The digital-learning.lu website adapts to the emergency of remote teaching
Before the establishment of containment measures, new technologies were observed and studied for their added value to the classroom. "The ILTI (Innovative Learning & Teaching Initiative) project brings together lecturers that observe and analyze the use of digital media in class. We are trying to optimize their added value in order to find the best practices and share them with the entire teaching staff, "explains Johannes Pause, one of the project managers. "In this context, we have set up a website dedicated to digital learning (www.digital-learning.lu) on which we share available tools, testimonials and ideas regarding online learning", he adds.
New content to support lecturers during the crisis
The purpose of this website has changed somewhat since the outbreak of the coronavirus in the greater region. "It was obvious that our website had to adapt to the crisis we are going through to support teachers. The emergency of remote teaching was indisputable. To respond to It, we have published a list of all the tools and resources we know of directly on the homepage”, explains Johannes Pause. Some tools are already popular among the University. “We have tools like Moodle that we all use on a daily basis, but that we don't really know much about. It can be verry powerful, but some of its functionalities are little known. Our next goal is to develop tutorials to help lecturers make the most of the platform. One of the tools that could prove particularly useful in this crisis is, for example, the conference app Discord (link to: https://discordapp.com), which, unlike many other similar services, also enables group work. This program is normally used by gamers, but has proven to be an interesting alternative for remote teaching due to its wide range of functionalities. First tutorials are already available on the Internet.", underlines Pause.
Contribution at the core
The transition to remote teaching seems to have been carried out without too much difficulties within our Faculty, but "the next worry concerns the evaluations," notes Pause. "We are also collecting and finding alternatives to offer to our lecturers on the digital-learning.lu," he explains. If the content of the website has been adapted to the current situation, collaboration remains the core of this initiative. “We are all experimenting with these new technologies by necessity. Therefore, we invite all lecturers to share their experiences, their success, the errors to be avoided, but also resources and tools that they have been able to test. The larger the contributions, the more interesting the tool will be for all of us, "said Pause.