George Ubachs - Digitel Pro

George Ubachs - Digitel Pro

• 1.
  Digitel Pro Digital Readiness (Post-)COVID-19 EADTUWebinar week 6th-8th of April 2021 George Ubachs, Managing director EADTU
• 2.
  Covid-19 crisis 1stand 2nd wave  The COVID-19 crisis has made universities switch to digital education and to re- organize their campus. In the May 2020 surveys of the European Commission show 95,1% of the universities organized online and distance learning and 82,7% even online exams. All institutions set-up massive support for organizing online lectures, tutorials and video-conferencing with diverse pedagogical approaches. At all levels, emergency decisions were made.  In the second wave of COVID-19, many universities wanted to keep students on campus for face to face teaching. After a few weeks only, this seemed impossible as Europe coloured red again. Universities allowed only half or one fifth of the students in face-to-face lectures, while others attended online. Now, most universities have to go in a complete lockdown again with online and distance education.  Teaching staff felt this as a disruption, requiring an extreme workload to adapt to the situation.  Students started to manifest for the right of having “quality education”. Watching a video or following a lesson via zoom was no longer felt as a solution as it was in the first wave.
• 5.
  Emergency remote teaching Let’s put this in perspective. What about education if the pendemic occured half a centry ago and there was no online education… ? So, embrace online education!  The coronacrisis challenged (Higher) Education institutions, educators and students. Immediate continuation of education was at stake, including examinations and management of staff at a distance  Improvisation was needed and appreciated, but not the way forward  Overall, digital literacy was needed but not always there. Clearly here is already a lot to gain.
• 6.
  The effect ofCOVID-19 on education poses at least two key challenges for policymakers. (The likely impact of COVID-19 on education: Reflections based on the existing literature and recent international datasets; Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s science and knowledge service, 2020)  First, measures should be taken to ensure that more vulnerable students will be able to make up for the learning loss they experienced during the lockdown. This should be done quickly and effectively, in) order to avoid that such crisis results in permanent education and economic inequality.  Second, given that there is the possibility that educational institutions may not be able to operate fully in-person during parts of (or the whole) next academic year, alternative methods of delivering teaching and learning should be put in place.  According to the JRC study, the following elements should be part of a successful strategy integrating online and offline teaching and learning activities:
• 7.
  Elements of professional onlineeducation Highest priority is with the further education of educators in digital didactics (Rector T. Bastiaens OUNL)  Building on expertise and experience  Methodologically designed education  Well-considered digital didactics (research based)  Interaction, debate and dialogue can be done synchrones, but certainly also asynchrones without bounderies in online education  Activating education, engaging students (knowledge videoclips, serious gaming, student peer meetings, online collaborative learning etc)  Extending and enriching programmes by virtual mobility  Safe software use Main message: do not copy on campus education, but use new modes of teaching to enhance education
• 8.
  Needed  Sharing expertise;there is a wealth on research and good practices in online education  Face the challenges of digitalisation, like privacy issues, e-assessments, online interaction between students, engaging students, make online educational systems safe etc.  Start the discussion within your institution and with the companies that deliver supporting systems (innovation often is coming from commercial companies)
• 9.
  Expertise is neededsupporting main trends in practices observed during the crisis, and in the student learning experience:  Synchronous hybrid learning: based on settings that have in common that both on-site or ‘here’ students and remote or ‘there’ students are simultaneously included  Blended learning: based on a course design with a deliberate combination of online and offline learning activities (EMBED)  Online and distance learning: based on a course design with a continuous physical separation between teacher and learner, synchronously and asynchronously
• 10.
  After the CoronaCrisis; next steps  Every educational institution needs to reconsider its own educational model, including professional digital education  Most urgently educate your educators in the use of digital didactics and understanding what quality in online education is  The educator will shift its tasks (even) more from provider to developer  Evaluate and innovate your education over and over again to enhance to its optimum
• 14.
  Digital education readiness KA2- Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices KA226 - Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness The priorities shall focus on: • enhance online, distance and blended learning - including supporting teachers and trainers, as well as safeguarding the inclusive nature of digital learning opportunities. 14
• 15.
  DigiTeL Pro  Bringstogether excellent groups of experts from universities, well-known for research and innovation in digital education and having developed good practices in digital solutions during the Corona crisis.  They are prepared to valorise their expertise in continuous professional development courses (CPD) in order to reinforce the ability of universities to provide high quality, inclusive digital education. They are at the edge of expertise in teaching and learning scenarios, connecting with main trends in practices observed during the crisis, and in the student learning experience:
• 16.
  Focus of DigiTeLPro  Synchronous hybrid learning: based on settings that have in common that both on- site or ‘here’ students and remote or ‘there’ students are simultaneously included (synchronous hybrid learning (KU Leuven-imec);  Blended learning: based on a course design with a deliberate combination of online and offline learning activities (EMBED strategic partnership, TU Delft, KU Leuven);  Online and distance learning: based on a course design with a continuous physical separation between teacher and learner, synchronously and asynchronously (OUNL, UOC, UNINETTUNO);  Student readiness for digital learning (NIDL, Dublin City University);  Institutional policies and strategies: based on maturity dimensions in institutional policies and quality assurance approaches for digital education (EADTU, EMBED and e-xcellence partnerships).
• 17.
  Objectives of DigiTeLPro  To explore and forecast educational needs of teaching staff and learners within and after the COVID+ era;  To exchange expertise between researchers and innovators on synchronous hybrid, blended and online distance learning, optimizing models and guidelines for short-term and future CPD;  To design, plan and develop continuing education courses enabling anyone involved in course and curriculum development in adapting to hybrid, blended and online distance learning;  To empower student readiness for digital learning by an online course and integrating the “student voice” in all learning scenarios;  To reinforce the ability of universities to provide high quality, inclusive and scalable digital education.
• 18.
  Partnership DigiTeL Pro EADTU- coordinator  OUNL The Netherlands  UOC Spain  UNINETTUNO Italy  KU Leuven Belgium  TU Delft The Netherlands  DCU Ireland  FIED France
• 19.
  THANK YOU George Ubachs [email protected]