<< Background >>The pandemic radically changed teaching and learning at brick-and-mortar universities. Declining COVID-19 risks are currently facilitating the comeback to the classroom teaching, but once can be stated: on-campus universities will never be the same. A sound mix of F2F and online teaching seems to be a new reality, whereby F2F teaching has to factor in smaller class cohorts and socially distanced lectures. The recent trend in the post-COVID F2F teaching is hybrid teaching (HT). Before the pandemic, terms HT and blended learning were used interchangeably and stood for the mix of online and f2f learning activities. The meaning of HT in times of COVID and also in the context of this proposal differs and is meant as a synchronous teaching with F2F and online participants. A teacher has to interact at the same time with on-campus and online students: his lecture is conducted in a physical classroom with one group of students and is broadcasted to another group of participants who are connected to the same lecture online.Thus, HT aims at creating specific learning spaces through interlinking physical and digital learning environments. In these spaces, various teaching and learning scenarios can be implemented, with variety of time, place, number of students, collaborative and individual tasks. HT seems be a solution, which could greatly support on-campus universities when designing their post-Covid teaching and meeting the needs of post-Covid students. At the HEI management level, potentials of HT were already recognized and HT solutions are highly demanded. However, HT scenarios require an excellent didactical know-how from teachers. They have not only to manage physical and online learning environments but make the best from the both worlds. The field research demonstrates a lack of supporting materials for teachers in the field of HT. It seems very urgent to provide teachers with guidance materials demonstrating strong HT scenarios and their pedagogical value.On the other hand, HT requires from teachers increased time when planning and implementing hybrid sessions. We believe, HT could benefit from virtual conversational assistants, the so-called chatbots. Chatbots are being deployed for different purposes, in education and entertainment. In HE, chatbots may facilitate interactivity, sociability, and knowledge acquisition, assessing learning styles, and harvest feedback in e-learning environments.The implementation of chatbots in HE and, in particular, in HT is still in its infancy. HEI teaching staff lacks knowledge and skills regarding the design and implementation of chatbots, and specific pedagogical competences related to the integration of chatbots into teaching. Moreover, training opportunities on acquiring relating skills are missing, as well. Thus, the project responses to the needs of F2F teachers linked with missing knowledge, skills and competences for the design and deployment of chatbot-based hybrid teaching scenarios.<< Objectives >>Based on considerations above, HYBOT project aims at empowering HEI teachers who mostly work in F2F learning environments, to create and implement hybrid teaching scenarios supported with chatbots. Specific objectives are as follows:1.To enhance teachers’ skills related to the design and implementation of hybrid teaching scenarios,2.To empower teachers to create and deploy chatbots in their hybrid educational settings,3.To improve learners’ experience in HT settings supported with chatbots.<< Implementation >>In order to achieve the project objectives, the partnership will implement a wide range of academic activities, which will deal with the two phenomena, Hybrid teaching and chatbots, separately and in their complexity. First, the partnership will conduct the extended desk research aiming at the identification and collection of available hybrid teaching practices at international level. Where applicable, desk research results will be supplemented with the interviews with HT practitioners. Obtained results will be described in terms of their technological and pedagogical design and implementation, and published in the Compendium of HT practices which will be used by HEI teaching staff as a didactical tool when planning their own HT scenarios. Through this activity, we are going to present the state of the art in the field of HT and to promote teachers’ skills relating to HT in informal way, through learning from the experiences of their international peers. In the next step, the partnership will design a methodology for HEI teachers aimed at equipping them with knowledge, skills and competences needed for the creation and implementation of chatbots. An online training program for teachers will be developed by the partnership and piloted with at least 25 participants from the HYBOT countries. To support and increase teachers’ experience with the chatbot design, a chatbot platform will be set up, customized, and populated with a few chatbot scenarios, which will be designed by the partnership for demonstration purposes. Prior to the development of the chatbot platform and training program, designated researchers/teachers from the partnership (2*HEI) will attend a 3-day LTTA led by partner KTU. During the joint LTTA event, the knowledge and skills of the project staff related to the design and development of chatbots, will be trained. In order to demonstrate that the previous activities and results can be successfully deployed under real conditions, a series of pedagogical experiments will be developed and implemented. These experiments will be carried out by teachers, who completed the training program and analysed HT practices from the Compendium. The task of teachers will be to design their own chatbot-based hybrid scenarios, to develop their own chatbots including corresponding resources, to deliver at least 10 chatbot-based hybrid sessions to students, and to report about the implemented experiments in case studies. These case studies will be added to the Compendium of HT practices (PR 1) making the experiments visible to the wider audience. In order to encourage the transnational collaboration among pilot teachers, a Community of Practice (CoP) will be initiated from the very beginning of the project. This loose online network will facilitate the experience exchange and mutual learning among HYBOT teachers in an informal way throughout the project's .The academic activities above will be accompanied by regular dissemination activities inside and outside the consortium. This will help increase the visibility of the project and its results, encourage the transnational collaboration, receive feedback on the activities and results produced, and to maximize project’s impact at regional, national, and European level.