The Project Title: “Change in Classroom: Promoting Innovative Teaching & Learning to Enhance Student Learning Experience in Eastern Partnership Countries” (PRINTeL)The main goal of the project is to enhance student learning experience in Armenia, Georgia and Belarus by promoting development and innovation in teaching and learning (T&L), supporting integration of instruction with technology, and dissemination of good practices. This goal is achieved through the accomplishment of the following objectives:1. Strengthening Teaching Staff Development Centres (TSDC) in PC universities through enhancing capacities of staff and trainers, modernizing infrastructure and introducing innovative teacher training programmes. 2. Building up capacities of partner country higher education institutions (PC HEIs) teaching staff by developing their innovative and technology-enhanced T&L skills and competences.3. Establishing Virtual Academy of Teaching & Learning (VATL) as an international community of teachers interested in applying innovative T&L methods and tools and using open educational resources (OER).4. Promoting awareness on the types and methods of innovative and technology-enhanced T&L and disseminating best practices.The following outcomes and outputs are achieved as a result of the project implementation: • 30 staff and 100 trainers of the PC HEIs’ TSDCs have been trained on organization and operation of present-day TSDCs and on innovative technology-enhanced T&L and online instructional methods. • 4 new TSDCs have been established in the PC HEIs and the 5 existing TSDCs have been modernised and strengthened with new technology, trainers and teacher training and counseling programmes. • 18 technologically-enhanced Active Learning Classrooms (ALC) for teacher trainings and 9 multimedia Lecture Capture Studios (LCS) for video-content building have been established, 5 new teacher training courses on innovative and technology-enhanced T&L are introduced in the PC HEIs TSDCs. • Over 4,500 university teachers have been trained in innovative and technology-enhanced T&L methods, online instructional tools and technics, and OER development. • Virtual Academy of Teaching & Learning (VATL) has been established (https://vatl.ysu.am/ ) as an online interactive experience sharing and mutual learning platform to promote innovative T&L practices, creating digital educational content, and serving as an OER depository. • 5 Virtual Ccommunities of teaching practice, Annual virtual forum on innovative T&L and 9 Institutional annual award programmes for the excellence in T&L and promoting development and awareness on innovative pedagogy are created. • 800 copies of the good practice Teacher’s Handbook on Innovative and Technology-enhanced T&L are published and an e-version is made available in the project website: http://printel.am/uploads/page/pdfs/Teacher's%20Handbook__.pdf

The project is aimed to enhance quality of HE with employment focus in content by enhancing internal QA for teaching/learning & improving teaching staff performance at BY Universities for them to respond to the increased demands of society/economy. It has objectives to enhance QA policy-making & procedures for work with teaching staff to ensure quality in HE through the establishment of Centres for Academic Development & Teacher Training (CADTT) at each BY partner; optimise pedagogical performance of teaching staff via the development of an in-service university teacher training programme for university staff who need pedagogical training; increase quality of students’ performance at University & at work places through application of innovative education methods to ensure transition to student-centred practice-based & market-oriented education; apply QA system at BY Universities for identifying staff in need of pedagogical training; & introduce new regulations on teaching staff employment at BY Universities. Managerial, academic staff & students are the target groups in the project. Labour market, the other Universities in the country are the major stakeholders.The major outcomes & outputs achieved in the project – CADTTs, internal system of QA, innovative methods of education, In-service University Teacher Training Programme, & regulation for staff employment, will be the tools for producing impact on the target groups & stakeholders. An important aspect of the project is the development of pedagogical interaction & networks for staff in the EU, TK & BY. The main impact will be on the university management system in what concerns QA for teaching/learning & teaching staff performance-staff & students will be the target group. Innovative education methods will expand the impact. The society's stakeholders-other BY universities & labour market will be final beneficiaries of the wider impact – graduates’ enhanced skills for better employment & performance at work.

