<< Objectives >>The CHARLIE project aims at challenging the bias in big data used for AI and machine learning by bringing a greater level of awareness regarding the negative impacts of the lack of a critical and ethical approach to techEd. CHARLIE main objectives are to linked with the increase capacity of HE institutions, its teachers and its students to provide learning opportunities that meet society needs and creating synergies between HE institutions, AE organisations and Youth organisations.<< Implementation >>- Development activities (Competency Matrices, OERs, toolkits, policy recommendation)- Implementation activities (pilots, external stakeholders consultations, webinars)- Quality and Evaluation (peer-reviews, quality checks)- Communication and promotion (webinars, national and international conferences)<< Results >>-Competency Matrices for the learning programmes - EQF6 (HE), EQF4 (AE), EQF2 (Youth)-Algorithmic Bias course (HE)-Algorithmic Bias toolkit for synchronous sessions (HE)-Guideline for boosting the capacity of university administrators/management (HE)-Webinars to foster peer-learning and discuss the role of HE institutions in techEd-Ethical AI microcredential for Adult learners-Digital Serious game for Youth-Policy recommendation for recognition of microcrential in HE

"<< Background >>The primary reason for applying for CISCOFY is that the majority of this consortium are part of an ongoing Erasmus+ project financed under the COVID-19 call (EU-TeachPaaS) which looks into developing certifications for digital skills for lecturers, students and university administrators. EU-TeachPaaS has a heavy focus on the digital element (based on DigCompEdu), however, as the partners were engaged in digital education for the past months, they noticed (as also supported by reports and literature) that digital skills alone are not enough and that the following gaps should be better emphasised and complemented with digital skills: G1: limited know-how on adopting pedagogical strategies for boosting student happiness, motivation, engagement and performance and successfully embed them in digital formats (for online delivery in higher education and beyond) G2: reducing the percentage of drop-outs from online higher education (and beyond) and help educational institutions become more resilient G3: better foster inclusion of groups at risk and personalized education in online deliveries in higher education and beyondG4: strategies for generating brain plasticity and learning connections, creation emotional responses to improve learning, and understanding timingG5: None of the previous G1, G2, G3, G4 have been successfully embedded in online OERs and online delivery operations internationally due to limited engagement with professional educational product providers.<< Objectives >>In this context, the overall objective of CISCOFY is to boost the digital readiness, resilience and competences of university lecturers (primary and adult/youth trainers secondary) towards upscaling online education on three main pillars: digital transformation through the development of digital readiness, resilience and capacity, building skills to foster inclusion and representation in digital education and promote and rewarding excellence in teaching and skills development.<< Implementation >>CISCOFY will implement the following activities: * Result 1 (A Smart train the trainers toolkit) based on blending DigComp, inclusion, gender, neuroscience approaches with the innovative ""Goal Setting Methodology"" of EUR. Virtual pilots will also be organized as part of this IO. * Result 2 (Training webinars in effective & inclusive online education): WEBINAR 1: Debunking open educational resource (OER) development for effective & inclusive online education; WEBINAR 2: The ""Goal Setting Methodology"" as a tool for effective and inclusive online education; WEBINAR 3: Neurolearning as a behavioural tool to train your students' brains for online education settings. * Result 3 (Certification framework for digital competences supported by CISCO) offering three certifications: *Certificate on OER Development for effective & inclusive online education; Certificate on the ""Goal Setting Methodology"" as a tool for effective and inclusive online education; Certificate on Neurolearning.* CISOCFY alumni network * 4 CISCOFY Certification Centres* Dissemination & Exploitation * Quality assurance<< Results >>CISCOFY aims to develop three main results (smart train the trainers toolkit, webinars and a certification scheme), a network of 4 certification centres on digital education that will offer three types of certifications and an alumni network. During the project lifecycle, CISCOFY will: engage at least 600 participants in three main webinars (from which at least 240 will be from social groups at risk, with gender balance); At least 240 people will apply for CISCOFY certifications; The number of other types of training institutions that will incorporate CISCOFY's outputs will be at least 60; At least 10 requests of collaboration from public authorities will be received; At least 10% reduction in online education drop-outs; at least 15% increase in registrations for online education; 200 physical participants to multiplier events and at least 200 online; at least 50% of the departmental staff of the participating organizations will be trained with the CISCOFY certifications; at least 25% boost of learning experience (from students/learners of the partner organizations) after their lecturers apply the gained know-how; boosted market for EduTech."

