The project titled „Knowledge without barriers – innovative methods of teaching the adults” has been jointly developed by the following institutions: The University of Dąbrowa Górnicza, Polish Cultural and Educational Association in the Czech Republic, Polish Union of Latvia “Department of Compatriots” and Association of Polish Scientists in Latvia. The project is a part of the following priority: "Expanding and competence development of educators", "Development and implementation of effective offer for the improvement of basic skills and key competencies" and "Better understanding of the essential core and cross competencies at a high level in the perspective of lifelong learning". It has a direct relation with intercultural and intergenerational education issues, lifelong learning, innovational research and quality assurance in education. The goal of the project is the partners’ cooperative development of the innovative methodology of teaching the adults who are supported by non-government organizations representing the national minorities. The organization that coordinates the project is the Univeristy of Dąbrowa Górnicza that possesses years of experience in the scope of the adults education. The University also has significant achievements in the scope of the lifelong learning. Moreover, the University is the precursor of the professional e-learning system that is successfully applied in the adults’ education. Due to the fact that all partners speak Polish fluently, the project will be run in the Polish language. In the scope of the project activities, the cycle of the international meetings involving representatives of all partners will take place. The first meeting will be hold in Poland where the partners will get to know the adults’ non-formal educational system as well as the e-learning platform applied at the University. During the next meetings that will take place in The Czech Republic, Lithuania and Latvia, the platform and e-learning courses will be consulted and created. During the project 3 international project teams will be created. Each team will consist of two representatives of the partner organization (a young adult and asenior) and scientist - a mentor (a representative of the University). These teams will be working together on creation of the platform functionalities and main scope of courses. This will be the intergenerational, international and intersectoral cooperation. The results of theirs work will be consulted during the 3 international meetings. Final project activity will be an international scientific conference. The conference will be organized in Poland to disseminate project results. The visitors of the conference will be the representatives of all partnering institutions. During this conference, a series of lectures will be delivered, preparatory e-learning course developed during the project will be presented as well as the network of organizations that provide support to education of old people will be created. In the next months it is planned to extend the network of another partner organizations of this type. Other project results: tree courses for e-learning plaform, E-Manual (e - vademecum) for users of e-learning courses, E - Manual (e - methodology) for developers of e-learning courses.
Project „Knowledge without Borders – Inovative Methods of Teaching Adults” took place between 1 December 2016 and 30 November 2018. It was funded by EU Commission under programme Erasmus+ Action 2: Strategic Partnership, project number 2016-1-PL01-KA204-026669. Project has been carried out by four partners: 1. WSB University (before 15 April 2018 known as The University of Dąbrowa Górnicza) 2. Polish Cultural and Educational Union in Czech Republic, 3. Polish Cultural and Educational Union “Rodacy” in Lativia, 4. Polish and Lithuanian Scientists Society in Lithuania. The theme of the project concerned transcultural and transgenerational long-life learning as well as elements of research and innovation for improvement of education quality. The project was coordinated by WSB University which has a well-grounded experience in education of adults and significant achievements in recurrent education. The university has been using professional e-learning systems in academic and non-formal education for years. The rest of the partners have experience in non-formal education that they wanted to further develop in the project as well as digital competence and network cooperation. Project was run by three international teams, which were composed of representatives of partner organisations (i. e. young person and senior) and worked under the supervision of mentors – academic staff from WSB University – in a system of transgenerational, international and trans sector cooperation. The partners used communicative-level Polish which allowed them to conduct their ideas freely. During the on-line consultations and four international project meetings the participants of the project got to know non-formal education system of adults, building of a e-learning platform and had a chance to consult the ideas of creating their own, pilot e-learning courses. The outcome of 2 years of carrying out the project was the achievement of the following intellectual results: 1. The creation of free-of-charge and widely available e-learning platform used in non-formal education of adults www.wiedzabezbarier.eu, that allows for educators and adults to create their own courses (innovative aspect), 2. The creation and placement on the e-learning platform of three pilot Polish language courses positioned on different levels of advancement and adapted to needs of the recipients of at least three different partner countries: Lithuania, Latvia and the Czech Republic allowing beginner level learning of Polish, in addition to simplifying education in the field of language culture, which is useful for Polish people from different countries as well as for foreign people. 3. The creation and placement on the e-learning platform of two pilot courses: “Entrepreneurship 101” and ITC courses. 4. The creation and placement on the e-learning platform of two e-handbooks: for users of the e-learning platform and for creators of courses for the e-learning platform, 5. The creation of innovative methodology of non-formal education in e-learning system in a scientific-social partner mode of transgenerational, international and trans sector character (i. e. presuppositions and boundary conditions of implementation, procedures, technical requirements and requirements in the field of ITC competences of users, patterns of behaviour, recommendations and good practices etc.) The priorities established in the application form have been completed: - The educators of adults (members of project teams) have broaden and developed ITC competences and skills required to use modern e-learning platform dedicated to non-formal education, - an effective offer for improvement of basic skills and other key competences has been developed and implemented thanks to non-formal education in a form of e-learning for all potential users interested in such a form of education, no matter where they live (the ability to receive access to the implemented e-learning platform), - better basic and high-level basic skills were mastered in the perspective of lifelong learning, expanding the network of cooperation between organizations and institutions using the emerging innovative e-learning system in the field of non-formal education outside the project Partnership, i.e. in organizations and institutions from partner countries. - At the end of the project, an international conference disseminating the results of intellectual work was organized in Poland. Representatives of all the partners of the project took part in it. During the conference, courses placed on the e-learning platform were presented. The conference was also a chance for representatives of networks of organizations active in the field of adult education in Poland and partner countries to meet.