Students are the biggest stakeholder in the education system, yet their involvement in discussions about how education should be carried out is very low, or non-existent. They often act as passive receptors of notions, while the physical classroom environment is monitored and controlled in many cases through coercive practices. Teachers are the second biggest stakeholder in the education system. While they might appear to students as the “face” of the education system, their work also suffers from the little involvement and initiative of students. Teachers often have no choice but to enforce a hostile classroom environment, or to sacrifice important aspects of pedagogy for the sake of imparting notions and evaluating assignments.
This situation has two adverse effects on the aims that education systems set for themselves and for the students who benefit from them. The first is that it tends to leave behind students who have different or special Call: Erasmus-EDU-2021-PCOOP-ENGO — Partnership for cooperation in the field of education and training – European NGOs EU Grants: Application form (ERASMUS LS TypeI): V1.0 – 25.02.2021 educational needs from “the standard”. The second is that, unsurprisingly, rigid school systems are not conducive to students developing important skills which will serve them later in life, like self-management, spirit of initiative, curiosity, analytical and critical skills.
It is fundamental to work not only on teachers’ digital competences but also on the learning to learn competence of students.
To meet those needs, two main outputs will be produced:
- Guidelines on online education for teachers, including good practices and engaging and inclusive
methods for online teaching; - MOOC on self-directed and self-paced learning
The MOOC now available on multiple platforms:
- On Heights with AI-supported subtitles in English, Polish, German, French, Greek and Italian:
https://ebt.heightsplatform.com/courses/self-directed- learning/preview?fbclid= IwAR0W1X6J9fVNQGvM6gRSrcwum0- GdkyhSfFfOR0T73JtWXfWpgoIWcaEj 2w - On Udemy, in English:
https://www.udemy.com/course/self-directed-learning/ - On Spotify – for those, who prefer to learn by listening:
https://open.spotify.com/show/3iKfl9rvGkTNIPKS1QbYGt
And to make sure the outputs reach the target groups in a way that also meets their needs, three main activities will take place, two corresponding to the first output and one corresponding to the second:
- An exchange seminar bringing together educators and students to discuss their needs in terms of online learning and digital education, that will mainly feed the guidelines for teachers but also the MOOC;
- Teacher training on how to use the guidelines and on digital competences and engaging methods for online education;
- Social media account with MOOC key content and tips and tricks on self-directed and self-paced learning.
