Online Project Meeting “MINUTES”

Tuesday 13th October 2020

Brief Presentations of the partner organisations

University of Thessaly (UTH): is one of the biggest universities in Greece. The center of international education contributes to the design and implementation of the university’s international strategy. The Department of Primary Education mission is to pursue excellence in education, research and professional practice, making a positive contribution to the development of individuals, institutions and societies, in a time of rapid social change.

Kalys Solutions Ltd (KS): KALYS SOLUTIONS LTD (KS) is a private consultancy firm, active in the market since January 2014. The company offers business consulting services and funding consulting services in relation to national and European programmes in the areas of life-long learning education, entrepreneurship, ICT and employment. The philosophy of the company is the provision of a tailor-made approach according to the specifications and needs of our clients and continuous effective cooperation aiming at the facilitation of their growth.

FYG CONSULTORES (FyG): Instalofi Levante S.L. – FyG Consultores (FYG) is a private, high-level training enterprise, pioneers in co-creation with companies, adults and young people in the training on innovative concepts, business creation, employability basic skills, literacy and numeracy skills, entrepreneurship and soft & hard skills training.

INTERACTIVE 4D (I4D): INTERACTIVE 4D is a French SME established in 2003. Interactive 4D designs and develops serious games and gamified educational tools. It involves a high level multidisciplinary team of 10 people including educational experts, game designers, 2D / 3D graphic designers and computer engineers. INTERACTIVE 4D develops custom-made as well as off the shelf innovative learning games, behaviour training games and awareness games.

INSPECTORATUL SCOLAR JUDETEAN ARAD: Arad County School Inspectorate is an institution at the service of community that offers specialized consulting services and continuing professional development programs. Arad County School Inspectorate provides the framework for personal and professional development for all the educational staff in the county, promoting innovation and pro-reforming policies.

Introduction to the project
  • KS presented project’s aims, objectives and target group

Objectives:

  • Cultivation of digital skills and entrepreneurial mindsets to primary education students aged 8-12
  • Empower teachers’ digital skills and equip them with innovative game-based tools
  • Development and implementation of a serious game as part of the training methodology

Target groups:

  1. Students Age 8-12

Cultivation of key skills: 1) Digital skills; 2) Innovation and thinking outside of the box; 3) Critical thinking and problem solving; 4) Teamwork and Cooperation.

  1. Teachers

Equip them with a new teaching and learning methodologies enhanced with a serious game.

Combination of in-class assignments and a game-based learning.

  • UTH presented the management overview of the project. Information about reporting and documentation has been provided.
  • UTH has prepared the project Handbook. It will be uploaded on Admin tool in order to collect feedback from partners.
  • UTH informed partners that soon the agreements will be sent by the NA.
Intellectual Output 1: Core Competence and Pedagogical Framework – presented by UTH

UTH presented the 1st Intellectual output to partners. The main objective of Intellectual Output 1 is to develop the educational framework and model dedicated to primary education students aged 8-12. It aims to provide students and teachers different learning and teaching perspective that will empower the personal and academic development of all. It was decided that modules development will be based on partners specific expertise.

Partners agreed that it should be better to include 25 teachers per country for IO1 (125 in total) and then select 5 per country for the training and assessment activities. Partners can also conduct local focus groups with teachers to discuss with them in person.

Specific deadlines were set for the whole duration of the output:

Task description

Partner responsible

Deadline

List of 25 Teachers from each participating country

All

31/10/20

Creation of the core competences questionnaire

UTH

01/11/20

Core competences questionnaire

To be answers by 125 teachers

30/11/20

Core competence framework

Final creation by UTH

15/01/21

Translation of the Core competence framework

ALL

31/01/21

Pedagogical framework (template)

UTH

31/01/21

Module development

ALL

15/03/21

Peer review (buddies)

All

31/03/21

Translation of the final pedagogical framework

All

30/04/21

Intellectual Output 2: Game-based approaches: Serious game – presented by I4D

I4D presented the 2nd Intellectual Output. IO1 and IO2 are directly connected since the game will be based on the content of the modules.

