Recommendations for teachers before the start of the new semester

With 2024 autumn semester approaching quickly, we kindly remind you and recommend updating the following information in your Moodle courses:

Check whether the course code(s) in the Moodle environment and the study program network and/teacher portal.
Please note that it is necessary to update the MS Teams meeting/room links in the course (delete the previous semester and create new one). How to create MS Teams meeting room in Moodle
Update the dates of existing activities. It is possible to check and see the set dates of all activities at once -> Administration -> Course administration -> Reports -> Dates.
Pay attention to whether the educational material is available (visible) to students (you can check this by activating the student role by clicking on your name in the upper right corner in Moodle and then Switch role to -> Student).
Delete messages from previous semesters that were sent to the learners via discussion forum.
Update the study description (the student guide).
Delete student test attempts from the previous semester (it is required if you want to add/delete questions in the test activity).
View whether uploaded video materials (videos, links, etc.) are available to students.
Pay attention whether the authorship in your uploaded slides is indicated.

Guest from University of New York Tirana

On April 26, it was a great pleasure to receive a guest at the of Institute for Study Innovations Assoc. Prof. Narasimha Rao VAJJHALA from University of New York Tirana, Albania.
During the meeting, we presented the activities of Institute for Study Innovations. That is, research areas have been introduced. The Vytautas Magnus Univertity online learning environment Moodle was shown and presented. We introduced Quality Assurance Metodology for online (and blended) studies and discussed about micro-credentials, how to issue them from Moodle and Europass.

Assoc. Prof. Narasimha Rao VAJJHALA briefly introduced the university, shared his experience of the university, how studies are conducted. We discussed about online and blended learning possibilities and impact to the quality of studies.

Firs face-to-face international project Miss4Health meeting in Kaunas

On March 13-14, 2024, the first face-to-face international meeting of the project took place in Kaunas Micro-credentials in Soft Skills for Healthcare Professionals and Students (Miss4Health) partner meeting. During the meeting, the project partners briefly introduced themselves and introduced the institutions they came from.

Institutions involved in the project:

CCMIJU – Centro de Cirugía de Mínima Invasión Jesús Usón (Spain)
CUNI – Charles University (Czech Republic)
VMU – Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania)
TU – Turiba University (Latvia)
UNIRI – University of Rijeka (Croatia)
VIRAL Studios (Spain)

During the meeting, it was discussed how the dissemination of the project will be carried out, what a micro-credential is and how it will be issued from a online learning environment. Future courses and their management and quality plan criteria were also discussed. The future website of the project was presented and other organizational issues related to the project were also discussed.

EDEN 2024 Annual Conference in Graz, (Austria)

EDEN 2024 Annual Conference will be held at University of Graz, Austria, 16-18 June. The conference theme is “Learning in the Age of AI: Towards Imaginative Futures”.

Registration is now open, register to EDEN 2024 Annual Conference, here.

Submit your contribution until March 15 2024, here.

Find more information about EDEN DLE 2024 Annual Conference below:

“Learning in the Age of AI: Towards Imaginative Futures”

At EDEN 2024, we invite you to join us in a thoughtful exploration of the rapidly evolving landscape of education, as we adapt to the ever-increasing presence of AI and digital systems. Our experiences in the journey with AI are still young and can be described as stories of trial and error, so sharing our experiences, expectations and hopes is vital. The digital revolution has ushered in exciting, promising, and imaginative changes, but it is also testing our beliefs about learning and education.

Recommendations for teachers before the start of the new semester

With 2024 spring semester approaching quickly, we kindly remind you and recommend updating the following information in your Moodle courses:

Change the date of the First lecture and specify the date of the Last lecture (if you do not know it, indicate the last day of the semester – May 24). Administration -> Course administration -> Edit settings -> change Course start date and Course end date.
Update the dates of existing activities. It is possible to check and see the set dates of all activities at once -> Administration -> Course administration -> Reports -> Dates.
Pay attention to whether the educational material is available (visible) to students (you can check this by activating the student role by clicking on your name in the upper right corner in Moodle and then Switch role to -> Student).
Delete messages from previous semesters that were sent to the learners via discussion forum.
Update the study description (the student guide).
Delete student test attempts from the previous semester (it is required if you want to add/delete questions in the test activity).
View whether uploaded video materials (videos, links, etc.) are available to students.
Pay attention whether the authorship in your uploaded slides is indicated.

DIGI-PROF project Multiplier Event in Lithuania

On the 17th of November, 2023, Multiplier Event of the project „DIGI-PROF Transparent Assessment for Online Learning by Digitally Competent Professors“ took place at Vytautas Magnus university, Kaunas. This event was targeted at the national participants from HE institutions in Lithuania, mainly teachers.