<< Results >>In terms of Project Results (PR), 4 following substantial PRs are envisaged:PR1: Compendium of HT practices: state-of-the-art collection of at least 20 HT practices identified and deployed in the countries of the partnership and outside, and enriched with 10 HYBOT-style chatbot-based hybrid teaching scenarios. The aim of the Compendium is to serve as a didactical tool for teachers willing to create and implement own HT scenarios. PR 2: Customized chatbot development tool: the platform adapted to the needs of HYBOT consortium will enable building and connecting intelligent chatbots by teachers inside and outside the consortium. PR 3: online training program on creating and implementing chatbots (including training curriculum, training contents, and online learning environment): the training will aim at enabling HEI teachers to design and implement own chatbots in educational settings. The program of approx. 100 hours will be designed in English and consist of a series of digital learning videos, animations, and supporting scripts embedded in an online learning environment. PR 4: Piloted chatbot-based hybrid sessions: they will be designed and implemented by pilot teachers and supported by chatbots that will be created by teachers, too. This project result can be split in following deliverables:-25 developed chatbot-based hybrid teaching scenarios-25 developed chatbots, -10 piloted chatbot-based hybrid sessions,-10 cases studies to be designed by pilot teachers upon completing the piloting phase. All results mentioned above will be licensed under Creative Commons license and made available open source for free to wider audience. Apart from the main PRs, further outcomes are envisaged as follows:-increased digital and pedagogical skills and competences of pilot teachers linked to the design of chatbots and their integration into educational settings, design and management of hybrid sessions;-improved learning experience of students who took part in the piloting of developed chatbot-based hybrid sessions;-enhanced pedagogical capacities and innovation potentials of participating HEIs, -5 multiplier events in each participating country with a total of at least 275 local, foreign and virtual guests to promote project results and increase the project impact.

<< Background >>Currently, students in initial training in nursing, medicine and psychology do not have learning activities to train them in communication adapted to paediatrics. Their training focusses solely on therapeutic communication even though this represents only one side of the healthcare communication that is necessary for quality patient care. It must be pointed out that communication in paediatrics meets specific needs. It takes place in a trilateral way, patient-parent-carer, and requires adaptation to the child’s age and development. The research project SIMUCARE-IMMERSION tackles this issue arising from the professional area and needs expressed by learners. Higher education continually adapts itself to technological evolutions and the needs of its target audience. Therefore it is currently evolving towards hybrid learning associating digital and face-to-face sequences. It also tends to integrate educational methods in which learners have an active role. Healthcare simulation combines those different characteristics: a preparation sequence through ICT or face-to-face lessons followed with practice during simulation sessions. Simulation is now well-integrated in the initial training of future healthcare professionals, and most training centres have the necessary equipment and infrastructures: low and high-fidelity dummy, standardised patient … This project is interested in another, still little described and used simulation tool, 360° video. This tool is very accessible in financial and technical terms. It is particularly fit to immerse learners in real professional situations, make them experiment the place of the patient and, through this experimentation, develop empathy and reflexivity, which help develop communication skills and a partner-like attitude with the patient. The project partners will propose to develop, test and validate the tool “360° video for paediatric communication training”. To make sure the tool will meet the target audience’s needs, the partner patient, researcher and trainer, has been associated to the partnership. They will be involved at all project steps, which responds to an evolution in healthcare and higher education aiming to involve the patient as a partner in the research and design of learning activities. The partner patient’s participation during healthcare will help improve the health of populations affected by chronic diseases, and create more humanistic learning environments.Eventually, the tool and the educational scenario in which it will be integrated will complete the partners’ simulation training based on other techniques and addressing technical and non-technical clinical judgement skills.The tool will be integrated in a freely accessible digital platform, the research results of which will be widely disseminated nationally and internationally. This will contribute to implementing widely and durably the project results.<< Objectives >>This project targets several objectives; learning the so-called non-technical communication skill, implementing an innovative learning device that meets the market’s needs “360° immersion”, integrating the partner patient expert-researcher associated to the teacher to guarantee the quality of training, implementing a transversal and transdisciplinary approach involving several healthcare disciplines.As a main output, the project aims to develop a hybrid tool based on 360° immersion, associating distance self-learning and face-to-face simulation, with the purpose to teach communication adapted to beneficiaries’ needs in paediatric care. This tool will be integrated in an educational scenario destined for the initial training of future carers (nurses, doctors, psychologists, etc.).The participation of several partner patients in the project will help match the scenarios to the expectations of paediatric beneficiaries in order to stick as close as possible to the reality in the field and to meet the stakeholders’ needs. The partner patients will be