The COVID emergency has forced Universities in much of the world to transfer teaching activities online, giving life to the largest digitization experiment in history. The event has presented Hi-Teach, an European project to support high education (HE) teachers in digitizing and rethinking their teaching activity.
An epochal change in teaching activity
The COVID emergency is a challenge destined to influence profoundly the academic scenario of the future, making e-learning a permanent component of university teaching and placing individual teachers and the governance of different universities at a crossroads: whether to resort to the simple and outdated remote video lessons or to use standardized training products, not conceived to place the student at the centre of the teaching process. It is more and more difficult to reconcile these approaches and tools with the plurality and heterogeneity of learning needs. These needs are rather to be interpreted and satisfied to prevent a risk, among other things increasing due to COVID, of a reduction in enrolments and of financial resources for universities.
How to deal with this epochal change in teaching?
On 11 January 2023 the second multi player Hi Teach event was hosted at the University of Salerno, with Prof. Colace serving as the project's scientific director. Prof. Francesco Colace provides an introduction of European planning before presenting findings from the Hi-teaching Learning Program. The event was attended by teachers, PhD students and high school students.
Prof. Francesco Colace introducing the Hi-Teach project during the dissemination seminar event.
An EU project to transform teachers into Hi-teachers
The 3-year Hi-Teach project (June 1, 2021 – May 31, 2023) aims to provide a third way to transform teachers into Hi-Teachers. Thanks to the collaboration of 10 universities from 5 European countries (Greece, Italy, Poland, Slovenia and Spain) and two training centers on technological innovation (from Italy and Spain), Hi-Teach will strengthen digital skills and teaching approach of university teachers, providing them with the most up-to-date methodologies and tools.
An open-source platform for all HE teachers
So far, 50 European teachers from various scientific disciplines have been involved in the Project to create content and collect the necessary information and sources. The Hi-Teach platform is almost ready, while the pilot phase on its usability will start in February 2023. The closure of the project and the opening of the Hi-teach platform to the public is scheduled for the end of May 2023. From that moment all teachers will be able to access methodological guides, video pills, teaching and learning methods and strategies, as well as further information materials on the most challenging topics of smart e-learning and e-teaching, namely: designing online lessons, planning activities for students, digital resources, learning based on gamification, innovative movie education based on short and feature films and formative assessment of students' knowledge. There will also be many open-source educational resources and a manual that will serve as a methodological compendium.