Results
A digital competence map describing the profile of VET teachers and trainers on digital skills.
In an increasingly digital world, let alone nowadays in which pandemic has radically changed the way of our social, business and educational life, new and different skills and competencies are needed as labor market and occupations are fundamentally changing. In particular, the coronavirus extraordinary situation is an opportunity for everyone to develop their digital skills. Likewise, Vocational Education and Training are also changed as a result of the digital transformation. Digital skills are developed and tested together with the
ubiquity of digital devices and applications, meaning that it is imperative for VET educators to develop their own digital skills and keep them current. At the same time VET educators should use digital technologies to provide a flexible, convenient and engaging learning experience to learners in online classrooms and lessons. Therefore, the mapping the digital skills of VET teachers and trainers is considered as essential, given that they should focus on digital literacy, digital communication, business transformation, and personal learning and mastery. Mapping the skills is necessary to establish a common understanding of important digital skills and competences in the future. Literature search from scientific publication databases are using the terms “digital competence”, “digital skills”, “digital literacy”, “media literacy”, “information literacy”, “e-skills”, “ICT literacy”, “technology “literacy”, and their different combinations.
RESTART VET project will take both the Digital Competence Framework 2.0 and Digital Sovereignty context as references to assess the digital competences of VET teachers and trainers.
The first Intellectual Output and its activities are searching to answer the following key research questions:
1. What are the digital skills and competences of VET teachers
2. How did VET systems respond to the current COVID-19 challenges
3. How did VET teachers and trainers adapt to both anticipated and unanticipated changes
4. How could VET teachers and trainers manage workload, timelines, stress and other negative emotions and behaviors that are caused by online educational processes and online
classrooms
5. What are the policies related to curricula, occupational and educational standards, qualifications, programs, learning outcomes that VET teachers and trainers should possess
Training curriculum for VET teachers and trainers on e-learning methods and provided digital techniques
Training Curriculum and its experimentation through piloting activities into the partners’ countries along with an evaluation process based on defined evaluation criteria. VET Training Curriculum is focused on the support of VET teachers and trainers to enhance and/or develop their digital skills and competences in order to deal with the demands of a virtual classroom, to provide guidance in the designing of virtual educational material, to promote, stimulate, support and empower VET trainers/teachers through inspiring online educational
programs, to provide information and knowledge on how to integrate ICT, e-learning and other digital tools in educational courses, to assist online team collaboration and documentation sharing by providing useful tips on use of several platforms such as Dropbox, Google Drive, to use online educational games such as Kahoot, and more digital tools and applications such as Dotstorming, Padlet, Wakelet, Bubbl.us, Mind Mapping Tools, as well as team communication apps such as Slack, Trello, Popplet, integrating and using them into the educational activity. Moreover, Digital Learning Nuggets and Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) will be used and proposed for use from learners. The main purpose of the Training Curriculum is to support VET teachers and trainers on e-learning methods and provide digital techniques, tools and materials facilitating the online educational procedures, stimulating interest, learning and entertainment of their students.
The training course will adopt a blended methodology with face-to-face and Work-Based Learning actions and online resources. The exact structure of the course will be decided when the research is completed and the learning levels to be achieved are agreed. The training material will be fully available in all partner’s languages, allowing any learner to implement the training independently throughout Europe and abroad. Moreover, project partners will make sure that the following principles apply during the development of the training course.
The training course is expected to be flexible, based on innovative learning methods and pedagogical approaches, arranged over the long term. For the purposes of the Training Course, workshops, labs, case studies, collaborative work and more will be also available on-line, on the project’s e-learning platform. The training course will be developed in English and in the national languages of participating partners.
A minimum number of 30 VET teachers and trainers will be included in the piloting activities and will complete the course on the online platform. Online educators and coaches will guide learners, helping them to keep up on the track and successfully complete the course. They will introduce users, encourage participation, provide ongoing support and feedback on the chapters and assignments. Moreover, at the end of the course, participants’ feedback will be collected through relevant structured questionnaires that will be developed,
focusing on:
– evaluating the training curriculum and course
– evaluating the certification model and process
– evaluating the usability of the online learning platform
Based on the feedback that participants will provide, project partners will proceed with the necessary adjustments and improvements to all relevant materials and outputs.