CONTEXT The pandemic is accelerating digital transformation in education and work. The physical distancing imposed around the globe, is forcing education organizations around Europe to consider remaining fully online for months. Within a week, after general lockdown, universities and primary and secondary schools were asked to transform to virtual schools. A recent UNESCO (2020) report estimates that over 1.5 Billion students and youth had to stay away from schools and universities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although EU countries have been pushing ICT in schools and including the digital competence on the European but also national competence frameworks, this is the first time that almost ALL schools in Europe are asked to move so fast and adopt distance learning methods and tools. Understanding the complexities of online learning and designing effective online courses, is not an easy task. However, schools across Europe were asked overnight to become virtual schools, without all the pieces in place. This project brings together a consortium which consists of 6 partners, from 5 European countries which cover a wide range of expertise related to the aims of the project, as well they have a Pan-European outreach in their activities. The consortium ensures both a balanced geographical representation of EU countries as well as representation from different types of organizations. The complementary nature of the partnership is evident, since there is a good balance of Ministries, eLearning centres, Schools, SMEs, and NGOs. OBJECTIVES - Develop school leaders and teachers’ capacities to design and deliver online education. - Develop a practical toolkit aligned with the DigCompEdu, with practical, step-by-step guides on how to design and deploy virtual schooling. - Adapt and use the SELFIE and TET-SAT tools to be tailored for Virtual Schooling. - Develop the digital skills of teachers and learners. TARGET GROUPS The project builds on the existing knowledge developed by partners and aims at supporting schools, teachers and leadership teams to design and deploy Virtual Schooling and online courses. The primary target groups for this project include: - Teachers and School Leadership Teams - Learning designers, educational technologists and support staff - Students and their parents (indirectly) INTELLECTUAL OUTPUTS - IO1 Virtual Schooling Toolkit for School leadership teams and teachers - IO2 Training course for teachers and school leaders on Virtual Schooling - IO3 Training course for students on how to be effective online learners. - IO4 eLearning platform with OERs on Virtual Schooling The expected results of the project are: - Improved capacity of schools and education systems to design and deploy virtual schooling - Improved competencies for school leadership teams, teachers and school staff to design and implement virtual schools. - Improve the capacity of schools and education systems to engage in online education. - Improve the understanding of parents on the factors influencing successful online learning and their role - Improved learners’ capacity to learn online
The project's goals is to adapt secondary school education to the digital transformation and also to respond to the Corona situation. To this end, the aim was to develop and consolidate the skills of school administrators and teachers in the design and implementation of online education. Likewise, students should also be prepared for digital educational offerings and their appropriate use.
The project was requested due to the lock-downs forced by Corona, which also affected the schools. Teachers, also in other educational institutions, were assigned to conduct digital lessons without preparation. The need to advance the digital readiness of teachers and school administrators was accelerated by the pandemic. The project and its outputs and activities were designed to help teachers, etc. understand the complexities of online learning, including how to design effective online courses. The international project team also aimed to collect innovative approaches that could be added to the national approaches. The goals of the EUVHS project were to develop the skills of school leaders and teachers to design and deliver online education, to develop a practical toolkit aligned with DigCompEdu that includes practical step-by-step instructions for designing and deploying virtual school education, to adapt and use the SELFIE and TET-SAT tools for virtual teaching, and to develop the digital skills of teachers and learners.