"Tools fOr Impact³ - Development of web-based evaluation-tools fostering impact-oriented project-consortia for ERASMUS+" By launching ERASMUS+, the new programme for education, youth and sports, the European Union could position a further milestone in the long success-story of European education policy and its programmes which have started by implementing the first European programme for education in 1976. From 2007-2013 the "Programme for Lifelong Learning" (Budget: ~6,9 Bio. €) could release many positive pulses in all sectors of education. Now it´s time to use these experiences from the last 7 years for making ERASMUS+ as successful and sustainable as possible. During information-events on the new programme it has become clear that the impact of projects will be more important in the future. Also the structure of the new proposals shows it very clearly. All in all it has to be said that there is room for improvement in the field of impact and sustainability. This is the starting point and the background of the project TOI TOI TOI. On the one hand this name is intended as an "homage" to the Former LdV-TOI projects, which are in the focus of the project ´s activities. On the other side TOI TOI TOI means "knock on wood!" for the future of ERASMUS+. So the project uses this change over the two programmes to meta-evaluate already completed projects to use this results for developing online-based tools which are relevant for a pro-active rise of the impact of EU-projects. These evaluation-tools will help project-coordinators in preparing projects and structuring consortia in a way, that they will ensure a maximum impact. So there will be developed two different tools, one for evaluating potential partners concerning their potentialities to reach an impact-oriented use of project-results in the future. The other one acts on a consortial-level and illustrates strengths and weaknesses of the whole project-team. So the evaluation tools will help structuring EU-projects during the preparation phase to reach a maximum impact on different target groups at all levels. The development of the two TOI TOI TOI evaluation-tools bases on two comprehensive scientific analysis-steps. At first cluster-evaluation will be used to analyse all done Leonardo da Vinci transfer-projects in the partner-countries. Because of their vocational background and interdisciplinary consortia they are ideal items. The second step is the development of web-based questionnaires for former project-coordinators which base on the results of the cluster-evaluation. By combining both steps there can be deduced concrete impact-rising criteria on a partner- and consortial-level from these results. These aspects will be used for developing the evaluation-tools which will be elaborately tested before they can be downloaded for free. All these extensive and complex activities and tasks demand a professional and interdisciplinary team of specialists. So the project-coordination will be done by the Department for Continuing Education Research and Educational Management at the Danube-University Krems (DUK) in Austria which is a leading institute in european impact-studies. Furthermore the Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (FBB) from Germany, Széchenyi István Universität (SZE) from Györ in Hungary and Goce Delčev Universität (GDU) Štip from Macedonia will act as development-partners. All of them are research institutions which are very experienced in the field of education research and development of evaluation-structures. Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação (SPI) from Porto is a worldwide acting company which will be the dissemination-partner and responsible for the devlopment of all dissemination-material and all activitites in this field. Because of the project´s focus on impact and sustainability Auxilium pro Regionibus Europae in Rebus Culturalibus FROM Graz in Austria will support the consortium in quality-assurance and quality management. Auxilium can use its experience from hundreds of EU-projects and which also supports the Austrian national agency OEAD. So the project-team TOI TOI TOI can be seen as an ideal "mixture" of different institutions which all achieve the same aim - a sustainable improvement of the impact of EU-education-projects. TOI TOI TOI is an ideal way to design projects pro-actively during the preparation-phase. It makes projects more impact-oriented and sustainable by using knowledge from the past for ensuring a better future.
"TOI TOI TOI - Tools fOr Impact³"; Development of web-based evaluation-tools fostering impact-oriented project-consortia for ERASMUS+" By launching ERAMSUS +, the program for Education, Youth and Sport, the European Union has set a further educational milestone in its long-term success story, which began in 1976 with the implementation of the first European program for education. From 2007 to 2013, it was the "Lifelong Learning Programme" (total budget around € 6.9 billion) which provided a significant impetus in all areas of education. The experience gained in this "predecessor program" provided the background for the submission of the project TOI TOI TOI. The project pursued two broad objectives. First, this was a meta-evaluation of completed transfer projects from the "Leonardo da Vinci" program (LdV/ToI) by means of quantitative and qualitative research methods with regard to their impact and sustainability. In a second step, the results of these scientific studies were used to create online-based evaluation tools for future actors in European education projects. The TOII TOI TOI project therefore used the current transition between two action programs to develop these tools to proactively increase the impact of EU projects in educational projects. These comprehensive and complex activities required an interdisciplinary team of specialists from several sectors. The overall coordination was done by the Danube University Krems´ Department for Continuing Educational Research and Educational Management (DUK), which is a leader in the field of impact analysis across Europe. Further development partners were the Research Institute for Vocational Education (FBB) from Germany and the Goce Delčev University (GDU) Štip in Macedonia. Széchenyi István University (SZE) from Gyor took over the development and programming of the tools. These all are research facilities that have a great experience in the field of educational research and the conduction of evaluations. Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação (SPI) from Porto took over the dissemination of the project results and the development of all dissemination materials. Due to the clear orientation of the project in the fields of impact and sustainability, Brainplus (BRA) from austria acted as a special QM partner. The development of the two TOI TOI TOI evaluation tools based on two comprehensive scientific analysis steps. First, network- and cluster analysis of Leonardo da Vinci transfer projects completed in the partner countries of Austria, Germany and Hungary was carried out. Because of their professional orientation and interdisciplinary consortia, these projects formed an ideal experimental group. The comprehensive cluster analysis formed the sampling for the subsequent semi-structured interviews with former coordinators and other decision-makers in EU education projects. The combination of both analysis steps could lead to the development of the two evaluation tools, which were extensively tested finally. These developed evaluation tools are freely available and will assist future stakeholders in EU education projects during the project start-up phase to set up their consortia so that they work as effective as possible. The first tool allows a free self-evaluation for organisations in terms of their possibilities ensuring a maximum impact of project results. The second tool works on the entire consortium level and provides coordinators with information on the strengths and weaknesses of the project team. Thus, consortia of EU education projects can still be designed in the planning phase in such a way that they achieve a maximum effect on the defined target groups on several levels. The TOI TOI TOI project has also pursued a carefully planned and implemented dissemination and impact strategy and the consortium has been able to reach more than 11,000 (!) people across different channels in the past two years. In the meantime, there have been more than 1,000 accesses to the evaluation tools and many activities on a national level ensure their long-term use. The tools are even part of university seminars. TOI TOI TOI is an ideal tool for proactively designing projects as proactively and sustainably as possible. It uses past insights for the future.