Adult Educators Digital Skills - DigitALAD Handbook

Adult Educators Digital Skills DigitALAD Handbook

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Contents Handbook overview .......................................................................................................................................................3 1.

Digital Competences: What are they and why they are important? .................................................................4

2.

Educators' professional competences ................................................................................................................7 C1. Organisational communication ...........................................................................................................................7 C2. Professional collaboration ..................................................................................................................................9 C3. Reflective practice ............................................................................................................................................11 C4. Digital Continuous Professional Development .................................................................................................13

3.

Educators' pedagogic competences ..................................................................................................................15 3.1.

Digital resources ........................................................................................................................................15

C5. Selecting digital resources ................................................................................................................................15 C6. Creating and modifying digital resources .........................................................................................................16 C7. Managing, protecting, sharing: .........................................................................................................................18 3.2.

Teaching and learning ...............................................................................................................................19

C8. Teaching ............................................................................................................................................................19 C9. Guidance ...........................................................................................................................................................21 C10. Collaboration learning ....................................................................................................................................23 C11. Self-regulated learning ...................................................................................................................................25 3.3.

Assessment ................................................................................................................................................27

C12. Assessment strategies ....................................................................................................................................27 C13. Analysing evidence .........................................................................................................................................29 C14. Feedback & planning ......................................................................................................................................30 3.4.

Empowering learners ................................................................................................................................31

C15. Accessibility & Inclusion ..................................................................................................................................31 C16. Differentiation & personalisation ...................................................................................................................34 C17. Actively Engaging Learners .............................................................................................................................37 4.

Learners' competences – Facilitating learners' digital competence ................................................................41 C18. Information and media literacy ......................................................................................................................41 C19. Communication...............................................................................................................................................43 C20. Content creation .............................................................................................................................................45 C21. Safety ..............................................................................................................................................................47 C22. Problem solving ..............................................................................................................................................49

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Evaluation, validation & recognition of outcomes ...........................................................................................51 References: .............................................................................................................................................................56

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Handbook overview This handbook aims to provide adult educators/trainers with the framework of the digital skills they need to be equipped to be competent as professionals. It is an easy-to-use package emphasising the importance of being digitally literate and it provides practical ways to apply the key competences in practice. It can also be used as a guide for adult educators to keep digital efforts upgraded and aligned with modern practices.

The content of the handbook is developed based on the results and recommendations of the prior research that has been conducted by the consortium and the guidelines of the European Commission. The 22 key competences are aligned with the European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu), a scientifically sound background framework to guide actions and policy implementation.

For each competence, there is a definition, examples of use, techniques to apply it in practice, relevant tools and additional readings. Therefore, adult educators are provided with clear expectations of what they need to display and use during their daily practice. This way, their learners are also expected to benefit and develop their own digital awareness and skills.

The handbook is comprised of 5 sections: 1. What are digital competences and why they are important?

2. Educators' digital professional competences 3. Educators' digital pedagogic competences 4. Learners' digital competences 5. Evaluation, validation & recognition of digital competences

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1. Digital Competences: What are they and why they are important?

The rapid evolution of technology has caused several changes in different aspects of our lives, such as leisure time, the way we work or communicate, or even the access to information and knowledge1. Digital competences are essential for learning, work and active participation in society. The term digital competence refers to the ability of using confidently and critically the full range of digital technologies for information, communication and basic problem-solving in all aspects of life.

The European Commission pinpoints that these changes also have a direct effect on the labour market. The different sectors of the economy are starting to demand individuals with more complex ICT skills. Therefore, every citizen needs to have some basic digital competences to face this challenge.

Acquiring these digital competences will help citizens to use digital technologies efficiently and critically, but also to facilitate the process of "self-evaluation, setting learning goals, identifying training opportunities and facilitating job search" (European Commission, 2020). These competences must be taught, hand in hand with strong literacy and numeracy skills, critical and innovative thinking, solutions to complex problems, the ability to collaborate and socioemotional skills.

The Digital Competence Framework for Educators2 carried out by the European Commission consists of six competence areas in three levels concerning the acquisition of 22 competences.

As shown in the figure 1 below, the three levels refer to the: 1. Educators’ professional competences 2. Educators’ pedagogic competences 3. Learners’ competences These levels clearly indicate the complexity of roles educators need to exhibit, as they need to act as professionals, teachers and role models. They are called to be active citizens and highly involved participants of the society, both personally and professionally, as they are distinguished by their specialized knowledge. At the same time, their primary and more obvious work relies to the role of learning facilitators, or more plainly teachers. Through the dedication of their teaching practice, they have a responsibility to pass on their expertise as well as the general digital competences for life and employability to their aspired learners.

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Redecker, C. (2017). European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu). Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. DOI:10.2760/159770.

2 Ibid

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Figure 1. DigCompEdu areas and scope

The six competence areas focused are explained below and graphically presented in figure 2:

1. Professional Engagement - Using digital technologies for communication, collaboration, and 2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

professional development.

Digital Resources - Sourcing, creating, and sharing digital resources.

Teaching and Learning - Managing and orchestrating the use of digital technologies in teaching and learning.

Assessment - Using digital technologies and strategies to enhance assessment.

Empowering Learners - Using digital technologies to enhance inclusion, personalization, and learners’ active engagement.

Facilitating Learners’ Digital Competence - Enabling learners to use digital technologies creatively and responsibly for information, communication, content creation, wellbeing and problem-solving.

Teachers are responsible for the education of citizens and they must be equipped with advanced digital skills. For that purpose, they must be trained in these competencies and apply them in their teaching practice. In the following pages, educators can easily address these competences, reflect on them and find innovating ways to adapt with them.

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Figure 2. DigCompEdu competences and their connections

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2.

Educators' professional competences

C1. Organisational communication Organisational communication refers to the use of digital technologies to connect educators with learners, colleagues and third parties. It mainly involves developing communication strategies for organisation and collaboration.

Examples of the use of competence: Communication through physical interaction is vital within an organisation. When people are physically separated, they simultaneously get intellectually separated too. It is crucial to maintain organisational communication through several digital means.

Organisational communication involves digital means, procedures, practices, and strategies of making connections. Some examples of organisational communication include:

• • • •

Disseminating information and learning resources to learners.

Informing about organisational procedures, e.g., rules, announcements, events.

Collaborating with colleagues, staff, guests, associates.

Using digital services to communicate, e.g., website, platform, MLS (Management Learning Systems), VLE (Virtual Learning Environments).

• Structuring new communication strategies for collaboration, making available important information.

How can you enhance your organisational communication?

Communication is essential for every organisation for both traditional and remote working conditions. Digital communication strategies multiply interactions between individuals and enhance cooperation within an organisation. Consequently, engagement, satisfaction and productivity of employees are maximised. Some ideas for improving organisational communication in your working environment are presented below:

• Understand the structure of existing communication systems in your organisation: identify if and where they lack and think about how they can improve.

• Propose your revised and improved plan of communication strategy: introduce a new platform or tool. Ensure that it can be integrated with the existing programs, fit the organisation's needs, and provide sound solutions.

• Inform yourself about the available and licensed digital means in your organisation.

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Innovative ways to make use of the competence in action Organisational communication needs time and effort, while its benefits are not easily detected.

However, it is demonstrated that it can be an excellent investment for your organisation's health because it regulates the balance between operations, roles, and procedures.

• Link organisational communication with the strategic plan (vision, mission, values, and goals) • • • • •

– by promoting, e.g., support & collegiality, ethical practice, efficiency, problem-solving, agility etc.

Create channels of communication to disseminate messages (both top-down and bottom-up) – through virtual groups of people (e.g., email groups).

Generate and provide regular feedback through the organisation's human resource management software system.

Select a customised and straightforward communication.

Attend or organise relevant trainings about the company's communication policies, effective writing and speaking skills, appropriate channels, and protocols.

Ask colleagues for feedback regularly through online questionnaires and respond to their concerns.

Related digital tools

• Microsoft 365: It consists of many useful tools, such as the latest version of Office apps with • • • • •

advanced security options, Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, which can increase the collaboration and coordination of your team.

Dropbox: This cloud-based storage service can boost the collaboration of a team. It allows all members to access, edit, or share the files of their shared library.

Microsoft Teams: This tool is provided by Microsoft 365 and offers videoconferencing, chatting, sharing files, sending assignments, providing feedback and other functions with the ability to ingrate more apps.

Vanco education: Vanco is an adult education administration software that allows online registrations to classes, assessments, digital attendance sheets, schedules arrangement and reminders.

Google groups and calendar: Certain groups of people can be easily moved into a common email address, so they can receive and send messages to all members at once. They can also use the calendar to arrange meetings and conferences.

Doodle: This is a free tool to coordinate people's availability for a meeting or to vote on an issue (either anonymously or not).

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C2. Professional collaboration Professional collaboration refers to the use of digital technologies for exchanging knowledge, ideas, and experience with other educators. The primary purpose is to discover new and improve existing pedagogic practices.

Examples of use: Digital collaboration enables more frequent interactions among people. This leads to higher levels of engagement, belongingness, and productivity of individuals. Professional cooperation includes exchanging ideas and knowledge on a transparent context of communication. Some indicative examples of this competence are:

• • • •

Collaborating with colleagues on a specific project or task in the distance.

