The emergency transition to online learning in the wake of Covid-19 was a phenomenon that forced Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to switch to remote teaching overnight. For one side, the Covid-19 educational emergency brought many opportunities for online learning, but at the same time highlighted many of the problems that already existed. Transitioning to online learning, especially when university curricula are planned for face-to-face (F2F) teaching and learning, requires careful planning and [re]design processes. In the spring semester, we experienced a first phase called Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) a term coined to describe the lack of planning, design, and student-centred approaches. However, it is worth noting that this situation has created opportunities for the adoption of digital pedagogy and the development of digital literacy: an absolute majority of academic faculty has already experimented with ERT. Nevertheless, in order to implement online learning, the academic faculty needs constant support and professional development opportunities to facilitate the transition from ERT to online learning. The main objective of the project is to support the transition from Emergency Remote Teaching to Digital Education through evidence-based, open and innovative practices of teaching and learning. Its ultimate goal is to improve the quality of education, regardless of the existing differences in the educational systems of European countries, thus providing equal opportunities for personal development for all European citizens. Approaches inspired by the neurosciences and cognitive sciences (e.g. cognitive load theory) bring a much-needed evidence base to educational practise, but there is growing evidence that educators do not have sufficient knowledge of cognitive processes to apply this knowledge to learning designs. Nonetheless, evidence-based approaches can provide tools and good practice to help instructors face the new reality that has emerged with ERT: while in the past, teaching was largely synchronous, the transition to distance learning brings new challenges for both students and instructors. ERT brings with it an increased cognitive load - zoom fatigue is real and digital pedagogy must take account of this cognitive load, attention span, and metacognitive skills. This project proposes a holistic approach, using existing tools, practices and resources, and building new ones based on a needs-based approach, to help universities make the transition from ERT to carefully planned and implemented online learning, thus contributing to their digital readiness. In addition, open practises, supported by connectivist approaches and open educational resources (OERs), will ensure that the project achieves its immediate and long-term objectives and beneficiaries. The project will achieve its objectives through the research and development of a Framework for faculty development. To reach the main objective, the project (a) provides educators with solid scientific knowledge on the functioning of learning and memory, including the required theoretical framework to understand why this knowledge is instrumental to provide quality learning; knowledge on the innovative, digital pedagogies contextualised in specific authentic use cases; digital competencies through tutorials (b) with a community of practice approach helping lecturers and educators to apply such scientific knowledge to enhance their current teaching strategies (c) specific tools and platforms to support open educational practices. This is implemented through the main activities of each IO, consisting of research (IO1), innovative faculty development activities implemented through MOOCs and a specific training framework (IO2). The project provides a toolbox with integrated tutorials to increase the from one hand, digital competences and on the other, expertise in digital pedagogies in the academic faculty (IO3), collaborative curriculum and learning design (IO4). The Framework is implemented through a MOOC and specific tools that will be available in different European languages under CC license (IO5). All these activities lead to very tangible results and artefacts that will be scaled up to have an impact at the European level to enable evidence-based educational practices.
The main objective of the project was to support the transition from Emergency Remote Teaching to Digital Education through evidence-based, open, and innovative practices of teaching and learning. Its ultimate goal was to improve the quality of education, regardless of the existing differences in the educational systems of European countries, thus providing equal opportunities for personal development for all European citizens. Approaches inspired by the neurosciences and cognitive sciences (e.g. cognitive load theory) brought a much-needed evidence base to educational practice, but there was growing evidence that educators did not have sufficient knowledge of cognitive processes to apply this knowledge to learning designs. Nonetheless, evidence-based approaches could provide tools and good practice to help instructors face the new reality that had emerged with ERT: while in the past, teaching was largely synchronous, the transition to distance learning brought new challenges for both students and instructors. ERT brought with it an increased cognitive load - zoom fatigue was real, and digital pedagogy had to take account of this cognitive load, attention span, and metacognitive skills. The project proposed a holistic approach, using existing tools, practices, and resources, and building new ones based on a needs-based approach, to help universities make the transition from ERT to carefully planned and implemented online learning, thus contributing to their digital readiness. In addition, open practices, supported by connectivist approaches and open educational resources (OERs), ensured that the project achieved its immediate and long-term objectives and beneficiaries.
The emergency shift to online learning prompted by Covid-19 persisted as a situation that compelled Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with limited online teaching experience to hastily implement emergency measures and abruptly alter their teaching methods. The educational emergency caused by Covid-19 presented numerous opportunities for online learning, yet simultaneously underscored existing structural deficiencies and knowledge gaps. The move to online learning, especially when university curricula were initially designed for face-to-face (F2F) teaching and learning, demanded meticulous planning and [re]design. In the spring semester, there was an initial phase termed Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) (Hodges et al., 2020), which described the absence of planning, design, and student-centered approaches. This phase also brought to light the lack of readiness across the HE sector concerning staff digital literacies and knowledge of digital pedagogies. In essence, the majority of academics lacked mature skills in digital pedagogy (Bozkurt et al., 2020). Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that this situation presented opportunities for adopting digital pedagogies and cultivating digital literacies; the majority of academic faculty had already experimented with ERT. However, for the effective implementation of online learning, academic faculty required support and professional development opportunities to facilitate the transition from ERT to the best practices for online learning. The project aimed to connect existing Covid-19 educational emergency use of remote teaching to actual digital education by reinforcing appropriate use of it beyond covid-19, initiate the dialogue with different stakeholders involved and create faculty development conceptual and technological tools, framework and specific MOOCs in different languages based on research and experience from Covid-19 related lock-down pedagogies.