Teaching is a multifaceted activity demanding a wide range of knowledge as well as hard and soft skills. The current pandemic situation has made plain that academics more than ever need to possess not only technology skills but also the desire to adapt lectures to technologies and design thinking to proceed. Moreover, numerous studies have revealed that students achieve more when they have role models to look up to, the people who motivate, inspire and guide them accordingly. It becomes especially important in times of uncertainty. There is a significant amount of academics, and especially senior academics, who lack skills for design thinking, do not use innovative methods, and still prefer traditional methods in distant learning. Thus, there is a need in the practical course "Overcoming Technophobia" which would introduce with the best examples of good practice in remote lecturing and provide practical tools on how to do it. The project "Leading Universities - Catalysts for Change (CATCHANGE)" aims to develop a set of three interrelated courses for academics, and they are 1) "Academic Leadership"; 2) "Design Thinking Skills"; 3) "Overcoming Technophobia". Therefore, the project will provide a possibility for academics to rectify deficiencies, acquire new skills and develop key competences. In total, during the project there will be trained 45 academics (15 academics per country). The acquired skills will turn academic staff into new leaders, so they could become role models for their students and teach the skills to students too. Eliminating the existing gaps, the 3 developed Intellectual results will lead to effective improvement and overall boost of higher education quality.
During the project we improved skills for academics for using innovative teaching and learning methods and approaches. By creating courses "Academic leadership" and "Design thinking skills" we gave possibility to academics gain the most important skills in their daily work. Design thinking is an approach used for practical and creative problem-solving. As in nowadays HEI's need student - centred teaching, design thinking is extremely user-centric. Academics have innovative teaching methods and other tools for improving lectures but they must have: 1) the ability to take the initiative to change the way of teaching; 2) have design thinking skills on how to do this. Therefore the project gave possibility for academics for tackling skills and mismatches. The project also supports individuals in acquiring and developing basic skills and key competences: 1) first of all these skills have academics; 2) second the academics are created as new leaders and therefore they as being example will teach these skills also for students; 3) thirdly we reduced technophobia, by providing useful guidelines on how to reduce technophobia and tested them.
Many scholarly articles have highlighted the academic's necessary skills in the teaching process, for instance that teaching is a multifaceted performance, demanding a wide range of knowledge and skills containing hard and soft skills to successfully accomplish the burdens of the classroom. Teaching is a social activity that comprises communal collaboration between lecturer and students. Teaching style can be considered as the sum of behaviors. As a result, the talent of teaching does not only comprise a modest transmission of knowledge from lecturer to students. In its place, it is a multifaceted procedure that eases and affects the process of student learning. Soft skills are relational and social skills are a necessity for lecturers who toil in a high-performance setting, ultimately promoting efficiency. During this project academics first of all learned the most important skill - leadership skill, also they should be as true leaders with design thinking skills - the persons, in which company students would like spend their time. The influencers which raise student's natural motivation to gain new knowledge in specific subject and to be excellent in this. Besides that we reduced technophobia for academics.