Digital Transformation of Higher Education and Training

"<< Background >>Digital transformation is one of the key dimensions of modern social, economic, and organisational development in adapting to the increased use of digital technologies, and to the features of the rising digital society and economy. Digital transformation also implies making changes in the strategy, operational model, processes as well as in the organisation’s culture. Due to the experience of digitalisation gained before, during, and after the pandemic, the preconditions were ripe to set up more comprehensive approach to digitalisation. In this respect, there was a recognised need for educational institutions to integrate and effectively use digital technologies in order to achieve their core mission: to educate students to be successful in a complex and interconnected world that faces rapid technological, cultural, economic, informational, and demographic change. Moreover, the pandemic accelerated the digital transformation of education that raised the major need to develop digital readiness and resilience of the institutions. The pandemic also revealed needs related to difficulties for the transition in terms of digital strategy, digital pedagogy and digital competence. Generally, these were the needs the project addressed.<< Objectives >>The DigiTransformEdu project aimed to foster the digital transformation of HE and tertiary VET institutions as its main objective. The main objective was implemented through a six-step approach (operational objectives):1.Mapping the digital readiness and resilience of educational and training institutions in response to the COVID-19 crisis (Results 1 & 2)2.Promoting the development of a digital culture by supporting institutional leadership to pursue digital strategy at institutional level (Result 3)3.Encouraging the digitalisation of educational processes and promoting effective digital-age learning by integrating the DigCompOrg framework (Results 3 & 4)4.Based on the DigCompEdu framework and the concept for the different roles of educators in an online environment, defining the knowledge and skills needed by the digital educator (Result 5) 5.Raising the digital competence of educators by organising training activities and preparing training materials (Results 5 & 6) 6.Enhancing international networking and cooperation and contributing to the EU Digital Education Action Plan (Result 6 & four MEs).<< Implementation >>The project started with research that aimed to identify lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of governance and enabling/administrative services, teaching, learning and infrastructure. In this respect, literature was reviewed and subsequently in Result 1 the survey targeted respondents who were able to evaluate institutions’ response at the level of governance and enabling services. The findings were collected in country reports that were further analysed to produce a synthesis report compiled together with the findings from Result 2.Result 2 studied the perceptions of educators and students/learners. At teaching level, the use of digital pedagogy and assessment as well as digital competence were explored. Students were targeted to dip into their perception in terms of effectiveness, adaptation to online provision, digital inclusion, engagement, quality of communication and collaboration. The picture was complemented with mapping digital infrastructure and tools. This research and mapping aimed to trigger tangible changes in digital strategy (Result 3), digital pedagogy (Result 4) and digital competence (Results 5 & 6) thanks to the provision of guidance, tools and resources.Result 3 focused on the strategical aspect of digitalisation. Starting with qualitative research and analyses of the survey results obtained in Results 1 & 2, examples of best practice were selected, described following a common template and included in a collection of case studies. Using the exploratory and analytical work coming from the case studies and complemented with analysing existing digital transformation concepts and exploring institutional approaches to digital strategy, a blueprint to guide HE and VET institutions in the development of a digital strategy was developed.Simultaneously, Result 4 addressed educators and managers to guide them in the successful operationalisation of effective digital instruction. The project team mapped successful practices, approaches and tools used for the design, delivery and assessment of digital education. The data and insights were used to define a set of guidelines and operational tools in the form of a blueprint to assist in making the transition from a traditional class-based pedagogy to a blended or pure digital one.Starting from a range of sources that reflect on the different roles of the digital educator and relying on the conducted analyses and identified learning needs, Result 5 explored further to collect inputs about the knowledge and skills needed for each role and ways to assess them. The analysis of the different roles led to a model (the Octopus model as the project team called it) that can be used to design training. Taking into consideration the job market and the main insights coming from the literature review, it was decided to design training for one of the most rising figures of the EdTech job market, the instructional designer. In addition, a learning platform was devised to serve the training and store the open educational resources elaborated in Result 6.Subsequently, Result 6 implemented the training programme and inspired by it developed self-training materials to assist educators in implementing the different roles of the digital educator. Master trainers were selected from within the partner institutions to participate in a three-day joint staff training event to experience the training programme and its facilitation. Later on, they led other educators through the training programme and used the learning platform during collaboration sessions. In addition to improving their digital competence, they worked together to replicate the training and turn it into a comprehensive range of solutions applicable to different learning and training objectives.Finally, four multiplier events ""Foster DigiTransformEdu"" gathered key stakeholders in Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, and Italy to present the project results and foster their up-taking.<< Results >>The DigiTransformEdu project produced the following outputs and results.1. Survey methodology for conducting the research in R1 & R2.2. Five country reports on mapping the digital readiness and resilience of educational institutions in response to the COVID-19 crisis in the context of governance and enabling services, teaching and learning practices, and infrastructure (Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Italy, EU level).3. Synthesis report summarising the main findings from the five country reports.4. Compiled publication containing all deliverables produced in R1 and R2 titled ""Lessons Learned From the COVID-19 Crisis: Governance and Enabling Services, Teaching, Students and Infrastructure"" and referenced with an ISBN number 978-953-322-492-3.5. Report ""Analysis and presentation of the existing digital transformation concepts"".6. Report ""Exploring the institutional approach to digital strategy"".7. Collection of best practices and case studies in the institutional strategic approach to digital transformation.8. Blueprint for digital transformation strategy in education.9. Compiled publication containing all deliverables produced in R3 titled ""Strategical Approach to Digitalisation in Education: Institutional Concepts, Best Practices, Blueprint, and Case Studies"" and referenced with an ISBN number 978-953-322-511-1.10. Literature review on the pedagogical approach to digitalisation in education.11. Collection of best practices and case studies in the pedagogical approach to digitalisation.12. Blueprint for digital transformation of pedagogy in education.13. Compiled publication containing all deliverables produced in R4 titled ""Pedagogical Approach to Digitalisation in Education: Institutional Concepts, Best Practices, Blueprint, and Case Studies"".14. The DigiTransformEdu learning platform: https://www.transformeducation.eu/.15. The DigiTransformEdu competence framework (the Octopus model).16. The DigiTransformEdu training programme to develop the skills of the instructional designer.17. A collection of digital self-training materials including short courses, video tutorials, podcasts, use of artificial intelligence, etc. available on the learning platform.18. Project website: https://www.digitransformedu.com/.19. Four multiplier events to expand the DigiTransformEdu network with key stakeholders."