Sharing resources, materials and knowledge with peers using digital means.

Developing digital educational resources.

Using professional networks to explore effective pedagogic practices and methods and a source of other areas of professional development.

How can you enhance your professional collaboration?

Several digital tools and innovative technologies offer flexible ways to connect with others, either working remotely or in the same place:

• Make regular online group meetings with different network members (e.g., learners, colleagues, management, external educators, etc.).

• Share opinions, experiences or ask questions in specific digital forums and platforms – be part of online communities.

• Share educational resources and material with colleagues and invite them to do the same – upload your work to the cloud.

• Use the integrated calendar of your email service to arrange appointments, meetings, or reminders.

Innovative ways to make use of the competence in action Collaboration is a social activity. However, it differs from communication. Collaboration is about the contribution to existing knowledge and creation of innovation. Therefore, it requires formal changes in operation and strong cultural support within an organisation. Here are some ways to improve professional collaboration in your organisation:

• Create digital social cohesion with connections of trust – connect with your colleagues on social networking websites.

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• Involve more individuals in decision-making and problem-solving by making short bilateral online meetings with more than one person – it promotes a collaborative culture. It gives the feeling that skills among the team are complementary.

• Use collaboration tools for openness and innovation – Encourage open online conversations in internal or external forums to bring at the surface innovative ideas and acceptance of risktaking attitude.

• Spend time to constructively criticise existing practices and pursue new ideas – drop your thoughts in an online, anonymous suggestion box and encourage others to do the same.

Related digital tools

• Zoom is one of the most widely known free software for videoconferences. It is used in education as well as in enterprises. It has many features to enhance interactivity, social engagement, and collaborative experience.

• EPALE (European Platform of Adult Learning and Education) is an online community for adult learning professionals in Europe. It functions as a learning and information hub for those who deliver and organise adult education.

• EAEA (European Association for the Education of Adults) is a pan-European NGO representing a network of numerous organisations and learners in the adult sector. The association frequently participates in projects and leads studies providing useful data and resources that adult educators can take advantage of.

• Google Drive / One Drive are cloud storage services that allow saving a considerable number of files, instant sharing, real-time editing, users working simultaneously.

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C3. Reflective practice Reflective practice is formative self-assessment on the digital pedagogical practices of an individual or the educational community.

Examples of use: Assessment is the primary vehicle to improvement. The reflective practice offers opportunities for improvement to educators by analysing their progress, skills, competences, and capabilities.

It strives to the identification of strengths and weaknesses. This analysis can lead to the improvement of existing abilities and the development of new ones.

Reflective practice involves critical thinking on the teaching-learning process and digital practice quality by the same individual. Therefore, activities of reflective practice involve:

• • • • •

Identifying gaps and areas to improve digital and pedagogical practice Seeking training needs, opportunities to learn, and key people to help this process Exploring new digital practices and continuously enhancing the existing ones Supporting others in developing their digital competence Reflecting on, providing feedback, and contributing to improve the organisation's digital policies and procedures

How can you enhance your reflective practice?

Neil Thompson3 suggests the following steps to enhance reflective practice:

• Read about what you would like to learn and improve, or which digital skills are valued in your profession and your context.

• Involve yourself in relevant online discussions - ask others in forums how they have managed to upskill themselves and why.

• Observe others' responses, including learners, colleagues, friends; how they react to your practices, what are their answers and reactions?

• Internalise and observe your feelings and actions.

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Thompson, N. (1996). People Skills. London: Palgrave

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Reflective practice is a continuous process, an ongoing cycle.

It requires the individual to accept that nothing is perfect, but it can always be improved. Experience alone does not make better, but utilisation of it does. The idea is to learn from yourself and your practice, to maximise the benefits of learners.

• Challenge your assumptions.

• Observe the learners' response critically.

• Work on yourself.

Innovative ways to make use of the competence in action The checklist of reflective practice – 6Rs:

• React: observing on data (i.e., learners' performance, comments, feedback) and deciding on • • • • •

which area of your digital practice you need to focus on.

Record: documenting your performance.

Review: understanding your current digital practice (what works well and what does not).

Revise: adapting your practice to new digital approaches, tools, means.

Rework: planning of future improved digital practice.

Reassess: evaluating how new strategies affect learners' digital competences.

Related digital tools

• Online forms & questionnaires (e.g., Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, Kwiksurveys) offer you the ability to quickly disseminate your questions and automatically present the results of evaluation forms.

• Microteaching involves videotaping your lesson to review it. You will be amazed by the amount of information and discoveries you can make from it. You can always watch the course with a colleague or an experienced educator and ask for their feedback.

• Digital notebooks (e.g., Evernote, OneNote, Google Keep) allow you to handle any notes, while you can carry them always with you by syncing apps across your smart devices.

• B/Vlogging and Podcasting in relevant platforms (e.g. EPALE) and forums allow you to share your experiences and teaching in practice, while colleagues can give you constructive feedback.

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C4. Digital Continuous Professional Development Digital CPD refers to the ongoing improvement of your teaching practice using digital resources Examples of use: Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is a widely used term in the 21st century working world. Learning is a constant process, and adult educators need to be engaged in this cycle to keep developing their abilities.

Some general activities that indicate CPD using technology are:

• Using the internet to seek training opportunities (e.g., tutorials, MOOCs, webinars, seminars, • • • •

etc.).

Using online information to focus on a subject.

Using online sources to expand andragogy methods.

Using digital tools and resources to enhance professional efficiency.

Using digital environments to provide training to others.

How can you enhance your CPD? Doug Lemov4 advises us to increase the impact of CPD by applying the following techniques:

1. Practising the 80-20 rule: Spend more time improving the 20% of things that are most critical and responsible for the most considerable amount of value that the other 80%. In other words, stick to your priorities first.

2. Focus on specific things: Work intensively on a certain skill which requires strategic thinking and self-discipline. You first need to identify the key competence you want to improve, isolate it and be persistent.

3. Facilitate feedback circles: One of the most essential elements of formative assessment is feedback and consecutive practice.

Innovative ways to make use of the competence in action We live in an era of rapid changes and improvements, while technology is rarely not part of innovations. We all need to progress with these changes and adapt quickly to upcoming trends, whether these include tools, techniques, skills, knowledge, attitudes etc. Continually improving your digital skills is one of your responsibilities towards learners.

• Search for and attend online courses for specific topics you would like to improve.

• Seek help from the IT expert of your organisation, a colleague, or even a student.

• Apply newly gained knowledge in class and ask for feedback from your students.

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Lemov, D. (2012) Practice Perfect. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc

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• The risk of using new digital tools and techniques.

• Connect with professional collaborative networks online to exchange practice.

• Look online for new webinars, video tutorials or other sources of knowledge.

Related digital tools

• Google scholar: If access in research databases is not provided by your organisation, you can always use google scholar and other open access aggregators to expand your learning on a topic based on evidence.

• MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses, e.g., Coursera, edX, Udemy) is an easy, affordable, and flexible way to learn new skills and advance your career, as well as offer your own expertise online.

• Online professional networks keep you in touch with the national or international scene the new trends and relevant innovations of your profession (e.g. AERC, ICAE, UIL, etc.).

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3.

Educators' pedagogic competences

3.1. Digital resources C5. Selecting digital resources This competence consists of knowing how to conduct research to find quality information.

Conducting reliable research implies analysing and critically evaluating the credibility and reliability of the sources.

Utility in practice To access quality information, content and data, it is necessary to conduct quality research beforehand. For this purpose, the online search engines, such as Google, can filter the information depending on the keywords you set. Once this is done, it is essential to analyse, compare, and critically evaluate the sources' credibility and reliability so that the content to be used is truthful.

Apart from Google, other search engines might be useful for researching, such as Bing, Yahoo Search, Ask.com and Archive.org, DuckDuckGo, Google Scholar etc.

Resources & practices All these search engines work similarly, using keywords or hierarchical trees organised by topics.

The search results are a list of web addresses in which topics related to the searched keywords are mentioned. Therefore, this competence can be developed by asking students to do their own research, selecting the keywords before browsing the web. It is essential to compare and contrast the results obtained, as sometimes at the beginning, some adds might appear.

Apply the competence An innovative way to develop this competence could be to determine the keywords before performing research, selecting among those to write on the engine, and finally comparing the different results obtained to verify the source's reliability. It could also be interesting to search the same topic in different search engines to see the given results' differences.

Tools

• Searching engines: o o o o

Google / Google Scholar DuckDuckGo Yahoo Bing / Ask

• Repositories o o o o

S4F IMAS Vetiver Pixabay

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C6. Creating and modifying digital resources This competence implies knowing how to create your own digital content and to modify existing content, respecting copyright licences Utility in practice Several digital repositories contain different resources according to a concrete topic or type of file. Pixabay, for example, is a repository full of free images. It is essential to learn how to access these resources to respecting the licenses. Developing the ability to create and modify resources, like videos or infographics, is extremely practical since it enables teachers to include every single content or topic. On the other hand, students could benefit from developing this competence since creating content will let them review the contents included.

