Digital readiness and capacity building of humanities professors in universities through partnership with digital technologies companies

"<< Background >>In the complex context of the Covid-19 global pandemics, the university education has been suddenly and heavily forced to adapt almost immediately to an online teaching environment and to transform lectures, classes and training process accordingly. The vast & long-term closure of the universities has pressured them for restructuring and reorientation, both in the teaching methods and in the form of training delivery. This has caused stress among the teaching staff and disruptions in the teaching proces. The negative effects have been & still are especially strong & visible for humanities subjects & professors/assistants. That is why it is really important the university professors in humanities to quickly develop & enhance their skills and competences in the field of digital technologies & their application to create and apply digital resources in the learning process. Therefore, a project like DigitUni is the great importance for maintaining this basic branch of human knowledge which the humanities undoubtedly represent. << Objectives >>The implementation of the proposed activities and the achievement of the expected results will enable wider dissemination and broader application of the modern digital technologies in a way that is accessible and understandable for humanitarian specialists. At the same time, DigitUni contributed to avoid the danger of over-technologization and over-digitization of the humanitarian knowledge and teaching process. As it is especially important for university professors in the humanities community not to lose focus in such crisis moment and not to swing too much in the digital direction at the expense of the humanitarian one. A balanced approach, taking into account the specifics of the humanitarian fields, like the DigitUni proposes, will have a serious resonance and impact in university circles. << Implementation >>There were four intellectual outputs created during the project:R1 ""DigitUni Methodological framework"". The lead partner UTBV prepared the initial structure of the Framework, distributed the tasks for all partners. Finally combined the input and prepared the final Methodological Framework document. VIKO was the leader of R2 – the Toolbox. They elaborated the structure (based on R1) and distributed the thematic chapters among the partners along with detailed instruction on how the content should be developed. All partners contributed by developing the content of the Toolbox. Afterwards, VIKO made compilation of all content. After the piloting phase, VIKO integrated the received feedback and produced the final version of DigitUni Toolbox. FRAME was the leader of R3 “Manual on hybrid/online education process"". They were responsible for the methodological framework of the document and the distribution of the different chapters among partners. After the piloting phase, Frame coordinated the incorporation of the received feedback and produced the final version. UniPatras was leader of R4 ""DigitUni e-platform and interactive library"". They developed instructions for the Repository documents collection and created the e-platform to host all project outputs. All partners collected the content for the Repository. After the piloting, UniPatras integrated the revisions in the platform and provided the final version of the result. << Results >>The main objective of DigitUni proposal is to support the digital transformation and to strengthen the capacity of humanities professors to provide high-quality, inclusive, digital education through development of their digital competences and strengthening their cooperation with companies-experts in digital technologies. The concrete aims of the proposal are: • To increase the capacity and improve the readiness of Humanities departments in universities to implement online, blended and distance teaching in a hybrid or online environment through strengthening & expanding of the digital pedagogical skills and competences of their staff. • To enable humanities professors & assistants to deliver high quality inclusive digital education though development of innovative methods for overcoming of existing barriers and difficulties with the support of leading companies in digital technologies • To adapt the existing tools and to create new digital resources to support the humanities professors & assistants to prepare innovative digital education content to be used in a hybrid/online education process. • To establish collaboration between digital technologies companies and humanities university departments in order to develop tailor-made digital solutions adapted to local challenges to support the digital transformation process in universities • promoted networking of humanities departments & professors across the EU to share resources and expertise in the hybrid/online education process."