Digital Transformation in the Western Balkans Education – DIGITCRESHE
STRAND 1
Duration: 24 months
Budget: 381,972
Keywords: Integration and upscaling of digital technologies and media in education, Free Active Learning, Technology-Enhanced Learning, Creative Industries
Description: Research on the Western Balkan (WB) conducted by the British Council, also in 2018, highlighted the lack of qualified individuals in the Cultural and Creative Sectors (CCS) mainly due to a mismatch between educational provision and the sector requirements. Educational programs reportedly were still based on passive pedagogical methodologies that neglected to incorporate sufficient practical knowledge, meaning that graduates had theoretical knowledge but little understanding on how to put it into practice and lacked skills and competences that were fundamental for the workplace like creative thinking, collaboration, leadership, etc. At the same time, the European Commission clearly outlined, in its 2018 Strategy for the Western Balkans, that “digital transformation …can be a crosscutting boost to transform the region”. The main idea of the project is therefore to improve the quality of the Higher Education programmes for the Creative and Cultural Industries in the Western Balkan countries to make students more satisfied with the skills they acquired, to ensure that graduates are more skilled and competitive on the labour market and therefore achieving higher employment rates. This will be achieved through a digital transformation that takes advantage of active learning methodologies and innovative digital educational tools. The project will assess the existing needs in HEI programmes for the CCS, will design, develop and/or adapt curricula, courses, learning materials and implement different learning and collaboration activities for teachers, postgraduates, and graduates. These will take different forms like workshops, intensive study programmes, master classes all in online and offline forms. The project will also create physical facilities (Creative Labs) in the WB HEIs to support those activities. The project will also create a virtual learning and collaborative platform to foster a common approach to tackle these educational approaches in the Western Balkans
| Project coordinator | · INSTITUTO POLITECNICO DO PORTO Portugal |
| Project partners: | · Visoka skola “Banja Luka College” Bosnia and HerzegoPartner
· International University EUROPA PRIMA Skopje North Macedonia Partner · QENDRA PER STUDIME KRAHASUESE DHE NDERKOMBETARE Albania Partner · Fachhochschule Dortmund Germany Partner · INTERNACIONALNI UNIVERZITET TRAVNIK BA Partner · Mesdheu Education shpk Albania Partner · Union of the Macedonian professional associations in the creative industry – UMPAKI Skopje MK Partner · UNIVERZITET MEDITERAN PODGORICA PRIVATNA USTANOVA ME Partner · CREATIVE THINKING DEVELOPMENT Greece Partner · MARIN BARLETI SHA AL Partner · JAVNA USTANOVA UNIVERZITET CRNE GORE PODGORICA Montenegro Partner · PANEPISTIMIO THESSALIAS Greece Partner · NEW BULGARIAN UNIVERSITY Bulgaria Partner · INSTITUTE FOR TECHNOLOGICAL TRANSFER AND INNOVATION Bulgaria Partner |
