DigiSTEM (Promoting Digital Learning in STEM Subjects)

The DigiSTEM International Conference: Innovating Education through Digital Transformation (ICIEDT 2024) (October 10, 2024)

ABOUT:
The DigiSTEM International Conference: Innovating Education through Digital Transformation is a multiplier event in which the center is sharing and disseminating the DigiSTEM project’s results.
The event focuses on an effective use of digital tools and resources in education from both pedagogical and technological perspectives, concrete actions and examples of usability of technology. The overall objective of the event is to enhance HEI educators’ technological and pedagogical competencies on a large scale to achieve long-lasting effects in everyday activity on the project partners and other European HEIs.
The goal of the conference is to get more teaching and training professionals to use the results of the project in their education and curricula. During the event the project partners present the benefits of results of the project and tell about their experiences in using the methodologies, platform and guidelines. During the conference the DigiSTEM Community is promoted to get more members to the community.
The participants are also invited to present their development in the field of STEM subjects. Furthermore, all the presentations will be collected into the project’s MOOC. All interested parties in the field of training and education of STEM subjects will be invited to participate and contribute to the conference. The event is open to all interested professionals to participate.
This meeting aims to stimulate research and interaction between mathematicians and engineers in all aspects related to digital tools and resources in education from both pedagogical and technological perspectives.
We invite you to participate in the conference and look forward to fruitful cooperation.

DigiSTEM Implementation Webinar (April 23, 2024, 17:00-18:00)

Digi STEM program Implementation:
– Opening the meeting (RO)
– Presentation of the project (FIN)
– Presentation of partners (FIN, SK, SP, RO)
– Coming piloting/phase: C1-C3, E1-E6, MOOC (FIN)
– Participants are invited to join the piloting phase and to comment and follow up the project through the social media channels
Aims:
The webinars aims are to advertise the coming piloting phases and to spread the awareness of the project all over Europe.
In this webinar the tangible results and outcomes of the project will be presented and the participants are invited to join the piloting phase (LTT-Learning, Teaching, Training Activities, ME- Multiplier Events, MOOC- Massive Open Online Course) and to comment and follow up the project through the social media channels.
The project aims to support professional development of HEI (Higher Education Institution) educators.
The main activities/results of the project are:
– developing DigiSTEM methodology that encapsulates innovative pedagogies, best practices and concrete examples for implementing digital learning/teaching of STEM subjects (PR1).
– building, maintaining and developing a digital platform for STEM subjects’ digital teaching/learning to support educators’ continuous professional development (PR2).
– developing guidelines for European STEM educators to increase digital and pedagogical competence and implementing good practices and new methods smoothly into daily teaching activities and curricula in STEM subjects closely related to that (PR3).
– organize/participate LTT (C1-C3) events and participate dissemination events (E1-E6) aimed at providing technological and pedagogical training/knowledge to STEM educators in the context of the project. Participants of training activities will be awarded with digital competence certificate.
(LTT) Learning, Teaching, Training Activities:
– C1 Training of the DigiSTEM Methodology
– C2 Training of the DigiSTEM Platform
– C3 Training of the Guidelines for using digital tools and resources in STEM education
(ME) Multiplier Events:
– E1: Sharing and dissemination of the DigiSTEM Methodology – online event (TAMK responsible)
– E2: Sharing and dissemination of the DigiSTEM Platform – online event (UPM responsible)
– E3: Sharing and dissemination of the Guidelines for using digital tools and resources in mathematics education – online event
– E4: The DigiSTEM – Workshop in RomaniaE5: European Society of Engineering Education, SEFI meetingE6: SEFI Mathematics Working Group.
– developing Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) as a form of OER that will combine all the tangible results of the project to be able to promote and integrate developed good practices and innovative methods into daily activities of European HEIs. The MOOC will be available for all people demanding access, and it will be accessible from anywhere at any time.
The teaching staff of the educational institutions, students and key stakeholders will be invited to actively participate.