"<< Background >>The COVID-19 pandemic, the fear of its spread in the community and the closure of VET centers brought distance learning to the forefront. Some European countries, which had already included distance learning in the educational process found themselves in an advantageous position over other countries that are now seeking to learn how to use these tools and are working to establish such mechanisms (Huffpost, 2020). According to Glushko, Romanova and Romanova (2020) 90% of VET centres all over the world had to terminate on-site activities and start applying digitalised strategies to continue delivering trainings. The same authors are highlighting the significant disparities that were present among VET centers in different national contexts, as high-income countries had the essential technological and economic capacity to utilize and incorporate digital practices that can facilitate and enhance the quality of the distance-learning experience, while low-income countries were merely delivering the learning material in a broadcasting way, where VET learners had less opportunities to interact with the deliverable teaching materials and consolidate the knowledge through the experiential learning process.The current consortium strongly agrees that distance learning is an outstanding teaching methodology, but a mere online streaming teaching approach is not effective as more online interactive methodologies should get applied. In all training centers of the current consortium there is a high need for interactive distance learning methodologies that will sender the learning more enjoyable and prevent drop outs, and another need is also present for specialized training on interactive distance learning skills addressed to VET educators. For that reason, d-ICT project aims at creating an innovative gamified asynchronous eLearning experience addressed to VET educators to strengthen their distance teaching skills and enhance the distance learning experience, in order to prevent drop outs.To sum up, the current partnership tried shed light on the COVID’s lockdown implications on the VET education and found some significant gaps that led them to apply for the project. The fast-moving transition to the distance learning education caught the VET educators unprepared as many of them have not built the capacity to provide interactive lessons online so far. For that reason, the current project seeks to deepen its knowledge about the needs of VET educators, through a second-stage bottom-up analysis and address those needs by compiling, developing and disseminating interactive digital educational experiences and tools.<< Objectives >>Through the current project, the consortium partnership aims to achieve the following objectives: -To meliorate the digital skills and competences of VET educators in the field of distance learning-To create an innovative gamified asynchronous eLearning experience-To combine the assets of gamification and distance-learning -To boost the interest and curiosity of VET learners and keep them captured in the process of teaching, thus, reducing the phenomena of drop-outs due to the boredom non-interactive distance-learning creates-To empower interaction and teamwork with classmates under distance learning circumstances-To raise awareness about the significance of facilitating the distance learning methodology through interactive approaches like digital gamification<< Implementation >>The activities planned can be categorized under 4 classifications: MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES that include:•All activities organized by the Coordinator, such as the Transnational Project Meetings, the Work plan settlement, the Project Management Kit establishment, that are ongoing processes to which the consortium needs to pay the appropriate respect. These activities will ensure fair collaboration among all partners, as well as regular communication. Moreover, risks are going to be identified and been kept to the minimum, while all partners will feel free to discuss their problems at any time.MONITORING ACTIVITIES to ensure KPIs, milestones and results have been reached, t include:•The subcontracting of the External Evaluator (EE) to unbiasedly assess the project•The establishment of the Quality Action Plan by the EE•The establishment of the Internal Evaluator which is University of Peloponnese and will collaborate with the EE to provide feedback to the Steering Committee •The overall assessment of the project and its Project Results in three phases: a) at the begging (FIRST) b) during the project/project results (INTERIM) and c) at the end of the Project/ Project Activities (FINAL) PROJECT IMPLEMENTAION ACTIVITIES that include:•The production of 3 Project Results a) Lessons Learned: Exploring the taken resolutions aimed at facilitating distance learning in the COVID-19 era (PR1), b) “d-ICT e-Toolkit”: Introducing distance learning practices and digital tools to facilitate the e-Learning experience and prevent drop outs (PR2) and c) Gamified asynchronous eLearning Experience (PR3)•The implementation of 7 national piloting of PR2 & PR3 toward VET educators who will utilize the aforementioned materials in real e-classroom circumstances and provide meaningful feedbacks•1 C-Training Activity that will be hosted by the technical partner of the Project, ISQe in Portugal, and partners will test and validate the PR2 & PR3 resultsDISSEMINATION ACTIVTITIES to achieve the maximum dissemination/exploitation of the results, include:• 7 National Multiplier Events with at least 