Supporting Innovation Competence Development in Online Education

The COVID-19 crisis accelerated the need for modernisation and digital transformation of education and training systems across Europe. The new normal requires new kind of adaptation, skills, and competences from all, both the higher education (HE) teachers and students. From higher education institutions (HEIs), it requires capacity and readiness to manage an effective shift towards digital education but also to ensure that students will have needed skills for digitalisation and lifelong learning. There were signs that the shift from face-to-face to digital learning solutions could bring us back to traditional teacher-centered approaches focusing only on increasement of knowledge instead of skills, attitudes, and values, although today innovative behaviour and innovation competences, also in digital environment, are crucial part of professional skills. Similarly, it was recognized that students need special support on how to behave, act, and study in digital learning context by learning and developing their innovation competences via video connections or digital collaborative platforms.

The SINCOE project aimed to address the competence gap in higher education (HE) teachers' digital education readiness by enhancing their digital pedagogical skills and their ability to identify, develop, and assess students' innovative behavior throughout the learning process. The project also sought to train students to develop and utilize their innovation competences in digital learning environments, such as video connections and collaborative platforms. Additionally, it aimed to increase the capacity and readiness of institutions to effectively transition to digital education, focusing on training innovative future professionals. By integrating innovation competence, online pedagogy, and learning analytics, the project aspired to advance current methodologies and support students in acquiring essential skills for the digital world. This included predicting and addressing students' needs for extra support, thereby reducing drop-out rates and enhancing personalized learning experiences. Ultimately, the project aimed to equip HE teachers with new digital skills, improve students' innovation competences, and promote digital transformation in HE institutions.

The SINCOE project produced three concrete outputs: 1. A re-validated assessment tool, offering a validated instrument to identify, assess, and develop innovation competences. Included in this process was also the creation of the roadmap, which provided a framework and shared understanding of the challenges faced by HEIs in this theme. 2. A training package, which is a ready-to-use online resource for observing, assessing, and utilizing innovation competences in digital training environments for both teachers and students. 3. A toolbox, which includes example cases, user guides, rules, checklists, and assessment methods and tools, enabling teachers to help students develop their innovation competences and support them in the learning process by applying learning analytics data. These outputs were developed through participative design thinking methodology in different authentic pilots and were designed for hybrid education, applicable for both online and onsite implementation. As open-source content, they are accessible for public use and adaptable to various contexts, benefiting not only the project institutions but also other European HEIs, educational companies, and policymakers.