The ICT sector is one of the leading ones in the economy of Belarus. This has created a gap between the challenges of the global market & skills/competences ICT graduates have at entering the profession. The companies state the high level of professional knowledge of university graduates but low level of soft/transferable skills necessary to work in international teams. The aim of the project is to enhance employability of ICT master students & foster entrepreneurship & establishment of SMEs in ICT by modernising the existing master curriculum in ICT. The modernised MSc programme in ICT will be more labour-market & society oriented, practice-based, & student-centred training students in professional subjects leading to knowledge, hard skills & competencies in the profession with soft/transferable skills presupposing its interdisciplinarity. The project meets the agenda of the Yerevan Ministerial Communiqué of “ensuring educational opportunities to provide the competences and skills required for innovation & employment”. By enhancing quality & relevance of learning & teaching to the labour market & society demands the project will promote pedagogical innovation in student-centred learning environments & stronger link between teaching, learning & research central to the EHEA policies.The project will achieve 7 milestones: (1) upgraded professional & new soft skills courses, (2) study materials, (3) QA guidelines/procedures for the modernised MSc, (5) 3 intakes of students, (6) 8 international student projects, (7) measurements of pedagogical approaches & methods appliedThe project will produce impact at university level (beneficiaries are master students & teachers on modernised MSc programme), at society level (any person fitting master level study as a potential student of the modernised MSc, potential employers & wider society who will be users of services of successful SMEs established by the MSc graduates in future), at European & global level (ICT companies).

Reason for the project: Reinforce and modernize libraries and improve the level of competencies and skills of library staff in HEI’s in Armenia, Moldova and Belarus. The level of competencies and skills of library staff is not of a high standard in the target PC's. Library staff need to be trained in modern library standards & practices. The main challenge they face is to transform themselves into modern electronic libraries through fostering deeper involvement of library staff in scientific research. A more proactive role for libraries in teaching and learning is needed. Libraries must be promoted as important Centres of information literacy and lifelong learning accessible to all learners to aid development of their critical thinking skills.Concise description: LNSS will develop modern Library Staff Development Training Programmes supported by 8 ECTS modules accompanied by online learning media and embedded in curricula in PC universities, Public Administration Institutes and disseminated to external stakeholders such as Public and National libraries to ensure maximum transfer effect to society at large.While the main beneficiaries of the project outputs/products/results are librarians and library staff in PC universities there will be different levels of positive impact. The results of the LNSS project will result in reform of Library Services in Armenia, Belarus and Moldova which will involve target groups Librarians, Academic Staff, Students, National & Public Libraries, Administrative and other non teaching staff as well as people with Special Needs and Disabilities. All Library users will benefit from the LNSS project and Curriculum. Library staff will be highly equipped both to provide quality library training to all stakeholders in critical areas such as Information Discovery & Avoiding Plagiarism and to manage and operate quality, modern library services to support teaching and learning.

The DUALBEL project aims to support the Belarusian partner institutions (Ministry of Education, National Institute of Higher Education, Universities and Enterprises) in the development and implementation of the dual study model including the legal and organisational framework in the Belarusian higher education system. In this way, the project provides modernization impulses for the Belarusian higher education system by taking into account the interests of the Belarusian labor market, creating the framework for labor-market-adequate study programs at Belarusian higher education institutions and thus increasing the employability of university graduates.In the first half of the project period, a study will be carried out to survey existing approaches to dual studies in Belarus. The study, in connection with further training measures for Belarusian project partners on dual studies at EU universities, will provide the necessary contribution to the development work and creation of the Belarusian model of dual studies. Parallel to this, dual model curricula for academic and in-company training will be developed and examined by the Belarusian Ministry of Education and released for implementation. In the second half of the project period, the new dual curricula in defined fields of study will be tested and evaluated as pilot projects in cooperation with partner companies in Belarus and disseminated to other Belarusian universities. The project is coordinated by Deggendorf Institute of Technology. From the EU, Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University, Satakunta University of Applied Sciences Pori, Latvian University Riga and University of Zilina are participating. In Belarus, the consortium consists of 11 universities, the National Institute of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Republican Institute of Vocational Education and 19 partner companies. The project is scheduled for a duration of 3 years.