Recent developments with COVID-19 and pandemics that threaten our way of life and work are forcing organizations and governments to rethink the way we meet, work, teach, learn and collaborate. A big push towards online education, distance learning and virtual teams is evident across the globe. According to UNESCO (2020), as of late March 2020, over 850 million students and youth – roughly half of the world’s student population – had to stay away from schools and universities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Education is asked to respond to this challenge by offering courses at a distance. So far, the large majority of content was offered by video conferences and Learning Management Systems. There is a strong need to develop more immersive experiences for learners. Although the need of online courses has increased, a few universities have been experimenting with eLearning as a teaching method or making online lectures a part of the curriculum (Bezegová, 2017). Same situation in partner countries, Romania, Cyprus, Greece, Lithuania, Spain, and Serbia, where eLearning is not widely used in HE. So far, there is not any common strategy on how universities can build a strategy on how to adopt eLearning in their teaching and learning. With more than 90% of the student population going fully online during the last few months, there is a stronger need than ever to reform higher education (UNESCO, 2020). The Bologna Process Implementation Report cited earlier, confirmed that blended learning is the most common across European Universities. The trend in higher education towards e-learning, and in particular blended learning, was already visible in 2014 when an EUA survey found that 91% of institutions offered blended learning (i.e. integrating eLearning into conventional teaching) and 82% offered online courses (Gaebel 2014; EUA 2019). It is generally accepted that these trends will change dramatically in the coming months, since COVID-19 accelerated the adoption of eLearning across the globe. In a systematic review of research in the use of e-learning, several gaps are identified among university staff, which include lack of strategic understanding of the need for e-learning, the lack of skills to design and deliver online learning, and the need to improve assessment of education offered online. A total of 7 Partners from 6 EU countries come together to address the following objectives: OBJECTIVES 1. To build the capacity of HE teaching staff, academics, learning designers, and teaching staff in integrating eLearning in the design and delivery of courses. (IO1, IO2, IO3) 2. Develop innovative quality resources for HE faculty members to support the adoption of eLearning in higher education (IO1, IO2, IO3) 3. To raise awareness on the need and value to integrate eLearning in HE in close cooperation with all stakeholders involved, including policy makers. (IO1-4) 4. Improve the supply of quality higher education opportunities for all. (IO1-4) TARGET GROUPS The project builds on the existing knowledge developed by partners and aims at supporting higher education institutions develop innovative policies and practices for integrating eLearning in designing and teaching courses. The primary target groups for this project include: - Higher education faculty and instructors - Policymakers and university leadership teams - Learning designers, educational technologists, and support staff - Higher education students (indirect target group) INTELLECTUAL OUTPUTS The project Intellectual Outputs are: -IO1. Toolkit on how to adopt a strategy for eLearning in HE -IO2. Training course -IO3. eLearning platform and MOOC -IO4 - Policy and practice guidelines for integrating eLearning in Higher education. The expected results of the project are: -Improved capacity of universities to shift from traditional learning to e-learning, modernize their teaching and learning, their curricula, and practices -Improved competencies for faculty, learning designers, and university support staff to empower them to integrate eLearning in university curricula and courses. -Improve the quality and relevance of teaching and learning online in Higher Education. -Greater understanding of the uses of advanced online tools. -Increase the competitiveness of the European Higher Education sector.
To address the identified requirements and needs, the consortium proposed to accomplish the following goals: 1. To build the capacity of HE teaching staff, academics, learning designers, and teaching staff in integrating eLearning in the design and delivery of courses. (IO1, IO2, IO3) 2. To develop innovative quality resources for HE faculty members to support the adoption of eLearning in higher education (IO1, IO2, IO3) 3. To raise awareness on the need and value to integrate eLearning in HE in close cooperation with all stakeholders involved, including policy makers. (IO1, IO2, IO3, IO4) 4. To improve the supply of quality higher education opportunities for all. (IO1, IO2, IO3, IO4)
COVID-19 that endanger our way of life and work compelled organizations and governments to reconsider how individuals meet, work, teach, and collaborate. Globally, there was a significant drive towards online education, and distance learning. We applied for OnlineHE project because it has been requested that education respond to this challenge by providing distance Learning courses. Until our approach, the majority of content was provided through video conferences and learning management systems. Thus, there has been observed an urgent need to create more immersive learning experiences for students. As far as the higher education system was concerned, a reduced number of universities were experimenting with eLearning as a teaching method or incorporating online lectures into the curriculum, despite the growing demand for online courses. Reforming HE was more important than ever given that more than 90 percent of the students were fully online. In a systematic review of research on the use of e-learning, several gaps among university staff were identified, including a lack of strategic understanding of the need for e-learning, of skills to design and deliver online learning, and the need to improve online education assessment.