The COVID-19 outbreak has had a significant impact on higher education all over the world. Universities had to rapidly transform their study programmes to be delivered online to keep student retention and maintain access to learning. The adjustment however comes with significant challenges not only in relation to the technical aspects of handling several hundred online lectures simultaneously but also to the methodology of the teaching process and the teacher-student interaction. The technological development and wide availability of basic ICT tools make the shift to online education relatively easy. The real challenge of today however is to consciously choose available collaboration tools and engagement methods to arouse student interest and provoke a response for a more efficient and effective communication and learning experience while away from a traditional classroom. To face that challenge, the universities involved in the project – Lodz University of technology (Poland), University of Applied Sciences in Saarbrücken (Germany), University of Alcalá (Spain) and University of Aveiro (Portugal) – decided to join forces for the development, implementation and dissemination of innovative and comprehensive teaching and learning solutions, supported by advanced IT technologies and tools, to increase the level of student-teacher interaction during online education: 1. Methodology of Interactive Asynchronous and Synchronous Online STEM Education 2. Distance Teaching Toolbox for Educators 3. Teacher Training Courses 4. Smart Gamification Based On Multiple Intelligence Theory 5. Online Badges For Sustainable Education (21st Century Skills ) 6. Guidelines and Recommendations To further benefit the project participants, the consortium will offer a series of training opportunities for academic teachers tailored to their individual needs to increase their competences for effective online teaching arousing student interest and responsiveness. The students will get a chance to meet in several of the partner countries to conduct a gamification learning experience in the blended formula and to develop the 21st century skills sought by the labour market. The project is directed towards students and academics of the consortium universities and beyond ready to bring the ICT technology to the forefront when facing the challenges of online education.
The consortium sought to achieve the following objectives: - to elaborate solutions, methods and tools which would increase interaction between teachers and students, as well as between students themselves, during distance learning and reinforce student engagement and motivation throughout the whole semester/academic year; - to support teachers with inspirational synchronous and asynchronous tools and training materials; - to add a new perspective to teaching and learning through a combination of pedagogy, technology and psychology; - to offer new learning, teaching and training opportunities to students and teachers, with peer-to-peer cooperation on international level; - to provide new solutions and tools for online assessment of intangible skills. Achieving these goals should then contribute directly to enhanced potential of partner universities to provide high quality and inclusive digital education.
The project was initiated as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its substantial effect on how education is delivered. In particular, e-CLOSE addresses the issue of an inadequate interaction between participants of (a)synchronous distance learning, as well as unsatisfactory participation and responsiveness on the part of students. Although e-learning courses have been developed by HEIs for many years, the pandemic intensified this problem and called for a deeper in-depth analysis and proposal of solutions for teachers, students and the HEI system as such. The consortium considered the new reality as a test site and an opportunity to improve quality of online education. A needs analysis carried out by the partners revealed the following common issues: *difficulties in communicating with students effectively and engaging them in online learning (for many teachers and students, this was a new experience), *gaps in knowledge and skills of the academic teachers to provide remote teaching, *lack of methods and tools to effectively assess the learning outcomes acquired in the online mode, *lack of access to adequate equipment (or lack of knowledge how to use it) required to provide high-quality teaching, especially the STEM courses.