The event started with the presentation of objectives, activities and results of the international project. Then three training materials for the HE professors were presented:

Training material “ Designing Transparent Assessment Strategies For Online Learning in HE”;
Training material “ Monitoring, Supporting, and Engaging Students Based on the Evidence Generated by Digital Technologies ”;
Training material “ Ensuring Digital and Micro-Credentialization of Learning As a Part of Transparent Assessment For Recognition of Learning Outcomes ”.

One more project result – „The Guidelines for HE institutions to implement transparent assessment of learning outcomes for online and blended learning leading to digital microcredentials“ – was presented during the event.

All these project results are available at the DIGI-PROF project website.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

OER-Codex courses “Digital Resources” and “Case Study Design” were presented at an international dissemination event

An international virtual multiplier event, “Open Educational Resources (OER) for Collaborative Online & Distance Education and eXchange”, was organized as part of EDEN EODLW2023 on 9 November 2023.

The session was organized in the framework of the Erasmus+ „OER-Codex“ project to introduce a conceptual framework of Collaborative Online International Learning. The event aimed to present the conceptual background of COIL, provide recommendations on organising and managing COIL projects, explain why teachers should apply COIL projects in their teaching and learning, and show how to set up online collaborative learning courses with digital resources. Event participants were introduced to the training materials of the “Digital Resources” and “Case Study Design” courses developed within the OER-Codex project framework.

Next, the virtual learning environment, types of certificates, and micro-credentials were presented to inform participants of the possibility of developing their competencies in designing OER-supported collaborative online learning.

The multiplier event was organized by Vytautas Magnus University team, which, together with partners from TU Dresden (Germany), KREMS (Austria), and EMUNI (Slovenia) are implementing the “OER-Codex” project.

Recording of the session is available here. Learn more about the project – https://www.oer-codex.eu/

Digi-Prof Transnational Project Partner Meeting

The Digi-Prof Transnational Project Partner Meeting took place at the Baden-Württemberg State University in Heilbronn, Germany, from 11 to 12 October, 2023.

During the meeting, guidelines for higher education institutions on how to implement transparent assessment of learning achievements in online or blended learning for micro-credentialing were presented and discussed. Progress in the development of 10 subjects for virtual and blended distance collaboration between institutions was also discussed.

As a reminder, the teaching materials developed in the Digi-Prof project are available to higher education teachers in six languages (Lithuanian, English, German, Catalan, Portuguese and Polish):

Designing transparent assessment strategies for online learning in HE
Monitoring, supporting, and engaging students based on the evidence generated by digital technologies
Ensuring digital and micro-credentialization of learning as a part of transparent assessment for recognition of learning outcomes

Training materials are openly available and can be accessed on the project website.

OER-Codex project meeting at VMU in Vilnius

The OER-Codex project transnational partner meeting took place at Vytautas Magnus University in Vilnius on 22 September 2023. The partner meeting aimed to overview the project progress, primarily focusing on the progress of Cluster 1 on Open Educational Resources for Collaborative Learning content development and piloting. The project team discussed the piloting process of Clusters in detail and planned the timeline to ensure timely output delivery.

Project partners:

Technische Universitat Dresden, Germany
Evro-sredozemska univerza, Slovenia
Vytautas Magnus university, Lithuania
IMC Fachhochschule Krems, Austria

The meeting was a great place to foster collaboration and exchange of ideas among project partners and strengthen the partnership in a mutual project quality-oriented approach.

The aim of the project is to develop OER course modules, conveying digital teaching and learning methods of online collaborative learning in a blended learning context for educators in higher education (HE), aiming to increase the capacity and readiness of HE institutions to manage an effective shift towards digital education.

For more information about the OER-Codex project, please check the project website or contact project researcher Giedrė Tamoliūnė (giedre.tamoliune@vdu.lt).

Recommendations for teachers before the start of the new semester

Dear Teachers,

With 2023 autumn semester approaching quickly, we kindly remind you and recommend updating the following information in your Moodle courses:

Change the date of the First lecture and specify the date of the Last lecture (if you do not know it, indicate the last day of the semester – January 31). Administration -> Course administration -> Edit settings -> change Course start date and Course end date.
Update the dates of existing activities. It is possible to check and see the set dates of all activities at once -> Administration -> Course administration -> Reports -> Dates.
Pay attention to whether the educational material is available (visible) to students (you can check this by activating the student role by clicking on your name in the upper right corner in Moodle and then Switch role to -> Student).
Delete messages from previous semesters that were sent to the learners via discussion forum.
Update the study description (the student guide).
Delete student test attempts from the previous semester (it is required if you want to add/delete questions in the test activity).
View whether uploaded video materials (videos, links, etc.) are available to students.
Pay attention whether the authorship in your uploaded slides is indicated.