Innovative use of ICT tools and coaching/teaching techniques in blended adult learning environment

The idea for the project proposal came during a training N&P (the coordinator) and FRM-IT staff attended in Germany in September 2021, where the experts and the two partners shared the challenges they had faced during the pandemic and with online learning in general. They found that while E-learning and online lessons can be extremely useful to build a strong foundation of knowledge for adult learners, the online environment was not necessarily appropriate to let teachers and students connect, preventing the building of the emotional connection they would develop during face-to-face classes. Communication specialists and coaches found the ‘human contact-less element stressful and inadequate to develop social/transversal skills. The partners, from 3 EU countries, Germany, Italy, and Hungary, talked about the difficulties they encountered in using ICT tools to develop, in particular, soft skills in their learners and decided to use their expertise to come together to exchange knowledge on techniques used to foster personal/professional development, and create a toolkit they can use directly with their staff and key stakeholders,

The project responded to the PRIORITY: "Improving the competences of educators and other adult education staff" because it aimed at increasing the partners' ability to offer effective learning solutions to their target audiences, such as adult learners. The objective was also to positively impact their personnel, who carried out the organisation's tasks and duties in terms of increased transnational project management skills, cross-cultural teamwork and communication skills, remote- work and communication expertise. The three partners were also looking to learn new skills and investigate topics that were part of their everyday work. By working with the other partners, we wanted to increase their predisposition to handle their workload thanks to their better ICT skills and ability to manage their work more efficiently. In addition, we also wanted to improve the way coaches and trainers offered their services to their audiences with positive effects on their work patterns and on the services offered in general. More importantly, we wanted to check what elements worked better to foster participants' engagement in the coaching sessions and were effective in creating social bonds that are usually lost while communicating online.

+at the beginning of the project, we run a research to find best practices on the use of on/off-line tools and techniques for teaching and coaching +we prepared a questionnaire to investigate how educators dealt with the online environment during their online coaching and teaching activities The results have been used to prepare a common report now available on the project and partners' websites. +Thecoordinator hosted a transnational work session among the partners' educators in Berlin, used to discuss the results of the survey and finalise the best practices collection +Data collected, and the discussion among partners in the workshop have been used to create the INNOVA toolkit +toolkit has been translated into local languages and shared on social media and the partners' website The toolkit has been tested with adult learners at the local level +partners organised some local meetings to facilitate results diffusion +an international event has been organised in Torino to present the draft results and to share them with the partners' network and inspire new possibilities +a new event is planned by the end of September to share the final results

Our project results showed that educators needed to be fully aware of how ICT tools could engage, motivate and involve learners in a blended learning environment. We used these findings to prepare a Handbook as a toolkit for our activities. The concrete results can be summarised as: INITIAL RESEARCH REPORT - a report prepared by the partners after interviewing 30 educators and experts TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES BOOKLET – a document presenting the workshop's results in Berlin and validated with the partners and their learners. -Partners enlarged their understating and use of ICT tools in an online environment -They increased their competencies as educators and project managers while working with the other partners and the target groups - They had the chance to review the way they work and learned new techniques and skills -They increased the quality of their services and the ability to offer more EU-oriented services