Digital-Pedagogy.eu/guidelines

Introduction- A call for a new pedagogy

Digital technologies are constantly proving their potential to open up education, to transform it, showing plausible directions for “reinvention” on foundations not only technological but (rather) cultural, social, professional, economic, and mostly humanistic.

Whilst there is a recognised need to redesign educational situations and learning paths, the ingredients for the new recipes seem unbalanced and the result uncertain. Early warnings regarding the changes that digital technologies were bringing in personal, social, professional and cultural life were not sufficient to support the need for a new educational paradigm. Lately, in the light of the new AI-caused disruptions in many domains, we tend to agree that the education should shift to embrace the new realities, but it is not yet clear what should be the fundaments for this change.

Should a new (digital) pedagogy emerge?

Is there a new taxonomy of the educational processes?

The generative AI output is a mirror image of ourselves. When we generate art or scientific texts using AI tools, we get interesting, plausible content, sometimes with errors and biases – we actually see ourselves with our achievements and our limits. But AI is also a mirror to our future, and we have to understand what makes us humans, what makes us authentic, competitive, better.

This is why we are searching for a new pedagogy to better explain and adhere to the new present and future reality. However, it seems that digital technology, the cause for disruption, is also part of the solution.

As specialists in education, we are in search for this new pedagogy. Or is it really a new pedagogy? To some extent, we are actually getting back to the basics, rediscovering the benefits of storytelling, brainstorming, exploratory conversations, games and so on. A dose of AI is nowadays in each of it, to make it more fun, if we would know how to capitalize on it.

The real shift seems to be towards a pedagogy of creativity, a pedagogy of humanism, a pedagogy of meaning. Using the digital as evidence and as an opportunity, the following guidelines organise some avant-garde ideas within the science of education.

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This Guide is developed within the WP5 of the Erasmus+ project ”Digital Challenge in Higher Education” – D-ChallengHE (2022-1-IT02-KA220-HED-000087029). The aim of the activity is to formulate guidelines proposals for the amelioration of online and blended learning in higher education.

WP5 addressed challenges, obstacles and opportunities for applying quality practices in teaching at a national and institutional level, by addressing specific needs of the stakeholders involved (policy makers, academic/ teaching staff, students, administrative staff, technical staff, content designers and developers, education experts and instructional designers). Thus, the outcome of WP5 could be a reference point for an European framework for the culture of quality in online learning.

The principal target of this WP result are the academic bodies that seek to improve their quality assurance macro and micro-policies, in both digital learning environments/ tools and professors’ professional development.

The 5^th WP regards an important outcome of the project, aimed to define the part of a quality assurance framework for online and blended education, with particular focus on e-learning quality assurance standards and changes/ new requirements in teaching professionalisation:

capitalising upon the educational experiences during Covid-19 and post-pandemic period
building on the direct experience of online training of teaching staff (WP3)
taking into account (and showcasing) the results/ possibilities revealed in WP4
as a first step of collaboration among the members of the D-ChallengHE HUB (WP2).

The outcome will help decision-makers and educational institutions by providing useful frameworks of intervention/ amelioration strategies, in order to design attractive, relevant, qualitative education and training programmes, in line with actual possibilities and opportunities, aligned with current learners’ needs and expectations.

According to the project proposal, the Guide is in particular focused on the quality dimensions of teaching in the digital era, the emerging teaching skills for digital environments and resources, the methodology and tools for assessment of online teaching and learning environments in HE.

The Guide promotes and continuously improves an open, generative set of pedagogical principles, allowing direct punctual feedback from visitors/ specialists. The “Guidelines” Report, developed in A1-A2-A3 (and especially the web-based version) is one of the main instruments to ensure the sustainability (visibility and usability) of the D-ChallengHE project. Beyond the project's lifespan, the continuously improving Guidelines will contribute to improvement of online and blended learning in HE.

The Guide is in open access format. An interactive format is also available online, allowing continuous punctual feedback from any stakeholder/ visitors of the pages. The pages also allow public annotations using specialised apps such as Diigo and Hypotesis. Updated (reversioned) guide will be issued every two months.

D-ChallengHE- Mandate