Abstract:

Project Learn.Inc aims to face some of the inherent weaknesses in the university curricula in Southeast Europe (SE): low labor market relevance, weak communication with stakeholders from business and industry, gaps between theory-centered training and practical skills, soft-skills inadequate to the sharply changing socio-economic landscape in Europe, lags in the versatility of digital culture of the students. The project focuses on promoting creativity and redesigning learning spaces through challenge-based learning (CBL) for postgraduate students (MA and PhD). More specifically, it aims to promote student-centred innovation in learning and teaching, with students co-designing flexible and modular forms of e-learning developed in response to relevant social issues through processes (and competitions) to be run during the project. Also, in building local university-led alliances to address real community issues while enhancing the practical dimension of the learning process.

The main outcomes of Learn.Inc are:
- More strategic and integrated use of ICTs and open educational resources (OER) in education & training;
- Increased awareness of social challenges and redesigning learning pathways for students through community engagement and service learning;
- Development of pedagogy and expertise in the use of digital tools and the co-creation and innovative use of digital education content.
- Support the development of a high-performing digital education ecosystem, by building capacity and critical understanding on how to exploit the opportunities offered by digital technologies for teaching and learning at all levels.

The project has so far produced 3 deliverables. A web site/platform the Virtual Open Common Inter-university Sandbox (VOCIS) for the collaboration, exchange and interaction of students and faculty with local institutions (in each partner university), as well as between universities. Through this, students can follow a short preparatory course (online) on challenge-based learning (CBL) and the structure of VOCIS.

The Project-based Teaching Incubator (PROTINC), an online incubator that includes the most viable projects selected from the work carried out in VOCIS, has also been created. In this incubator, teachers in collaboration with students conceptualised the research and results of the experiments and proposals to be carried out at VOCIS, developed courses according to the four general priorities set by the EU Commission's agenda for 2019-2024: Green, Inclusive, Fit for Digital, Transparent or G.I.F.T. (Green, Inclusive, Fit for Digital, Transparent or G.I.F.T.).

Finally, the project includes the creation of a methodology for the design and implementation of the Open Access Archive of Digital Courses (OPENARC). The methodology defines how to set up the online open access learning archive for faculty and students, which includes the Learn.Inc platform as well as the digital online learning material (a series of online MOOCS courses in video format. All content from VOCIS and PROTINC will be digital, in various media (videos, presentations) and provided on OPENARC. The methodology prevents the poor quality of teaching/training and sets best standards for electronic video courses development. Through the methodology the project fully exploits the potential of modern technology and methodologies for creation and presentation of teaching content, for its preservation in lasting digital format.

Keywords:

Education, technology, methodology, OERs.