A new approach towards online and blended education
About the Project
April 2022 marks the beginning of Innovation Station – which EuroClio is excited to be part of! Coordinated by the Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions (OBESSU), the Impossible Foundation, EGInA, the Hellenic Open University and EuroClio have joined their forces to promote best practices for online and blended learning.
Throughout the pandemic, OBESSU conducted a needs analysis through surveys and consultations with over 1000 students and teachers across Europe, shedding light on student and teacher experiences in online and blended learning. This research demonstrated that teachers oftentimes struggle with lack of control in the online learning environment that negatively impacts practical subjects, and affects the implementation of effective assessment methods (e.g.) inhibiting students’ learning, overall wellbeing and long term academic progress.
The educational system is not open to changes due to the lack of time and space for teachers toexperiment new styles and methods, and to the lack of appropriate response towards the new trends and technologies. Students are taught to learn passively, without managing their own learning process and engaging in it. With the Covid-19 pandemic, many schools needed to adapt to digital tools and technologies, while not having proper staff digital education nor support on how to work with these technologies. When this switch to online learning happened, the engagement of students became lower and highlighted challenges of educational systems such as the lack of learning-to-learn skills and attitudes such as autonomous learning, critical thinking, problem solving and curiosity.
Strategies
To overcome these challenges, Innovation Station aims at equipping both teachers and students with the tools necessary for effective online and blended learning. More concretely, the projects aims to:
- To explore different methods and practices in online education;
- To investigate the ways in which young people learn and what motivates them to engage in the online classroom in order to facilitate their own learning;
- To develop guidelines for teachers to work online, including fostering self-directed learning of the students;
- To equip teachers with the skills and knowledge to implement online and blended educational activities while keeping their students engaged and motivated;
- To develop an online training for students for self-directed and self-paced learning;
- To create spaces for teacher-student dialogue and interaction;
- To develop a set of recommendations towards policy makers on the changes necessary in the educational system and on the support needed for teachers and educational institutions.
The project kicked off on 12 – 13 May in Brussels at the OBESSU premises, where each partner got the opportunity to present their work package. EuroClio will be co-organising the Exchange Seminar, a multiplier event and coordinate the development of guidelines for teachers.
Project Manager
Eugenie Khatschatrian
