Course Platform and Digitisation
At the proposal preparation phase, the project’s higher education objective selected was “Rewarding excellence in learning, teaching and skills development”. In addition, two additional priorities according to the objectives selected included “Addressing digital transformation through development of digital readiness, resilience and capacity “and “Stimulating innovative learning and teaching practices”. All the three European Commission’s objectives supported the co-creation and piloting of the e-learning courses where the use of digitalisation and enhancement of digital skills and capacity were in the forefront.
6.1 Project’s e-learning platform:
For the co-creation and piloting of the e-learning courses, partners decided to use a Moodle LMS based platform called DigiCampus. DigiCampus is a shared on-line platform for higher education institutions in Finland. As Jamk is the coordinator of the SportsComp project with expertise in e-learning, DigiCampus was a solid choice for the project as it is also accessible across the globe by anyone. DigiCampus offers courses across higher education institutions across different topics and disciplines. Its use in international project is especially convenient as project experts around the globe have an easy access to the platform without the coordinator having to go through lengthy administrative processes to enrol participants. (DigiCampus.fi)
The DigiCampus platform was introduced to the project experts already during the project Kick-off in October 2023. Project experts registered to the platform on their own time. Following the project objectives in practice, a DigiCampus testing page was created in spring 2024 for the project experts to orientate and test the platform, practice the creation of activities and assignments and overall, for enhancing their digipedagogical skills. Throughout the co-creation of the e-learning courses, partners had approximately 10-15 project experts enrolled per each course working on-line.
In addition to DigiCampus, all created keynote and lecture videos prepared by the project experts were finalised using Panopto video platform to ensure accessibility and aligned outlook.
6.2 Digitisation:
As one of the key aims of the project was to co-create and pilot e-learning courses to validate the updated international sports physiotherapy competencies, it was necessary to ensure that the courses are user-friendly, accessible and support the learners in enhancing their own skills. In addition, as the courses will be offered by the project partners upon the project end, it is crucial that also teachers not taking part to the project are able to teach the courses in the future.
In the co-creation work, Jamk’s quality criteria for on-line pedagogy was used as a guide to support the teacher teams in the co-creation work. It outlines the distinctive aspects of learning, teaching and studying in digital environments. In addition, throughout, partners shared and tested different digital tools and applications. Jamk’s e-learning expert worked alongside the teacher teams for support and tips which enhanced the efficiency and quality of work.
In order for meeting the set objectives, partners decided co-creating various innovative activities were created across the modules of the three courses. These are supported by videos and on-line lectures recorded by the project experts. Although all the three courses also include written assignments, it was important to keep the assignments clear and simple as the focus was to gain feedback from the courses before fine-tuning the courses for publication. The pilots also included learners across 19 different nationalities which meant that the learners (teachers, students, experts) of the pilots joined the courses with various expertise including English and digital skills.
6.3 Quality on-line learning
The following four aspects are worth considering when studying online.
| Me as part of the online community | Update your profile in the course environment and introduce yourself and actively engage in the networks created for your group. |
| Ground rules and netiquette | Take note of the course practices and timetables. Seek to promote trust within your study group by means of politeness and constructive feedback. |
| Do things together | Learning from and sharing information with your fellow students is important in online studies. Peer support and an interactive learning atmosphere facilitate learning. |
| Online technical skills | Online learning requires the use of the Internet and basic knowledge of data security and copyright matters. The utilisation of cloud services, as well as the mastery of applications and practices related to online meetings, are also important. |
