Digital Capacity Building in a post COVID-19 Era.

<< Background >>The concept originated from an evaluation meeting with Mercantec teachers. Both educators and Management expressed a need for a follow-up on experiences with distance learning. They shared a mix of positive and negative insights, highlighting a desire to leverage all the gathered experiences. We introduced the concept of sharing these experiences across borders in Europe since all countries have been affected by the lockdown and had to have inputs on similar or different experiences. The partnership needed to span across Europe and include various teaching traditions to ensure a variety of perspectives on online distance learning. The lockdown presented the VET sector with a unique opportunity to rethink the way classes were conducted. VET schools, often under pressure for space, could consider distance learning as a means to address this obstacle. However, it should not come at the expense of the students' learning experience.We addressed solutions to advance blended learning by the inputs and experience of teachers and students. We addressed the increased number of student who dropped out during the lockdowm from the lack of social inclusion and difficulties with distance learning. << Objectives >>This project has provided solutions to advance blended learning, drawing on the contributions and experiences of teachers and students within the partnership. Additionally, we aimed to tackle the issue of an increased dropout rate among VET school students during the COVID-19 lockdown. We believe that the lack of social inclusion and challenges associated with distance learning were significant contributing factors to this rise.The primary goal of the project was to gather insights from digital distance learning to enhance digital preparedness among teachers and students in the European VET sector. Additionally, the project aimed to tackle fundamental challenges that all VET schools must address when advancing with digital distance learning. These challenges could pave the way for more innovative practices and digital transformation within the VET sector. The project partners sought to learn from various teaching cultures by adopting different pedagogical and didactical approaches, as well as to inspire others to advance the transformation of the VET sector.<< Implementation >>This project focused on exchange of good practices and capasity building of teachers to strengthen the compenteces of the instutions involved in the project and to share findings with the VET sector.This project consisted of 5 partners from 5 European countries who examined questions and developed an outline for a didactic for digital readiness. The project consisted of: 5 work packages: WP1 - Good Practices Pooling. WP2 - Social Inclusion for students online. WP3 - Creating relations in the digital learningspace - Inclusion (Mapping student experiences) WP4 - Didactics and Paedagogy (inclusion) WP5 Creating Digital Learning Space 5 Learning-Teaching-Training Events connected were held for each of the work packages. 5 transnational meetings in each partner country (Italy, Spain, Estonia and Denmark). The transnational project meetings were used for monitoring the progress and quality of the project as well as planning future activities in order to keep the deliverance of the project on track. << Results >>The outcomes of the project were: - Created a project web-page about the good digital practices mapped by teachers . - Created a Digital code of conduct for students - Recommandations for future distance learning lesson were suggested- Recommendations for teachers on digital didactics and paedagogy aproaches were suggested - Posters on do's and don't for students and teachers were created - Recommendations on how to establish digital learning environments were suggested- The outcomes are published as text and/or podcasts to be circulated to the VET sector. - All project results are published on project web-page https://dicap.socdata.dk/