STEM Digital Distance Learning in University Teaching Erasmus Project

Project Title

STEM Digital Distance Learning in University Teaching

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; Pedagogy and didactics; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal)

Project Summary

The pandemic and its impact on all levels of education with the nearly compulsory conversion of all offered courses in an online form, has brought foreword the need for support for both educators and learners to develop digital skills. In particular, universities that prepare teachers had to convert their courses to blended/distance learning, but the university educators and students were not properly equipped with the necessary methodology for blended/distance education. Additional difficulties arose in the teaching of science courses that require students’ hands-on interaction to develop not only knowledge but also skills. Therefore, the aim of the STEM-DIGITALIS project is to develop blended and distance learning environments for teaching advanced STEM topics (e.g. nanotechnology, climate change, plastic waste, renewable energy, etc.) to prospective primary and secondary education science teachers. Existing teaching material focused on science education developed by the partner’s organizations in previous EU-projects (e.g. IRRESISTIBLE, SAILS), will be transformed appropriately to be used in digital environments for blended and distance learning. Therefore the specific objectives of the project are:
SO1: Development of innovative digital teaching scenarios on advanced STEM topics that may be used in order to address current challenges in science education.
SO2: Development of teaching and learning strategies that promote meaningful use of digital technologies for teaching advanced STEM topics in blended and distance learning environments that will enable prospective science teachers to equip the new generations with skills and digital competencies needed to grapple with current challenges.
SO3: Development of an open-access educational platform where digital teaching material on advanced STEM topics may be shared across Europe in diverse educational, economical, and cultural contexts and therefore, will assist the promotion of a more inclusive high-quality education for the youth.
SO4: Provide guidelines and recommendations for teaching advanced STEM topics regarding the use of online resources and online teaching and learning environments.
In order to achieve the aforementioned aims and objectives a partnership by five Universities from equal different countries (Estonia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands) is formed, who will collaborate in order to realize five Intellectual Outputs based on the following methodology:
At least five digital teaching scenarios on advanced STEM topics for prospective science teachers will be developed (O1). These scenarios will be the base for developing strategies of blended and distance learning environments (O2). At the end of the first year, two international summer schools will take place addressed to prospective science teachers (C1) and university lecturers (C2), where the digital teaching scenarios and strategies for blended and distance learning will be implemented and tested. Based on the outputs of O1 & O2 an interactive open-access educational platform (e.g. moodle), with sections for university teachers and prospective science teachers, will be developed (O3). About the end of the second year of the project, the effectiveness of the platform for teaching advanced STEM topics will be tested, in joint seminars in each partner’s country for prospective teachers (C3 – C7) and in an international online seminar for university lecturers of the participating countries (C8). The formulation of methodological guidelines to implement blended and distance courses on advanced STEM topics (O4) and recommendations for policymakers to promote teaching on advanced STEM topics in both pre- and in-service science teacher education (O5) in combination with five national (E1-E5) and two international multiplier events (E6-E7) will shape the dissemination, impact, and sustainability of the STEM Digitalis project.

The main target groups of the project are:
• Prospective science teachers of primary and secondary education
• University Lecturers
• In-service science teachers of primary and secondary education
• Primary and secondary school students
• Key stakeholders & policymakers
• Experts from the network of the partners

In total, more than 1500 prospective and in-service teachers, 1000 school students, 200 university lecturers, and more than 300 policymakers and other stakeholders will be reached via all project activities and dissemination via social media.

We expect that the STEM Digitalis results will impact at local, national, and European level by developing digital resources on advanced STEM topics to be used for blended and distance learning in science courses, improving digital competences for both educators and prospective teachers, as well as practical knowledge on how to use digital resources for science-related courses.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 287348 Eur

Project Coordinator

PANEPISTIMIO KRITIS & Country: EL

Project Partners

• TALLINN UNIVERSITY
• RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN
• GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ UNIVERSITAET HANNOVER
• DUBLIN CITY UNIVERSITY