UEF has entered into a partnership with the Virtual Learning Environment on the EU, a free online platform that allows you to increase your European Awareness while strengthening your EU citizenship skills.

About the platform

Aimed at citizens of all ages, this platform provides sound and insightful knowledge about European integration, by way of creative and stimulating communicative means. Rather than dealing with the EU as a scapegoat to present day troubles or as an accomplished and marketable asset, European integration is presented as an ongoing process we are all contributing to shape. The platform thus points to contradictions and meaningful aspects, while at the same time it provides essential knowledge on EU institutions, history, current challenges and its paradigmatic impact on citizenship education and training.

Click on the logo to access the VLEU website !

You can check this video presenting the project.

How can you use it? 

The platform is available in five languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. All the materials offered are organized in four areas:

1. The European Union for all
Divided in eight short lessons, this course features original whiteboard animations and an intense methodological effort to convey meaningful information on today European Union as a key, yet unstable and still contradictory stage of European integration.

2. European integration: an incredible story!
This course’s twelve lessons provide a detailed narrative of the whole European integration history from World War II up until today challenges. Each lesson offers a tripartite view of a specific period: highlighting its overall historical meaning with respect to the original goal of European unity, by way of a video clip from a music recital called “Europe: what a Passion! The tale of a stormy love affair”; making reference to specific events, achievements and dynamics in the construction of supranational institutions by way of animated text and music; and developing the discourse about the key historical facts of the period through a short video lecture by a scholar.

3. Multilevel Perspectives on Communicating the Present
In order to effectively give meaning and foster active participation to the complex world we live in, this section points to the very recent European history (2008-2018) and provides conceptual tools, concrete analyses and methodological tips to discuss or communicate about the current historical situation in a multi-level and pluralist perspective.

4. European Multilevel Education for Citizens 
This last area targets teachers and education practitioners also in informal and non-formal environments: it’s a space of self-training, peer-to-peer discussion and exchange of good practices not just about the European Union (there are already many online resources for that) but about the specific meaning of European integration for civic education at all levels.

Why should you use it?

Whether you’re in a formal or informal educational context, all courses can fit you, since they feature evaluation or grade activities before issuing participation certificates. 

In the context of UEF or national sections activities, we would suggest that you browse the courses and build a locally specific path for local training seminars. Similarly, those in charge of activists’ training seminars for UEF or for JEF could subscribe to the platform and make use of its tools: opinion polls, online workshops, interactive quizzes or single video and debate. In addition, the AwarEU platform can create tools on demand, so any other idea is welcomed by their team!