20 participants per partner (ISQe is excluded as will be the technical partner)•Dissemination plan construction by the Leader•Construction of Project’s Social Media accounts•Design of e-flyers and other dissemination materials•Translation of products and materials for dissemination and exploitation purposes•Posts of the project through social channels of partner organizations •Participation in European wide dissemination activities conferences and/or in-network meetings by all partners•Involvement of Associated partners to the project<< Results >>With regard the Project Results:PR1: Lessons Learned: Exploring the taken resolutions aimed at facilitating distance learning in the COVID-19 era vPR2: “d-ICT e-Toolkit”: Introducing distance learning practices and digital tools to facilitate the e-Learning experience and prevent drop outsPR3: A Gamified asynchronous eLearning experience With regard the project outcomes:-The video-recording of Digital Storytelling interviews by 5 VET educators, as a significant experiential and educational material through the distance learning engagement with their learners. Through these interviews, VET educators can talk about their struggles during the lockdown, the digital resolutions taken per country, while they can also clarify points for improvement. The participants-storytellers of the Digital Interviews will play the role of ""Role Models"", who will influence others having the same concerns and facing similar barriers, in order to initiate a journey through their personal and professional development in VET distance learning innovation.-One “d-ICT e-Toolkit” translated in consortium country languages (Excluding the technical partner language Portuguese [ISQe] who will use the English version) from English, as an introduction to the world of distance learning innovation including:1.An e-Currculum:•With e-Units•Learning Outcomes of each e-Unit, in terms of Knowledge, Skills and Responsibly & Autonomy•hours of learning and acquired ECVET points 2.an e-book with: •Practical interactive distance learning techniques •Introduction to Digital Gamification and its applications in distance learning•Digital gamification techniques•e-Tips for VET educators•Techniques to make e-Classrooms more enjoyable•Techniques to prevent VET drop outs due to distance learning •The theory behind the aforementioned•Assessment methodology3.an e-tool with:•Interactive educational tools•Digital gamification tools•Tools to facilitate distance learning experience-The construction of the Gamified asynchronous eLearning experience that will incorporate the products and deliverables of PR1 & PR2 as an example of the interactive distance learning innovation. The Gamified asynchronous eLearning experience will be available in .scorm format, while stakeholders will also have the chance to download the format as it can be easily recognized by almost any Learning Management System (LMS)-The “d-ICT Website” that will act as an Open Educational Resource (OER):•Providing access to Digital Storytelling Interviews •The deliverables of d-ICT e-Toolkit•Gamified asynchronous eLearning experience compiling the PR1 & PR2 materials in .scorm format-Piloting sessions in 6 countries, by 7 organizations to 20 target users per partner that will test and validate the produced material with a 5 beneficiaries each (per VET educator) in real e-classroom-7 national Multiplier Events"

"CONTEXT & PROBLEM: The digital transformation of higher education was heavily accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis which posed the need of high quality and inclusive digital education. Such challenge cannot be tackled in an isolated manner as it requires a true systemic and holistic approach to provide a suitable solution. Specifically, EU-TeachPaaS foresees a strong link between boosting the digital skills of three main actors (university lecturers, university administrators and students) and the improvement of EU's digital readiness towards inclusive and high quality online education delivery (HBR, 2020, EC, 2020). Whether isolated efforts of digitalization of higher education have been done recently, the outcomes of this approach have deemed to be inefficient leading to: frustrated academic staff unable to cope with technology, ineffectiveness of the taught content and delivery mode, limited engagement of students (lack of focus/attention/interest, limited connectionism and constructivism), lack of inclusiveness and personalized online teaching, rigidity of university administrators towards online teaching, and overall confusion and concern over the value of university services in such online format (EACEA, 2020).TARGET GROUPS AND TRAINING NEEDS:* UNIVERSITY LECTURERS: inability to deliver online education (both synchronous and asynchronous) that would foster connectionism and constructivism; unawareness of enabling a supportive virtual class environment; lack of digital skills to support the curriculum transformation process; inability to incorporate forward-looking digital solutions to support teaching; lack of skills for co-sharing resources and jointly developing high quality universal Open Educational Resource with other lecturers internationally; inability to reach social groups at risk and gender-balance by delivering personalized online education; inability to foster decision making on choosing the right digital resource for each online taught subject. * UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATORS: lack of mechanisms to foster inclusive education to social groups at risk and to students from peripheries; technological shift rejection (behavioural); lack of skills to adopt online learning/education analytics to help them improve their online educational offer delivery and enable constant improvement of their operations; lack of focus on providing DigCompEdu certifications to lecturers and students; lack of digital training/certification centres (within the institutions) that would formally train online education performers (i.e. lecturers and students); lack of skills to properly promote online education (impactfully) to better attract students to this new mode of learning.