The UOC drives a European academy for online teacher training

Given these shortcomings, and in a society that is increasingly dominated by digitalization, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and a group of universities and schools from countries including Belgium, Finland, Lithuania and the Czech Republic are involved in the creation of a European Teacher Academy for Online Teaching and Learning. The project, known as E-FORCE, is part of the Erasmus+ programme, and it will be led by Marta López Costa and her team from the GREDU education research group at the UOC. It aims to increase the number of teachers with online teaching competencies, who will in turn be able to train other professionals, prepare their schools for this teaching framework, and carry out research to take full advantage of the opportunities that online education offers. 

“E-FORCE will bring together teachers and trainees, experts, teacher trainers and providers of continuing professional development from all over Europe, in order to collaborate and create an innovative European academy for online teaching and learning,” explained the UOC researcher. The project will co-create and co-teach six TTT (Teach the Teacher) programmes on online education, laying the foundations for international collaboration in interdisciplinary online teaching.

The UOC – a leader in online education

The UOC will play a leading role in E-FORCE due to its reputation and strength in the field of e-learning. Apart from coordinating the research project, the university will focus on asynchronous online teaching programmes (when the students do not have to engage in the learning process simultaneously) and will be working with the Escola Pia school in Barcelona, which will host trainee teachers. The other participating universities and centres are Universiteit Gent (Belgium), D-Teach (Belgium), Sint-Jozefsinstituut (Belgium), Jyvaskylan Yliopisto (Finland), Taivassalon Yhtenäiskoulu (Finland), Masarykova Univerzita (Czech Republic), Gymnázium Brno, Elgartova (Czech Republic), Kauno Technologijos Universitetas (Lithuania) and Radviliskio Grazinos Pagrindine Mokykla (Lithuania), in addition to D-Tech Online, which will be the partner responsible for the administration and dissemination of the project.

The Academy is aligned with the objectives established for the European Higher Education Area, which include creating a European space for learning that benefits all students, teachers and institutions, focusing on inclusive education, digital skills and international collaboration. The project, which will last three years, has received funding of €1.8 million, and the Academy is scheduled to be launched between the second and third year. 

López Costa said that “teachers who are trained at the Academy will be more aware of the opportunities and potential that online education can offer their institutions and schools, and that means they will be able to provide high-quality programmes of study in online teaching.” The project will create “adaptable and accessible learning environments for all students, regardless of their geographical, socio-economic or gender differences,” said López Costa, while also being aligned with the values promoted by the European Commission.

Improving asynchronous and synchronous online teaching

The researchers will contribute good practices adopted in their respective institutions, and will design the Academy’s programmes based on the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation) methodology. The Academy will focus primarily on improving skills in asynchronous online teaching and its synchronous equivalent, when students learn at the same time. “The aim is to address the diverse learning needs of students in a digitally connected world,” explained the UOC faculty member. 

International mobility, crucial for collaborative learning

The project will develop an online, hybrid and blended mobility model, to enable teachers to participate in their initial training and continuous professional development. Teachers from different countries will thereby be able to learn collaboratively. “The teachers who participate in the Academy will benefit from the networks of all the partners in the project, and they will gain knowledge about the different European education systems through the mobility programmes,” added the UOC researcher. 

The UOC also leads OpenEU, the first European open university

Additionally, the University leads the OpenEU alliance, the first pan-European open university, bringing together fourteen universities and thirteen academic, business, rural, municipal, and civil associations from across Europe. The goal of OpenEU is to strengthen the digital, ecological, and social dimensions of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) by providing access to high-quality higher education and lifelong learning for everyone, facilitating accessible and environmentally sustainable international experiences for all students, and driving the digital transformation of institutions.

This research contributes to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, Quality Education.