CURRENT PROJECTS : e-ASSESSMENT

From July 2021 on, IKM participates in the eASSESSMENT project, confunded by the EU Erasmus+ programme. Partner countries are the UK, Portugal, Lithuania, Belgium, Germany and Greece.
 

Assessment is central to learner motivation as well as providing accreditation. The introduction of different assessment systems has a major impact on education and training
processes. In recent years, a new pedagogic paradigm has emerged placing the learner as the central subject in the construction of their own learning. At the same time there is an
increasing trend of employers recruiting new staff based on skills and competences, rather than just qualifications. And this period has seen the increasing use of technology for
teaching and learning.

The affordances provided by digital devices, tools and apps, increase opportunities for the implementation of assessment for learning which meets learners’ needs. Digital technologies
also allow access to some of the difficult to describe, or measure, skills and dispositions, which underpin vocational education. These ‘invisible’ attributes contribute towards learners
‘becoming’ (i.e. attainment of an occupational identity) as they progress towards building their personal knowledge, skills and competences profile.
Although research is still in the course of analysis and publication it would appear that the Vocational Education and Training sector had more problems than Higher Education and
schools in the turn to digital in repose to the Covid 19 crisis. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the repose was uneven with some institutions and teachers embracing new technologies for learning with others struggling. This reflects research undertaken through the Erasmus Taccle VET project which also found that while some VET teachers and trainers felt confident in adopting technologies and pedagogies for teaching and learning others were less sure. The project looked at the different competence areas included in the DigiCompEdu framework and asked VET teachers and trainers to rate their confidence and competence against the competence statements.

The aim of the project is to support VET teachers and trainers to use e‐assessment with vocational learners by providing guidelines, tools, best practices and access to an online
community. The project will focus on two sectors, construction and services (hospitality and social care) that according to the CEDEFOP Skills Panorama have high potential future
employment growth among partner countries.

The project aims to extend the DigiCompEdu Framework area 4 (Assessment) by defining new competence statements for VET teachers and trainers and to explore the potential of
different e-assessment tools and methods/ It will develop a toolkit for VET teachers /trainers analysing different e-assessment tools, providing best practice exemplars of e-assessment
in VET and guidelines to assist trainers to transition from narrow task-based assessment to using authentic, holistic assessment approaches and will include six assessment scenarios
for different situations in class and workplace VET in construction and services by using digital tools and authentic/holistic approaches. A Massive Open Online Course will be open to
participants in all countries, as will an online platform to support a Community of Practice on eAssessment in VET. Finally, the project will produce a report with recommendations for
organisations involved in VET teacher development and training

PAST projects

Adult education can make a significant contribution to sustainble growth in a city, a region, a country, Europe... Quality in adult learning is explicitly on the EU- agenda since 2006 and more recently made explicit in the Renewed European Agenda for Adult Learning (2011) which states that attention should be
TACCLE4 CPD is developing a toolkit that includes policy analyses, route map, and planning and quality assurance tools for managers, trainers and providers of CPD schemes and arrangements. Secondly, the project is developing further the handbooks with attention to different needs in the educational sectors involved. Thirdly, the project is

Upcoming Projects

2022 project on personalised physical and virtual learning spaces

Physical and virtual learning spaces are a focus of IKM’s 2019 projects. As early as 1991, IKM started creating an innovative and exciting learning space near Brussels, adapted to the diverse needs of learners as young as 6 and as old as 20, sharing a single but diverse environment. The space was designed to make diversy an asset for learning. Students included gifted children, children with Down syndrome, children tired of going to a more traditional school…. bottomline: children and young adults learning and working together and having fun doing so.

In december 2018 we made a study visit to Finland, visiting the new Central Library in Helsinki. Combining our experience with that of others and including new and exciting technologies  and scientific insights will be the basis for our new project proposals.

2022 project on microlearning on ICT for VET Educators and Trainers

In 10+ years of teacher training projects it has become increasingly apparent that although effective, face to face teacher-training cannot be scaled up fast enough to meet the demand for teacher education in the field of ICT and digital competencies. This project seeks to create an accessible programme of training in digital competencies for educators enhanced with community created content and fostering peer to peer learning.

According to the eLearning Industry web site, there are there three main drivers behind microlearning: the burgeoning demand for mobile learning; the increasing share of Millennials (those who are born after 1980) in the workforce; and constant pressure to develop courses quickly and economically. The biggest advantage of this bite sized learning is seen as being better learner engagement.

Microlearning is a versatile e-learning approach for acquiring skills and competencies, the learning is presented in small (micro) units and can be accessed from a computer or mobile device. Each microlearning object consists of a short focussed strategy and can be delivered in many multimedia formats such as a video, podcast, infographic or text. Microlearning is an important trend in vocational training. Building on the partners experience in training VET and other educators in digital competencies, Microleaning for digital competencies will bring this innovative methodology, based on increasingly solid evidence of efficiency and effectiveness into the education sector.

2022 project on computational thinking

The Institute of Knowledge Management (IKM) is developing a project focussing on Computational Thinking (CT) in primary education. Special about this project are the “unplugged” approach (without computer) as well as the integration of computational thinking in a variety of subjects: not only elementary science and mathematics but also social studies and languages.

2022 project on microlearning & blockchains

While microlearning is not a new concept, recent developments in technology make it possible to make microlearning more efficient and effective than ever.In this project, we explore how microlearning can support more structured approaches to learning and how the blockchain model can be used to capture and consolidate the learning outcomes of learners.