Resources & practices This competence can be developed by creating different videos, infographics or the modification or the incorporation of already existing content in, for example, interactive images or interactive videos. Teachers and students could use several useful tools to develop this competence, such as Genial.ly, Canva, Powtoon, Videoscribe or Camtasia.

In this competence, it is important to know how to integrate the different tools to create a complete resource where all the essential materials are concreted. For this purpose, Camtasia, Genal.ly or Scorm files can be useful.

Apply the competence We can ask our students to create their own videos about different topics and incorporate them into an interactive image on Genial.ly. Another example could be modifying already existing free videos, adding various effects and dubbing the characters' voices that appear in those videos, in video editing tools, such as Videopad and Camtasia.

Tools

• Video: Camtasia • Animations: o Powtoon, o Videoscribe • Infographics: o Genial.ly, o Canva • Image: o Pixrl, 16

o Gimp • Audio: o Spreaker, o Audacity • Scorm: o Xerte, o Storyline 360, o Adobe Captivate

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C7. Managing, protecting, sharing: This competence relates to the organisation and storing of the digital content that can be found online and learn how to protect your own content in terms of copyright and share this content in the appropriate environments to be accessible to other users.

Utility in practice Students must know several resources to storage their creations and understand the different Creative Commons licenses and the possibility of sharing their own content to the general public or limiting the access. Almost every tool for creating digital content presents the opportunity to share the content made.

Resources & practices This competence can be developed by managing and storing their resources on different platforms such as Symbaloo or Pearltrees. The two platforms offer the possibility to be always connected, being considered an AAA type of resources (Anywhere, Anytime, Any device).

Moreover, they could also share their created contents with others, while respecting and understanding the different licenses.

Apply the competence For example, students will have to share their creations on YouTube and Genial.ly once they are finished. Another activity could be the use of Google Drive to store and manage different digital contents.

Tools

• Organize: o PearlTrees, o Symbaloo, o Pinterest • Manage and store: o Google Drive, o One Drive • All the above serve to share information • Protecting: Creative Commons licenses

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3.2. Teaching and learning C8. Teaching Teaching in a digital environment means planning and implementing digital devices and resources in the learning process to improve learning efficiency and properly manage digital learning strategies and develop new teaching formats and pedagogical methods.

Examples of the use of competence The acquisition of this competence is vital because it provides an opportunity for the educator to use classroom technology to support learning and structure the lesson so that the various digital activities achieve learning objectives.

The teacher can structure and manage lesson content, collaborate and interact with students in a digital environment, reflect on the effectiveness and appropriateness of selected digital pedagogical strategies and flexibly adapt methods and techniques to experiment, develop new formats, methods for teaching (e.g., flipped classroom, blended learning, peer-learning, projectbased learning, personalised learning, Game-based learning, How can you develop this competence?

• By exploring the theory of innovative teaching methods and practising high tech approaches to teaching (e.g., game-based learning, project-based learning etc.)

• Using available classroom technologies, e.g., digital whiteboards, projectors, PCs, Google Classroom) or implementing new technologies by adapting them to students' needs.

• By organising and managing the integration of digital devices (e.g., classroom technologies, students' devices) and integrate digital content, e.g., videos, interactive activities into the teaching and learning process.

• By using interactive learning principles ( Thomas C. Reeves 5 emphasises that there should be three key components that must be included in every interactive learning principles: engagement, where learner must be motivated to accomplish tasks, interaction where learner interacts with the relevant content or tasks in a ways where it can be clearly understood by student and feedback where students' decisions and actions must be recognised by the digital system and acknowledged trough assessment) all these principles are key to student engagement in the digital classroom.

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Reeves T.C. (2012) Interactive Learning Techniques. In: Seel N.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA.

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Innovative ways to make use of the competence in action

• Using podcasts for your lessons can help you with the teaching process (e.g., motivational podcasts, interviews and online courses are available online on various topics of interest).

• Simulating a virtual field trip using Google Cardboard (to learn history, exploring historical places, study the phenomena of the earth etc.)

• Bringing social media into the curriculum can help you connect students to curriculum, classroom resources. By creating a Facebook or Whatsapp group specifically for your group of students, you can post discussion topics and share relevant information.

Resources: Cell phone Survey - the questions in this survey give teachers information about their students' access to cell phones, the types of phones they use, and how they use them.

Blended Learning for the Adult Education Classroom -this is free, downloadable step-by-step guide is intended to help teachers and administrators in adult education programs explore approaches to integrating blended learning into their classroom methodology.

Tech Tips for Teachers -this World Education blog offers a menu of practical lessons, including topics such as mobile writing, using Google Docs, and using discussion boards in the classroom.

Digital literacy -this comprehensive site offers practical tools for educators, such as tutorials on health issues, copyright basics, how to take an online course, Internet safety precautions, basic computer skills, and professional presentation on social media.

Related tools:

• • • • • •

MS Office YouTube Google Classroom Windows Movie Maker Mindmup Google Podcasts

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C9. Guidance Guidance competence means using digital technologies and services to improve interaction with learners on an individual and collective level during learning and after it. It means using digital technologies to provide timely and targeted guidance and assistance to students and experiment and develop new forms and formats to offer learners guidance and support.

Examples of the use of competence The importance of this competence is reflected in the fact that teacher can interact with the learners in the digital environment and digitally monitor the students' behaviour in the lessons and offer advice, guidance and support through digital technologies whether it is academic guidance or career guidance.

How can you develop this competence?

• Using digital communication tools (email, chat social networks) to quickly respond to the learner's questions related to the learning process, such as homework, tests.

• By using different learning platforms, learning or course management systems (CMS), (LMS).

• By sharing and using different Career Counselling Resources on the Internet (e.g., career guidance or job seeking tips).

Innovative ways to make use of the competence in action Using Formative assessment allows educators to better gauge their students' comprehension of class concepts. When combined with digital solutions, struggling students can be identified and receive help before their grades start to drop.

Implement a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and get students to use their mobile devices to contribute to in-class polls and quizzes. This can give educator instant feedback on whether students have understood concepts explained in class (where there is only one correct answer) or to generate debate on more nuanced philosophical topics (e.g. Tophat, Turning Technologies).

Related tools:

• Gmail, Yandex, MS Outlook – for emailing students and communicating with them • Edmodo - Edmodo is a web-based platform similar to Facebook where teachers can post assignments and students can upload documents to share. Unlike Facebook, Edmodo is a closed the environment where the teacher approves and enrols students.

• Moodle - Moodle is a learning platform or course management system (CMS)—a free opensource software package designed to help educators create effective online learning communities. It is often used for college courses or blended learning.

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• Blackboard - Blackboard is a learning management system (LMS) that allows for online communication among students and between students and instructor. Blackboard is a common choice for college classes.

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C10. Collaboration learning Collaboration learning means using digital technologies to promote and improve learner collaboration, communication and knowledge creation.

Examples of the use of competence This competence can be used by implementing collaborative learning activities (e.g., pair or group discussions) in which digital devices, resources or digital information strategies are used. Also, it can be used by employing digital technologies for collaborative knowledge exchange among learners.

How can you develop this competence?

• By exploring different models of collaboration (e.g., Remote where student devices are connected to a shared document or LMS (learning management system), and students communicate via chat or comment feature, Role-based where students work on smaller, individual tasks based on their role within the group and Shared screen where students work side-by-side, discussing and taking turns to complete an activity using one device6 .

• By implementing collaborative activities or projects to encourage learners to use digital technologies to support their work, e.g., for internet search or present their results.

• By requiring learners to document their collaborative efforts using digital technologies, e.g., digital presentations, videos, blog posts.

• By setting up collaborative activities in a digital environment, e.g., blogs, wikis, Moodle, virtual learning environments.

Innovative ways to make use of the competence in action

• You can monitor and guide learners' collaborative interaction in digital environments and use digital technologies to enable learners to share insights with others and receive peerfeedback and individual assignments.

• You can use build in time for activities that help groups and partners get to know each other, both early in the development process and on an ongoing basis.

• You can flip the classroom by uploading the online lecture and allow students to view the lecture portion of the lesson plan on their own time puts a lot of responsibility on them. Still, it frees up a large amount of class time for more collaborative work. This changes the dynamic of the classroom from teacher-focused to student-centred.

• You can use class time to encourage brainstorming sessions. In these sessions, students are free to create and express their ideas. Open discourse enables educators to evaluate

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Burns M. (2017) Tasks before apps: designing rigorous learning in a tech-rich classroom. Alexandria, Virginia USA: ASCD

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students' understanding of concepts and pair them with peers who compliment their weaknesses.

Related tools:

• • • • • • • • •

Google docs - a platform for sharing a document and building it together Padlet - interactive collaborative board.

Lino - interactive collaborative board.

Google slides - a platform enabling to build a collaborative slideshow Emaze - a tool for creating a creative slideshow Animoto - a tool for creating videos Flipgrid - a tool for creating video blogs Spider scribe - a tool for creating thinking maps OneNote - using digital tools like educators can encourage peer-assisted learning in the classroom. Completed assignments can be shared and accessed by different students, and students can offer their suggestions for improvement in the documents themselves.

