Work packages
Work Package 1: Needs Analysis (Lead organization: University of Ioannina)
This WP will initiate the preparation phase of the project. The survey will include 4 different types of questionnaires which will be uniform in all the Consortium countries. The first questionnaire will be dedicated to an exhaustive needs analysis on the lack of 21st century skills and qualifications of teachers and educators in elementary and secondary school in Cambodia, China and India. The first questionnaire will be distributed to teachers, schools’ leaders and parents’ unions (80 per PC-HEI). For students to be well equipped with the necessary skills, they are supposed to be taught by teachers who have good command of those skills and are able to impart the skills to the students. The second questionnaire will be distributed to students of elementary and secondary school to identify their specific needs on 21st century skills (100 per PC-HEI). The third one will address the needs of the Asian academic staff on 21st century skills and will identify which needs on innovative teaching methodologies, student assessment and ICT-based skills are needed in the classroom (15 per PC-HEI). The goal will be to develop a capacity-building program which can align technologies with content and pedagogy and teach new assessment tools of students’ competences. The fourth one will be directed and completed by the EU-HEI academic staff and field experts in order to detect applied best practices on teaching 21st century skills (15 per EU- HEI). The responses to the questionnaires will provide the basis for three reports. The first one will be a report on 21st century skills Educational Programme Content which will crosscheck the skills and knowledge needed by teachers with the skills needed by students when entering the university, vocational schools or the labour market. The second one will help the drafting of a report on capacity-building for 21st century university teachers and best practices. The third report will be a state-of-the-art report which will collect all data and will provide a roadmap on how to develop such courses and adapt best practices to Asian HEIs needs.
Deliverables:
1.1 Report on 21st century skills Educational Programme Content
1.2. Report on capacity-building for 21st century university teachers and best practices
Work Package 2: Curricula & Capacity Building Training Content (Lead Organization: Klaipeda University)
This WP focuses on the development of the 6-month 21st century skills Educational Programme will begin with establishing the outline and methodology of the course syllabus by identifying common ground across national curricula and common conceptualization of skills. In the second step, the content of the programme will be discussed and defined. The course will be adaptable to the needs of the principle target groups: pre-service and in-service teachers, The pre-service course can be incorporated as a course in the final year of a bachelor degree relevant to pedagogical studies. The in-service course will be offered as a MOOC designed to satisfy the needs of practicing teachers who do not know how to incorporate teaching and assessment of 21st century skills into classrooms, labs or workshops. The third activity of this WP is to define the material for the capacity-building of the academic staff of the faculty. In order to promote digital online learning, a platform will be developed. The in-service 21st century skills teaching educational programme will be offered partially online as well as there will be online training sessions for the academic staff. All these courses and material will be uploaded on the platform developed. An e-tutor guide will also be prepared. The last activity of this WP will consist on defining the specs for an e-toolbox of best practices and assessment tools.
Deliverables:
2.1 Outline and methodology of the Syllabus for course
Work Package 3: Capacity Building Activities (Lead Organization: Southwest University)
This WP envisages the creation of an education platform which will be delivered. Relevant material will be uploaded, as well as all equipment will be delivered at the space provided by each PC-HEI. The course material used will be based on the material prepared in the WP2. Moreover, online training sessions will be available for the whole academic staff in the Faculty, based on the capacity building course material developed in the previous package. It will be uploaded as a MOOC on the platform. Academic staff who will oversee teaching the educational programme will have to complete both modules whereas the rest of the faculty will have the option to attend virtually the Module 2 which trains them in aligning technology with content and pedagogy and teaches them innovative assessment tools for students’ evaluation. Finally, an e-toolbox will be delivered and uploaded on the 21stTeachSkills Platform, which will provide extra support to the teaching and assessment methods of professors and tutors.
Deliverables:
3.1 Delivery of 21stTeachSkills Platform
3.3 Online training sessions
3.4 Delivery of 21stTeachSkills e-toolbox
Work Package 4: Delivery of Educational Programme & Capacity Building Course (Lead Organization: Novel Group Sarl)
This WP will include all the activities related to the delivery, evaluation and accreditation of the educational programme. The programmes will be delivered and tested according to the specifications defined in previous WPs. There will be an internal and external evaluation of the course program which will start running in the 3rd year of the project, based on questionnaire and interview. The internal process of evaluation will be conducted every month with online questionnaires to all students enrolled in the course. Then, a round of interviews will be conducted every 3 months to students and academic staff in order to evaluate the teaching and learning process. The program will be also externally evaluated every year by a Board of Experts especially concerning the methodology, learning material, students’ response to the modules and it will make suggestions for possible improvement of the outputs. The process of the evaluation will produce two evaluation reports: one interim and one after the second round of running the course that will feed into the Programme Delivery Final Evaluation Report.
Deliverables:
4.1 Delivery of 21st century skills Educational Programme
4.2 Delivery of Capacity-Building Program
4.3 Programme Delivery Interim Evaluation Report
Work Package 5: Quality Assurance & Monitoring (Lead Organization: University of Ioannina)
This WP aims at defining the indicators of quality, test quality of intellectual outputs based on this methodology and maintain the high quality of the outputs in order to certify that they meet the standards defined previously. This quality management plan offers tools for systematic monitoring of project and partner management, internal and external communication, project outcomes and budget management. The quality plan will analyze possible preventive actions in order to minimize the risks at the beginning and during implementation of the project. It will provide clear and quantifiable objectives to assess the quality of progress and to contribute to the feedback needed for the external evaluator.
Deliverables:
5.2 Quality Board Appointment
Work Package 6: Dissemination and Exploitation (Lead Organization: Banasthali University)
The dissemination mechanism, that will be implemented, will maximize the visibility, capability, potential and impact of 21stTeach Skills Education programme and the capacity building training course. The dissemination will target six groups:
1. Faculty and academic personnel from partner and neighboring countries
2. Students enrolled in a bachelor degree relevant to education and teaching
3.Teachers (primary, secondary, vocational, adult, special needs), language teacher trainers, careers officers, educational guides and counsellors, headteachers, principals, managers of schools/organisations offering language education.
4.Teachers associations, teachers-parents associations and similar stakeholders
5. Educational authorities at local, regional or national level
6. The press and general public: will be informed about the project objectives, expected results and impact.
It is essential to have a detailed dissemination plan to identify ways to reach the target groups and the beneficiaries of the project. It is equally important to develop a website to advertise the dissemination activities and the networking events which will promote the courses and provide career guidance to graduates. In these networking events, stakeholders, such as educational authorities and school managers will get in contact with students to establish a long-term and sustainable link with the labor market. The targeted events will be organized in order to inform relevant stakeholders at local, regional and national level. Moreover, there will be an exploitation and sustainability plan, crucial for the success of the project and the sustainability of the outcomes.
Deliverables:
6.2 21stcenturyTeachSkills Website
6.4Exploitation and Sustainability planning
6.5Portfolio of dissemination material
· Flyer
· Poster
· Newsletter
Work Package 7: Management & Coordination (Lead Organization: University of Ioannina)
1.Funding Management: Contacting the European Authority and reporting to it (financial reports progress reports, final report).
2.Leading and managing the EU partners.
3.Carrying out financial issues, including the monitoring of the costs, in order to react early and flexibly on deviations from the original cost plan after reporting to the European Authority.
4.Consortium Agreement: Setting up a project legal agreement, serving as a formal guide for the whole project. This agreement will contain all required information on the organization, ethical, legal and administrative issues. This project agreement will be binding for all members of the project consortium.