The crisis generated by the COVID 19 pandemic has forced European universities to move their teaching activities to the online environment. Although most Higher Education Institutions have implemented E-Learning platforms years ago, the teaching staff are now experiencing difficulties in using these platforms and in creating and adapting the course content, needed to quickly adapt to a fast evolving and complex situation. DIGITOOLS is a project aimed at introducing enhanced digital tools and methods to help university staff deliver quality education through online means. The DIGITOOLS project will develop five Intellectual Outputs which will support the teaching staff from Higher Education Institutions to acquire the skills and competencies needed to create and deliver high quality online courses, including blended teaching. The role of university libraries will be crucial in this project, as they will have to adapt their services and provide digital learning materials as well as information and digital skills training, both to teaching staff and students. As a result of the DIGITOOLS project, the universities will be able to provide, through teaching staff and libraries, high quality online training courses, with a focus on subject – specific teaching. The project brings together seven Higher Education Institutions and one consulting SME, specialized in digitization, from seven countries and will focus on the implementation of online and blended teaching, encouraging, at every step, the unitary practice.
The main project activities, that is the Intellectual Outputs, Joint Staff Training Events and Multiplier Events were focused on enhancing the professional development of teaching and support staff, in the field of digital education. The project was focused on primarily disseminating and sharing know-how and knowledge in the area of digital education, and the training of trainers as a strong point for the multiplication of learning outcomes and the realization of a common DIGITOOLS curriculum as the basis of the sustainability of the project and the acquisition of knowledge with a European dimension. The project also wanted to ensure wide reaching impact, uptake, and use of project deliverables among identified audiences and stakeholders. Therefore, training activities and materials were extensively disseminated and promoted within the network of universities and particularly via the Multiplier Events held during this project. Through the implementation of the key project activities, DIGITOOLS aimed to help university staff develop high quality online training courses and give them skills to create and deliver high quality digital content.
We applied for this project in order to address the crisis stemming from the Covid 19 pandemic which compelled European universities to move their teaching activities to the online environment. Although most HEI’s had implemented E-Learning platforms many years ago, given the sudden shift to online learning, caused by the pandemic, many teaching staff and librarians experienced difficulties using these platforms. Staff had to adjust quickly and learn how to create and deliver online courses. Through the implementation of five Intellectual Outputs (IO’s), the project addressed the need to identify the gap between skills acquired in higher education and the demands of the real labour market, identified and implemented best practices and designed methods for delivering high quality teaching courses, in digital environments. The project addressed the need to improve the current state of digital education in HEI’s, strengthened the cooperation between universities in the area of digital content creation and also introduced education in the field of digital content creation and copyright involving libraries and their professional development.