DigiSTEM kick-off-Webinar (January 25, 2023, 17:00-18:00)

Digi STEM program Kick-Off Webinar:
– Opening the meeting (RO)
– Presentation of the project (FIN)
– Presentation of partners (FIN, SK, SP, RO)
– Coming piloting/phase: C1-C3, E1-E6, MOOC (FIN)
– Participants are invited to join the piloting phase and to comment and follow up the project through the social media channels
Aims:
The webinars aims are to advertise the coming piloting phases and to spread the awareness of the project all over Europe.
At this webinar the project will be introduced, the participants will be informed well in advanced about the coming piloting/ phase (C1-C3, E1-E6, MOOC) and the participants are invited to join the piloting phase and to comment and follow up the project through the social media channels.
Learning, Teaching, Training Activities:
C1 Training of the DigiSTEM Methodology
C2 Training of the DigiSTEM Platform
C3 Training of the Guidelines for using digital tools and resources in STEM education
Multiplier Events:
E1: Sharing and dissemination of the DigiSTEM Methodology – online event (TAMK responsible)
E2: Sharing and dissemination of the DigiSTEM Platform – Online event (UPM responsible)
E3: Sharing and dissemination of the Guidelines for using digital tools and resources in mathematics education – online event
E4: The DigiSTEM – Workshop in Romania
E5: European Society of Engineering Education, SEFI meeting
E6: SEFI Mathematics Working Group.
MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) – developing and building MOOC covering all tangible results of the project.
The teaching staff of the educational institutions, students and key stakeholders will be invited to actively participate.

Background:

Several national and international studies have shown that higher education institutions (HEIs) need support to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic consequences such as decrease of students’ competence level (Aristovnik et al., 2020, Kinnari Korpela, 2021). During pandemic, universities have had to lower the competence requirements of the courses and to lighten their evaluations. In order to be minimized by the effects of pandemic, teaching staff of universities should be trained to use pedagogical and digital methods for active students and instruments that support the development of the student’s personal knowledge. The primary context of the DigiSTEM project is STEM education. The objective is to promote innovative utilization of educational technology, learning analytics and use of open educational resources (OERs) in online, classroom and blended learning, especially in HEIs STEM subjects. The project aims to support professional development of HEI educators by increasing their technological and pedagogical skills and competence. The objective is to build HEI educators’ competence of such instructional design that improves students’ active learning, self-regulated learning and learning engagement with the help of educational technology and learning analytics to provide more effective and ersonalized support of learners. In Europe, there doesn’t exist a framework or model for learning digital skills and pedagogy in HEI STEM education. When teaching/learning STEM subjects, there are also special needs of digital ools/environments for example in presenting mathematical language, equations etc. The needs analysis of the project is based on literature review and educational research conducted in partner universities. Different educational research studies (e.g. Fernandez-Cruz & Fernandez-Diaz, 2016; Huang, Han & Wang, 2017) have highlighted that educators have an inadequate competence regarding effective use of digital tools and resources in education from both pedagogical and technological perspectives. The most common reasons for not to use digital technology in teaching/learning are a lack of confidence, a lack of competence and a lack of access to resources (e.g. Joy et al., 2014; Kinchin, 2012). The research has shown, that students would like to use digital learning possibilities and methods more widely in STEM courses (i.e. Rinneheimo et al., 2018; Kinnari-Korpela & Suhonen, 2017). However, utilizing educational technology in STEM subjects is very limited and it lags behind the expectations (e.g. Clark-Wilson, Oldknow, & Sutherland, 2011; De Witte & Rogge, 2014), even though using instructional design that utilizes educational technologies has a great and recognized potential to increase students’ motivation, attractiveness of subject, promote active learning and improve learning outcomes (e.g. Dunn et al., 2015; Loch et al., 2014; Kinnari-Korpela, 2019; Kinnari-Korpela & Suhonen, 2017). The needs analysis shows that there is a clear need for instructional design that increase pedagogical meaningful use of digital learning possibilities among STEM education and academics must be trained to utilize such instructional design. These are also needed to ensure that universities can better recover from the students’ passivation and decreased learning outcomes caused by Covid-19 pandemic (Aristovnik et al., 2020, Kinnari-Korpela, 2021).

Objectives:

The objective of the project is to increase digital and pedagogical competence of HEI educators and availability of digital resources in STEM subjects on a large scale to achieve long-lasting effects in everyday activity on the project partners and other European HEIs. By increasing such competences of educators, it gives them tools and knowledge to redesign their teaching and implement digital resources and activities (e.g. learning analytics, digital languaging, screencasts, visualizations and intelligent assessment) for different personalized learning scenarios. The agenda for the modernization of Europe’s higher education systems supports the project idea as it suggests the need to exploit new technologies and ICT to enrich teaching/learning experience and providing ubiquitous and personalized digital learning possibilities for students. Also, the Digital Education Action Plan set by the Commission has a priority to make better use of digital technology for teaching and learning. The project aims to enhance educators’ technological and pedagogical competences by organizing different kind of pilot events and providing OERs and learning environment for competence development. By increasing such competencies of HEI educators (main target group), it gives them tools and knowledge to produce and implement digital resources for different personalized learning scenarios and resources that supports students’ activation. Hence, the project aims to promote digital and pedagogical competence and skills of HEI educators nationally and transnationally in Europe. Simultaneously based on literature, this is expected to affect ositively on HEI students’ engagement and learning outcomes (secondary target group) but also support to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic consequences such as decrease of students’ competence level.

