The COVID-19 tsunami had relevant effect on the traditional practices of learning and teaching, changing in a radical way the relation between teacher and student. This revolution brought the real introduction of the online practice, extremely relevant during the lockdowns. In this renewed learning perspective, the blended and distance learning are becoming even more relevant. Online learning requires much more personal attention and sometimes students may get discouraged if they have difficulties in understanding instructional goals (Dhawan,2020), The JRC Science Policy Report “What did we learn from schooling practices during the COVID-19 lockdown?” underlines the crucial role of remote educators requires adequate training for teachers, including the development of competence in digital pedagogy, to allow them to fully benefit from the potential of digital technology in teaching, which goes beyond the creation of digital contents. Nevertheless, it is a relevant component, including for University teachers. In academics appears even more relevant the impact of factors such as motivation and self-regulated learning. The OECD Policy Responses to Coronavirus (COVID-19) published in the late 2020 underlines three core principles must guide policies aimed to promote teachers’ effectiveness and well-being: (1) support teacher resilience (2) support teachers instructionally (3) support teachers technologically Resources for teachers are central in this vision, it is a matter of fact that teachers’ physical, psychological and socio-emotional well-being should be prioritized. In the School Education Gateway survey on online and distance learning it is shown as the 37,4% of interviewed teachers considers professional development initiatives such as quick courses on online teaching as the most helpful support. In the last years, on the scientific literature, collected in the Annex 1 that provides a complete needs analysis of the teachers and professors in HEIs performed by the TUNED Partnership, it is evident as the cooperative learning and in particular self-regulation competences are crucial in this new context. Moreover, EU JRC report stresses the importance of self-regulation for teachers and students. In this document, on the Belgium annex a relevant recommendation for policy actions refers that: “Self-regulation competence development alongside socio-emotional learning at student and teacher training levels should be prioritised”.
The TUNED project will deliver four project results: 5. A pedagogical framework on collaborative and self-regulation learning (SRL) in a blended and online learning (PR1) 6. An innovative short-training course for professors and lectures in HEIs (PR2) 7. A serious game (PR3) 8. A guideline tool for the replicability of the TUNED approach in other HEIs (PR4) Regarding the PR1, TUNED project aims to deliver a scientifically validated pedagogical framework as the scaffolder for the promotion of an innovative training course for professors and lecturers in HEIs that focuses on improving abilities on collaborative and self-regulation learning (SRL) in online and blended teaching. The framework will devote relevant attention on the co-creation aspect: TUNED project proposes a flexible and student-centred structure. The students are the professors of HEIs, the teachers’ trainers and the teachers enrolled in universities courses (in-service and pre-service teachers) that will actively be the creators of lessons in MOOCs and will co-design the serious game. The aim of this outcome is to create a tool for the participation also of professors and teachers from outside, creating open and simple procedure to include their experience. Regarding the PR2, TUNED will develop a MOOC furnishing micro-credentials to the participants. MOOC will have lessons from the experts in the field of collaborative learning, self-regulation learning (SRL) and socially shared regulation of learning (SSRL) and modules that will include lessons by students (lecturers in
HEIs) that will present best practices and design of teaching applications based on the lesson learnt. This will allow a continuous update of the MOOC also at the end of the project implementation, meeting the next challenges in online and blended education emerging with the urgent digital transformation. MOOC will also embed a serious game (PR3). The game will represent a modular outcome, usable inside the course or freely at disposal externally for users. PR3 will cover the procedural learning, representing the laboratorial activity of the MOOC. Lecturers will play in role-play game with strong relationship with their actions in the real world (applying Alternate Reality Game – ARG methodology), managing a scenario where he/she is called to apply the competences learnt during the short-training programme related to the sphere of students’ motivation and self-regulated learning. Professors will experiment different strategies in a safe environment without any consequence, training its ability for future teaching experiences. Finally, the project will deliver the guidelines for other HEIs in contributing in the MOOC and how to validate the learning outcomes (PR4). One of the aims of TUNED is to create a structured cooperation between HEIs, developing a collaborative course with a co-creation approach for a multiplicative effect: increasing the number of organizations involved (including SMEs and associations).
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
2021-IT02-KA220-HED-000032188