EduCoach – Personalised online advising for study in Europe orientation

In 2013 StudyPortals started to make study choice more interactive.The project to achieve this is called EduCoach and has been selected for funding by the European Commission under the Erasmus Mundus Action 3.

The partnership

Starting in November 2012 StudyPortals joined forces with eight partners from three continents: ACA (Belgium), DreamFoundation (Estonia), AEGEE-Europe (Belgium), EuroDoc (Belgium), DEC Education (Ukraine), IFMSA-Jo (Jordan), GESCO (Jordan), as well as The Brenn White Group (USA). This partnership has been commissioned by the European Union to develop the right tools to base the online study choice of the future on more than just static information.

Outcomes

In detail, EduCoach will result in the following outcomes:

• Online Personal Counselling tools: Chats and voice over IP communication tools will form the basis of the Personal Counselling tools to be developed. Personal chat of experienced study-choice advisors will be offered through the StudyPortals websites. Within this project five distinct chats/advisor sessions will be set up: (1) One dedicated chat in the English language for orienting students interested in Erasmus Mundus, (2) a dedicated chat in the English language for potential PhD Candidates, and three chats offering general counselling on studying in Europe in (3) English, (4) Russian, as well as (5) Arabic language. Moreover, high potential candidates will be invited to join a personal video chat talk to answer their questions on studying abroad in Europe.
• Dedicated webinars: In addition, dedicated webinars will be carried out providing National Institutes, Universities, Student Associations, Prospective Employers and other multipliers in European higher education with an excellent stage to present their organisations, promote their institute/country’s education offer and engage their target groups. Fully integrated with the platform where the study choice takes place – and promoted by targeted advertisement to the relevant target groups (e.g. based on countries of origin, disciplines, and/or target countries) – those webinars will offer an effective way to reach and inform the relevant target groups; at the right moment and the right place.
• An extensive knowledge base: An extensive knowledge base will complete the personal counselling services offered. Across all personal counselling sessions the main topics of discussions will be documented, allowing the project not only gather hands-on expertise on the real information needs of orienting students but also to analyse these needs in accordance with various variables (e.g. country of origin, degree level, etc). To make this condensed knowledge available to more than the individual study seeker, these insights gained will form the basis of the EduCoach knowledge base – a broad, online collection of expert content grounded in and answering the particular information needs discovered.
• Targeted online promotion campaigns: A targeted online promotion campaign will be carried out to promote the project offer and results to the students, focusing in particular on European neighbouring countries in the MENA region (Middle East & North Africa) and Eastern Europe. Therefore, targeted advertisement on Google will be combined with tailored social media campaigns and extensive link building with other websites relevant in the field.
• Recruitment guides for universities: As the general content of all personal counselling sessions will be documented and analysed, all detailed knowledge retrieved will be condensed into hands-on guides for universities and other educational providers putting forward recommendation on how to improve recruitment and communication with students in the different parts of the world.

Reaching millions of orienting students and candidates

EduCoach project will help millions of students and PhD Candidates with personal professional advice to improve the quality of their decision on where to study abroad in Europe. To ensure this EduCoach will set up a personal online counselling service for prospective students and PhD Candidates. This service will combine the success of and need for strengthened international student services and personal advice with the effectiveness of modern information and communication technologies – and the outreach and popularity of existing study choice portals. Like this, EduCoach will finally improve the decisions of millions of students and PhD candidates with concrete advice on their decision making.

Get involved

Would you like to receive more information on this or any future projects we are planning? Get in touch with us now.

More information about the project can be found on educoach.org

Time frame: 1.11.2012 – 30.04.2015