Implementation:

The main activities/results of the project are: – developing DigiSTEM methodology that encapsulates innovative pedagogies, best practices and concrete examples for implementing digital learning/teaching of STEM and other similar subjects (PR1) – building, maintaining and developing a digital platform for STEM subjects’ digital teaching and learning to support educators’ continuous professional development with high-quality resources (PR2) – developing uidelines for European STEM educators to increase digital and pedagogical competence and implementing good practices and new methods smoothly into daily teaching activities and curricula (PR3) -enhancing HEI educators’ competence of such instructional design that improves students’ active learning, self-regulated learning and learning engagement with the
help of educational technology and learning analytics to provide more effective and personalized support of learners (PR1-PR3) -to organize/participate 3 LTT (C1-C3) events and participate dissmination events (E1-E6) aimed at providing technological and pedagogical training/knowledge to STEM educators in the context of the project. Participants of training activities will be awarded with digital competence certificate. -developing MOOC as a form of OER that will combine all the tangible results of the project to be able to promote and integrate developed good practices and innovative methods into daily activities of European HEIs. The MOOC is based on piloted PRs, which have been developed on the basis of feedback received during piloting. The project’s pedagogical innovations and technological choices will be made as sustainable solutions that can be utilized after the project, for example 10 years after the end of the project.

Results:

The objective is to build HEI educators’ competence of such instructional design that improves students’ active learning, self-regulated learning and learning engagement with the help of educational technology and learning analytics to provide more effective and personalised support of learners. In this way, it is possible to achieve the effectiveness of the project from the curriculum level to practice. The project is divided in three main Project Results (PR1-PR3). One of the partners is appointed as the coordinator of each output even though each output will be developed in close cooperation with all partners. The Project Results are described in previous section. As a consequence of the exploitation of Project’s Results (PRs), it is expected to improve HEI students’ motivation and to decrease dropouts (Kinnari-Korpela, 2019). Although the project focuses on HEI STEM subjects, the PRs can be applied to other disciplines with some adaptations. Hence, the project can contribute to improve educators’ skills to apply modern methodologies, novel pedagogy and digital teaching/learning solutions on a large scale.

The consortium:

The project consortium does not have a common history, but each project partner has cooperated in projects or somehow else prior to this project. This with the intense cooperation in planning the project and making the application together have guaranteed that the project consortium is welded together as a team, greatly contributing to the smooth conduct of the eventual project. All project partners have experience in EU-funded projects and the coordinating partner is an experienced project coordinator.
Each project partner has a tailor-made role in the project. The project consortium consists of two teams: team mathematics and team technology. TAMK, TUCEB and STUBA mostly participate in mathematics team and UPM and TAMK in technology team respectively. Naturally these two teams will closely cooperate. In a nutshell, team mathematics is mostly responsible about the developments related to the mathematics (assessment, pedagogy, production of learning resources etc.), whereas team technology is responsible about the technical innovation and implementations. The coordinator of mathematics team is TAMK and technology team is UPM.
TAMK carries the main responsibility of project management, keeping close contacts to all partners. There is a special support office at TAMK, Project management services, which assist TAMK’s projects in financial administration, guaranteeing the high level of TAMK coordinated projects. TAMK brings the pedagogical expertise and mathematics teaching and learning expertise and experience to the project. TAMK will also take part to the technology team bringing the pedagogical perspectives for technology integration. In recent years, the participating lecturers have been researched e.g. impact of video lecturing in mathematics context.
UPM will be the leader of the technology team. They will bring to the project a strong expertise in the field of Information Systems and Telecommunication. They have a wide experience of international research activity and have leaded projects and have specialities such as e.g. DVB (digital video broadcasting) systems, applications and services integration, communication systems etc.
UTCB has a lot of experience about the project working. They contribute in the project with the previous experience of project working but also their expertise in mathematics. They will also organize a seminar/workshop in Romania that is one of the main dissemination events of the project. With the help of this event, it is hoped to reach the teachers and researchers also from the eastern of Europe.
STUBA research staff involved in the project will actively participate on the development and publication of the main project results and on organization of the dissemination event. During annually organized international conferences at the STU in Bratislava on applied mathematics – Aplimat 2016, Aplimat 2017, special section on mathematical education of engineering students is held, where all project partners will present project results to conference participants. Information workshop on international level can be also organized during the bi-annual SEFI Mathematics Working Group seminars held in June 2016 in Gothenburg. University staff will also take part in dissemination of information on other project events.