involved form the beginning of the activities. They will take part in the research on communication skills and the cooperative design of simulation scenarios.The learning objective is to acquire communication skills that contribute to improve communication, first by medicine, psychology and nursing learners, then by professionals who work in paediatric services in order to improve the quality of healthcare and caring of children. Several authors have demonstrated that this paediatric skills is decisive to make the patient a partner in healthcare (Giambra et al, 2014).To satisfy this need, some authors identify communication learning methods in the curriculum that are not yet widespread in Europe even though they are recommended by all healthcare experts. Thus, 360° 'immersion and the partner patient are tools that meet both the needs of higher education and the evolution of healthcare.The digital platform where the educational contents will be integrated is a genuine need fulfil the different objectives related to the current priorities of Europe, education, healthcare and Generation Z. Eventually, these objectives will impact the paediatric patient’s healthcare quality.Moreover, the project fosters interdisciplinary cooperation in healthcare. The partnership brings together learners, teachers and professionals of three different medical and paramedical disciplines. These professionals regularly meets in multidisciplinary teams around a same patient, without being prepared to it. The patient, considered as an expert of life with their disease, will here also be recognised as a partner. This multidisciplinary cooperation in the framework of the project will contribute to improving mutual understanding and lead to a better multidisciplinary healthcare of the patient.<< Implementation >>The activities have been defined with all the partners based on their skills and expertise in the project, and are divided in several steps. Each partner has the responsibility of leading one or more activities that will be developed in cooperation by all the partners.There are six activities related to five distinct steps, visible in the Gantt chart:Step 1 “State of play” includes the activity A1 “State of play of needs and State of play of resources'', which defines a theoretical support to the creation of scenarios with the 360° tool. The partner patient will take part in this step to validate the research methodology.Step 2 “Creation of the digital learning tool” includes A2 “Educational design and creation of contents and educational activities”, which develops educational engineering to build the educational content with the partner-patient.Step 3 “E-learning platform” includes A3 “Creation of the digital platform”, which will be built in two stages: 1) Development of the platform and 2) Content and website upload (transversal), all along the project. The platform will be updated during the project based on the results of A4 and A5.Step 4 “Evaluation process of the educational tool” includes A4 “Educational tool testing by target groups” and A5 “Analysis of the results of the tool testing”. These activities will have significant importance in the project as they are a token of quality regarding target groups’ needs before disseminating the tool to a wider audience. According to a defined methodology, the intellectual output and its content will be tested first by the scientific group and then by the target groups of every partner. A5 “Analysis of the results of the tool testing” aims to review the results of A4 with tools validated beforehand by the consortium and the partner patient-researcher.Step 5 “Results formalisation” includes A6 “Overview of results”, which takes the form of scientific papers to be published in various educational and medical magazines, and the creation of a methodological guide addressed to all healthcare professionals who wish to implement this type of training with their learners or healthcare staff.The results will be disseminated widely among the partners’ professional networks in the form of multiplier events organised in every country. Those multiplier events will have a significant impact on the evolution of education through simulation using innovative educational methods.<< Results >>The project will deliver several significant results:The first concrete result will be the development of an e-learning platform dedicated to communication skill learning. It will be made available for free to learners and will complete current academic curricula focussed on more technical therapeutic communication. This platform will focus on communication in paediatrics integrating the trilateral approach “carer-child-parent, completing a training offer that is lacking in this area. This platform can be used autonomously and is designed in a hybrid format, matching the current logic (induced by the health crisis) of face-to-face education paired with distance learning.On this platform, users will access a second result, 360°videos to fully immerse themselves in a situation and experience it “like in real life”. 360° immersion environments will be built in cooperation and validated by several stakeholders: the “partner patient”, “communication specialists”, and “field specialists”. The aim is to build a library of environments validated both for contents and forms as learning material.Thus, after preparing autonomously through the platform and the 360° videos, learners will be able during face-to-face learning to apply their learning through simulation, role plays, the standardised patient and simulation with a high-fidelity dummy. The platform will provide complementarity between face-to-face and distance education, perfectly fulfilling current Covid-19 related health requirements.The project results will also be visible among teachers. Creating videos and integrating them in educational scenarios, teachers will develop digital tool skills.The e-learning platform and its content will be disseminated on a large scale in every partner country, giving it significant visibility and durability.Working hand in hand with the partner patient – for some members of the partnership for the first time – will make this practice durable in the different institutions in order to implement the paradigm on the long term.To sum up, this project’s results will be visible both among learners (improved communication skills) and teachers (improved digital skills), and patients, who will benefit from better healthcare with fewer errors and complaints.

