WEBVTT Kind: captions; Language: en 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.490 Hello. 2 00:00:01.490 --> 00:00:07.340 Greetings from Jyväskylä, Finland. We work in the digital services 3 00:00:07.340 --> 00:00:12.060 of the university of Jyväskylä. My name is Merja Laamanen 4 00:00:12.060 --> 00:00:17.780 and I'm the Digital Transformation Lead. And this is my colleague Liisa Kallio 5 00:00:17.780 --> 00:00:22.380 who works as a coordinator in the area of learning and teaching. 6 00:00:22.380 --> 00:00:29.360 We both have worked in the FORTHEM project for more than 1,5 years now. 7 00:00:29.360 --> 00:00:35.050 We have different roles. I'm the Scientific Manager of the Digital Academy 8 00:00:35.050 --> 00:00:39.160 and have participated in creating the digital strategy 9 00:00:39.160 --> 00:00:44.250 for the project. Liisa trains and supportd staff in online 10 00:00:44.250 --> 00:00:48.720 pedagogy and creating courses for the Digital Academy. 11 00:00:48.720 --> 00:00:53.070 In this presentation we introduce the challenges and 12 00:00:53.070 --> 00:00:57.830 lessons learned of a European Union funded project that focuses on 13 00:00:57.830 --> 00:01:01.540 on different ways of internationalization. 14 00:01:01.540 --> 00:01:06.460 We will discuss how the plans were affected by the lock down caused by the COVID-19 15 00:01:06.460 --> 00:01:11.550 pandemic around Europe and how we eventually managed to create a successful 16 00:01:11.550 --> 00:01:16.270 interdisciplinary online training for 7 partner universities. 17 00:01:16.270 --> 00:01:21.710 To begin with, FORTHEM project 18 00:01:21.710 --> 00:01:26.370 offers university students and staff new opportunities for internationalization. 19 00:01:26.370 --> 00:01:31.520 It aims to share good practices and build networks of cooperation 20 00:01:31.520 --> 00:01:36.320 that the partners are committed to and which endure 21 00:01:36.320 --> 00:01:41.380 also beyond the duration of the project. As you can see, the seven partner universities 22 00:01:41.380 --> 00:01:46.040 are located all around Europe. 23 00:01:46.040 --> 00:01:50.730 Here you can see 24 00:01:50.730 --> 00:01:55.260 the four main actions of the FORTHEM project. 25 00:01:55.260 --> 00:01:59.770 Please visit the project web page for more information. 26 00:01:59.770 --> 00:02:04.210 I will shortly introduce you the Digital Academy which offers 27 00:02:04.210 --> 00:02:08.520 international cross-studying for students and staff. 28 00:02:08.520 --> 00:02:13.090 Students from all seven partner universities are offered selected 29 00:02:13.090 --> 00:02:17.700 multidisciplinary high-quality MOOCs, online courses 30 00:02:17.700 --> 00:02:22.450 and hybrid teaching course contents in different languages in the Digital Academy. 31 00:02:22.450 --> 00:02:26.700 In addition, teachers are offered a training 32 00:02:26.700 --> 00:02:31.150 on integrating digital competencies in course design. 33 00:02:31.150 --> 00:02:36.800 So as part of 34 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:42.490 the Digital Academy, we in Jyväskylä University 35 00:02:42.490 --> 00:02:48.080 organized a course on digital competences for the alliance teachers. 36 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:53.650 Considering learning design, an unfamiliar 37 00:02:53.650 --> 00:02:57.920 and very diverse group of participants from seven universities 38 00:02:57.920 --> 00:03:02.470 offers both opportunities and challenges. 39 00:03:02.470 --> 00:03:07.810 We had different nationalities, cultural backgrounds, 40 00:03:07.810 --> 00:03:12.760 language skills, disciplines, skills and knowledge of digital competences, 41 00:03:12.760 --> 00:03:17.400 various professions and roles. 42 00:03:17.400 --> 00:03:22.620 For example, there was a Spanish professor in law, 43 00:03:22.620 --> 00:03:27.940 Italian researcher in chemistry, German language teacher 44 00:03:27.940 --> 00:03:32.930 and a French it support person. 45 00:03:32.930 --> 00:03:39.100 So we had to provide something new and useful for all these participants. 46 00:03:39.100 --> 00:03:43.180 Also educational cultures are different. 47 00:03:43.180 --> 00:03:46.830 In some universities teachers have more freedom on how they 48 00:03:46.830 --> 00:03:51.990 organize their teaching. Not to forget the different technical infrastructures 49 00:03:51.990 --> 00:03:55.980 in all seven partner universities. 