Key Pedagogical Insights
● Create engaging experiences online
● Introduce student centred evaluation
● Ensure simplicity for deeper engagement
● Utilise social media for continuous communication
● Position students at the centre of learning and teaching
● Provide support and constructive feedback for student success
● Help students with the feeling provoked by overload of work
● Assess learning through e-portfolios to ensure equity
● Ensure flexibility in the blended learning design
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BLEARN_AUTONOMY interviewed thirty-nine teachers in six universities located in France, Norway, Poland, Portugal, and Spain. They elaborated on their experiences with digital tools for teaching before, during and after the lockdowns and the travel restrictions that were implemented to curb the spread of the COVID19 virus.
In these conversations, the teachers shared their concern with both technology and pedagogy. They highlighted the limits of the abrupt shift to online emergency teaching. In 2020 and 2021, they struggled with online alternatives that did not guarantee the same quality as face-to-face teaching. Mostly, they regretted the pedagogical shortcomings on courses that inevitably had to be based on giving lectures through pre-recorded or streamed video conferences.
However, the reflections in the interviewees also envisioned new avenues for pedagogical improvement. That exceptional moment showed the importance of some underlying principles. Remarkably, many teachers realised that hybrid and blended learning could help higher education institutions to develop lessons and assessment systems in which students played a more active role. Some of them found relatively simpler solutions that positioned students at the epicentre of learning. These changes made it indispensable for teachers to redesign their courses by blending their instructional processes in which face-to-face lectures, seminars, laboratory work and debates generate synergies with digital delivery tools as well as with digital teaching tools such as forum, portfolios, and workshops.