C.1.3

The concrete top-level aims and objectives are to:

1. Make an inventory and to carry out a systematic review of "notable" Virtual Schools and Colleges (including Gymnasia, etc) and related "e-mature" major secondary and post-secondary education initiatives covering the age range 14-21 at European, national and regional levels - excluding university-level initiatives except for those delivering university-level education into schools.

2. Extend this inventory to "notable" out-of-school informal learning initiatives including highly innovative initiatives such as Notschool.net.

3. Compare in-depth studies of European cases to selected non-European initiatives (from all populated continents, not only US and Australia) in order to refine and elaborate parameters and success factors and to formulate a set of action points that can be applied to ensure the realisation of successful European Virtual Schools/Colleges initiatives. It is particularly important that promising school and out-of-school initiatives in middle-income economies (e.g. India) are not missed out (see http://www.virtualcampuses.eu/index.php/All_countries_by_income)

In order to:

4. Identify relevant parameters and success factors for classifying and comparing Virtual Schools/Colleges, based on thorough research and expert input.

5. Organise in-depth discussions at various stages of the project, to incorporate the input of different interest groups: including Virtual Schools/Colleges head teachers, relevant networks, students, policy makers and a range of experts at global as well as European level.

6. Determine the socio-economic contexts most likely to foster Virtual Schools/Colleges.

In order finally to:

7. Provide and disseminate advice to stakeholders at all levels (from policy level through institution level to classroom level) in a range of EU countries large and small.

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