Partners should research on serious games that exist in their countries especially for teachers.

The target group of the game will be both teachers and students 8-12 years. Informal education parties won’t be targeted (only for dissemination activities).

The objectives of the game are to develop both soft and hard skills and they will be prioritized after IO1 findings from teachers.

Hardware platform: the game will be compatible for computers, tablets and mobile phones.

There will be a registration system in the platform for teachers.

Intellectual Output 3: Open Calls, implementation and impact assessment – presented by FyG

The main aim of IO3 is to investigate the effectiveness of IO1 and IO2. This will be achieved through the establishment of the evaluation framework and the identification of the tools (qualitative and quantitative) to be used to investigate the impact of the game tool.

Division of tasks:

O3.A1. Evaluation framework and impact assessment

The evaluation framework of the project will identify proper evaluation methodologies, tools and indicators to investigate and identify the impact of the pedagogical framework proposed (IO1) and of the serious game (IO2).

O3.A2. Open calls and selection process
  • Open calls for participation in C1 in UTH. The selection criteria will be determined by the partnership.
  • 25 teachers representing 25 schools across partners countries wil be selected
  • Each partner will work at a national level and organize two focus groups (one for each piloted school), with the participating teachers and will ask their feedback concerning the methodology and the training activity that took place in the school.
  • After each training activity at the selected schools, the participating students will answer the questionnaire created to examine their learning experience.
Intellectual Output 4: DIGITALIS Best practices Guidelines – presented by KS

It summarizes the experience gained throughout the project. A Handbook will be developed to reflect on the project’s outputs and impact on primary education students and teachers.

Division of tasks:

  1. KS is the responsible organization of the development of the best practices’ handbook.
  2. A template of the handbook will be developed by KS
  3. KS will also prepare a template to collect the necessary information by the partnership related to the experience that the partnership gained during the project time.
  4. IO1, IO2 & IO3 outcomes will be used for the development of the blueprint.
  5. All partners will contribute in close collaboration with KS.

Summary- Close of the meeting

Wednesday 14th October 2020

Admin Project presentation- FyG

FyG presented the internal working tool AdminProject which allows for communication between partners, keeping track of dissemination actions and of timesheets, assign tasks related to outputs and share documents. Partners will decide whether they are going to use Admin for timesheets or not.

Disseminationpresented by KS

Presentation of the dissemination and visibility plan by KS.

Logo: There were 2 options. Partners agreed to use the 2nd option.

Website: UTH will be responsible for the website development and hosting. KS will provide the content and a layout template. I4D suggested to use the WordPress environment for the website.

The name of the official website was selected: www.digitalisproject.eu

Newsletters: KS will provide the newsletters and partners will translate them into their national languages.

Social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, etc.): KS with partners support will feed social media.

Proof of dissemination will be uploaded on Admin in the relevant tab. Also, an excel sheet can be provided if it is requested by partners. It was suggested to have a dissemination rota in order to have every month someone responsible for dissemination activities.

Quality and Evaluation- presented by FyG

FyG will be responsible for the quality assurance of the project. Evaluation will be internal and external.

Internal Evaluation will be assessed through:
  • Satisfaction questionnaires for partners,
  • Satisfaction questionnaires for testing, IO pilots or MEs
  • Internal revision of processes through peer-reviewing
  • Analysis of the project status in comparison to the project application
External Evaluation will be assessed through:
  • Satisfaction questionnaires for target groups
  • Satisfaction questionnaires for stakeholders
  • Satisfaction questionnaires for testing, IO pilots or MEs
  • External Evaluator Report

Next steps on quality evaluation:

  • Each partner will nominate a member for the Quality Board and inform FyG- by 14th of October
  • Kick off meeting assessment- 23rd of October 2020
  • Delivery of Quality Plan- 15th of November 2020
  • Quality Monitoring Survey: April 2021
Summary- End of the meeting