Fostering higher education students’ autonomy through blended learning
(BLEARN_AUTONOMY) will operate for 24 months starting in November 2020. It experiments with digital, innovative practices that are instrumental to tackle skills gaps and mismatches as well as to reward excellence in teaching.
The project attempts to generate synergies between digital competences and educational methods in order to strengthen the quality and relevance of higher education in Spain, Portugal, Norway, Poland and France. The Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) leads a network of partners that bring strong expertise and new sources of creativity to the project. University of Vic- University of Central Catalonia (UVic- UCC), University of Minho (UM), University of Stavanger (US), University of Warsaw (UW) and Catholic Univesity of Lyon (UCLy) are the partners.
Thus, the consortium constitutes a sample of both stakeholders and case studies. As stakeholders, all the institutions are interested in piloting teaching methods that get the most out of blended learning. US has a strong background in this field, and UAB, UM and UVic-UCC have previously started some relevant projects. In addition, the consortium facilitates research activities to the extent that the whole array of institutions outlines a sample of diverse (older and newer, bigger and smaller) institutions working in very different contexts.
The project pursues two key objectives. Firstly, it will analyse to what extent teachers’ feedback helps students to make professional judgements that solve challenging problems and develop their meta-cognition skills by regulating their own learning (e.g. through learner portfolios). This objective requires teachers to find out methods that accompany learning beyond the walls of the classroom and the cells of the timetable.
Secondly, the project will invite teachers to broaden up the scope of teaching activities. Besides lecturing and testing, blended learning clearly entails designing online environments, providing detailed and sound feedback, leading collaborative tasks and sharing expertise. Therefore, teachers must experiment with new professional roles, based on collaboration and social and emotional skills, that certainly cut across classroom walls and fixed sessions.