Facilitating Online Collaboration – A Training Proposal for Teachers

Abstract

Focusing on the need to upskill educators’ professional and pedagogical competences and on the ongoing challenges raised by digitalization and digitally-enhanced collaborative communication and learning, the following paper outlines the key outputs of EDUdig, an Erasmus + project currently underway. Operating on the European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigComEdu) this project aims to contribute with practical content, including didactical concepts for online lectures, e-learning tools and recommendations, as to foster the development of the educators’ professional and pedagogical competences, with particular emphasis on the structure defined for the online course – i.e., “Facilitating online collaboration”. In addition to putting forward the project’s background and overall goals and describing the rationale behind the course, the authors establish the key role of collaborative learning within this scope, emphasizing the importance of peer learning and communities of practice based on training, sharing and joint-reflection processes to anchor pedagogical transformation.