Abstract:

In March 2020, COVID-19 took the world by surprise, and citizens were forced into a global lockdown with almost no time to prepare, and with no precedent in recent years. Schools moved immediately to online teaching for the duration of the lockdown, and in some cases have continued with online or hybrid teaching, to support pupils and staff who still have to quarantine.

As key workers, teachers had little time to spend retraining or developing skills to help with the move to online teaching. The Digital Teaching Literacy (DigiTeaL) project began in June 2021, and has worked with teachers to identify challenges and gaps in learning, as well as gathering best practice at individual- or school-level.

The project brings together five partner organisations, from Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Romania and the United Kingdom, who have collected data from primary, secondary and further education teachers via surveys, interviews and focus groups.

In Phase 1 of the project, data collection took place in the five partner countries, via a survey with 312 respondents and focus groups with 30 participants. Questions focused on teachers’ existing digital literacy and how they were supported during the move to online teaching. The findings have led to the production of a framework with 10 priority areas for further training and best practice. These topics include technical areas such as digital tools for lesson preparation or for online assessment, or online safety, along with classroom management areas such as online teaching for pupils with special educational needs, and how to maintain pupils’ motivation.

Phase 2 is taking place in Spring 2022, via focus groups and interviews. Data collection here focuses on teachers’ individual experiences and best practice in the topics identified during Phase 1. The findings from Phase 2 will be used to create guideline documents aimed at teachers, covering technical skills and managing learners online.

One further outcome from the project is a user guide that shows teachers how they can use the Open Badges system to accredit their online teaching, particularly in areas where there are gaps in existing national accreditation.

The DigiTeaL project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, under the Digital Education Readiness call released in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and global lockdown.

Keywords:

Research project, Erasmus plus, online learning, schools, pedagogy.