50 00:03:55.980 --> 00:04:02.050 And actually we even had many different time zones. One of our course participants was located 51 00:04:02.050 --> 00:04:07.580 in Brazil and there the session started at 5 am. And there he was 52 00:04:07.580 --> 00:04:13.380 with a big cup of coffee. Every time, well in time. 53 00:04:13.380 --> 00:04:19.970 So, here are the learning goals of the training. 54 00:04:19.970 --> 00:04:24.490 In general, we wanted to offer tools and knowledge for pedagogical 55 00:04:24.490 --> 00:04:28.950 design of their online or blended courses, 56 00:04:28.950 --> 00:04:33.090 including ABC model for the course design. 57 00:04:33.090 --> 00:04:38.700 And our participants were developing their own courses during the training. 58 00:04:38.700 --> 00:04:46.020 We also offered different perspectives, valuable feedback and tips from European colleagues. 59 00:04:46.020 --> 00:04:51.340 Our training was based on the European 60 00:04:51.340 --> 00:04:56.700 Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu) 61 00:04:56.700 --> 00:05:00.510 which is a scientifically sound framework 62 00:05:00.510 --> 00:05:05.820 describing what it means for educators to be digitally competent. 63 00:05:05.820 --> 00:05:10.220 It provides a general reference frame to support the development of educator-specific 64 00:05:10.220 --> 00:05:14.630 digital competences in Europe. 65 00:05:14.630 --> 00:05:18.890 Now I will hand over to my colleague Liisa who will 66 00:05:18.890 --> 00:05:22.900 go more in details of the training. 67 00:05:22.900 --> 00:05:28.180 Thank you Merja. 68 00:05:28.180 --> 00:05:33.310 So the covid pandemic had 69 00:05:33.310 --> 00:05:37.990 a very heavy impact on our training. The training was 70 00:05:37.990 --> 00:05:43.370 originally scheduled to be organized face to face here in Jyväskylä in september 2020 71 00:05:43.370 --> 00:05:48.200 but because of the pandemic it was decided 72 00:05:48.200 --> 00:05:52.840 to be postponed to spring 2021. 73 00:05:52.840 --> 00:05:57.800 There would be a pre task in Moodle before an intensive week in Jyväskylä 74 00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:02.720 and then a final assignment after the intensive week. So when we 75 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:07.690 were planning the contents and schedule we didn't really know if it 76 00:06:07.690 --> 00:06:12.540 is possible to travel or not or do we have to keep the training 77 00:06:12.540 --> 00:06:17.970 fully online. So when we were planning the course contents 78 00:06:17.970 --> 00:06:22.290 we had to have a plan A and a plan B. 79 00:06:22.290 --> 00:06:27.160 It had been decided that each university 80 00:06:27.160 --> 00:06:32.170 could have two participants in this training and we had planned 81 00:06:32.170 --> 00:06:36.520 the schedule according to that number. But in the middle of 82 00:06:36.520 --> 00:06:41.210 the process it was decided that each university would have 83 00:06:41.210 --> 00:06:46.000 three participants. So instead of planning for fourteen participants 84 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:50.660 we had to plan the schedule and contents for twenty one. 85 00:06:50.660 --> 00:06:56.810 Organizing the training fully online also affected 86 00:06:56.810 --> 00:07:01.590 the pedagogical designs as well as the learning environment 87 00:07:01.590 --> 00:07:07.070 that we were going to use. We had already decided to use Moodle 88 00:07:07.070 --> 00:07:12.610 for the activities and for the materials but now we had to also bring in 89 00:07:12.610 --> 00:07:17.980 Zoom for the online meetings. So basically everything 90 00:07:17.980 --> 00:07:23.020 else changed except us the instructors. 91 00:07:23.020 --> 00:07:29.770 92 00:07:29.770 --> 00:07:35.040 So the main concern was the uncertainty on how and when 93 00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:39.900 we are going to have the training. Another concern 94 00:07:39.900 --> 00:07:44.920 was that at first it seemed a bit difficult to find participants for 95 00:07:44.920 --> 00:07:50.120 a fully online training. The schedule of the training had been agreed on 96 00:07:50.120 --> 00:07:55.150 with the partner organisations, but still it didn't seem 97 00:07:55.150 --> 00:08:00.340 so attractive choice 98 00:08:00.340 --> 00:08:05.410 to participate in a fully online training when 99 00:08:05.410 --> 00:08:10.110 you didn't have the possibility to travel. 