Competencies for Universities – using Technology in Education: Putting the DigCompEdu framework into practice in the Higher Education realities. Erasmus Project

Project Title

Competencies for Universities – using Technology in Education: Putting the DigCompEdu framework into practice in the Higher Education realities.

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 : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

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

Project Summary

The aim of the project “Competencies for Universities – using Technology in Education” (CUTE) is to develop a more institutionally based strategy to improve digital competencies for university teaching and to develop a methodology for other institutions to do the same.

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across Europe are challenged by digital transformation and the need for more digital competencies for teachers. However, teachers at HEIs are still primarily hired and rewarded for their research – and there is traditionally very little hands-on management when it comes to teaching. Therefore, the development of digital teaching skills is often a slow process and relies heavily on the goodwill (and free time) of those already interested in developing their teaching with digital tools.

This project wants to work strategic by using the European Framework for Digital Competence for Educators (DigCompEdu) to create change on a more institutional level. Using DigCompEdu is a way forward and by testing and documenting the steps to take, the project can pave the way for other European HEIs to do the same in their local contexts. Furthermore, the project will provide policy recommendations for further development of the DigCompEdu framework.

The CUTE-project is a collaboration between six partners. The University of Copenhagen (Denmark) is the project owner. Four other universities participate: the University of Akureyri (Iceland), University of Murcia (Spain), AGH (Poland) and National University Ireland Galway, all of them with a long tradition of teachers training in HE and in Digital Competence for teachers. The final partner is a technical partner with a strong background in competence grid development GTN (Austria) , associated with the Federal Center education Austria and the University College of Education Upper Austria .

The project will first do a mapping of the local approaches to digital competence development (IO1) regarding: is the DigCompEdu already in use, what are the existing strategies, regulations and practices. This local knowledge will be collected and used to produce road maps for development (short, middle and long term) (IO2). This process will be a collaborative process sharing knowledge and ideas between the partner institutions and innovate together. This will also result in a template for other institutions who wants to do the same. Short term actions (IO3) will then be planned in collaboration and initiated locally. Initiatives will be developed by several institutions in collaboration and may be implemented in one or more institutions depending on their relevance in the different local. The short-term action initiatives (IO3) will not only result in changes in the local institution, but also be collected as “use cases” together with a description of how to plan and initiate this in another institution in the future. This process will be supported by relevant digital Open Source tools for the mapping, competence grid and the ability to integrate these in a local LMS. The results and findings will be shared via webinars to relevant stakeholders in other HEIs or further education institutions in the partner countries. This helps disseminate and use the CUTE-project results, and also qualify the results as the inputs will be considered when developing the next stage. GTN who will cooperate with the University College of Education Upper Austria to complete the tasks in IO1-IO3, will be using the project use cases from all six partner countries.

The local scenarios (IO1), the road maps for development (IO2) and the short-term action initiatives (IO3) will all go into a “HE Toolkit for using the DigCompEdu in practice’ (IO4) along with methods and advice for other European institutions wanting to implement the same initiatives, or develop their own, based on the DigCompEdu framework. Again, webinars and local networks will be used to qualify, discuss and disseminate the results.

Finally, all of the collected knowledge, innovation and experience will go into a set of policy recommendations for improving the DigCompEdu in the future (IO5). This will be produced in a first version, then put to the test by national debate seminars in each of the partner countries with relevant existing networks or stakeholders discussing the recommendations to qualify the results. Multiplier events will afterwards be held in each country spreading the results and the toolkit.

The project results include methods, recommendations and tools for collaborating on digital competencies development across the European HEIs.

The impact will be focused both on the partner institutions and on reaching the relevant stakeholders and decision makers at a national and European level. The toolkit will be an excellent starting point for other European HEIs who wants to use the DigCompEdu framework to develop their teacher’s digital skills and competencies, as teachers will only need more of this in the years to come.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 311713 Eur

Project Coordinator

KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET & Country: DK

Project Partners

• NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND GALWAY
• HASKOLINN A AKUREYRI
• UNIVERSIDAD DE MURCIA
• Andreas Riepl
• AKADEMIA GORNICZO-HUTNICZA IM. STANISLAWA STASZICA W KRAKOWIE