The European Commission’s latest Higher Education Modernisation Agenda highlights the transformative role of universities in the society. Precisely, rather than being actors of only economic impact, HEIs need to strengthen their ‘civic’ responsibilities. Despite the argued relevance for more social engagement, respective societal engagement mechanisms have not been well developed in the HEIs. Indeed, latest numbers show that universities still have relatively more technology transfer offices than civic engagement offices. Consequently, we still witness a focus on universities’ business engagement compared to e.g. community building or collaborations with NGOs, ultimately hampering the social impact of HEIs’ activities. Simultaneously, the ongoing pandemic of Covid-19 amplifies the need for HEI’s societal engagement. The current times of uncertainty and destabilisation form the background against which societal engagement is most needed. Indeed, HEIs can be a fruitful source for supporting societal recovery by transferring leading edge insights to the society. This science-to-society transfer is of severe importance, given the fact that Covid-19 has brought about societal challenges (e.g., how to let elderly citizens participate in a socially distant society) that we need to solve to ensure prosperity of our economies and societies. The unpredictable context of Covid-19 creates new opportunities of digital community engagement, which can be embedded in HEI’s teaching and learning activities. However, these opportunities are not straightforward to implement and thus present substantial challenges for HEIs, ultimately limiting the likelihood of implementation. In particular, creating societal impact through digital teaching formats comes with the following core challenges: • LACK OF ‘EASY TO IMPLEMENT’ DIGITAL TEACHING FORMATS. In the early phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, activities of HE lecturers had to quickly shift towards ‘mainly digital’ to comply with the emerging social distancing paradigm. While most of the HE lecturers succeeded in quickly (sometimes even rough-and-ready) transforming into digital teaching, the focus was predominately on the ‘core’ content. In other words, pursuing the ‘third mission’ of the HEI (i.e., creating societal impact) is currently lagging behind due to the absence of digital formats, which can be easily implemented by HE lecturers. • ABSENCE OF HE LECTURERS’ SKILLS TO CREATE SOCIETAL IMPACT VIA DIGITAL TEACHING FORMATS. HE lecturers engaged in teaching currently lack an adequate skill set to design and conduct teaching formats, which go beyond the ‘core’ content of the curriculum. Whereas technological tools have grown in numbers, HE lecturers frequently rely on mainstream tools and methods, thereby neglecting hitherto niche (frugal) solutions. This focus on a few mainstream solutions ultimately hampers the social impact of digital teaching formats. • NO ‘ONE SIZE FITS ALL’-TEACHING FORMAT FOR GENERATING SOCIAL IMPACT. Previous research has emphasized the complexity of social challenges. Subsequently, to tackle these challenges, HE lecturers are confronted with the need to design teaching formats, which can be adapted to the specific challenge, ultimately overcoming the “one size fits all”-paradox. The focal project tackles these challenges by integrating (a.) expertise of science-to-society transfer tools (i.e., tools and instruments to overcome transfer barriers in science/society projects and thus to successfully connect science and society) for tailor-fit approaches to create societal impact, and (b.) expertise of how to enable HE lecturers in digital teaching formats. Consequently, this project will develop a Digital Configurator, which allows creating social impact through customized digital teaching formats. In fact, the digital configurator will give birth to customized digital social impact generation (DSIG) courses. Through considering the particularities of the social challenges as well as the current digital skill set of the HE lecturer, the Digital configurator suggests custom-fit digital teaching formats, ultimately equipping HE lecturers to foster their role as being socially engaged. Beyond this, the configured DSIG courses enable students to get involved in an actual societal challenge, which is beyond online lectures, thereby fostering students’ entrepreneurial and social thinking and acting. Moreover, the project applies an iterative development process, thereby continuously incorporating feedback from all target groups to ensure high relevance of the Digital Configurator. Lastly, a ‘training for scaling workshop concept’ will ensure capacity building for HE lecturers from beyond the project partner consortium. Thereby, continuation and application of the developed project resources is ensured ¬ beyond the end of the project and across European HEIs.
Our Erasmus+ project aimed to achieve the following objectives: 1) We sought to increase awareness and knowledge of successful digital teaching formats for social impact through a Best Practice Audit (IO1). 2) We wanted to enable lecturers to increase their social impact through a digital social impact course toolkit, a user-friendly configurator (IO2). 3) We aimed to achieve scalability of the configurator. Therefore, we conducted iterative pilot tests with social partners to refine it (IO3). 4) Our project also focused on developing the skills of both educators and students in adopting societal challenge-based digital teaching formats. We aimed to disseminate the acquired knowledge to the wider public (IO4) and increase our institution's reach in society. 5) Moreover, we aimed to create new ways for organizations to leverage digital technologies for social impact, improve the educational system, and strengthen the involvement of HEIs in broader societal issues. 6) We aimed to empower educators and improve educational outcomes through a people-centered approach and by providing examples and bridging the digital divide, thereby also increasing the social outreach of our organizations.
We applied for the Erasmus+ project to address crucial needs in higher education institutions (HEIs) and contribute to positive social development. The European Commission's agenda highlighted the importance of societal engagement, yet mechanisms for civic involvement were underdeveloped. The pandemic emphasized HEIs' role in societal recovery, while the shift to online teaching posed challenges for disciplines relying on face-to-face interaction. There was a digital literacy gap among HEI educators, hindering social impact. Our project aimed to provide easy-to-implement digital teaching formats, bridging this gap and fostering adaptable approaches. We aimed to provide knowledge of barriers and drivers of social impact teaching, offering user-friendly digital tools and strengthening the connection between science and society. Ultimately, our goal was to improve online teaching performance, support the transition to hybrid environments, and bridge the digital divide among HEI educators. By addressing these needs, we aimed to transform higher education, enhance social impact, and strengthen HEIs' engagement with society.