Fundamentals for fostering Netiquette in the Digital Age

The rationale for the project realization were the challenges and opportunities arising from dig. transformation and the persisting inequalities and barriers constraining adult learners proficient, confident and responsible usage of dig. technologies. The dig. age has brought new dimensions to our life, in which netiquette has become the new etiquette. The significance of netiquette derives from the pervasiveness and impact of the digital technologies, which are a powerful driving force behind deep transformations in the way we communicate and collaborate with others, learn and work, think and behave. We tackled common needs and challenging issues that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis in the participating countries, which uncovered the centrality of adult education and lifelong learning to foster digital readiness. By implementing the project we addressed the needs of providing participating organisations with a set of tangible results to support adult educators in the process of mainstreaming and transferring relevant knowledge and skills on netiquette. We aimed to foster low skilled adults’ /learner’s awareness, knowledge and skills to take part in the digital society critically, consciously and responsibly

Given the challenges and opportunities arising from the digital transformation and the persistent inequalities and barriers that prevent adult learners from using digital technologies in a professional, confident and responsible way, the project aimed to provide participating organisations with a set of tangible outcomes to support adult educators in the process of mainstreaming and transferring relevant knowledge and skills in the field of netiquette. Through the implementation of the project, the partners' staff expanded their tacit knowledge, benefited from innovation transfer and enriched their bespoke portfolio of learning solutions. We wanted to promote awareness, knowledge and skills of low-skilled adults and adult learners to engage critically, consciously and responsibly in the digital society. The aim was to develop adult learners' key skills for meaningful participation in a democratic society, intercultural understanding, learning and employability. The project collected, discussed and further developed a set of ethical guidelines and common standards for the critical effective use of digital technologies, as well as for effectively addressing online misinformation, hate speech and fraudulent schemes.

9 partner organisations, from Czech Republic, Portugal, Germany, Cyprus, Greece, Belgium, Spain, France, Turkey devised a competence framework on netiquette, to define the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are most relevant to the target groups in the participating countries, which were validated by 54 members of the local expert groups. Partnership developed a MOOC and Didactic handbook, aimed at enhancing adult learners' netiquette skills and competences, as well to support adult educators in their teaching on this subject area. Partnership conceived, created and tested a user-friendly, multilingual digital learning hub to host the aforementioned project results and a set of interactive quizzes and infographics to further support the learning process of adult learners. In pilot testing of the R3 direct participation of 84 adult educators, 93 adult learners (including 50 facing fewer opportunities) in pilot testing. 18 associated partners in activities related with the development of the project results, including research, content development, piloting, and external validation. 311 stakeholders and adult learners and other participants attended the Netiquette+ Final summit and Netiquette+ National seminars. A lot of stakeholders in partners’ countries and across Europe were reached through the 146 project dissemination and exploitation activities.

Netiquette+ is informed by the Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027, issued by the European Commission, and it is in line with its two strategic priorities. The project envisaged results were the following. 1) Netiquette+ Competence framework: it defines the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are most relevant to the target groups in the participating countries. It is structured around 4 key areas, which in line with DigComp 2.1, were identified during the preparatory phase of the project: online ethics and netiquette, communication modes and strategies, generational diversity and cultural diversity. The Netiquette+ Competence framework provides the Adult Education sector with a state-of-the-art instrument to help adult educators to identify the learning needs of adult learners, devise didactic activities and pedagogical strategies, as well as to assess learners’ netiquette skills. 2) Netiquette+ MOOC and Didactic handbook: based upon the competence framework developed (Result 1), it offers a flexible learning path for adult learners and supports adult educators to better guide them throughout the process of engaging ethically, constructively and critically in the digital arena. The MOOC was designed to offer a package of interactive contents, to achieve the learning outcomes structured in the competency framework, so that learners can acquire specific knowledge, skills and attitudes related with each subject area or unit. These include storytelling/videos with debriefing questions, structured discussions, project-oriented activities, integrated contents, such as activities or demos, structured discussions with problem-oriented case studies, self-learning checklists. Additionally, to support adult educators in the process of transferring relevant knowledge and skills and to better guide and advise adult learners the adoption of suitable standards of conduct in the digital arena, the Didactic handbook will be developed and structured into two main parts: i) Tips on andragogy and digital education, ii) Hands-on lesson plans per MOOC unit. 3) Netiquette+ Learning hub and digital resources: is a bespoke, multilingual and interactive digital learning hub to provide free and user-friendly access to the full suite of the project materials, that is, the Result 1) Netiquette+ Competence framework and Result 2) Netiquette+ MOOC and Didactic handbook. In addition, to assess, support and enhance the adult learners' learning process, Result 3 features a series of interactive quizzes and infographics.