The CityGo project aimed to develop methodology and materials that enable higher education institutions (HEIs) to perform quality and engaging problem-based learning in a digital environment. The aim of the active community was to provide peer-to-peer learning, to create common experiences, that gives a sense of belonging, and increase participants’ engagement. Therefore, during this project, the consortium aimed to develop a methodology of efficient teaching/learning in collaborative online communities, where students are able solve particular societal challenges on Sustainable City. Project objectives: 1) to improve HEIs lecturers’ competence in creating an engaging and efficient online learning environment; 2) to advance competencies of higher education students to learn efficiently in international online communities addressing real-world challenges; 3) to create an open-access content library for the modules in the field of Sustainable City that can lay the foundation for effective partnerships between HEIs for Erasmus+ blended mobility; 4) to collect findings and best practice and share success factors and challenges of engaging digital problem-based learning in the various cultural and institutional contexts.
The pandemic has forced various educational institutions to adopt an online teaching format quickly. From a technological point of view, this was not hard. A major challenge was the teaching methodology: learning online makes it more challenging to keep the student at the computer for a long time. Months of lockdown, when teachers and students had to work in the format of distant learning, demonstrated that traditional methods are not optimal, it is necessary to change the approach and help lecturers to overcome the challenges posed by online teaching. Moreover, the pandemic has become a real challenge in organizing Erasmus+ studies. Vilnius College of Technologies and Design identified that students do not see the value of starting Erasmus+ studies online. It was very important to show students that even without physical mobility, studying online in the international environment could create value for them – working in an international online team can help students to develop important professional and transferable competencies, to expand their network and still, can create cultural experiences for them.