The ACADIGIA project is a 24months initiative fostering synergies in 6 countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Romania and Ireland) aiming to accelerate the digital readiness of Polytechnic higher education institutions towards the sustainable adoption of more online and blended approaches in education. ACADIGIA project, was conceptualized within the joint interest of the institutions involved to develop an acceleration model for enabling Polytechnics to embrace the digital transformation of the education and is founded mainly upon the 1st Strategic priority of the DIGITAL EDUCATION ACTION PLAN - Fostering the development of a high performing digital education ecosystem. This comes as a necessary capacity at individual, organizational, and institutional levels to withstand emergencies like the Covid19 (C19). Under this endeavour, the project will deepen in the role of the New Academia and the necessary adoption of innovative blended approaches, and target the transformation of the institutional staff into mentors who will animate and support peer2peer assisted groups of practitioners. These ACADIGIA groups will be intra-institutional teams that will be trained by the mentors towards new profiles of educators that keep in front of the evolution and mix their in-field competencies with pedagogical values adopting blended modes of teaching. The thorough implementation will allow to confidently tailor a dedicated fail-proof acceleration model and policy lines for the HEIs to make the methods reproducible, and add this last piece in the transnational scenery to complete the European puzzle of: #Frameworks of operation -> #Evaluation models -> and now the added “Acceleration model” related to Online and Blended education. The project encloses 3 IOs, starting with the IO1 - COMPENDIUM OF AUGMENTED BLENDED TEACHING. This IO will develop guiding materials that enable a fast introduction and the usage of tools for blended methods in the Polytechnic HEIs. As a direct result, it is expected that a kit will be in place allowing HEIs to reinvent/rethink their role according to the flagship EU frameworks, do a fast diagnostic and grasp the basic use of the most recent open pedagogic tools. Then is the IO2 - TRAINING THE MENTORS. This IO will deliver detailed materials, guides and training that will be used to capacitate Mentors of the ACADIGIA. As a direct result, it is expected that a complete training kit and methodology will be created and the mentors are deployed and recognized. This will also be connected to a transnational training activity towards the destined mentors. Finally the IO3 - BRINGING ACADIGIA TO LIFE. This IO will dive into team formation and capacity building actions delivered directly to the teaching staff of the Polytechnics, and let the ACADIGIA methodology flourish and root within the institutions' strategic policy lines. As a direct result, it is expected that the Polytechnic HEIs will have in place a team of mentored educators-ambassadors of the blended approaches, operating in peer-support groups that constantly develop, follow-up the latest cutting-edge technological tools and use them with pedagogical added value. Moreover, it will strengthen the strategic lines of the Polytechnic HEIs to respond to emergencies like C19, with the operational adoption of new formats that can be in line with contingency measures (ie Blended approaches to education).
Given the difficulties experienced in terms of the slow digital transformation in Polytechnic HEIs, it was important to outline a general purpose. Accelerating the digital readiness of polytechnic higher education institutions for the sustainable adoption of more online and blended approaches in education was our purpose. The project intended to create conditions for a faster transformation of academia, not only from a human point of view, but also through a culture of innovation, with adequate resources, institutional processes, as well as dynamics and pedagogical materials that were available to the community. This comes as a necessary capacity at individual, organizational, and institutional levels to withstand emergencies like the Covid19 (C19). On the other hand, one of the project's objectives was related to sharing international experiences, fostering synergies in 6 countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Romania and Ireland), as the needs were common. From the experience of researching, executing the planned project, sharing 6 different experiences in executing the project, it was important to reflect on and create an acceleration model, which, based on our evidence, could be adopted by other polytechnic institutions.
Since the 3rd industrial revolution in the 20th century (personal computers and the spread of the internet), especially higher education, felt the need to replace the conservative way of learning/teaching, in a way that is more appropriate to the times we were living. While it is true that the main stakolders' discourse often focused on the mantra "we have to be digital", reality demonstrated that we continued using the technology in the classroom that we had always practiced. The use of methodologies involving teaching (online and blended) or the use of the most advanced technologies is too slow, often falling behind the generations we taught in terms of digital literacy. With the experience of the pandemic caused by the COVID19 virus, these discrepancies between the skills necessary for teaching/learning in this new 4.0 revolution, and those that polytechnic higher education institutions possessed, were very evident, which is the reason that motivated us to design a project to accelerate this transformation process. There was a need to commit decision-makers, train teams to lead the transformation and create model instruments for use by peers, learning from the success of the virus, spread de ACADIGIA in the Polytechnic System.