In the context of the constraints arising from the COVID-19 crisis, it has been shown that teachers, as well as students, are capable of adapting to teaching and learning patterns different from the traditional ones. Once new methods, techniques and organisational measures are put in place and combined with the necessary mental adjustments, what would previously be considered constraints are transformed into entirely new opportunities. One such constraint related to COVID-19 could be the internationalisation of higher education. The Virtual Visiting Professors project will develop a total of nine undergraduate and/or graduate university courses, including curricula and complete sets of teaching and self-study materials in the form of open access educational resources, suitable for teaching different transnational student groups simultaneously and flexible enough to be integrated into different study programmes of the partner universities, as well as potentially into the programmes of other partners. The results will also include methodologies, addressing the joint delivery of courses in different organisational and programme environments and facilitating the development of open access educational resources. Three courses will be taught as pilots during the project with participating students from all partner universities, thus validating the concept, feasibility and quality of execution. The project results will have numerous short-term and long-term benefits and impacts. First and foremost, it will enable students from partner universities to enroll in courses taught by international professors in different international study groups without disrupting their regular schedules. This will make internationalization more accessible and inclusive for a much wider range of students, as well as for professors, paving the way for internationalization to become a mandatory standard in program design and assessment. The methodologies designed within the project will also facilitate arrangements for students from other universities to join the courses, motivate other universities to join with their teachers and courses, and establish a technical and didactic framework for more courses and course materials to be developed and taught using a similar format.
