VIRTUAL INTERNSHIP GAME AND
STUDENT PROJECTS IN LATVIA
U. Vorma, I. Slaidins RTU
L. Rubina prakse.lv
K. Zunde Latvian IT Cluster
PRAXIS’ 14 Open Discussion Forum
Genova, 25.-26.09.2014
Introduction
• Nowadays, web-based and other virtual platforms are
widely used not only in education, but also in
organizing and implementing internship and student
projects.
• Case studies in student project implementation in
Latvia:
– Latvian internship portal prakse.lv
– international innovation collaboration platform DEMOLA
network activities
Virtual Platforms
• Examples:
– Student Industrial Internship Web Portal (Malaysia)
– Web-based intranet portal for implementing Work
Internship Placements course (Spain)
– The European Centre for Excellence in the field of
Project/Internship (PRAXIS)
– Multinational Undergraduate Team Work Project
Latvian Portal Prakse.lv
• Translation of the term “prakse” into English is
“practice”.
• Main aim of portal is to ensure fast and effective
communication between young people, employers and
educational institutions.
• A further development of the portal is Virtual platform
project “Virtual Practice”.
Prakse.lv
Virtual Internship
• Term “virtual internship” can represent at least two
notions:
– working in a virtual team with remote team members
– computer-based virtual reality game simulating real
workspace in a particular profession
Project “Virtual Practice”
• Support mobility of young people to other EU countries
using interactive platform for virtual internship.
• Platform enables user to find practical placement or
internships.
• Opportunity for the users to test and train their
professional skills in virtual work situations predefined
by employers.
• Next step for project is “Practican” for EU citizen.
• The mission is to help young people build their career
more successfully and faster integrate into the labour
market, increase employment rates, educate new
talents for employers and society in general.
Virtualaprakse.lv/Practican.com
DEMOLA Network Activities
• DEMOLA is an open innovation platform and a
university-business collaboration model for the
development of new products and services.
• Student teams work to solve challenges handed to
them by companies and other organizations.
• The projects lead to ‘demos’ and prototypes, the
majority of which are bought by the companies and
organizations via a licensing system devised for the
DEMOLA framework.
DEMOLA cycle
• The company publishes a real-life problem (a
"challenge") on the web page.
• The project is commenced and the student team starts
working for 3 – 4 months going through DEMOLA
milestones and co-creation.
• If the company is satisfied with the result, it can
license shared rights for the end result or purchase all
rights on the project results.
DEMOLA
Conclusion
• ICT technologies are opening new opportunities in the
implementation of the projects and internships at
higher education institutions.
• Three options in using ICT could be distinguished:
– tools for presenting project and internship topics/places
and managing internship implementation
– tools for support of virtual teamwork
– tools for computer simulation and virtual reality
Thank You for attention!
Una Vorma
Riga Technical University
E-mail: [email protected]