The VIVA project, with its clear European influence, aimed to achieve an overall objective and several specific objectives. OVERALL OBJECTIVE: The project aimed to increase the effectiveness of online teaching and learning by enhancing the skills and competences of HE professionals in planning and delivering innovative teaching and learning practices. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: - Development of a common competence framework to evaluate individual and institution-wide progress in acquiring new relevant digital and educational skills. - Implementation of a strategy for integrating design-based collaborative learning (based on action research reports from pilots, methodology for applying Design learning in HE, and quality standards). - Creation of a Continuous Professional Development Programme for Educators in HE (including concept, materials, platform, and C1 course). The VIVA project aimed to enhance the digital readiness, resilience, and capacity of educators in the HE sector by establishing a Continuous Professional Development Programme and designing a comprehensive competence framework to assess progress in acquiring new relevant digital and educational skills at the European level.
The VIVA project aimed at addressing one of the many features that characterized the digital transformation our society was undergoing, namely the digitalization of the teaching and learning experiences, especially in the higher education sector. As recognized by an OECD report released in 2020, due to the Covid-19 health emergency, HEIs had to reinvent their activities to ensure the continuity of education by offering online classes and learning experiences as a substitute for in-class time. However, the same report also highlighted that these institutions were often found unprepared and unable to deliver instruction through new interactive means due to a lack of competences (OECD, 2020). Covid19 certainly accelerated the pace of the digital transformation in the learning and education sector, but all the elements to detect a significant turn to the digital were already there and many related processes were already unfolding. This project acknowledged the digital transformation described above and wanted to contribute to the definition of the teaching and learning of tomorrow by fostering the integration and implementation of design-based collaborative learning practices into HEIs, with a specific focus on universities.