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C11. Self-regulated learning Self-regulated learning is when learners plan, monitor, reflect on their knowledge and develop creative solutions using digital technologies.

Examples of the use of competence The importance of self-regulated learning is reflected in the fact that students can use digital technologies to plan their own knowledge, gather evidence, record learning and progress, and record and demonstrate their work to others and self-evaluate their learning.

How can you develop this competence?

• By encouraging learners to use digital technologies to support their individual learning activities and tasks, e.g., to obtain information or present results and to use digital technologies.

• To gather evidence and record progress, e.g., produce audio or video recordings, photos, texts.

• With the support of digital technologies, you can help learners to develop, apply and review appropriate self-assessment criteria.

• Give students time planning/strategizing tips on planning their time, e.g., using planning tools – calendar applications etc.

Innovative ways to make use of the competence in action

• You can discuss what self-regulated learning strategies they use (e.g., Sharing information, Active presence, Documentation and classification, Monitoring and feedback, Personal management, Self- assessment, Collaborative learning).

• You can support your students in understanding task comprehension by giving them detailed directions, examples, and marking criteria to a task they need to do.

• Self-regulated learners use metacognitive processes where they evaluate cognitive strategies, they use to complete a learning task. In these motivational processes, learner set goals and use strategies no attain this goal and behavioural methods where learner try to make a schedule to better manage time and modify their environment7 . For educators, it is important to understand the essence of these processes.

Related tools:

• Communication Tools: WhatsApp, Line, Skype, Google Talk.

• Repositories: Slideshare, Instagram, Pinterest, Issuu, Calameo, YouTube, iTunes, iVoox.

• Social Networks: Twitter, Facebook.

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Winne, Philip. (2011). A cognitive and metacognitive analysis of self-regulated learning. Handbook of Selfregulation of Learning and Performance. 15-32.

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• Production and Storage Tools in the cloud: wikis & blogs, Dropbox, Google+.

• Assessment Tools: ExamTime, Google Application Forms.

• Other Technology: specific apps (Kalkulilo, Whiteboard Lite) & organisers (Google Calendar, EverNote, Microsoft To Do).

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3.3. Assessment C12. Assessment strategies First, we need to differentiate between summative and formative assessment.

• Summative assessment is used to evaluate students at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark.

• Formative assessment is to monitor student's learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors or teachers to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning.

Some activities that can be developed for assessment strategies are:

• The usage of digital assessment tools in order to monitor the learning process as well as to • • • • • • • •

get information on learner's progress.

Use digital technologies for the assessment of strategies.

Use digital technologies for summative assessment in tests.

Use digital technologies to support learners with their assignments and assessment.

To have a variety of digital and non-digital assessment formats and be aware of their pros and cons.

Reflect how appropriate are the different digital assessment approaches and adapt the strategies accordingly.

Another two different ways to assess is through peer-assessment and self-assessment.

Peer-assessment: the students assess each other's contribution individually following a checklist of criteria. The grading is a predetermined process, but usually is an average of the marks awarded by the group members.

Self-assessment: being similar to the peer-assessment, in this case, they assess their own contribution as well as their peers, using, as before, an established checklist of criteria.

Apply the competence "To use digital technologies for formative and summative assessment. To enhance the diversity and suitability of assessment formats and approaches." _ DigCompEdu 2017 When it comes to non-formal education assessment, we can find different methodologies:

• • • • •

Interview Focus group discussion Survey Observation Test

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Tools for assessment

• • • • • • •

Classroom response system Quizzes and games Computer-based tests Implementing audio or video Simulations ePortfolios Open badges

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C13. Analysing evidence Analysing evidence refers to the ability to generate, select, critically analyse and interpret digital evidence on learner activity, performance and progress, in order to inform teaching and learning.

• Design and implement activities from which you can acquire data on the activity of learners • • • • •

and their performance.

Use the digital technologies to record, compare and synthesise the data about the progress of learners.

We can generate data from the learner activity in the digital environment that can be used to inform teaching and learning.

We can interpret and analyse the available evidence on learner activity and progress, including the data generated by the digital technologies used.

It can be considered to combine and evaluate different sources of evidence on learner progress and performance.

To critically value the evidence available to inform teaching and learning.

From the online tools mentioned before, open badges and ePortfolios are essential in analysing the evidence.

Case study on Open Badges – A web radio recognising achievements (France): For this project, mainly young people participated in the creation of a broadcasting web radio program, taking different responsibilities for it and learning badges out of it. There were 5 badges in total, 3 principles of action, and 97 young people who shared positive comments about it. The idea of the project was beyond media, it consisted in putting the online a media managed by young people. One of the main conclusions was that Open Badges made visible the achievements and attitudes that are often overlooked in formal education and empowered them to do more.

Tips for choosing the assessment type

• • • • •

What is the profile of your participants?

When do you want to do the assessment? During the process or only after?

What is the main goal of the assessment?

What kind of methodology are you applying in your classes?

How much involvement do you think the students should have in the assessment?

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C14. Feedback & planning Feedback occurs when a student gives or receives input to improve the next steps. The idea is to change the following actions to be improved, so the student (but also the teacher) can learn out of it.

• To give feedback a digital technology can be used to be uploaded and graded online.

• To ensure the effectiveness of feedback, assessment management systems can be used for • • • • • •

this.

Digital technologies can also be used to monitor the progress of the learner.

The teaching and assessment practices should be adapted.

Provide personal feedback and offer differentiated support to the learners.

Give the learners the possibility to interpret the results from a formative, summative, selfand peer-assessment perspective.

Help learners in identifying areas for improvement.

Use digital technologies to keep the learners and/or parents updated on the student's progress and make informed choices on future learning priorities.

Peer feedback: as mentioned before under peer-assessment, we can also have the peerfeedback, which refers to the same concept of students giving feedback to each other, and we can also highlight here that it makes the learner giving the input to go through the learning concepts again.

Apply the competence "To use digital technologies to provide targeted and timely feedback to learners. To adapt teaching strategies and provide targeted support, based on the evidence generated by the digital technologies used. To enable learners and parents to understand the evidence provided by digital technologies and use it for decision-making."_ DigCompEdu 2017 Meaningful feedback tips

• • • • •

Look at the students' improvement towards the goal Be specific The sooner, the better Be careful The amount of feedback

More information and explanations on feedback psychology.

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3.4. Empowering learners C15. Accessibility & Inclusion The creation of supportive environments, programmes, and tools for accessibility makes it possible for all people, regardless of their abilities, to access technology and contribute to their own personal development and independence. Educational digital inclusion implies that learners with disabilities or learning disorders can perform the same digital activities under the same conditions as their peers, promoting learners' empowerment.

Utility in Practice

• [VIDEO] 20 Tips for Instructors about Making Online Learning Courses Accessible: https://youtu.be/_KBhUORLB20 This resource offers tips for educators on how you can make online courses accessible. By providing strategic approaches to online learning environments, learners feel supported and empowered through their own learning process. By encouraging self-paced learning materials, individuals have equitable access to appropriate digital technologies that adhere to their personal competences, expectations, and attitudes.

• [GUIDELINES] Supporting learners with learning disabilities and difficulties: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/meeting-the-requirements-of-learners-with-specialeducational-needs/learning-disabilities-and-difficulties This resource can help you as adult educators recognise learners' requirements with special education needs/learning disabilities and difficulties. It encourages the use of principles that promote accessibility in digital resources and online environments. By understanding the need for assistive approaches and technologies, you will employ specific techniques that support the learning process that can otherwise deter individuals from learning.

Resources & Practices – How can you develop this competence?

Individuals can develop this competence by using different online resources and tools and applying them to their teaching practice. By recognising personal learner capabilities, the educator's supports, resources, and practices can be tailored to individual needs. With this support, adult educators will allow learners to take agency over their own learning.

By identifying personal learning styles and enacting alternative approaches, adult educators can then adapt their teaching style to what suits their learners' needs best. Micro-learning theory helps to address the accessibility issues that adult learners face. If you have an adult learner with an attention deficit disorder, asking them to sit in a classroom all day and follow a PowerPoint is 31

unrealistic, so a micro-learning approach would work here to make the learning more accessible to this type of adult learner. If you have a visual or aural learner, then providing a resource as a short podcast or a short video would be more appealing to this type of learner. To find out more about micro-learning and why it works so effectively, read the following blog post:

• [BLOG] Numbers Don't Lie: Why Microlearning is Better for Your Learners (and You too): https://www.shiftelearning.com/blog/numbers-dont-lie-why-bite-sized-learning-is-betterfor-your-learners-and-you-too The VAK (Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic) learning questionnaire is a learning style model that identities a learner's preferred learning style. By discovering individuals preferred learning style, you can analyse what learning method is most accessible for them. Some learners use more than one learning style, while others typically understand more through one preferred learning style.

