Outcomes of the DigiTeL Pro project

The objective of the DigiTeL Pro Strategic Partnership was to reinforce the ability of education institutions to provide high quality, inclusive digital education, responding to the needs of universities during the Corona emergency crisis and beyond. The Open Universiteit connected with the needs of universities experiences in the first and second waves of Covid-19 and solutions adopted to overcome the challenges. The Open Universiteit also reported on institutional strategies to cope with the situation by digital education. These elements were evaluated by the experts of all partners, preparing courses for capacity building, focusing on three main distinct, but connected scenarios: (synchronous) hybrid, blended and online and distance education.

Throughout the DigiTeL Pro project the imec research group at KU Leuven, developed and implemented a CPD course for synchronous hybrid learning, based on the work on Technology-Enhanced Collaborative Learning.
Synchronous hybrid education is based on settings that have in common that both on-site or ‘here’ students and remote or ‘there’ students are simultaneously included during learning activities. The challenge in the research studies was to make synchronous hybrid teaching and learning as effective as teaching in real-life.

The objective of was to design, develop and implement a CPD course to enhancing synchronous hybrid teaching and learning , making use of R&I and practices developed already during the COVID-19 period. The course also connects with institutional change.

The TU Delft developed a course for blended teaching and learning. Blended learning is a course design with a deliberate combination of online and offline learning activities. The course is based on recent research, innovation and good practices by the expert group (TU Delft, KU Leuven CIPT). After the first COVID-19 wave, many teaching staff and universities started with rethinking education, keeping students on campus for face to face education, but combining this with online learning to meet the constraints of physical space and distance. Many institutions were already experimenting with blended scenarios.

The TU Delft designed, developed and implemented a continuous professional development (CPD) course to enhance blended teaching and learning, making use of the EMBED maturity model and guidelines and connecting with institutional change.

Online and distance univerisities; The UOC, The Open Universiteit and UNINETTUNO, developed a CPD course for the scenario of online and distance education, suitable for a total lockdown scenario due to COVID-19. In online and distance education, learners are free from the constraints of time, pace and place of study. Various technologies are used to facilitate communication. In the European context, online and distance education was up to now mostly targeting non-traditional students.
The appearance of MOOCs has changed the attitude to online learning in the mainstream. Even when they taught before already online courses or MOOCs, universities experienced that their expertise in online and distance education was not enough developed to cope with the COVID lockdown. But there are seeds to grow. Even when first practices were difficult, universities and staff got aware of the opportunities of online education. Also after COVID, online and distance education will be a solution for some issues, eg for part-time and adult students, continuing education, international education and mobility. Online and distance education is high quality, accessible, scalable and cost-effective when it is professionally developed. The open universities are experts in this field and prepared a DigTeL Pro CPD course for online and distance teaching and learning.

A preliminary condition for a successful digital learning experience is that students are ready for digital learning (student readiness) and that their learning experience throughout the course is continuously supported. This is the focus of DCU experts, strengthening the nexus or reciprocity between teaching and learning. In DigiTeL Pro, the focus is not only on the teaching staff but unambiguously also on students’ study readiness and learning experience in which interaction and conversation play a vital role. 

An important condition for student readiness is for example related to the right places and spaces for learning. In COVID-19 times, many students feel this as a burden as studying at home happens under different social conditions. To optimize collaborative and blended education, many universities organize already rich learning environments for hybrid and blended learning: learning spaces with facilities for individual or collaborative learning where students have all tools at hand. Even when lectures are closed, these spaces create a convenient place of study. The CDP programme will show good examples of such spaces, which enable students to upgrade their learning experience, even in Corona times. Rich learning environments are more than a LMS, it is also about the architecture of a university.Important for a positive learning experience is that students are harnessed with digital tools. In course and programme design, digital education has to assure that the course connects with these tools and leaves nobody alone, e.g. because of social reasons. Programmes have to make sure that provisions are made for training digital (learning) skills.

DCU developed course modules to enhance students’ readiness for online learning, based on recent course material and crowdsourced learning experiences of students in digital learning. They also harvested and synthesized expertise and good examples from the partnership on enhancing the learning experience in (synchronous) hybrid, blended and online and distance learning.