Virtual Reality-based Training to improvE digitAl Competences of teacHERs Erasmus Project

Project Title

Virtual Reality-based Training to improvE digitAl Competences of teacHERs

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; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic had a tremendous impact on the delivery of education and training and highlighted the urgent need to use innovative and technology-based pedagogical approaches in teaching and learning while stressing the need to empower the digital competences of educators. Due to the fact that a crisis such as COVID-19 results in a learning crisis with a catastrophic impact not only for future generations but for societies as well, urgent actions must be taken to adopt novel and technology-based support tools that can strengthen educator’s skills and knowledge and promote the exchange of good practices ensuring the delivery of high-quality learning during crisis situations, such as a pandemic.

In light of these exceptional circumstances, the VRTEACHER project has the ambition to provide effective education responses related to educators’ training via using a novel VR-based pedagogical approach for virtual practicum. The project aims to address the need for modernization and digital transformation of teacher education and training and reinforce educators’ digital skills and readiness through a Virtual Reality (VR) training method and tool. The innovation of the project lies in addressing challenges related to class management in crisis situations, such as a pandemic, with the vision to equip teachers with key skills (e.g. empathy, perspective-taking, self-efficacy, adaptability, etc.) through immersive and experiential training experiences that reflect real-life scenarios and situations faced during a crisis.

A VR-based approach is essential because access to training in real classrooms has several practical limitations (especially in times where spatial distancing is imposed) and runs the risk of harming real students. In addition to the practical gains in teacher training, the proposed immersive VR training tool could offer an alternative solution, a novel training paradigm to prepare educators and improve their personal and professional development, while offering highly motivating and engaging experiences. Equally important is that in a crisis-era like COVID-19, VR-based approaches are very flexible because they do not require the physical presence of teacher trainees. Hence, this flexibility of VR technology satisfies the current requirements and adaptation for social distancing but without downgrading teacher training.

The main target groups of the VRTEACHER project are pre-service student teachers (higher education students, Ph.D. candidates, etc.), and in-service educators/teachers. The proposed VR based approach can contribute to provide teachers a clear picture of the teaching profession clarifying their role within the school reality leading to their personal and professional development, can offer teachers the room for experimentation without the risk of harming real students, can offer teachers the opportunity to record their performance, reflect on it, and experiment maximizing their teaching performance. Most importantly, research findings indicated that the skills and knowledge gained during VR training can be applied to the real-life classroom, hence, VR-based teacher training offers a credible alternative to face to face training activities. Furthermore, within the proposed VR framework, special emphasis is given to inclusiveness and multiculturalism with the aim to promote the delivery of high-quality inclusive education and ensure that no student is left behind even in a pandemic crisis.

The main outputs of the VRTEACHER project will be a VR-based competence framework for teacher training and a state of the art VR teacher training application that reflects real life-based teacher training needs. The project will advance the state of the art in the relatively new area of VR-based teacher training and aims to support novel VR-based initiatives in teacher education. An extensive evaluation of the impact of the proposed VR- based framework and tool will be conducted providing at the end of the project the guidelines for the use of the VR based approaches in teacher education. The VR application will be integrated both in pre-service and in-service teacher training initiatives.

With the aim of achieving its goals, the VRTEACHER consortium, comprising of five European countries (Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Spain, and Malta) and six partners will prepare recommendations and reports, based on the activities to be performed and the feedback received, to promote initiatives related to the incorporation of VR approaches in teacher education curriculum. Moreover, the project will concentrate on improving the quality of initial teacher education that will not only strengthen the profile of the teaching profession through innovative and open VR based approaches but will also promote teachers’ responsiveness, adaptability and flexibility and will ensure the delivery of digital inclusive education.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 219589 Eur

Project Coordinator

TECHNOLOGIKO PANEPISTIMIO KYPROU & Country: CY

Project Partners

• FUTURE IN PERSPECTIVE LIMITED
• THE COMMONWEALTH CENTRE FOR CONNECTED LEARNING FOUNDATION
• PANEPISTIMIO AIGAIOU
• UNIVERSIDAD CARLOS III DE MADRID
• Fundación Siglo22