By encouraging individuals to analyse their learning type, you can provide them with access to appropriate resources that benefit their comprehension and engagement within the learning process. To access this online questionnaire, visit the following link:

• [SURVEY]VAK Learning Styles Self-Assessment Questionnaire: https://www.businessballs.com/freepdfmaterials/vak_learning_styles_questionnaire.pdf Tools By supporting adult learners to identify their preferred learning style, adult educators can adapt their teaching style to ensure that it is both inclusive and accessible. This can aid learners with learning disorders or disabilities to ensure that they can easily access and respond to their own learning expectations, abilities, uses and misconceptions.

• To engage visual learners, the following tools are useful: o 'Screencast-o-Matic' is an online video creation tool. The following link will provide you with '5 Easy Steps To Turn Google Slides Into An Engaging Video': https://screencast-o-matic.com/blog/google-slides-presentation/ o 'Canva' is an online design tool that provides thousands of free designs for flyers, posters, infographics and other visual ways that you can present learning materials.

The following link will support you to get started using Canva for education purposes: https://www.canva.com/learn/canva-for-education/ • To engage auditory learners, the following tools are useful: o Audacity' is a free, open-source, cross-platform audio software that you can use to record and edit your audio files. For a full tutorial on how to use Audacity, you will find the following link useful: https://manual.audacityteam.org/ o For some guidance on how to get started with using Podcasts in your teaching practice, you will find this blog post interesting: https://buffer.com/library/podcasting-for-beginners/#recording-uploading-andpromoting 32

• To engage kinaesthetic learners, the following tools are useful: o There are few online tools available to support adult educators to engage learners in kinaesthetic learning activities. However, this blog posts provide some ideas for how you can employ these types of learners in the classroom: https://www.thoughtco.com/the-kinesthetic-learning-style-3212046.

These activities can be adapted and replicated to online learning environments, with careful planning and consideration for how you can engage learners with diverse needs in group activities online.

Apply the Competence – Innovative Ways to make use of this competence in action Creating a learning environment that is adapted to the learner ensures addressing diverse learning needs for each individual. Learners can advance at their own level in a way that suits them. By promoting accessibility and inclusion, adult learners will gain equal access to online environments and be equipped to face their own digital technologies constraints. By taking this theory into account, learners will tap into their own potential and exercise agency over their learning.

If a learner is a visual learner, the adult educator could use Canva and Screencast-o-Matic to develop and present their educational materials. But it does not have to stop there. In an online learning environment, learners can also develop assignments and projects based on this preferred learning style. For example, rather than asking a visual learner to write a paper or a research piece, the adult educator could engage them in a creative project that could form part of their assessment. Tools such as Google Slides and Canva can ask learners to present their assignments and assessments in more visual ways.

• GCFLearnFree.org offer a range of 'quick-start' videos for using online tools for teaching and assessment. On their YouTube Channel, you will find a range of educational videos that you can share with adult learners with a visual learning style, to support them to develop their assignments using visual tools. One such video includes, 'Google Slides: Getting Started', which can be accessed at this link: https://youtu.be/1ENtPjEp_5c If the learner is an auditory learner, as mentioned above, the adult educator can use tools such as Audacity provide learners with learning content in the form of short podcasts. However, adult educators can also support learners who are aural learners to ensure that the assessment that they are offered, also aligns with their learning style. Tools such as Google Docs or other text-tospeech apps can allow aural learners to develop assignments and assessments without reading and writing.

• Adult educators can visit the YouTube Channel of GCFLearnFree.org and engage learners in using the 'voice typing' feature of Google Docs to develop their assignments: https://youtu.be/LIz9UWi5z4w .

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C16. Differentiation & personalisation Digital differentiation and personalisation focus on promoting different types of digital technologies in a personalised, dynamic and non-intrusive way to individuals.

Examples of the use of competence: The conservative approach that says that the same learning model works for everyone does not contemplate the essential elements of differentiation and personalisation. Differentiation and personalisation encourage the adult educator to ensure that the learner can customise their digital tools and apply these tools to their own preferences and abilities. Differentiation and personalisation promote the appropriation of technology as a cognitive, social and communication tool in education.

Resources & Practices – How can you develop this competence?

As adult educators, you can develop this competence by using different online resources and tools. By having the opportunity to engage with customised learning experiences, you can encourage adult learners to adopt a learning style that addresses their specific needs. Adult learners can create their own personal "style" that helps them understand their strengths and mitigate their individual weaknesses. By developing this competence, you as adult educators can promote learners' learning flexibility.

• [VIDEO] Let us teach for mastery -- not test scores: https://youtu.be/-MTRxRO5SRA • [ARTICLE] Differentiated Instruction In eLearning: What eLearning Professionals Should Know:https://elearningindustry.com/subjects/elearning-articles/elearning-designdevelopment These resources offer instructive guidance that will help you understand the importance of differentiation and personalisation within learning. By adopting techniques that cater to the learner, you can support them to recognise and develop their own personalised learning style that provides customised learning experiences. Examples include creating individualised learning plans, offering supplemental resources, and researching the specific needs of the learner(s) by engaging them in pre-training surveys and working with them to uncover their own individual learning style and preference. By considering how learners advance at different levels and speeds, you can help adult learners to feel that they have full control of what, and how, they want to learn.

Related Tools: By addressing the individuals' specific needs, you can use digital technologies to enhance their learning experiences. Individual learning plans reinforce this idea as they allow the individual to take control of their own learning journey. These tools can encourage the learning process and 34

enable individuals to manage their learning at their own pace, adhering to their own style and through their own method. Alternatively, you can create surveys or questionnaires that determine an individualised learning preference based on the learner's responses.

• To create individualised learning plans, surveys or questionnaires, you will find the following tools are useful: o Google Forms: https://www.google.com/forms/about/ o Survey Monkey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/ • To uncover learner preferences through online polls: o Direct Poll: http://directpoll.com/ For alternative approaches to use digital tools to engage learners in assessing their own learning style and tailoring the learner experience to learners of diverse needs and preferences, the following tools are useful:

• Mind Meister (for mind-maps): https://www.mindmeister.com/ • CRAM (for flashcards): https://www.cram.com/flashcards/create • Animoto (for video creation): https://animoto.com/business/education Innovative ways to make use of competence in action: To create an individual learning plan, you can use Google Forms. Alternatively, you can use Google Forms or SurveyMonkey to create a questionnaire or survey that helps learners identify their own needs and preferences. This allows you to follow an approach of differentiation and personalisation when develop lessons and activities to present to learners of diverse needs. This, in turn, allows each learner to personalise their own learning, instead of following a rigid and fixed learning approach. This can enable you as educators to understand if the individual requires additional assistance or supplemental resources. The following guides can help you to get started using Google Forms and Survey Monkey to engage learners in assessing their learning preferences:

• Getting started with Google Forms: https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/google-forms/gettingstarted-with-google-forms/1/ • How to Create a Survey: https://help.surveymonkey.com/articles/en_US/kb/How-to-createa-survey Sometimes it can be challenging for learners to directly address their specific needs or preferences. The Direct Poll resource allows individuals to respond quickly to a poll through their computers, smartphones or tablets. It enables learners to collectively respond or address their personal needs, opinions, and preferences. This tool also allows individuals to vote on their preferred learning style or what they enjoy most from the learning material. Direct Poll will enable individuals to assess their learning and determine if they fully understand the content. As such, this can be a beneficial and easy-to-use digital resource that you can integrate into your 35

education practice to engage learners in your group in giving quick and timely feedback on your approach to teaching them in a personalised way. To get started using Direct Poll, you will find this resource to be useful:

• [VIDEO] DirectPoll: https://youtu.be/ANJHYD8G6XI Should learners prefer to personalise their learning through visual aids, adult educators can engage learners in planning individual learning approaches and pathways, by engaging them in developing a mind-map. With an online mind-map maker, adult educators can engage adult learners in an online activity. They can think of all of the different ways that their learning could be personalised, and then select which instruction methods would work best for them. This tool allows adult educators to use a visual design process in personalising their lesson plans and activities to fit the individual needs of learners. Mind Meister can also be used in online group activities, and to engage kinaesthetic and group-learning fans in educational activities. For some help on getting started with the Mind Meister tool, and for examples of how this tool can be used in education, the video tutorials contained on this webpage will be a good reference point for you:

• Mind Meister – Video Tutorials: https://support.mindmeister.com/hc/enus/sections/200529257-Video-Tutorials Similarly, you could create a series of digital flashcards to support learners to engage with learning content. Sometimes learners find that documents full of texts discourage them from learning. By creating flashcards, individuals can identify the most important things they need to know and condense the information so that it is easy to learn and remember. To get started using an online Flashcard creator, the following video will be useful:

• [VIDEO] Cram.com Flashcard Tutorial: https://youtu.be/SEqqTbpfebI Educational videos are a great resource if you work with visual, auditory or kinaesthetic learners, as this resource can appeal to all learning styles. By creating videos, adult educators can create, design and produce educational materials that further the learning process. We mentioned micro-learning techniques earlier in this chapter, video resources are a great and effective way to present micro-learning materials. They also ensure that learners who cannot be directly engaged in classroom activities can still access the educational content remotely. The following tips will help you to make a start using the Animoto platform to make your own educational and tutorial videos:

• The easy tutorial video maker: https://animoto.com/make/tutorial-videos

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C17. Actively Engaging Learners Actively engaging learners empowers learners to be active participants in online environments.

