Erasmus best practice recognition for Professor Eleni Mangina

Erasmus best practice recognition for Professor Eleni Mangina 

An Erasmus+ funded project led by Professor Eleni Mangina of the UCD School of Computer Science has been recognised as a national best practice example of an educational development project delivering lasting impacts.

The project, titled ‘Volumetric 3D teachers in Educational Reality’, focused on enhancing the digital skills of teachers across Europe through training on Extended Reality (XR). Teachers were empowered to integrate immersive, photorealistic 3D content (Volograms) into their teaching through training on creating XR content and applying innovative lesson design using the Volu app. 

Thanks to the transferability of the project’s outcomes, and potential for long lasting impacts including improved engagement and accessibility in post-COVID blended and distance learning environments, the project has been singled out by the (opens in a new window)Higher Education Authority (HEA) as one of Ireland’s best practice examples for potential inclusion in the European Commission’s 2024 Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps annual report. 

Eleni’s project was funded under the Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnerships funding stream with funding awarded by the HEA after a highly competitive application process. Cooperation Partnerships offer lump sum funding of up to €400,000 per project for projects which deliver innovation in education through collaboration between organisations from at least three EU countries*. They sit within the funding framework of the wider Erasmus+ funding programme which includes over 20 different funding opportunities. 

The project was coordinated by UCD, working in collaboration with the University of the Aegean in Greece, the Centre for Advancement of Research and Development in Educational Technology in Cyprus and Volograms Ltd Ireland. 

“The project has had a transformative impact on our participants,” said Eleni. “By introducing volumetric 3D content and XR lesson planning into teacher training, we empowered educators not just to adapt to digital transformation - but to lead it. Teachers are now confidently integrating immersive tools into their everyday practice, enhancing both their professional growth and student outcomes.”  

The project provides open access to training workshops for all teachers interested in XR education, how to apply storytelling for pedagogical purposes, and how to create lesson plans. It also provides an open access XR digital repository with content and lesson plans. As a result, all project results are re-usable, transferable, and up-scaleable and have a strong trans-disciplinary dimension. 

Find out more

• Find out more about Eleni’s project here: (opens in a new window)https://vol3dedu.eu/
• Cooperation Partnerships are funded under the broader Erasmus+ programme which includes more than 20 different funding opportunities for collaborative projects that deliver innovation in education. 
• *Cooperation partnerships require involvement from at least three organisations representing at least three different EU member states plus Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Serbia, North Macedonia and Turkey.  
• Find out more about Cooperation Partnership funding awards in the Erasmus+ programme guide (opens in a new window)https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/programme-guide/part-b/key-action-2
• At UCD, pre-award support for Cooperation Partnerships is provided by UCD Global. If you have an idea for an educational development project and would like to discuss funding opportunities, email (opens in a new window)globalprojects@ucd.ie. 
• Photo caption: Eleni with the Vol3Edu project team.