Project Team:

Management:

Kirsi-Maria Rinneheimo (TAMK)
Kirsi-Maria Rinneheimo (M.Sc.) is a Senior Lecturer of Mathematics and has over 20 years experience of engineering mathematics’ teaching in different engineering disciplines. Ms. Rinneheimo has a long and extensive experience in working on national and international educational projects. She has worked e.g. on EU funded projects MALog, 2009-2012 (KA3 ICT-505326) and FutureMath (2015-2018, Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnership) as a project manager. In addition, she is researching engineering students’ mathematics learning and teaching and has written and contributed to an extensive range of conferences, scientific papers and publications. She has also developed e.g. digital study materials for mathematics studies, lecture notes, web-based learning materials and videos for teaching.

 César Benavente-Peces (UPM)
César Benavente Peces (Ph.D.) has been an associate professor at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid over more than 20 years. Currently he is with the Department of Signal Theory and Communications at the Telecommunications Faculty. He is currently Vice-dean for Research and Doctorate and he is the responsible of the research activity as well as the PhD. and MSc. Programs in Systems and Services Engineering for the Information Society. He is also with the Radio Engineering Research Group with the Industrial Electronic Centre. He has leaded and collaborated in a number of research projects funded by the EU, national government and regional government. Additionally he has leaded and collaborated in contracts with the industry. His research interests include communication systems, location based systems, applications and services integration, new ICT and integration, education innovation. He is author of a number of papers in international journals and conferences proceedings as well as book chapters.

 Ion Mierluș-Mazilu (UTCB)
Ion Mierluș-Mazilu (Ph.D) is an associate professor of Mathematics and Informatics at the Technical University of Civil Engineering, Bucharest, Romania. He completed his bachelor, master and doctorate degree in Mathematics and Informatics at the Bucharest University. He has participated in several European and national projects and was the coordinator and leading researcher national projects. He is the author of several books and scientific papers.

 Daniela Velichová (STUBA)
Daniela Velichová (doc. RNDr. CSc.) is the member of the SEFI Mathematics Working Group Steering Committee, involved in activities connected to organisation of bi-annual seminars for mathematics educators at the European Technical Universities, co-author of the published book “A Framework for Mathematics Curricula in Engineering Education”. She has participated in many European and national projects related to mathematics in engineering coordinator and leading researcher. As a senior lecturer of mathematics at technical university for 40 years and strongly experienced researcher she has been introducing innovative methods in teaching mathematics, and she has developed many educational tools as printed books and lecture notes, electronic books and numerous other web-based learning materials, RLO (re-usable learning objects), applets and other novel instructional resources supported by ICT.

Memebers:

Alice-Dagmar Anghelescu (UTCB)
Cristina Vaduva (UTCB)
Daniela Richtáriková (STUBA)
David Luengo-García (UPM)
David Osés-del-Campo (UPM)
Eugenia Rosado (UPM)
Gianni Flamaropol (UTCB)
Hanna Kinnari-Korpela (TAMK)
Hanna Teras (TAMK)
Ileana Bucur (UTCB)
Jaana Hannikainen (TAMK)
Jana Gabkova (STUBA)
Jesús Encabo-Puente (UPM)
Jozef Leja (STUBA)
Laura Ortiz-Martín (UPM)
Leena Katto (TAMK)
Lucian Nita (UTCB)
Luis Arriero-Encinas (UPM)
Luminita Anghel (UTCB)
Marianna Leikomaa (TAMK)
Mikko Ukonaho (TAMK)
Noora Erkkila (TAMK)
Peter Letavaj (STUBA)
Petteri Jekunen (TAMK)
Sami Suhonen (TAMK)
Stefania Constantinescu (UTCB)

Contact – Project Coordinator

Address:
Tampere University of Applied Sciences
Kuntokatu 3
Tampere
FI-33520
Finland
Email: kirsi-maria.rinneheimo@tuni.fi
Phone: +358 40 5066 093