Digital Facilitator for Adults 55+

COVID-19 urged the digitalization and raised the bar opening new digital divides. Our consortium of four organizations from Romania, Spain, Italy and Turkey noticed that concerns were particularly...

The very fast digitalization, forced the educators to make the educational offer available online to the detriment of the quality and pedagogy. We wanted to achieve digital readiness of educators, to ensure adult learners reach the desired learning outcomes. The DIFA project aimed at achieving 3 specific objectives: • Improve the digital facilitator competencies of 40 EDUCATORS AND OTHER ADULT EDUCATION STAFF from partners’ countries to adequately contribute to development of digital skills of adults 55+, by using a toolbox of instruments for creating engaging & active learning and digital pedagogies adapted to proficiency level. • Facilitate access of 150 ADULTS of 55+ to digital learning opportunities, by using different modes of assessment for digital skills and by participating in attractive learning activities. • Enhance digital transformation in 20 ADULT EDUCATION ORGANIZATIONS from partners countries to empower adults 55+ to be active technology users, by implementing an high-performing digital ecosystem to create and share attractive learning activities for adults The ecosystem comprises strong tutoring and instruments for skills assessment to help educators be flexible and adaptable to changing circumstances.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT activity guarantees effective project implementation, the achievement objectives and quality results, efficient management of time and resources, 4 transnational meetings, wide dissemination and sustainability of the project. RESEARCH and DEVELOPMENT activities were conducted to analyse existent tools and design new instruments for creating engaging activities using digital pedagogies; produce re-useable and adaptable educational materials for adults and educators to support digital transformation; tools for tracking progress and give recognition to make adults 55+, digitally-competent citizens in accordance to DigComp. CO-CREATION LAB 5-day activity brought together 16 educators to exchange knowledge in digital pedagogy and co-create sections for digital skills assessment app with focus on user experience and user Interface. TPM - 4 transnational project meetings took place in order to plan and monitor the project achievements, evaluate the relevance and consistency of the results produced with the initial project plan; discuss the project strategy, integration of the results in partners organization, risk identification and lessons learned. TARGET GROUP INVOLVEMENT activities created engagement and ensured that the results are adapted to their needs; by taking part in surveys, knowledge transfer events, pilot courses, app web tests, dissemination seminars and reviews of the guidance material. MULTIPLIER EVENTS organized in each partner country promoted the results and enhance transferability to 100+ relevant stakeholders, increasing the awareness of participants about the multilingual innovative digital education ecosystem developed to make adult people 55+, digitally-competent citizens in accordance in the areas of DigComp. QUALITY ASSURANCE&EVALUATION ensured that the project meets the proposed goals and achieves its outcomes. It included control, monitoring and evaluation of the quality of each project’s process, document and output. DISSEMINATION&EXPLOITATION aimed to disseminate and promote the results to among the target groups; ensured sustainability of the major project’s results through the appropriate exploitation planning. It included: development of the Dissemination & Exploitation Plan, digital marketing campaigns, pilot tests and multiplier events. KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER EVENTS seminars, workshops, meetings with each category of target groups to transfer the innovation. Educators are able to reuse and adapt the e-courses and integrate instructional design models in trainings; adults have increased ability to adapt to online learning environments and digital transformation; adult educational organizations introduced innovative digital practices and tools in their training systems and improved their training/learning offer.

DIGITAL FACILITATOR TOOLKIT PR1 comprising competence map supported by a toolbox of instruments for creating engaging & active learning, using digital pedagogies adapted to proficiency level, reviewed by 40 educators. The WEB APP PR2 that allow adults to identify the level of understanding of the use of digital technology and internet and provide advices for improving their online behaviour and become more digital competent in the 5 areas of DigComp. Being used by 200+ adult learners developed their sense of belonging to society. Guidance material for educators to deliver and interpret the questionnaire in offline to adults 55+ with very few digital skills. DIGITAL EDUCATION ECOSYSTEM PR3 comprising educational programs to make adults 55+, digitally-competent citizens in accordance with 5 DigComp areas, validated by 100+ adult learners and reviewed by 40 educators. Extended portfolio and CAPACITY BUILDING OF PARTNERS and 20 Associated partners, enhancing digital transformation being able to incorporate digital technologies by implementing the high-performing digital ecosystem for creating engaging & active learning. Improved knowledge of 16 staff members for creating highly engaging courses by participation to Co-Creation LAB. Adult education organizations - Increased the effectiveness and quality of learning practices by using new tools instruments for creating engaging & active learning Consolidation of partners’ capabilities with attractive courses for adults, to reduce the digital divide Increased digital skills and competences of 40 educators to make efficient use of learning platforms needed for digital transition; experience in creating digital teaching contents. Improved quality and effectiveness of online learning practices of adult education organizations, able to increase adults 55+ engagement and motivation in digital skills improvement. Developed sense of belonging to society of 150 Adults. Promoting gender equality, social and digital inclusion and non-discrimination while selection the TG, we successfully raised the awareness of social inclusion. Consolidation of transnational partnership by identifying the strengths of each partner, complementary capabilities and opportunities for further partnership collaboration. Improved level of partners’ know-how. The DIFA project was a good opportunity to learn from each other, assisting partners in attaining knowhow beyond the current levels through sharing and collaboration during project implementation. Increased professional network and visibility of partners placing together adult education organization, research training centre and NGOs providing digital solutions for education. The numbers and diversity of stakeholder categories, along with the wide dissemination using direct and online interaction increased the visibility of partners, project and Erasmus+ programme. European dimension and internationalisation. Project deliverables are widely distributed online with application across borders, being closely linked to the European dimension and internationalisation.