Center for Research and Best Practice in Teaching and Learning (CELT)

CELT Erasmus Project

MEF University Provided Flipped Learning Expertise on a Close to 1 Million Euro Erasmus+ funded Project 

In 2018, MEF University was chosen to contribute its Flipped Learning expertise to the Erasmus+ funded project, "Cooperative E-learning Platform for Higher Education in Industrial Innovation (CEPHEI)."

This project, part of the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education initiative, aimed to modernize and internationalize higher education, aligning it more closely with labor market needs. It involved a partnership between higher education institutions from Program Countries (EU and other Erasmus program participants such as Turkey) and eligible Partner Countries (non-EU/Erasmus program countries).

Digital Nature of Education

Universities today are navigating two main challenges: digitalization and a changing communication landscape. Adapting to these can turn them into opportunities. Modern students, digital natives, require a learning approach that aligns with their digital fluency and communication styles. Traditional teaching methods often fail to meet these needs. Universities must evolve their educational methods to suit millennials, integrating real-world professional innovation and industry needs into their curriculum. The most successful universities will be those that can blend various teaching materials, foster project-based learning in international, multidisciplinary teams, and address the actual demands of industry and society.

MEF University is a pioneer in education, being the first worldwide to implement Flipped Learning across all programs. It has actively contributed to developing new higher education methodologies, notably in digitalizing teaching materials, and has shared its insights at international conferences. A 2016 presentation in Germany on Flipped Learning caught the attention of Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland. This led to their interest in the book “The Flipped Approach to Higher Education,” co-authored by Rector Şahin and Dr. Caroline Fell Kurban of MEF's Learning and Teaching Research Center. MEF's strong engineering faculty network facilitated a partnership with Lappeenranta University for the “Cooperative E-learning Platform for Higher Education in Industrial Innovation (CEPHEI)” project, which successfully secured nearly 1 million Euros in Erasmus+ funding, despite a competitive 17% acceptance rate.


In the consortium led by Finland's Lappeenranta University of Technology, other Program Country universities include Sweden's KTH Royal Institute of Technology, the Netherlands' University of Twente, and Turkey's MEF University. Partner Country members comprise Russia's Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics, Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas, and China's Tianjin University and Hebei University of Technology. MEF University's role was to provide expertise in Flipped Learning to enhance leadership, institutional commitment, technology infrastructure, and support for instructors and students.

The CEPHEI project aimed to enhance the digitalization, internationalization, and visibility of Industrial Innovations in Education globally through Flipped Learning in partner universities and the EU. It established e-learning standards for industrial innovation content, transformed over 50% of related courses into flipped formats, and created blended labs (b-Labs) under MEF University's guidance. The project culminated in an open e-learning platform connecting instructors, students, and around 100 business and industry partners, fostering a new model of cooperation between academia and enterprise in industrial innovation.

Available Resources

You can view the results of this project and access the freely available courses on  www.cephei.eu 

The journey and results of this project have also been published in the book “Digital Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Developing and Disseminating Skills for Blended Learning”.

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