Cross-Border Projects in Digital Education Ecosystems

Digital transformation and project orientation are defining trends in the future world of work. Relevant aspects for education include training for project work in the digital age, the project as a didactic format, (digitally transformed) project management, the workplace of the future, and the competence to drive the digital transformation with projects. Therefore, projects in the context of digital transformation are a relevant professional environment for many graduates and this should be reflected in higher education - especially if it is preparing for the job market. Project-based, problem-based, challenge-based and case-based learning are important didactic trends. Projects are inherently interdisciplinary, allow work on real tasks and train the competence area of practical skills. Nevertheless, most academic programmes hardly integrate these aspects. Often, a non-specialist lecturer offers a project management course that is not very well integrated into the curriculum. Interdisciplinary skills are not systematically addressed in the project work. This contribution proposes developing a Virtual Project Campus in the university that allows courses (and projects) to comprehensively integrate the "project competence" in a professional context and interlink it with the subject matter. The digital implementation increases the relevance for the professional field as well as the ability to multiply over different educational programmes and cooperate cross-border. The Virtual Project Campus bundles competences in an agile work environment, e.g., through specialist communities and project formats, as well as a digital education ecosystem (DEE).