered online or blended. The lack of time does not allow HEIs to prepare themselves for the new teaching scenario, and in some cases, the lack of proper teaching tools hurts the student journey experience.
The shift from normal mobility to virtual mobility has shown some issues related to implementing the new type of mobility and has highlighted some differences between the two kinds of mobilities in terms of academic performance, personal experience, and networking opportunities.
The paper focuses on the opportunities for developing virtual mobility programs from the experience of the Covid-19, and it will provide some new results related to a survey submitted to a representative sample of European universities. Results of the questionnaire allow evaluating of the scenario of virtual mobility offering before the covid, the effect of the pandemic on the online or blended courses, and the universities' strategic choices after the lockdown period.
The analysis will underline the impact of virtual exchange on the inclusion of students with special needs and the issues related to creating a virtual mobility strategy coherent with the face-to-face mobility program already existing at the university level.