Over the past month, the MYSS consortium partners, after analyzing the national needs analysis reports and designing a detailed course curriculum for teachers, proceeded with the first pilot test in order to verify the effectiveness of the training material.
The pilot test took place directly through the Moodle platform from Monday, November 29, 2021 to December 15, 2021, meaning that participants had approximately 15 days to complete the modules and answer the evaluation questionnaire. Time management was autonomous, so teachers could take 2 days, 1 week, or even 15 days to complete the modules depending on their available time. Schools in the three participating countries (Italy, Romania, Greece) offered the necessary information to teachers who tested the modules on the platform. This first testing phase took place in English, and involved 34 teachers, 10 participants from Italy, 14 from Romania and 10 from Greece, who followed 7 training units and completed the final assessment quiz.
Topics covered included:
- Becoming familiar with online learning and new educational tools.
- Knowledge building and collaborative learning (ICT and e-Learning skills, exchange of information and personal experiences)
- Practical approach to video teaching
- Analysis of the needs of today’s students and the requirements of the 21st century
- Adaptation of materials to online teaching
- How to provide emotional support
- How to appropriately involve parents in the educational framework
- Technical support, task involvement, meeting deadlines, ensuring ITC infrastructure.
After viewing the training materials, teachers were asked to take an assessment quiz choosing between two alternatives (quiz A and B) containing 30 questions between true/false and multiple choice. The minimum threshold for passing the quiz and obtaining the certificate provided was set at 60%. Supplemental exercises were optional and were included in each unit.
In order to ensure that teachers opened the exercises, the evaluation survey included questions addressing the effectiveness of the exercises. The evaluation survey was done to test the accessibility of the courses and platform, the efficacy, interest, and usability of the courses and exercises, and to also look for possible suggestions. Teachers who successfully participated received a certificate of attendance. The project partners provided feedback to the procedure and content of the material itself by writing their comments. Finally, after collecting the feedback from the participants and making appropriate changes to the courses, the latest versions of the modules will be translated into the national language and the outputs will be transferred to the MYSS e-platform, within the teaching area.