The ‘SHaring Open educational practices Using Technology For Higher Education’ (SHOUT4HE) project responded to the need for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to ‘prioritize and recognize’ (NMC Horizon Report: Higher Education Edition, 2017, p.2) ongoing learning about the use of technology by their staff to make a positive impact on teaching, learning, & creative inquiry in higher education. This can only happen if HE teacher’s skills are improved to enhance pedagogies. This is particularly important with the development of open educational resources (OERs) as the use digital technology becomes more pervasive and sophisticated in Higher Education (HE) teaching. Evidence suggest that this cannot happen in isolation, either within a university or an individual country, and needs to be developed through transnational cooperation between HEIs to ensure best practice and innovation is shared. Through transnational cooperation the project achieved three main objectives: 1. Development of a Recognition Framework (3D2) for effective use of technology in Higher Education (HE) teaching, to allow HE teachers to assess their current position, but also to see how to enhance their teaching in line with individual needs and expectations. 2. Design and development of a new, innovative e-Platform for sharing open education practices and resources. 3. Development a set of e-Resources (Pedagogical Practice Videos [PPVs] and eBooks) to be shared through the e-Platform and other networks. These consist of 45 OER Pedagogical Practice Videos (PPVs) and three eBooks.The project team consisted of five university partners (Cardiff Metropolitan University, Université Côte d'Azur, Hogeschool PXL, University of Limerick, Universite de Bordeaux) across four countries (Wales, Belgium, France, Ireland), all of whom are HE teachers. Each partner worked closely with a minimum of eight other HE teachers within their institution across a range of academic subjects to encourage cross-disciplinary pedagogic learning. Each SHOUT4HE partner identified three HE teachers as Core HE teachers (CHET). The CHETs were chosen to represent a range of different academic disciplines. Each partner also recruited a minimum of five Peripheral HE teachers (PHET). The PHETs were chosen as all demonstrated high quality technology-supported teaching practice within their university. Together with the project team, they all contributed a wide variety of subject and discipline knowledge and experience to the production of the Pedagogical Practice Videos (PPVs) and eBooks. The 45 PPVs are searchable by a range of filters and all outline: the context of the technology use; the educational approach; the degree of digital fluency involved; how the practice was developed; and its use as an OER. The eBooks The project involved integrated transnational meetings, multiplier events, a final conference, as well as data collection from other HE teachers to collaboratively recognize practices from other HE teachers. The underlying overall methodology for the implementation of the SHOUT4HE project was AGILE, with a series of development cycles to focus on continuous improvement in the development of each of the outputs. In addition, the development of the software of the e-platform was based on a design-based methodology with all partners contributing to reflect best practice in software design.The project Recognition Framework, 45 PPVs and 3 eBooks were widely disseminated and are all openly and freely available on the specially designed project e-Platform (https://library.shout4he.eu). They have high degree of relevance, are applicability across disciplines transnationally, and are designed to ensure they are easily adopted and thus have a longer-term impact in university teaching, professional development programmes, as well as on individual HE teachers for personal use in CPD.