In an era of constant change, technologies have allowed us, as individuals, to improve being actively engaged learners. These transformations impact both the learning process and the teaching process. By enhancing their teaching and education practice to adapt to different learning styles and preferences, adult educators can ensure that they can actively engage learners in all learning activities they develop.

Examples of the use of competence In the transition from the industrial economy to the knowledge economy, it is important to be aware of promoting a qualitative leap in education. This means that we must move from a model of knowledge acquisition to a model of knowledge creation. It is essential to develop the skills that currently represent the new learning environments that require technology at a transversal level. Educating 'actively engaged learners' means that, as an educator, you support adult learners to develop their mastery in the skills of the 21st century. These include the ability to communicate effectively, work as a team, be flexible, think critically and solve problems effectively. When we talk about 'actively engaging learners', there is a need for adult educators to put the learner at the centre of the learning process. They must provide learning opportunities for adult learners to conduct their own research, to develop projects in teams, to make their own meaning of the learning content and to be able to relate what they have learned to both past experiences that they have had in their personal and professional lives. In this way, it is necessary to design learning activities that ensure a degree of autonomy for the learners, so that they have the space they need to engage with the learning content in this way.

How can you develop this competence?

To develop this competence and apply it effectively, the adult educator should create an environment where learners want to learn rather than have to learn. This could be easier said than done, but many of the answers lie in the learning activity's format and presentation. By designing lesson plans and activities to promote learners' 'active engagement', your teaching style will change from an instructive-based style to a learner-centred approach. As educators, actively engaging learners empowers them to critically consume information within their own learning. However, how this information is designed and presented is of critical importance. One method that you could add to your teaching repertoire, which will promote 'actively engaged learners' is the 'flipped classroom' approach or model. Undoubtedly, you have already heard of this approach. Still, it is an innovative model of blended learning, where learners, at all levels of education, can be furnished with the learning content they need to cover for a particular module or lesson at home – through video lectures, articles, etc. – and then they are facilitated to unpack and work through the key theoretical content through a series of interactive and engaging 37

workshop activities in a classroom. In this way, the traditional classroom-based model, where the educator is at the top of the classroom and delivers the instructional materials to learners in a formal setting, has been flipped. In this model, the learners are responsible for planning and making sense of their own learning in the classroom setting, and the educator is now a facilitator and mediator of their learning process. This is just one model that you can include in your education practice to actively engage the learners in innovative new ways. Such empowerment comes from actively engaging learners and can foster a mental shift in the learner from mere compliance to a self-directed mindset.

• [VIDEO] Engaging Students with Exciting Tools: Teaching Tips, October 2015: https://youtu.be/xoShpMbWLKs This resource features different tools that adult educators can utilise within their own teaching methods to engage students. Traditional teaching methods can be outdated and tend not to be fully effective when teaching individuals with different interests, preferences, and capabilities.

This video resource will offer resources that aim to engage learners and encourage participation throughout the learning process.

• [BLOG] 7 Unique Flipped Classroom Models Which is Best for You?: https://www.panopto.com/blog/7-unique-flipped-classroom-models-right/ This blog post from Panopto offers different tips and suggestions for adult educators to follow to understand what the flipped classroom is, how it works and different approaches and models within the 'flipped classroom' that you can develop and deliver in your teaching practice.

• [BLOG] In-class activities and assessment for the flipped classroom: https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teachingtips/lecturing-and-presenting/delivery/class-activities-and-assessment-flipped-classroom The video lecture is only one part of the flipped classroom model. To support you to understand the types of assessment you can integrate into your classroom-based activities in the flipped classroom model, this blog post from the University of Waterloo could be a good starting point for you.

Related Tools By introducing alternative pedagogic approaches, like the flipped classroom model, adult educators can ensure that they prioritise the learning experience for the adult learners in their group. In this way, introducing a flipped classroom model in your teaching practice will ensure that you can pilot some key learner-centred approaches in your engagement with adult learners.

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When working with adult learners, their education experience must be meaningful and applicable to a real-world context. By this we mean that adult learners are motivated to learn about topics and aspects that they can relate to their everyday lives, that will enhance their career opportunities or that can be directly applied to some aspect of their life. By giving power over to adult learners, through a flipped-classroom approach, it is possible that you can support adult learners to make meaning for themselves and gain insight into how the learning content can be applied to their everyday lives, giving them a genuine and authentic learning experience that is valuable to them as an individual. Tapping into this aspect of what has motivated them to learn is the key to ensuring that adult learners in your group are 'actively engaged' in the learning process. The following tools and platforms will be useful for you to support you in developing a flipped-classroom approach in your teaching practice.

To develop videos and online lectures for a flipped-classroom approach:

• Panopto (video platform): https://www.panopto.com/panopto-for-education/ To develop visual resources to actively engage learners: • Venngage (to create infographics): https://venngage.com/ • Prezi (to create presentations): https://prezi.com/ Innovative ways to make use of competence in action: When piloting a flipped-classroom approach in your teaching practice, you must know how to present the educational content that learners will engage with before entering the classroom.

One method of delivering this learning content is to record and produce a short video lecture.

While there is a range of video platforms available online, but Panopto is a little different and recording your screen and developing your video, Panopto also allows you to upload your video to a secure platform and share your video privately with your learners. To learn more about how you can get started with using Panopto, the following video and link will be useful:

• [VIDEO] Panopto Video Platform - 3 Minute Introduction: https://youtu.be/2ojV3mhEno0 • [GUIDE] Recording and Uploading Panopto Videos: https://onlinelearning.wilson.edu/courses/21/pages/recording-and-uploading-panoptovideos?module_item_id=106835 Video is not the only option you have for delivering educational content to adult learners through a flipped-classroom model. This approach aims to provide learners with the theoretical content they need to cover for a particular module or unit before they enter the classroom so that the key topics can be unpacked and worked through in a series of group work and individual activities. As such, presenting learning materials through engaging infographics and presentations can also be utilised in this way. While we have referenced Canva for infographics and Google Slides for presentations earlier in this chapter, when it comes to a flipped classroom, 39

Venngage (for infographics) and Prezi (for presentations) can be used to ensure that you present the educational content to adult learners in an attractive, visual format. The following links will help you to get started with using these online tools and platforms:

• How to Make an Infographic in 5 Steps (Guide): https://venngage.com/blog/how-to-makean-infographic-in-5-steps/ • Prezi in 3…2…1… Your guide to the Prezi universe and being a stellar presenter: https://prezi.com/support/get-started/

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4. Learners' competences – Facilitating learners' digital competence C18. Information and media literacy This competence refers to the involvement of learners in searching for information and resources online, in combination with organising, analysing, and critically evaluating the digital content and its credibility and reliability.

Examples of use: We live in an era of information. Information is readily available and accessible, while anyone can annunciate anything to the public through the internet and web-based media. Therefore, it is a challenge to take this information's benefits and think critically, whether it is valid and reliable.

Adults with higher levels of digital literacy are more efficient as they take full advantage of their resources. Simultaneously, they become more collaborative, more competitive in the labour market and more prompt to new learning.

Adult educators can contribute to enhancing this particular learners' competence by incorporating several activities, assignments, and assessments that require:

• • • •

Articulating specific data and content by searching and navigating in digital environments.

Developing personal strategies to access fast on required information.

Analysing and evaluating digital sources and content.

Retrieving, processing and organising data in digital environments.

How can you enhance Information and media literacy of learners?

Information and media literacy can be layered on your current curriculum with several simple practices and activities:

• • • • •

Include news media articles and videos in their projects as content and source of information.

Present lesson content with a critical view and ask them to position themselves frequently.

Ask them to identify any bias in the way some digital content is presented.

Routinize classroom activities using computers.

Engage learners in gathering information using search engines rather than receiving it.

Innovative ways to make use of the competence in action Information and media literacy require critical thinking. We are no longer asked to memorise any knowledge, as a significant proportion is available online. The Internet makes information available very fast, too easy, and for free. We mostly need to master the higher levels of Bloom's 41

taxonomy, i.e., to understand, apply, analyse, evaluate, and then create. There are several novel ways to stimulate learners' critical thinking towards information and media literacy:

• Explore with learners the reasons why information exists (e.g., to inform, to educate, to promote values, to distract, to obscure, to confuse, to change others' opinions) • Examine the Five Core concepts of media literacy: 1. All media messages are constructed by someone…

2. Media messages use certain language and rules to provoke feelings…

3. Media messages have target audiences…

4. Media messages involve opinions, values, and beliefs…

5. Many media messages are products of media companies that make profit…

• Apply the 5 Filter Questions step: 1. Who creates the message?

2. What is used to capture the attention?

3. How can different people interpret it?

4. Why this message was selected to be communicated?

5. Which values, beliefs, lifestyles, are being promoted?

Related digital tools

• Checkology offers numerous lessons for both educators and learners focused on media literacy. It comes along with skills assessments, discussion pools, and great graphics.

• Facebook Digital Literacy Library contains lesson plans for educators in various novel relevant subjects such as security, privacy and reputation, information literacy and more. Even they are designed for educators of younger ages, they are beneficial for educators of any age.

