Europe Education Area is based on the Digital Education Action Plan. Every year, the EU pays more attention to the development of the information society, which is inseparable from the changes taking place in higher education. EU Commission (EC) encourages taking opportunities which provides with technologies, open education resources and virtual learning environment.
The EC’s education policy documents emphasize the importance of youth mobility, and there is growing talk of validating virtual mobility. When planning and developing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based teaching/learning studies, the preparation of content must be based on a certain methodology and theoretical provisions that would help to ensure the quality of studies and address the issues of effective teaching/learning organisation. Preparation of the content of the study subject adapted to the remote work, organisation of the teaching process and ensuring academic integrity are becoming vital teacher competencies. Teachers today face challenges in selecting the most appropriate technologies and the application of unused tools. However, even the best-designed learning course will not work if the learner does not seek for progress, so learner’s self-control and motivation, which he/she often lacks, are essential while learning in virtual learning environment (VLE). Therefore, it is important that in VLE the teacher is able to select the most appropriate study and assessment methods (ensuring academic integrity), provide the necessary support system that would allow steering learning to the right direction. Thus, there is a need for methodology, based on which teachers could effectively choose the appropriate tools and methods for virtual studies, provide information in an inclusive and understandable way. To date, there is no generalized methodology to ensure the quality of the virtual course and conduct studies in an engaging and motivating way. There is also no confidence in the fairness and reliability of the assessments received. These problems exist not only in the HEI applying for this project, but also in other HEI. Therefore, the solution to these problems is extremely relevant for the entire higher education sector. It is planned to use VLE Moodle in this project. Currently, Moodle is already used by all organisations involved in the project and has the largest market share in Europe (57%) according to LISTedTECH.
This project will attempt to solve the problems presented above by improving the quality of virtual studies, creating teaching/learning methodology, and implementing technological and pedagogical innovations (teachers’ didactic, digital competencies, gamification of the study process), which will increase study accessibility and learners’ motivation. This project is dedicated to educate staff about pedagogical and technological innovations (growth of digital literacy competencies among academic staff) and to transfer the good practices for cohesion in Europe. Teachers with a deeper understanding of virtual learning, pedagogical and technological innovations will be able to use this information in their subjects, which will ensure the quality of studies, student motivation and academic integrity. HEI will be able to ensure the quality of virtual mobility and the recognition of study results by developing the internationalisation of HEI at home (virtual student and teacher mobility, inter-institutional studies, mobility windows).
The aim of this project is to increase the quality of teaching/learning in VLE and the study process by creating preconditions for the recognition of the acquired results during virtual mobility.
The aim of the project will be pursued through three objectives:
1. Creating the methodology for teaching/learning in VLE.
2. Improving competencies of academic staff.
3. Pilot testing of the developed teaching/learning methodology.
Three intellectual outputs will be developed through the project activities:
1. Analysis report of VLE teaching/learning and assessment methods.
2. VLE teaching/learning methodology
3. VLE methodology application practice report.
Partners:
KAUNO KOLEGIJA
FUNDACION UNIVERSIDAD FRANCISCO DE VITORIA
Poslovno veleuciliste Zagreb (Zagreb School of Business)
SAVONIA-AMMATTIKORKEAKOULUN KUNTAYHTYMA