<< Objectives >>At the request of professionals from water sector, HydroEurope will develop innovative training material and modules in a pan European approach for MSc students in 6 MSc. programmes in water engineering, especially in the advanced modelling solutions for flash floods and related water pollution accidents. The teaching units, after validation and integration within the MSc's, will bring new needed competencies to participants.<< Implementation >>Pedagogic teams from the 6 HEIs partners will create and validate 18 teaching units deliciated to competencies focus on uncertainties in modelling, flash floods and related water pollution accidents. These units are developed around 6 case studies representative of European hydrological diversity. Innovative advanced modelling solutions of these units will be validated every year by 120 learners and professionals from water sector. The produced materials will be shared with several HEIs.<< Results >>Competencies improvement with 18 teaching units (endorsed by water professionals), each equivalent to 2 ECTS, will be achieve with integration in each core part of the 6 MScs. These units will serve as references and will be used by other HEIs in Europe and at international level. The selected Project Orientated approach represents a major pedagogic innovation that can be deployed in other training education programmes. Project will reinforce leadership of HEIs in water engineering education.

"The past years and nowadays pandemic situation at EU raise the question “How strong or fragile is EU”? The connection to several EU crises undergoing through this period is obvious. The financial crises, economic crises, environmental and migration crises are most often mentioned between the others. In order for EU institutions to uphold their moral responsibility to represent what matters to society, they must make the political choices to build a sustainable European economy. Europe has also to assure the security and protection of its inhabitants. The governments and the institutions of the EU countries often remain locked into short-sighted decision making. The regional leaders no longer have the capacity to make choices that deliver for the needs of its people. However, the economic crisis has demonstrated that this process is not complete and it still has a number of important shortcomings that undermine the stability of the European economy and society as a whole. These imbalances, both globally, and within the EU, have also been often mentioned as one of the important factors at the roots of the crisis itself. Due to this, it is crucial for an effective crisis recovery and the long-term sustainability of the European countries that the effective mechanisms will be put in place to address all of these deficiencies at the same time, in a comprehensive way. The political guidelines for the next, EC 2019-2024 settled the priorities for the upcoming period. One of them is “Overcoming the Crisis: New Ideas, Strategies and Governance Structures for Europe”. The strong emphasis is placed on regional resilience. As the crisis spread and took on new forms, a particular challenge for the EU was to increase the preparedness of countries and its regions to pro-active innovative approaches to crises and their solution. The OECD reviewed local and regional responses to the economic crisis and identified how new forms of leadership and strategic thinking emerged, serving to reinvent and reposition notions of local development policies and practice. The training of key regional players in order to increase their ability to prevent or deal with crises becomes crucial. Crises don't just test our resolve. They can also build our resilience. ReFace project aims to increase of the adaptability of regions and their resilience in order to thrive despite adversity and crises through the key regional stakeholder's knowledge and skills enhancement. ReFace project addresses the need to expand the knowledge base about how regional actions shape the response to major economic, social and environmental challenges. It will be done through:a) Report on resilient regions preparation;b) Syllabus for MOOC “Regions facing shocks: building resilient community” preparation;c) MOOC “Regions facing shocks: building resilient community” preparation;d) MOOC “Regions facing shocks: building resilient community” delivery for 100 participants from 4 countries;e) The road map ""Supporting a Resilient Region -a tool for the Sustainable Communities"";f) Raising awareness in the area of resilient regions influence on crises.ReFace project aims at improving knowledge and skills in the area of resilient regions at a system and policy level. The needs of the target group are identified in (a) awareness on appropriate tools, methods and elements of suitable policy making; (b) knowledge of effective policy making and adoption of integrated regional/local policies; (c) capacity in identifying suitable policy making tools, examples, and practices on effective regional policy making. Along with these categories, the short term target groups are positioned at the various levels of governance, i.e. local, regional and national. The primary target groups are public and local administrators, decision-makers and policymakers on regional and community level, and representatives of regional and local authorities. The students of study programs dealing with regional development and public administration are targeted as well. In a broader sense project has an impact on all inhabitants of the regions as they all are strongly affected by the regional vulnerability. The direct impact on target groups will be multiplied: first by involving them in the Report preparation, the target groups will be sensitized directly about the relevance of integrated regional policies for territorial socio-economic development in an EU perspective. Second, the comparative connotation of the project will allow for the immediate and practical exchange of practices among the involved representatives. Third, the direct involvement of the regional policymakers will allow building an informal network among the various authorities involved in the project. The project partnership is diverse and consists of 6 partners from 4 countries (Italy, Slovakia, Spain, France) located in different types of regions. The duration of the project is 24 months."