• Media and Information curriculum for Teachers is an extensive guide created by UNESCO to orientate educators on which knowledge to cover for information and media literacy.

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C19. Communication This competence refers to involving learners in communication, collaboration and civic participation using digital means Examples of use: Social skills are valuable in society. Similarly, social skills are also essential in the digital world.

People are increasingly becoming more familiar with digital means. This digital social interaction requires substantial communication skills. There are several methods you can incorporate in your teaching activities to promote digital communication and collaboration among learners:

• Creating groups of contacts for digital communication according to the given context • Sharing digital content and resources with learners • Involving students to collaborate in the distance through technologies (e.g., co-processing, co-constructing, and co-creating content) Learners are eventually benefited as they will be encouraged in:

• • • • • •

Participating in certain digital communities to promote citizenship and dialogue Understanding the differences in the use of private and public devices Identifying the norms and audience of digital environments and adapt accordingly Respecting cultural and generational diversity of digital environments Creating, managing, and protecting digital identities and accounts Receiving, editing, and sending data, files, content, and documents

How can you enhance digital communication and collaboration of learners?

Some simple ways to stimulate digital communication and collaboration of learners include:

• Establish easy digital routines (e.g., doodle polls, online assessment forms/rubrics) • Assign group projects where they can collaborate online (e.g., teleconferences, sharing files, emails etc.)

• Advise them to post their work on classroom LMS (Learning Management System) and ask others to give feedback Innovative ways to make use of the competence in action Communication and collaboration in education are not only a preference but essential. Learning travels through interactions, so cultivating fundamental social skills for learners is essential.

Moreover, through increased collaboration, learners present higher engagement levels, inclusivity is promoted, and scaffolded learning is stimulated.

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• Synchronous collaboration: Use a simple google doc, share it with your classroom and ask them to provide some knowledge or opinions on a certain topic. Similarly, you can use other crowdsourcing knowledge apps (e.g., padlet, dotstorming, menti and more).

• Online collaborative learning8 (OCL) is a form of group learning led online by an educator.

Students are involved in problem-solving with their team, while educator facilitates the process providing guidance where needed.

• Create polls to involve the members of the class in decision making. It makes them feel that their voice is heard and increases their sense of participation and belongingness (e.g., doodle) Related digital tools

• Webchat platforms (e.g., skype, google hangouts, zoom, google meet) facilitate the communication between students and their educator outside the classroom. Most of the times, they allow screen sharing and sending files which is a way to exchange ideas and solidify project plans.

• Learning Management Systems (LMS) (e.g., Moodle, Edmodo, Blackboard, Skillsoft) bring together the members of the class in a wholly digital learning environment (from asking simple questions about how students feel to share lesson material and start open discussions).

• Cloud service apps (e.g., Dropbox, OneDrive, google drive, google docs) help to quickly build a streamlined collaboration where learners access the same file simultaneously to work, brainstorm, outline and organise.

• Flipgrid is a simple app that allows you to create a discussion virtually. As an initiator, you can start a topic and invite your learners. Learners can record a short video and share it with the rest of the team. The result is a beautiful box of diverse ideas and opinions.

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David L, "Online Collaborative Learning Theory (Harasim)," in Learning Theories, December 17, 2015, https://www.learning-theories.com/online-collaborative-learning-theory-harasim.html.

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C20. Content creation This competence refers to involve learners in modifying and creating digital content in different formats to express themselves. It implies guiding them to copyright, licence, and reference digital resources.

Examples of use: As part of the digital world, learners need to be able to make their knowledge and ideas available to reach and connect with others. In fact, all we see through our screens were created by someone. The challenge is to create an easily accessible and attractive content to engage the audience. Adult educators can facilitate this process of "the material people contribute to the online world"9.

There are several ways to involve and encourage learners in this process that you can incorporate in your learning activities, assignments, and assessments. Learners will eventually become competent in:

• • • •

Expressing ideas, knowledge, and information through digital means.

Creating, modifying, and refining digital content in different formats.

Understanding and applying the policies of copyright and license.

Planning and developing effective instruction for a computing system to solve a certain problem or perform a specific activity.

How can you enhance digital content creation of learners?

Digital content can be created for a variety of reasons with the most important, including selfexpression, distribution of information, marketing, and publishing. Typical forms of digital content for learners to create include blogs, article writing, photos, videos, social media profiles, websites, graphics, infographics, images, presentations, news items and reports. Therefore, some straightforward ways to stimulate this competence in your lessons are:

• Get in the process of presenting several tools, equipment, and methods for easy content • • • •

creation during a lesson.

Assign them to publish their work on a relevant blog site or in their social media (e.g., LinkedIn).

Refer often to their audience (Is content attractive, relevant, easy to read, useful for them?

How can it be improved?).

Review and criticise some digital content you meet during the lesson.

Interpret the messaging and intention behind online content.

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Lenhart, A., Fallows, D., & Horrigan, B. J. (2004, February 29). Content online creation [Survey article]. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2004/02/29/content-creation-online-2/

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Innovative ways to make use of the competence in action Ensure learners that production or modification of new digital content needs to add some form of value to the target audience. You can keep track and monitor the process of dissemination.

You might then need to evaluate, reform it, or change the channels of communication. By improving those key phases, learners will create their own digital identity and grow an audience around it.

According to Bloom's taxonomy, creation is the higher level of the cognitive process where the individual plans, generates and produces new content. Therefore, previous skills need to be mastered in advance, such as understanding, applying, analysing, and evaluating knowledge.

Some marked ways to stimulate digital content creation of your learners are:

• Ask them to digitally create the central message of their essay. Learners can include images, videos, infographics and more to make it attractive and direct. Learners can experiment with different tools and methods.

• Involve learners in group projects to combine knowledge in content creation. Peer learning is beneficial in such concepts/skills.

• Writing skills, like any other skills, can be improved with the right guidance. There are several vital points learners need to consider, e.g., voice, tone, meta language, style, originality, trust, clarity, concision etc.

Related digital tools There are several tools for content creation of any type, some available for free and others upon some cost.

• Hemingway App is a great tool to improve your writing skills. It gives you suggestions to simplify words and phrases, readability scores, and identify your text's level of reading difficulty.

• Visme allows you to present your surveys' data or any critical information you want to share in a graphically attractive way.

• SurveyMonkey helps you collect and analyse data, as well as presenting results in a friendly way.

• Flipgrid is a tool that crowdsources videos from your network on a certain topic. It is a beautiful way to create a cluster of visual and diverse content.

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C21. Safety Safety includes four main characteristics – protection of devices – which includes protecting digital devices and content, understanding risks and threats in the digital environment, knowing security measures and taking into account the importance of privacy, protecting personal data and privacy – this includes understanding the protection of personal data and privacy in the digital environment, understanding the proper use and sharing of personally identifiable information that protects individuals and others from threats, and understanding aspects such as privacy policy, protecting health and well-being- it manifests itself as the ability to avoid health hazards when using digital technologies and the ability to protect oneself and others from hazards in the digital environment, protecting the environment - it is an understanding that digital technologies and their use have an impact on the environment.

Examples of the use of the competence

• Use antivirus programs to protect their devices and use safe internet browsing practices (do not open unknown and suspicious files).

• Be aware that private information on the Internet should not be shared with others, regularly reset the password on Facebook, email etc.

• Use technologies moderately (limit work on the computer).

• Take various preventive measure to reduce the negative impact of technology on the environment.

How can you develop this competence?

• This competence can be developed by attending specialised courses on safety periodically.

• The learner can also develop this competence by using cloud password storage software (1password, Lastpass) and using two- factor authentication as a security system that requires two distinct forms of identification to access something. Two-factor authentication can be used to strengthen the security of an online account, a smartphone.

• Learn about Digital citizenship and its main concepts.

Related tools

• • • • •

1Password – is the easy way to store and use a strong password, you can log into sites and fill forms securely and use different passwords for different sites.

Kasperky Antivirus – one of the well-known antivirus programmes for your PC Pomodoro Tracker – is online time management method for taking a break when you are working with a computer for a long time.

Innovative ways to make use of the competence in action

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University of Edinburgh developed information security tips which everyone can follow to make safety competence in action:

• Keep software up to date (by turning on automatic updates and keep all devices patched regularly).

• Practice good password management (use strong, unique passwords and never share them with someone else and use a password manager).

• Back up your data (set up a regular backup schedule).

• Lock your device before leaving unattended (enable the screensaver and lock if leaving your desk).

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C22. Problem solving Problem-solving includes technical problem-solving – it consists of the ability to identify technical problems using digital tools and the digital environment, identifying needs and technological responses - as well as to identify needs and identify solutions to these problems using digital technologies, creative use of digital technologies – emerges as the use of digital tools and technologies to create knowledge, innovative processes and products. Individual and collective involvement in understanding and solve conceptual problems in the digital environment, identifying digital competence gaps – it manifests itself as the ability to understand the need and potential for improving one's digital competence, to look for opportunities to improve digital competence and monitor its development, as well as the ability to support others in the development of digital competence.

Examples of the use of competence, emphasising its importance

• When facing a technical or non-technical problem use known digital tools to solve it (restart the computer if the program is not responding, check the Internet connection etc.)

