The project envisaged two areas of interventions. The first one concerned development of communication and expression skills in class. The project team believed that education is also an important process that allows students to learn through interactions with their teachers and peers. The second area of intervention has been oriented towards improvement of monitoring students’ level of engagement and raising commitment. In traditional classrooms tutors often can closely monitor student’s level of motivation expressed by participation, attention to the subject, and extent of distraction. On contrary, during online teaching this was hampered. The general project objective was to address deficiencies during online education in terms of developing communication and expression skills within humanitarian school disciplines focusing on disadvantaged students falling behind and getting them closer to their peers. The specific objectives were: - Provision of guiding materials for students adapted to those with poor skills - Equipping teachers with applicable pedagogical approaches and supporting thematic sets - Raising attractiveness and efficiency of the training on humanitarian subjects by production of interactive elements
School subjects have been influenced by the shifts between online and in-person education within and after COVID-19. Lessons requiring discussion and exchange of oral information have been deeply affected by limitations in the interactions among students and teachers. This concerned formation of vital expression and communication skills of students and resulted in decline in study motivation and commitment in class. As such, new approaches accustomed both to real and virtual classrooms had to be applied in order to help tutors to monitor the class and to raise motivation of students. The project has been oriented to address the following: - Negative impact of simplified conversation through online platforms which very often led to a monologue lecture - Impossibility for asking embarrassing questions when everyone responds in a one-by-one mode and has sufficient time to consider the answer - Scarcity of suitable digital devices or stable Internet connection faced by disadvantaged students influencing their engagement in class - Minimizing cases when students could stay inactive behind their switched off cameras and microphones - Keeping continuity of online classes with traditional ones in terms of active participation