Context: - The COVID 19 pandemic and the emergency shift to on-line education, making lessons accessible on-line, without time for teachers and learners to adapt fully to the new learning environment. - The increased need for flexible learning paths for learners in all phases of their lives and for better digital competences for learning, teaching, research and life in general. Background: Six public universities in European cities from the extreme west (Lisbon) to the east (Novi Sad), south (Pisa), north (Hamburg, Tallinn), and centre (Salzburg) consolidate existing bonds of trust to address the challenges and opportunities of the COVID and post COVID phases, united by their desire to offer innovative, inclusive, interconnected opportunities to learners of all ages in an international context. Objectives: To build on the experience of the quick shift to virtual learning to improved digital learning experiences, in order to: - increase inclusion (relevance and attractiveness of digital upskilling) - innovate (learning/teaching approaches better-tailored to virtual formats) - create new forms of international virtual mobility. - make the experience of virtual mobility closer to that of physical mobility in terms of interactions with the other students and local environment, and to give more learners the benefit of an international experience. Number and profile of participants: Overall beneficiaries: - students (ca. 220,000, with new cohorts in arrival) - teaching and administrative staff (ca. 26000) - lifelong learners. Direct participants: - group of experts organise design, development and testing process for the modules and Guidelines; - teaching staff design, test, and teach the courses, and run the on-line and blended mobility activities; - learners, including learners facing difficulties for economic, physical or personal reasons, test and evaluate them; - students in physical, blended or virtual mobility contribute to the design and devleopment of the ‘environments’; - administrative staff test and give feedback on the modules, as well as assisting in the management of the project. Activities: IO1: develop, pilot, test, implement, perfect learning-teaching materials and formulate guidelines for short, flexible and progressive learning experiences to improve digital competences of students, academic and administrative staff, also offering reskilling and upskilling opportunities in a lifelong learning context; IO2: develop, pilot, test, implement and formulate guidelines for improved learning, teaching and assessment approaches suitable for the digital environment, engaging and serving both teachers and learners; IO3: develop, pilot, test, implement, perfect learning-teaching materials and formulate guidelines for creating an international digital learning environment, enriching and enhancing experiences inside and outside the digital classroom. Methodology: The progressive sets of modules, micro- and nano-, are developed using co-creation methods, following the Tuning methodology for designing competence-based learning outcomes and setting up assessment frameworks. Quality enhancement cycles of monitoring, evaluation and optimization are employed. Learners contribute actively in all phases of design, piloting, testing and improving. Results: - Progressive sets of course modules to develop digital competences (IO1) for learners and for teaching staff fully implemented in all partner universities, certificates with credits awarded for the achieved learning outcomes. - Progressive sets of course modules for learners and teachers (IO2) to develop the knowledge, skills and competences needed to exploit the potential of virtual learning: fully implemented, certificates with credits awarded for the achieved learning outcomes. - International virtual learning environments (IO3): Virtual and blended international learning environments are a permanent feature of the partner HEIs’ offer. They include modules that prepare for an international experience, permitting rich interaction with the host institution, city and country; include modules on European cultural competences accessible by learners of all kinds. - Guidelines for creating innovative and inclusive international learning environments in virtual, blended or technologically enhanced learning contexts are publicly available and widely distributed. Impact: The modules developed and Guidelines are available for wider use and suitable for all institutions enhancing their digital and international provision. The Partnership has integrated its activities in key spheres, developed synergies and prepared for closer collaboration Long-term potential: The Project has contributed to developing the European guidelines on micro and nano-credentials; Other universities are facilitated in adopting online learning as part of their common practices, even when the pandemic will be, as we hope, over.
We aimed to build on the experience of the quick shift from in-presence learning to virtual learning during the pandemic for improving digital learning experiences. In particular, we wanted to: - develop modules for increasing the digital competences and skills of everyone, regardless of her\his background and age, to allow him\her to completely exploit the potentialities of the virtual learning environments - increase inclusion by boosting relevance and attractiveness of digital upskilling - innovate by providing learning/teaching approaches better-tailored to virtual formats - develop approaches for carrying out practical activities and laboratories in virtual environments - create new forms of international virtual mobility - make the experience of virtual mobility closer to that of physical mobility in terms of interactions with the other students and local environment, and to give more learners the benefit of an international experience.
The pandemic and the emergency shift to on-line education, without time for teachers and learners to adapt to the new learning environment, made evident the increased need for flexible learning paths for learners in all phases of their lives and for better digital competences for learning, teaching, research and life in general. The partners experimented these difficulties and decided together to address the challenges and opportunities of the COVID and post COVID phases, united by their desire to offer innovative, inclusive, interconnected opportunities to learners of all ages in an international context. They addressed together the following needs emerged from internal surveys on the response to the pandemic: - to train teachers on how to facilitate learners effectively in an on-line environment - to train students on how to utilize, also for practical activities, new learning modes in a virtual classroom environment, with social interactions necessary for their intellectual and social growth - to increase digital skills of learners, teachers, and administrative staff - to exploit virtual environments for making the virtual mobility closer to the physical mobility and giving the possibility to experience mobility to everyone.