• Choose a digital tool according to needs and evaluate its effectiveness (if a person needs to make a movie for a project, he/she uses Movie Maker, the person can use an electronic signature instead of real one).

• Solve technical and not technical problems with digital technologies (search for a location, using the calculator in mobile phone) • Regularly update digital skills (attending courses, seminars and follow the development of new technologies).

How can you develop this competence?

By reading different technology news portals:

• • • •

Technology.org – news portal which compiles latest science and technology news Engineering and Technology – exclusive news portal about engineering and technology Cnet – provides top technology news of tech issues and events The Verge – technology news about latest hardware, apps etc.

Related tools (3-5 tools)

• • • •

YouTube Technological news portals Smartphone PC

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Innovative ways to make use of the competence in action You can use online tutorials by watching YouTube solve technical or non-technical problems (e.g., how to change basic settings in smartphone, how to use Apple pay, and how to knit a sweater).

You can use Advice forums to compare other people practices on solving technical or nontechnical problems and share with them your own experience by solving different problems.

In the advanced level you can create automatization scenarios for smartphone (e.g., you can tell virtual assistant you go to sleep, and virtual assistant turns off all notifications or create automation scripts for setting up Smart home).

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5.

Evaluation, validation & recognition of outcomes

Introduction In an increasingly digital world, information and communication technologies (ICTs) play a key role as development enablers to facilitate countries' capabilities to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Added to that, the COVID-19 global health crisis that emerged in early 2020 dramatically underlined – as perhaps nothing else could have – the vital importance of meaningful connectivity to people's livelihoods, employment, health and wellbeing, education, and social participation. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) statistics, almost half the world population is still not using the Internet.

Digital skills are fast becoming essential for people to navigate ordinary day-to-day activities such as using a mobile phone to transfer money to family members via digital financial services, using the Internet for remote education classes, and research, preparing, and delivering coursework and acquiring basic skills for staying safe online. In the workplace, digital skills are required for an ever-growing number of jobs, and even in traditionally manual sectors like agriculture, digital applications are beginning to make inroads, with a corresponding requirement for some level of digital literacy. Developing a digitally skilled population calls for the involvement of different institutions: universities need to undertake research and determine requirements; government institutions need to develop appropriate policies; training institutions need to deliver relevant digital skills training; and the private sector and civil society organisations need to support digital adoption and use (ITU, 2020).

Digital Competencies Assessment This handbook draws on, and complements, the DigitALAD Package, which involves developing an attractive training package for adult educators/trainers to advance their digital competences and skills and further improve the quality of the production of innovative Open Educational Resources (OERs).

Why skills need to be evaluated, validated, and recognised?

Many adults with low skills are anything but low skilled: they may have low literacy and numeracy levels, but at the same time they possess a range of other valuable skills such as the ability to drive different vehicles or care for customers. Equally, adults may have low qualification levels but may have gained skills through years of work experience equivalent to those associated with formal qualifications.

Did you know?

Many adults work in jobs they are not formally qualified for. We refer to this as qualification mismatch. According to data from the OECD Skills for Jobs database, 18% of adults work in jobs 51

that typically require a lower qualification than they hold, i.e., they are overqualified.

Additionally, 19% of adults work in jobs that usually require a higher qualification than they save, i.e., they are underqualified. Research suggests that mismatches harm the individual's job satisfaction and wages and can lead to lower productivity and increased turnover at the firm level (OECD, 2017c).

Recognising these skills through validation and certification can benefit individuals, employers and the economy. For the individual, it recognises their (informal) learning effort, which can increase motivation and become a stepping-stone to further (formal) learning. Employers benefit from skill recognition through higher productivity by better matching employees' skillsets and jobs. The benefits of skill validation and certification for the individual and employer, in turn, improve labour market functioning (Kis & Windisch, 2018). For these positive effects to materialise, it is essential that employers and society at large value certificates that are obtained through skill recognition and see them as equivalent to those acquired through formal learning (OECD, 2019).

Check out the short, animated video on the European skills index, created by Cedefop to help countries observe overtime where they stand concerning skills systems, how they are doing in comparison to each other, what the areas with room for improvement are, and where to look for best practices (CEDEFOP, 2020).

Video 1. European skills index (CEDEFOP, 2020).

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The European Qualifications Framework (EQF) The European Qualifications Framework (EQF) is a common European reference framework whose purpose is to make qualifications more readable and understandable across different countries and systems. Covering qualifications at all levels and in all sub-systems of education and training, the EQF provides a comprehensive overview of qualifications in the 39 European countries currently involved in its implementation. In close cooperation with the European Commission, Cedefop provides analytical and coordination support for the performance of the EQF and carries out several comparative studies and analysis on issues related to the implementation of the framework at EU, national and sectoral level.

European Qualifications Framework - a bridge between national qualifications systems The core of the EQF is its eight reference levels defined in terms of learning outcomes, i.e., knowledge, skills and autonomy-responsibility. Learning outcomes express what individuals know, understand, and can do at the end of a learning process. Countries develop national qualifications frameworks (NQFs) to implement the EQF. Why the EQF is important The primary purpose of the EQF is to make qualifications more readable and understandable across countries and systems. This is important to support the cross-border mobility of learners and workers and lifelong learning across Europe. In the 'Find and Compare Qualifications Frameworks' webpage it is possible to see how national qualifications levels of countries that have already finalised their referencing process have been linked to the EQF (CEDEFOP, 2020).

Follow your National Qualification Framework (NQF) The EQF has been the catalyst for the development of comprehensive national qualification frameworks based on learning outcomes. All countries committed to the EQF consider such national frameworks necessary to make their qualifications comparable across sectors and countries.

By April 2018, 35 countries had formally linked ('referenced') their national qualifications frameworks to the EQF: Austria, Belgium (Flanders and Wallonia), Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom (England, Scotland and Wales).

The remaining countries are expected to follow in 2018, which means that the first stage of EQF referencing is nearly finished (CEDEFOP, 2019).

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Implications of the assessment of gained skills Most of the European Training Foundation's (ETF) partner countries develop and implement NQFs as an integral part of their national qualifications systems. Possible needs and implications of digital transformation could be:

• the ease of widespread accreditation for digital and online learning institutions. • The assessment, recognition, validation and accreditation of non-formal DSC; and • the re-modularisation of qualifications to better fit the pace of formal learning courses that include Digital and Online Learning (DOL) elements and improve the flexibility and response of curricula to new content and practices emerging in the workplace (ITU, 2020).

Several approaches exist for assessing a learner's current digital skills levels or supply of skills.

The DigitALAD Intellectual Output 3, "Impact assessment study and practice recommendations" outlines the steps for selecting the appropriate digital skills assessment approach for the project.

First, it designs learning activities based on the DigitALAD Training Programme for adult educators (O3/A2) and adult learners (O2/A3). It then reviews how to identify each country's existing data and resources, consider the demographic focus, and choose an approach. The last two steps cover data collection, analysis and dissemination.

Figure 1. Overview of assessment approach (ITU, 2020) Implications on other aspects of teaching and training DigitALAD connects DOL to emerging trends in education and training to modernise access to and provision of education and training from a lifelong learning perspective. Particular emphasis is given to open educational practices, particularly the Intellectual Output 2 "E-learning platform and gamified online learning modules" and how gamification can support a shift from teaching to learning and redesign the role of adult educators.

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The DigitALAD Training Programme responds to the digital transformation by developing three modules considering emerging trends in pedagogy such as:

• • • • • • • • •

the shift from teaching to learning. a student-centred approach. the construction of the learning environment. active learning and learning strategies. self-organised and self-directed learning. an authentic situated learning environment. concepts of modelling (problem-oriented learning). interactive and collaborative learning. cross-cultural communication.

From a teaching perspective, the Internet and computers can, for example, help adult educators and trainers to:

• • • • •

select and present learning content. moderate and facilitate group working. support the implementation of learning strategies. assess and evaluate the progress of learners. orient themselves in learning communities.

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References: CEDEFOP. (2019). Overview of national qualifications framework developments in Europe 2019.

Retrieved from https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/files/8609_en.pdf CEDEFOP. (2020).

European Qualifications Framework.

Retrieved from https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/publications-and-resources/publications/5577 CEDEFOP. (2020).

European skills index.

Retrieved from https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/publications-and-resources/videos/european-skillsindex International Telecommunication Union. (2020). Digital Skills Assessment Guidebook. ITU, Geneva. Retrieved from https://academy.itu.int/index.php/main-activities/researchpublications/digital-skills-insights/digital-skills-assessment-guidebook Kis, V. and H. Windisch. (2018). Making skills transparent: Recognising vocational skills acquired through work-based learning. OECD Education Working Papers. No. 180. OECD Publishing, Paris. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1787/5830c400-en.

OECD. (2017c). Getting Skills Right: Skills for Jobs Indicators. Getting Skills Right. OECD Publishing, Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264277878-en OECD. (, 2019). Getting Skills Right Engaging low-skilled adults in learning. OECD Publishing, Paris.

Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/employment/emp/engaging-low-skilled-adults2019.pdf

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