e-BELONG: Sense of Belonging in Online Learning Environments Erasmus Project

Project Title

e-BELONG: Sense of Belonging in Online Learning Environments

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

The “forced digitalization” of higher education came with many challenges, the key one being to ensure continuity of the teaching and learning process under the unexpected conditions imposed by social interaction restrictions. Innovative pedagogies were mobilized to facilitate instruction in the “new reality”. Despite the fact that universities managed rapidly to adapt practices by using existing digital tools and technological investments, the negative effects of students and scholars being isolated from the idly community, determined now the focus on the necessity to take care of the social, emotional and affective side, as it impacts on the academic performance. Data from a recent study carried on in 24 universities in Romania came to confirm it (ANOSR, 2020). Several studies during the pandemic situation have shown students experience decreased motivation and lack of social context, even a tendency for drop out within vulnerable groups, when higher education suddenly went online in spring 2020. We have reasons to believe that this tendency will increase on the duration of Covid-19 pandemic and after, due to lower engagement of students with the academic environment at various levels, determined both by individual and social factors, and expand the group of vulnerable people to other categories (ZAHEER et al., 2016, Davidson & Wilson, 2017; Bustamente, 2019; Respondek et al., 2020). For these reasons, we will address social and emotional needs of students and ways of approaching these needs by academics and educational specialists working in support services (Durlak et al., 2011), so that they can attend not just the cognitive development of students, but also their emotional and social needs (Bradley et al., 2010; Davidson et al., 2011; Gerson & Fernandez, 2013) in online learning communities (Peacock & Cowan, 2019).

This projects aims at addressing two special sides of this pedagogical innovation not yet consistently addressed: (1) equity for vulnerable groups and (2) ensuring social-emotional conditions of learning in HE, as successful learning is not just about the quality of knowledge and skills to be trained, but is very much related to quality of social interactions among key stakeholders in the process, as well as to the emotional engagement with learning experiences. We can observe high level of concern and effort on using technology and digital tools to enhance teaching and learning and we consider equally important to address educational support services under the new digital conditions.

The project aims at:

– IDENTIFYING the best practices that could enhance teaching and learning when using digital tools and create conditions for social and emotional engagement of students in online learning.

– PROVIDING a framework for transforming and adapting learning support services, with a special focus on vulnerable groups.

– CREATING the tools to develop student’s sense of belonging in the context of virtual learning communities.

Our target groups are:

– Academics teaching online courses, with a focus on those with reduced digital literacy and limited capacity to transfer all teaching in online environment in an effective way. Participants to the project are members of the partner universities (AMU, NKUA, UB, AUM, UniRoma1, SU and EKTU).

– Students learning online, who need to develop a sense of belonging, with a focus on those from vulnerable groups. Participants to the project are studying at the partner universities.

When taking a perspective view of the needs this project comes to respond to, there are several areas of investigation and exploration, which were undertaken by the partners in this project, according to their expertise in the field. Each of these topics were translated into actions (working packs) that would lead to accomplishment of the general objectives of the project. Collaborative groups of academics will co-create knowledge, support mechanisms and services to be offered across all universities, such as analytical selection of the vulnerabilities in the education system, with a specific attention for the emotional and social impact of the pandemic and the identification of new categories of vulnerable people, a mapping of existing digital media used by partner universities for teaching and learning and evaluate their effect on sense of belonging, design thinking as a method to add knowledge about possibilities to enhance the sense of belonging among different categories of students in order to assist course design, support services and creation of digital tools.

All intellectual outputs and other tangible materials will be open access resources to be used, adapted and improved by partner universities and other organizations that seek to offer high quality online teaching practice and ensure social-emotional conditions of learning for their students at the same time.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 229121 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITATEA DIN BUCURESTI & Country: RO

Project Partners

• UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE MADRID
• ETHNIKO KAI KAPODISTRIAKO PANEPISTIMIO ATHINON
• STOCKHOLMS UNIVERSITET
• UNIVERSITE D’AIX MARSEILLE
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA LA SAPIENZA
• EBERHARD KARLS UNIVERSITAET TUEBINGEN