In response to the negative Covid-19 impacts, it is urgent to support digital transformation plans at all levels of educational online activities and support new inclusive digital pedagogical methods and skills for a resilient free adoption of digital tools for teachers (digital integrated learning, advanced multimedia, but also interactive 3D, VR, holographic tools, etc.) and really effective use for students, including participants with fewer opportunities: physically impaired (deaf, blind, paralytic), cognitive impaired and low-income students. This to create the condition of a more EU integrated strategy to prepare a proposal for a Council Recommendation on the enabling factors for successful digital education by 2022 and following the OECD and UN recommendations, the EU Future Government 2030+, the EU’s strategy for e-Skills in the 21st Century and several EU Directives, which imply a real digital revolution in educational processes and learning skills. So digital technologies have made this transition possible: surely, there had been a number of e-learning platforms for some years now, but their role has only in the last months gained massive relevance concurrently with the pandemic global situation. Only a few EU Universities are already ready for good quality distance learning, with tools for course management, including live sessions, interactive teaching and collaborative activities. The most of EU Universities had to cope with the emergency situation that called for a quick organizational and cultural rearrangement and a change of strategies, that perhaps represented the most difficult step for teachers and students. Digital technologies are becoming very relevant at the EU level for teachers and students. However, the current limitations on the movement of people and teaching hours may restrict this type of delivering. For this reason, EDU-GATE project will provide a detailed European multi-sectoral analysis indicating the comparison of current situation of teaching digitalization (As-Is and To-Be analysis), together a transversal needs' analysis. These in-depth multi-countries researches will be carried out for the determination of innovative approaches and concrete supporting tools for post-graduated and master learning needs for educational institutions. A detailed analysis of digital educational requirements will be also produced, providing cutting-edge tools to foster innovation and value creation in educational activities and academic communities building. After the already done preliminary academic Partners needs' analyses, a common study will be carried out for determination of new requirements, determining new key and transversal competences, reflecting them to concrete and open resilient educational programs, and sharing at European level effective tools in an integrated platform infrastructure. Four intellectual outputs will be delivered: O1) Impact and diffusion of digital education in Higher Education Institutions: a research on innovative solutions, methods, skills and best practices to enhance the EU Digital Education Action Plan; O2) Online training curriculum to identify a learning contents, experiential knowledge and skills assessment tools: methodology of development and delivering; O3) Integrated online platform for digital integrated learning, multi-level cooperation and resources sharing; O4) Learning contents, classroom guidelines and skills assessment tools. Also an innovative curriculum, including the most advanced educational design and delivering techniques, will be created for the development of teachers' skills and a certificate of attendance will be released to participants. This also thanks an advanced e-learning platform, integrated in EDU-GATE website, that will be designed by the 7 involved expert organizations (LUISS Guido Carli University, University of Macedonia, Burgas Free University, Rigas Tehniska Universitate, European Center for Quality, Symplexis and Linfa Digital). Almost 12 innovative multimedia e-modules will be prepared, permitting effective learning activities and the sharing of best practices. It will gain the necessary knowledge to give the possibility to teachers and students to increase their competences and give more opportunities, inclusion and effectiveness, by the digitalization of learning flows, innovative learning tools and new procedural applications in educational institutions. Specific events with institutions, educational associations, public and private teaching organizations will be held for this purpose. Concretely the participants from each country will attend the multimedia online EDU-GATE modules and then they will have the chance to verify their digital learning skills and knowledge by the available e-tests. The project activities will be always shared with local target groups and stakeholders in each country. All the intellectual outputs will be translated into the languages of the Partners' countries (EN, IT, BG, GR, LV).
The activities were related to the creation of a common document with the identification of new needs in each partner country related to the actual situation of online education towards new perspectives for an effective distance learning, especially in Universities. It is available online and includes: a state of the art on digital education in Europe by national desk researches to assess the current state of the art in digital education, with a specific focus on higher education institutions. This activity was conducted also via the analysis of statistics about each country, the national regulatory and legal framework and the existing relevant case studies on digital educational programmes and the identification of target groups at national level.
In response to the negative Covid-19 pandemic, it was urgent to support digitally Universities in all educational activities transferring them new inclusive digital pedagogical methods and skills for a resilient free adoption of digital tools for teachers (digital integrated learning, advanced multimedia, but also interactive 3D, VR) and really effective use for students, including participants with fewer opportunities. So digital technologies can make this transition possible with the pandemic global situation. Only a few EU Universities were ready for effective distance learning, with tools for course management, including live sessions, interactive teaching and collaboration. Most Universities had to cope with the emergency situation that called for a quick organizational and cultural rearrangement and a change of strategies, which perhaps represented the most difficult step for teachers. It was needed to give the possibility to teachers and staff to increase their online competences and give more opportunities by the digitalization of learning flows, innovative tools and new procedural administrative applications. All the intellectual outputs are available into the languages of the Partners' countries (EN, IT, BG, GR, LV).