* STUDENTS (both undergraduate and postgraduate): Inability to interact with lecturers in an online environment and foster connectionism and constructivism; absence of online learning skills such as being well organized, self-motivated, and possess a high degree of time management skills in order to keep up with the pace of the course (i.e. text-based interaction takes more time); lack of skills to fight the sense of isolation and psychological wellbeing; lack of active learning skills; lack of ability to understand responsible/ethical digital education utilisation.OBJECTIVES & IMPACTThe overall impact is to boost the digital readiness of universities (holistically) towards online education, while connecting universities in the digitally transformed ecosystem (i.e. with policy makers, businesses, third sector, parents, etc). In this context, EU-TeachPaaS aims to develop a pan-EU network of 6 certification centres (IO1) in higher education that will provide training and certification for university lecturers (IO3), administrators (IO4) and students (IO2) operating in online learning by specialising DigCompEdu competences and global innovations for local needs in order to offer online education excellence passports. During the project lifecycle, EU-TeachPaaS will: pilot-train virtually 850 (fully gender and age-balanced) university lecturers, students and university administrators (from which 340 will come from groups at risk); At least 600 people will apply for EU-TeachPaaS certifications; The project partners will boost their digital readiness with at least 1 upper level in the DigCompEdu scale; The number of other types of training institutions that will incorporate EU-TeachPaaS' outputs will be at least 30; At least 50 people will change their mindset from ""against"" to ""in favour"" of online education; At least 6 request of collaboration from public authorities will be received; At leat 5% boost in EduTech applications measured and at least 5% decrease in unethical digital technology use. Furthermore, at least 300 people will participate physically (if allowed) at the multiplier events (while 300 virtually) and an overall number of 150 000 people will be reached throughout the dissemination campaigns (including paid ads)."

<< Background >>Thriving in the new EU economy poses imminent challenges for entrepreneurs worldwide. Dealing with exponentially growing stocks of digital start-ups (and not only) that fast-pace innovation at unimaginable speeds, entrepreneurs are not faced anymore just with a financial consideration dilemma when receiving or asking for investment. Fast paced innovations are good and needed worldwide indeed and the global start-up ecosystems are exceeding all expectations to this end. But this is not enough. As the entire world is moving towards a more sustainable & fairer business & social ecosystem, so should entrepreneurs (EU Commission, 2021, GIIN, 2020) otherwise they risk not being able to reach investment. To this end, the concept of impact investment appeared (investment in startups that produce environmental and social benefits) and it is gaining a big momentum un the startup scene (IRIS, 2020). As startups are the becoming the backbone of the EU economy in terms of employment and innovation (EUROSTAT, 2020), a massive attention should be set on developing impact investment capabilities into the next generation entrepreneurs. Furthermore, as university spin-offs and graduate-led startups are the hold the biggest propotion of share in the EU market (67.8% - EUROSTART, 2020), entrepreneurship education at the higher education level should therefore include impact investment as key competence for their students. Nevertheless, according to an initial entrepreneurship programme benchmark in countries involved in ARIEES (and specifically for Eastern Europe), less than 5% (out of 134) of the entrepreneurship courses (benchmarked by the consortium in the preparation phase) at the undergraduate and post-graduate level offer impact investment strategies. On top of this, the wider discussion governing the educational sector worldwide for the past year resides in the rapid digital transformation in online education gap induced by COVID-19 (OECD, 2021, EPALE, 2020). Lecturers (i.e. higher education) or trainers (i.e. adult education) should possess the full range of digital competences facilitated by the DigCompEdu framework. In this context, ARIEES will meet the following needs of the main target groups (primary: university lecturers in entrepreneurship, secondary: adult trainers on entrepreneurship): Target group skill gap related to impact investment (SG-Impact): startup business model transformation to enable environmental and social impacts, motivating students/prospective entrepreneurs to shape their startups towards impact investment, inability to devise impact measurement indicators for different stages (early stage, pre-seed, post-seed, exit), impact investor engagement