Implementation of Digitalization in Defence Higher Education

Through the KA2 action of Erasmus+, common study modules were created, for the curriculum uniformity, on specialized programs of the defence system, including mobility internships for students and staff. AFAHC, MNU, WSU were involved in the design of such a module. The disadvantage of these modules is given by the teaching/ learning methods not being adapted to the current pandemic situation.As a result, AFAHC, together with its partners, proposes a solution to eliminate, at least partially, the classical format of the teaching materials designed for modules. Why is the project proposed at transnational level? To continue the project completed in 2018 by AFAHC and partners but also to continue the process of standardization of skills, for each specialty, at European level. An extra reason for the design of this project is the pace of development of technical systems used in all areas of activity and their digitalization.In order to achieve the purpose of the project, to enhance the level of students training by updating the teaching/ learning methods to the current context, and as a result of the needs analysis in the partner academies, the following partial objectives were established:1. Raising the level of digital skills of teachers in partner universities2. Raising the level of student involvement and attraction to the research process3. Introducing digital educational resources4. Presence and introduction in the teaching/ learning process of VR and AR systems in all partner universities5. Founding a library where all the project materials can be foundThe obtained results make the 2 categories of project participants, target group and beneficiaries, merge to a large extent.The teacher target groups (16 people in the team) and students (32 people in the project) that will design the project objectives will also become its beneficiaries, upon the project completion. To the same extent, the higher forums and profile ministries involved in the dissemination (and even assessment) process also become its beneficiaries at the end of the project, in the light of hiring future graduates trained according to the new teaching/ learning methods.Throughout the project, peers (teachers and students) from European organizations will be involved, mainly in the dissemination process, in different stages, to achieve a high impact at international level but also a high rate of the project results transferability. Out of the desire to attract the economic environment to invest in defence education, IT– related companies will be involved in the project activities. A correct and successful development of the project contains stages of design, implementation and assessment, disseminationIn accordance with the project objectives, by target group categories, the following activities were considered:1. Design of educational resources in digital format for a number of 12 disciplines, technical and humanistic2. Design/ development of VR/ AR applications for the established disciplines, depending on their profile and specifics. These applications are suitable for technical disciplines that include practical lessons.3. Introduction of all educational resources in a digital library with open access to the universities in the project and to their partners, in the future.4. Self-assessment activities throughout the project, to show the level of objectives achievement on each stage5. Dissemination activities aimed to increase the project visibility and to obtain the necessary feedback for assessment and improvement of the project resultsSome activities overlap but it should beThe success of the project will be assessed in terms of the impact of each result allocated to a project objective, respectively its purpose.Impact assessment will indicate changes that have occurred as a result of the project implementation. Assessment will be done during the project, upon its completion and in the long term, and the target group includes all participants in the project, in its various stages.Impact will be assessed from quantitative and qualitative perspective and will be measured by self-assessment or satisfaction questionnaires:-interest shown by a larger/ smaller number of teachers (compared to the number at the beginning of the project) in the development (separately from the project) of their own educational resources but also in the use of the partial results of the project-degree to which peers from European partner universities accept the results of the project-degree of access and further enrichment of the digital library developed through the project by peers from EU partner universities, which will be a reference point for the sustainability of the projectFinally, the impact assessment verifies the extent to which the project development has led to a change in the conception of teaching methods and acceptance by students and teachers of the digital format as an alternative to classical educational resources