Video Supported Collaborative Learning: bridging school and practice (ViSuAL)
The modernization of European Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) calls for a workable pedagogy and skilled teachers that will implement e-learning technologies with the aim of bridging school and practice. ViSuAl (Video-Supported Education Alliance) is an alliance of 6 HEIs-Teacher Education (HEIs-TE) and 6 Educational Technology Designers (ETDs) representing 7 European Countries, co-creating an evidence-based pedagogical model for Video-Supported Collaborative Learning.
ViSuAl aims at attaining three main goals:
- Evidence-based hands-on pedagogy to utilize video-supported collaborative learning
- Hands-on principles for a sustainable HEIs-TE and ETDs co-creation partnership
- Pedagogical design principles and workable pedagogy practices for ETDs to enhance use of their products in education
The chosen methodological approach of ViSuAl, is the designresearch process, which will enable co-creative development, as well as testing and validation of pedagogical model and practices, from the experimental phase to the dissemination of the results. The project stems from a thorough need analysis, and a comprehensive literature review, which will provide the Alliance with a framework aiming at developing a prototype of the pedagogical model. This prototype will enable a preliminary cycle of field experiments involving teachers, students, teachers’ instructors and educational technologies designers. Collected data and their analysis will be employed to improve the didactical model and the observed pedagogical practices, to proceed with the second cycle of experiments and the consequent final refining of the model. The outcomes of the research, will be formulated into educational resources that will be disseminated nationally and internationally through the ViSuAl website, project networks and open platforms for educators, and the creation of a Teacher’s Manual, as well as MOOCs and hypervideo.