strategies, impact investment pitching strategies, bridging public and private impact investors, sources of private investment, networking (online and offline) with impact investors. Target group skill gap related to digital education delivery (SG-Digital): limited expertise with delivering digital education that would enabling a supportive virtual class environment; limited digital skills to support the curriculum transformation process; inability to incorporate forward-looking digital solutions to support teaching; lack of skills for co-sharing resources and jointly developing high quality universal Open Educational Resource with other lecturers internationally; inability to reach social groups at risk and gender-balance by delivering personalized online education; inability to properly embed creative thinking (especially for entrepreneurship education) in a digital setting.<< Objectives >>The objective of ARIEES are to help universities (and potentially adult training centres) to improve 1) their entrepreneurship courses by infusing impact investment know-how and 2) to upgrade the digital competences of lecturers/trainers to ensure that the impact investment knowledge can be properly infused into the learners while 3) certifying competences and boosting the quality of entrepreneurship trainers. This will be done by developing: •Result 1 – Acquiring responsible & impactful investment cours•Result 2 – Webinars as pilots for the course (for students, startups and investors)•Result 3 – Train the trainers webinars with digital education pedagogical innovations •Result 4 – Digital micro-credential system development (based on EntreComp/DigComp) •Result 5 – Networking platform: Impact investment HubThis will help ARIEES achieve the following priorities:Priority 1 - HE: Supporting digital capabilities of the higher education sectorPriority 2 - HORIZONTAL: Environment and fight against climate changePriority 3 - HE: Rewarding excellence in learning, teaching and skills development<< Implementation >>The following activities will be implemented: A1-Management - Constant Management & Administration (A2 - Periodic formal reporting and A3 - Periodic informal reporting)Result 1 - Task 1.1 - Content development Result 1 - Task 1.2 - Training Materials Peer-reviewResult 1 - Task 1.3 - Partners to adjust training materialsResult 1 - Task 1.4 - Materials update after the webinars Result 1 - Task 1.5 - Content embedment in existing curricula Result 2 - Task 2.1 -Webinar content adaptation from Result 1 Result 2 - Task 2.2 - Webinar content testing Result 2 - Task 2.3 - Webinar deliveryResult 3 - Task 3.1 -Webinar content development Result 3 - Task 3.2 - Webinar content testing Result 3 - Task 3.3 - Webinar deliveryResult 4 - Task 4.1 - Certification framework & center development Result 4 - Task 4.2 - Certification assessment development Result 4 - Task 4.3 - Certification center launch Result 4 - Task 4.4 - Certification pilots Result 5 - Task 5.1 - Platform requirements analysis Result 5 - Task 5.2 - Platform development and techical testing Result 5 - Task 5.3 - Platform piloting Result 5 - Task 5.4 - Platform improvement and deployment Quality assurance: QA - Evaluation plan and QA - MonitoringDissemination activities: Dissemination plan, Dissemination outputs (website, social media, logos, templates), Dissemination activities (newsletters, press releases, communications), Dissemination - translation activities, Dissemination - exploitation & sustainability plan Multiplier events: E1, E2, E3Project meetings: Five meetings.<< Results >>The following results and outcomes are envisioned: Result 1 – Acquiring responsible & impactful investment course - led by UOL*Specialized CUs based on EntreCompResult 2 – Webinars as pilots for the course (for students, startups and investors)WEBINAR 1 - Impact investment in cleantech and sustainable startups WEBINAR 2 - Impact investment in deep tech ICT (artificial Intelligence) StartupsWEBINAR 3 - Impact investment in cultural and creative startups WEBINAR 4 - Impact investment & startup business model transformation WEBINAR 5 - Engaging private impact investors for your startup WEBINAR 6 - Engaging public impact investors for your startup Result 3 – Train the trainers webinars with digital education pedagogical innovations WEBINAR 1 - How to develop high quality OERs in entrepreneurship education ? WEBINAR 2 - Engagement and motivation of entrepreneurship learners via neuroscience approaches WEBINAR 3 - Fostering an inclusive and personalized digital entrepreneurship education Result 4 – Digital micro-credential system development (based on EntreComp/DigComp) -Micro-credential 1: EntreComp certification on teaching impact investment-infused entrepreneurship Micro-credential 2: DigCompEdu certification for digital education deliveryMicro-credential 3: EBAN certificate on impact investment (trainers)Micro-credential 4: EBAN certificate on impact investment (learners)Result 5 – Networking platform: Impact investment Hub * Requirements analysis * Development * Pilot testing * Deployment A quality assurance methodology that can be further utilised by university lecturers to better develop digital content for entrepreneurship courses and beyond Project dissemination activities outputs The ARIEES alumni network with early graduates during the lifecycle of the project 3 multiplier events that will serve as information and commitment exercises form external actors to further engage with the project outputs A Network of 4 ARIEES Certification Centres (see the Sustainability section)