100 00:08:10.110 --> 00:08:15.360 But finally we had fifteen participants joining the training 101 00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:20.980 but still we were a bit concerned about their motivation and commitment 102 00:08:20.980 --> 00:08:25.640 to the training. We all know how easy it is to join an 103 00:08:25.640 --> 00:08:30.750 online meeting but multitask at the same time. 104 00:08:30.750 --> 00:08:35.930 But our concerns 105 00:08:35.930 --> 00:08:41.050 where unnecessary. All the participants where very motivated 106 00:08:41.050 --> 00:08:46.640 and participated actively in the online sessions. 107 00:08:46.640 --> 00:08:51.000 And as Merja already mentioned especially this one professor 108 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:56.110 in Brazil early in the morning. Here you can see 109 00:08:56.110 --> 00:09:01.280 some quotes from the feedback that we got from the participants and 110 00:09:01.280 --> 00:09:06.190 we were very pleased to hear that they got a lot of new ideas and 111 00:09:06.190 --> 00:09:11.320 new views on how to organize their courses 112 00:09:11.320 --> 00:09:16.290 and how to design their courses. 113 00:09:16.290 --> 00:09:21.170 And what was especially valuable was the 114 00:09:21.170 --> 00:09:25.440 possibility to share ideas with 115 00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:29.870 experts from other universities. 116 00:09:29.870 --> 00:09:34.710 This was the first round of 117 00:09:34.710 --> 00:09:39.480 the training and the second round will be organized this autumn 118 00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:43.940 and it will be organized by the university of Palermo. 119 00:09:43.940 --> 00:09:48.500 Here are some points that we gathered from our 120 00:09:48.500 --> 00:09:52.710 planning process and we find that are important 121 00:09:52.710 --> 00:09:56.980 when you are planning this type of training. 122 00:09:56.980 --> 00:10:02.620 You need to be flexible but at the same time be well prepared. 123 00:10:02.620 --> 00:10:06.190 As I already said we had to have 124 00:10:06.190 --> 00:10:10.610 a plan A and a plan B and preferably 125 00:10:10.610 --> 00:10:14.840 also to have a plan C, anything can happen. 126 00:10:14.840 --> 00:10:19.920 It is very important to activate the participants 127 00:10:19.920 --> 00:10:24.340 especially with an online training. 128 00:10:24.340 --> 00:10:29.040 So that they are not just listening to a talking head or watching 129 00:10:29.040 --> 00:10:33.880 power point slides but they have the chance to 130 00:10:33.880 --> 00:10:38.300 actively participate and to discuss with each other 131 00:10:38.300 --> 00:10:42.970 and this way you also 132 00:10:42.970 --> 00:10:47.540 avoid the multitaskig that is so easily possible. 133 00:10:47.540 --> 00:10:52.610 We had a lot of instructions in the Moodle 134 00:10:52.610 --> 00:10:57.450 course space and we also communicated with the participants before the training 135 00:10:57.450 --> 00:11:01.990 started and sent messages and instructions on what to do. 136 00:11:01.990 --> 00:11:06.890 But still it is important always to double check everything. 137 00:11:06.890 --> 00:11:11.680 Although with the written instructions and explanations there can always 138 00:11:11.680 --> 00:11:16.190 be misunderstandings on what they are expected to do and when and 139 00:11:16.190 --> 00:11:20.770 what's the dead line and and stuff like that. 140 00:11:20.770 --> 00:11:27.090 Also have enough breaks during the online session. 141 00:11:27.090 --> 00:11:32.500 And most importantly create a friendly and relaxed atmosphere 142 00:11:32.500 --> 00:11:38.760 so that everybody feels safe to share their experiences. 143 00:11:38.760 --> 00:11:42.490 As Merja already said we had very 144 00:11:42.490 --> 00:11:47.440 versatile group of participants from professors to 145 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:52.430 IT support and what was very good in this training was 146 00:11:52.430 --> 00:11:57.600 thet they all got along very well although they 147 00:11:57.600 --> 00:12:02.750 didn't know each other, they came from the different universities, they came from different 148 00:12:02.750 --> 00:12:07.830 organizational cultures but everybody's opinions and ideas 149 00:12:07.830 --> 00:12:12.700 and participation was as valuable. 150 00:12:12.700 --> 00:12:17.750 Thank you! Now I think we have 151 00:12:17.750 --> 00:12:18.830 a few minutes for your questions.