Advanced teaching for students’ engagement, wellbeing, and success
Training programme for university teachers
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What's the story behind the training programme?
Challenges in online teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic - what were the gaps?
The Covid-19 pandemic, which led to a disruption in the work of educational institutions across the globe, was the first time for many university teachers to organize their teaching in an online environment. Studies show that, even though many university teachers were not trained to work in such an environment, most of them did manage to organize so-called Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) in a manner that allowed continuity in students' learning. However, many teachers and students were not fully satisfied with the quality of ERT, as they were facing various challenges, primarily in terms of maintaining students’ motivation and engagement, quality of teacher-student interaction, and interaction among students, etc. These challenges are likely related to how online teaching was organised. Namely, research findings indicate that teachers primarily relied on synchronous manner of work and provided lectures to students via video-conferencing platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet etc. Even when teaching/learning was asynchronous, dominant activities were posting or sending materials for student’s independent reading and providing students with working assignments, while more interactive activities and elements (e.g. discussions, group work, quizzes, gamification etc.) were far less represented.
Looking beyond the pandemic - a need to close the gap!
Even though the pandemic will eventually end, driven by experience from ERT, many university teachers are motivated to incorporate the use of technology in their regular teaching practice, organize blended learning courses, and/or offer their courses fully online. Given that ERT in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic did have some, but not all, features of good online teaching/learning, we recognize that there is a need to provide a training programme for university teachers who are willing to learn more about online teaching/learning and continue to develop their competencies for teaching in a digital learning environment. Therefore, the programme is based not only on insights on student and teacher experiences during the ERT, but also on well-established frameworks of digital competencies for teachers, such as DigCompEdu, more precisely - on the part related to teacher pedagogical competencies. Also, as most university teachers are now “equipped” with some experience in ERT, the training programme is focused on advanced skills for teaching in a digital environment, i.e., it will be offered to teachers who have basic digital skills and experience in using various online tools in an educational context.
What will you learn?
The training consists of four modules. The overall goal of the training is to provide support to university teachers in the development of digital competencies and advanced use of new technologies for improved students’ engagement, wellbeing, and success in a digital learning environment.
Module A: Introduction to teaching and learning in an online context
You will gain better understanding and be able to evaluate the potentials and limitations of teaching/learning in an online environment.
Module B: Planning and creating an online course
You will learn to plan, create, and implement a course in an online learning environment, and to create
supportive and simulative learning environment.
Module C: Designing teaching/learning activities and educational resources for the digital learning environment
You will be able to create online teaching/learning activities and resources aimed to foster students’ engagement, wellbeing, and success in online learning.
Module D: Designing evaluation and assessment activities in a digital learning environment
You will learn to plan course evaluation and various student assessment activities, especially formative ones, such as self- and peer assessment.
When will the training programme start?
The pilot implementation of the training programme is expected to start in September 2022 and end in February 2023. During these 6 months participants can finish all four modules or opt to take part in one or more modules. Around 30 participants (university teachers) are planned to be included in the pilot.
How will the training be delivered?
The training is delivered on Moodle in an asynchronous and self-paced learning mode. It includes textual and video lectures, forum discussions, quizzes and surveys, etc. Tasks and assignments require from participants to reflect on their teaching practice and implement newly acquired knowledge and skills.
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Sign upHow was the training developed?
The training has been developed within the Erasmus+
project StudES "Effective teaching for student engagement & success in digital learning environment" by the joint efforts of university teachers and online learning experts from the University of Belgrade (Serbia), University of Maribor (Slovenia), and AGH University of Science and Technology (Poland).
