Higher education globally is facing many challenges as it is being reshaped by the digital evolution. Learning Management Systems (LMSs) are software applications for administration, documentation, reporting and delivery of educational courses or training programs. LMSs focus on online learning delivery but support a range of uses such as delivery of materials to students, administration of tests and other assignments, track of student progress, management and record-keeping etc. Providing an accessible e-learning system for students with disabilities will encourage them to continue their education and will allow them to acquire more skills and competencies. This leads toward more employment opportunities, active social inclusion and improvement of quality of life. In that context, the main objective of the project is to create a generic model of an accessible LMS for usage in humanistic and social sciences. Other objectives include: - Creation of a methodological framework for accessible LMSs and selection of appropriate LMS for HEI usage in the area of humanities and social sciences; - Construction and implementation of accessible software for managing complex databases for students with disability; - Creation of a mobile application for easy LMS access and - Creation and on-line delivery of a training e-module for LMS usage by students with disabilities. Academic, management and administrative staff from the project countries (five persons from each HEI, two participants from the European Training Center and two participants from the associate partner institution - the Ministry of Education and Science) will be included in the project activities, dissemination activities and will contribute to the sustainability of this innovative platform. Students with special needs, such as impaired vision, impaired hearing, specific learning difficulties (dyslexia, dyspraxia) and physical disabilities, from all participating universities will be included. Eight persons with special needs will participate and be fully engaged in the short-term training activities and the multiplier events. The project activities embody: - Four intellectual outputs (methodological framework for LMS creation; accessible LMS; mobile application for easy LMS access and joint e-module for the accessible LMS usage); - Three transnational meetings (introductory kick-off meeting; meeting for evaluation of project activities, budget and management control and meeting for final conclusions and further sustainability of the project results); - Two short-term joint staff trainings (first for obtaining skills for LMS construction and implementation and second for attaining skills and knowledge for creation and implementation of joint e-modules) and - Three multiplier events for result dissemination and sustainability (in each HEI respectively). FAST project methodology consists of four stages: 1. Conception and initiation (analysis and synthesis as methods of acquiring knowledge about the initial status of the institution); 2. Execution (installation, addition of special features, development of a mobile app, test courses-use of the platform for selected elective courses, transfer of knowledge and generalized skills-acquirement to the academic staff and the students; incorporation of LMS in at least one teaching course); 3. Performance and monitoring (increased implementation of LMS, continued performance and current monitoring of the work and summation of results); 4. Sustainable continuation. This project will result in obtaining a contemporary, functional e-learning and distance learning system that conforms to the highest educational standards; a system that will improve accessibility and teacher-student communication, and facilitate the providing of services to all students including students with disabilities. They will become more competitive in the labor market ensuring them a complete social and educational inclusion. In a long term this learning system will provide open access to all lecturers, lectures and teaching materials, places to exchange ideas with other students and enjoy good educational practices. As several parts of the system – e.g., the open lectures, the podcasts and the video materials – will be completely open to the public, secondary schools and pupils become indirect beneficiaries. The Ministry for Education and Science as an associate partner, as well the Ministry for Labor and Social policies, the Government and the business sector will also reap benefits, as the system will offer modern, open and accessible public education for everyone. The expected impact is related to a more positive attitude towards the European projects and the EU values, better understanding and recognition of skills and qualifications in Europe and beyond and better understanding of interconnections between formal, non-formal education, vocational training, other forms of learning and labor market respectively.
Learning Management Systems (LMSs) are software applications for administration, documentation, reporting and delivery of educational courses or training programs. LMSs focus on online learning delivery but support a range of uses such as delivery of materials to students, administration of tests and other assignments, track of student progress, management and record-keeping etc. With this project, we provided an accessible e-learning system (Moodle) for students with disabilities, encouraged them to continue their education and allowed them to acquire more skills and competencies. This will lead toward more employment opportunities, active social inclusion and improvement of quality of life. In that context, the main objective of the project was to create a generic model of an accessible LMS for use in humanistic and social sciences. Other objectives included: - Creation of a methodological framework for accessible LMSs and selection of appropriate LMS for HEI usage in the area of humanities and social sciences; - Construction and implementation of accessible software for managing complex databases for students with disability; - Creation of a mobile application for easy LMS access and - Creation and on-line delivery of a training e-module for LMS usage by students with disabilities. Academic, management and administrative staff from the project countries (five persons from each HEI, two participants from the European Training Center and two participants from the associate partner institution - the Ministry of Education and Science) were included in the project activities, dissemination activities and are contributing to the sustainability of this innovative platform. Students with special needs, such as impaired vision, impaired hearing, specific learning difficulties (dyslexia, dyspraxia) and physical disabilities, from all participating universities were fully included. Eight persons with special needs participated were fully engaged in the short-term training activities. More than twenty students with disabilities participated in the multiplier events. The project activities embodied: - Four intellectual outputs (methodological framework for LMS creation; accessible LMS; mobile application for easy LMS access and joint e-module for the accessible LMS usage); - Three transnational meetings (introductory kick-off meeting; meeting for evaluation of project activities which was held online due to the COVID-10 pandemic, budget and management control and meeting for final conclusions and further sustainability of the project results); - Two short-term joint staff trainings (first for obtaining skills for LMS construction and implementation and second online LTTA for attaining skills and knowledge for creation and implementation of joint e-modules) and - Three multiplier events for result dissemination and sustainability (in each HEI respectively), all held with physical presence. The FAST project methodology, as envisioned in the project application, consisted of four stages: 1. Conception and initiation (analysis and synthesis as methods of acquiring knowledge about the initial status of the institution); 2. Execution (installation, addition of special features, development of a mobile app, test courses-use of the platform for selected elective courses, transfer of knowledge and generalized skills-acquirement to the academic staff and the students; incorporation of LMS in more than 10 teaching courses on all HEIs); 3. Performance and monitoring (increased implementation of LMS (Moodle use for more than 40 courses), continued performance, monitoring of the work and summation of results); 4. Sustainable continuation. This project, as predicted, resulted in obtaining a contemporary, functional e-learning and distance learning system that conforms to the highest educational standards; a system that improved accessibility and teacher-student communication, and facilitated provision of services to all students including students with disabilities. In a long term this learning system will provide open access to all lecturers, lectures and teaching materials, places to exchange ideas with other students and enjoy good educational practices. This was planned before the COVID-19 pandemic, but with this project we managed to digitalize all university activities, transfer all lectures online, and not exclude students with disabilities in the process. Several parts of the system – e.g., the open lectures, the podcasts and the video materials – were completely open to the public, secondary schools and pupils became indirect beneficiaries. The Ministry for Education and Science as an associate partner, as well the Ministry for Labor and Social policies, the Government and the business sector also reap benefits, as the system offers modern, open and accessible public education for everyone. This software (plug-ins for accessibility) can be used by any school, business company, governmental or non-governmental organization etc, worldwide. The expected impact is related to a more positive attitude towards the European projects and the EU values, better understanding and recognition of skills and qualifications in Europe and beyond and better understanding of interconnections between formal, non-formal education, vocational training, other forms of learning and labor market respectively.