D-skills Workshops

Digital skills in higher education. The state of play in the field of European Integration Studies

This event takes place once a year during the life cycle of the JM project. It aims to foster a forum of discussion, where academics from new, old and EU candidate states have the opportunity to exchange ideas and share best practices on teaching approaches and methods in EU Studies. The format is designed as a workshop and targets the participation of 20 academics/year. Scholars, doctoral candidates as well as other experts from the new member states and old member states are invited to participate.

Digital skills for junior scholars and secondary school teachers: teaching with digital tools

Teaching effectively with digital tools/digital technology in higher education or in the secondary school system requires for the teaching staff to benefit from continuous training and professionalization opportunities in order to adopt innovative pedagogic approaches. But, as evidenced in the Annual Implementation Reports of the Bologna Process on the European Higher Educational Area or in the Eurydice reports on the training of the human resources, not many universities offer in their curricula courses for doctoral students on pedagogical approaches.

This is also valid in the case of young researchers or teaching assistants. The same pattern can be identified in the secondary school system, where the teaching staff does not benefit from courses meant to develop their digital skills or digital approaches in the teaching and learning process. This situation identified at university and secondary school system, leads to poor skills and competences for students which prevents them from being competitive on the labour market or participate actively in democratic life, lacking the instruments for enhanced participation. Another effects its dissatisfaction with the quality of education. In Romania, only 39% of higher education students are satisfied with the quality of teaching(Bologna Implementation Plan, 2018), one of the lowest level of satisfaction among EU member states. Romania is not a singular case, similar levels being displayed by Bulgaria and other countries from the region.