The central phase of the project implementation, the Training of Trainers, started on 7.8.2018 with a 2-hour Opening webinar. On 6.8.2018, the project teams organised a shorter webinar session during which the participants had the chance to test the online platforms that will be used during the training (Moodle and Adobe Connect).
Jyri Lindén, university pedagogy expert from University of Tampere, led the Opening webinar together with the UTA project team. Lindén presented the goals of the training and the programme schedule. He introduced the first training theme, Student learning and engagement, and explained the first individual assignment for the participants.
Eighteen IUG academics who were selected to participate in the training joined the webinar from the computer classroom at IUG. Opening of the computer classroom was funded by the eTraining FinPal project for the purposes of the online training. IUG project team and the IT staff facilitated the webinar session by providing technical support to the participants.
The goal of the training is to strengthen the participants’ capacities to implement modern pedagogical approaches in university teaching as well as to train other university teachers on modern pedagogical approaches in university teaching. The 6-months training will be organised through online webinars combined with individual and group assignments for the participants. The estimated workload for the participants is 190 hours. An intensive face-to-face training at University of Tampere is preliminarily planned for mid-September 2018.
The main themes that the training will cover are:
- Student learning and engagement,
- Designing learning processes and environments,
- Special features of teaching at university,
- Expertise in academic teaching in higher education, and
- Online environments and tools.
