Category Archives: output

Introducing re-developed courses: Students’ readiness by DHBW

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This course aims to prepare students for their tertiary education. The participants will learn how to correctly structure and develop a scientific paper, covering all relevant steps, e.g. finding a topic, generate a structure, etc. Also, the participants will be informed about learning strategies and how to generate motivation themselves.

It is developed with the leadership of the Baden-Würtemberg Cooperative State University.

Teams of collaborators led by development leaders worked on their courses to re-develope it based on the skills and competences acquired during the short-term staff training events or the on-line VOCAL courses. To introduce their courses, deveopment leaders recorded short teasers for the public to learn about the course and the method they entertained.

Introducing re-developed courses: Intercultural Competence by UDEUSTO

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The general aim of this course is to develop Higher Education students’ Intercultural Competence by providing them with the main concepts related to the theme and by provoking group reflections about it.

It is developed with the leadership of the University of Deusto.

Teams of collaborators led by development leaders worked on their courses to re-develope it based on the skills and competences acquired during the short-term staff training events or the on-line VOCAL courses. To introduce their courses, deveopment leaders recorded short teasers for the public to learn about the course and the method they entertained.

All three training materials are finalized and available

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The initial three training materials  developed by the project partnership in order to train the staff of the collaborating organisations are ready and made available as open educational resource under  Attribution-Share Alike licence for all the teachers and learners:

  • First training material is about digitalisation of analogue content, by planning, developing and producing it. The material consist of three units, where the first unit includes history of digitalisation (also different templates avaliable), the second unit about the “conversion” process. Read more
  • Second training material consist of three units and provides information about social and cultural differences considering that cultural differences have a significant impact on the learning process nowadays. Read more
  • Third training material is about tutoring international intercultural and diverse learner groups. It consists of 5 units, providing examples and templates, the basic structure for online course. Read more

“The more I learn about intercultural competence the more I am aware about its importance”

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The importance of intercultural competences, of the course design and to know your target audience as well as the fruitful international discussions, and learning about new tools were claimed as the main benefits for participating at the 2nd (final) VOCAL short-term staff training event that took place in Heilbronn, Germany between 18-22 September.

23 participants from VOCAL partner institutions continued their work together that started in Kaunas this May to acquire competences on tutoring international, intercultural and diverse learner groups and digitalization of quality learning resources. They were working on the VOCAL Moodle platform as well as in groups, sharing the focus between the training material and the foundations of the 6 re-developed courses that will be the next great assignment for the participants.

At the end of the event we have asked participants to share what their key messages, achievements were that they will take home with them. Here are some of their responses:

“I found the guest presentations and the presented tools the most useful during the training week.”
“The international discussions were really fruitful. I could also finally have a clear picture of the course design and how to proceed about it.”
“I meet new people with whom I can continue working and I think that we can collaborate in future projects.”
“The more I learn about intercultural competence the more I am aware about its importance.”
“There’s a lot of work and thoughtful preparation when designing online courses, and that the international and intercultural dimension is almost always impossible to avoid… so it’s something that should always be considered and thought about. I also learned got a better overview of how to structure a course. I particularly liked the cultural intelligence framework and would incorporate it in my own teaching and research.”
“There are more similarities in the teaching world than expected.”
“Always over plan a training content- and activity wise, as it is better to take home “unused” slides and activities than not knowing how to kill the time.”
“Its nice and productive to use colleagues experience and to benefit from collaboration.”
“It’s very important to know your target audience. That’s where everything starts – how you structure and adapt your content, how you differentiate it and what aspects should be considered when planning.”

The VOCAL partnership appreciates and expresses its gratitude to the
Baden-Württenberg Cooperative State University Heilbronn
for the great work of organising the training event
and to all the trainers for their dedication and professionalism.

Second short-term joint staff training in Heilbronn

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Teachers and trainers from consortium institutions need competences on digitalization of quality learning resources, on designing online and open collaborative learning activities and tutoring international diverse learner groups in order for them to be able to (re)develop curriculum adapting it for online, open and intercultural active learning.

The VOCAL partners organise the second joint staff training on designing collaborative learning activities embedding digital, social and intercultural competences and digitalization of quality learning resources on 18-22 September 2017 in Heilbronn, Germany.

See the feedback on the first training event here.

The training event is only open to consortium members, however the training materials developed in the project – on digitalization of quality learning resources, on designing online collaborative learning activities embedding digital, social and intercultural competence development and on tutoring international, intercultural and diverse learner groups – will be available as open educational resource under CC BY-SA (Attribution-ShareAlike).