Developing innovation to generate impact on trainers and adult learners’ skills on rural areas Erasmus Project

Project Title

Developing innovation to generate impact on trainers and adult learners’ skills on rural areas

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 adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Rural development and urbanisation; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Open and distance learning

Project Summary

Nowadays, digital learning plays a major role in the field of adult training. It allows renewing the attention et the interest of learners, more willing to be committed to their training, while tackling the obstacles trainers may encounter when they work face-to-face with a more traditional approach. The DIGITAL-S project aims to develop and promote one of the 8 key competencies identified in the European Union which is digital competence: the safe and critical use of ICT (information and communication technology) at work, during leisure activities and while communicating. The ambition of DIGITAL-S is to develop the knowledge and enable both the adult trainers and learners in rural areas to have a better understanding and confidence to use ICT, and more particularly e-learning. To reach this objective, the training platform called Moodle enabled them to learn and experiment via a virtual environment. 5 partners from 5 different countries (France, Spain, Italy, Romania, and Poland) acting in the field of adult education worked collectively for two years (September 2017 to September 2019) to address this challenge of digital inclusion:- Taking ownership of digital learning and the benefits ICT may bring in the field of adult training, for professional trainers- Addressing the very specific needs of adult learners in rural areas in this specific area- Conceiving, delivering and evaluating the online learning courses implemented on the Moodle platform, a major training tool used worldwide, to the adult learners of rural areas who will experiment e-learning for the first time- Facilitating the integration of this public into modern society in a context where most of the services are now online.Thanks to the expertise of the consortium of DIGITAL-S, the results achieved are beneficial to any organization willing to understand better how to conduct relevant e-learning training. The intellectual outputs available are: 1. A professional and methodological guide gathering the methods, tools, and knowledge necessary to better grasp the e-learning opportunities (intellectual output 1)2. A face-to-face training content about the opportunities of e-learning addressing specifically the adult learners facing obstacles while using ICT, which compiles the experimentation realized in each country (intellectual output 2)3. 5 online courses about digital competences (data protection, tools for online collaboration, Internet browsing, etc.) delivered and experimented on the Moodle platform (intellectual output 3).The DIGITAL-S projects targeted two major publics, while taking into account the diversity of their profiles and context:1.Target group 1 (direct group): professional trainers working in the partner organizations in the field of adult education or for disadvantaged groups2.Target group 2 (undirect group): adult learners coming from rural territories, the participants can be alienated from the workplace or training provisionally or permanently because of geographical location. They encounter difficulties with specific digital topics identified during the project. The European project scope enabled to collaborate with 15 professional trainers and more than 250 adult learners from rural areas who were able to benefit from the tailored online courses on digital topics. The methodology employed was based on a training action for professional trainers from 5 different countries to conceive, test and validate pedagogical activities, methods and evaluation tools to measure the level of skills and knowledge of adult learners’ participants of the online courses via the Moodle platform. The national activities consisted of working sessions for the 3 professional trainers to produce and implement the expected online course via a virtual environment. This preparation was organized in each country.2 experimental phases took place with the adult learners in each country: one in September 2018 (prior training in blended learning with the trainer, enabling the participants to be more confident to perform the next training in distance) and one during the first trimester 2019 (online course on the Moodle platform during a period of 4 weeks). At the transnational level, 2 European seminars (short-staff training week) in May 2018 in Romania, and in May 2019 in Poland gave the trainers the opportunity to gather, exchange their practices, methods and work on the results of the experimentation. 3 transnational meetings in France, Spain, and Italy ensured good monitoring and fruitful exchanges among partners. The results are accessible to everyone (open license). They have been conceived in such a way they can be adapted and transferable to other contexts of professional trainers in contact with a public of people with limited digital skills. They have been exploited at different scales, both at local and European level thanks to the reliable professional networks of DIGITAL-S partners.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 242470 Eur

Project Coordinator

Fédération régionale Familles Rurales des Pays de la Loire & Country: FR

Project Partners

• CENTRO INTERNAZIONALE PER LA PROMOZIONE DELL’EDUCAZIONE E LO SVILUPPO ASSOCIAZIONE
• CENTRUL PENTRU PROMOVAREA INVATARII PERMANENTE TIMISOARA ASOCIATIA
• Instituto para el fomento del desarrollo y la formación S.L
• Szczecinska Szkola Wyzsza Collegium Balticum