GDPRism - Practical data protection in further education and projects - An upskilling pathway for european organization

As part of its prevention workshops on the topic of digital media, the Media Competence Team has been working on data protection since 2018. Data protection is an accompanying and important topic in this area. We have therefore been actively raising awareness of data protection issues since 2018. During this time, we have observed that there is little awareness of data protection in the education sector in particular and that data protection still plays a subordinate role in many organisations, even though sensitive data is often processed here. In addition, through the partnerships within the framework of ERAMUS+ projects, we were able to recognise that the importance of data protection (and the GDPR) also has a different weighting and significance in the European countries (e.g. in Greece). In adult education in particular, data protection regulations and the knowledge of why the topic of data protection in adult education is so fundamentally important. It was important to us to make our knowledge and experience in this area available to individual target groups in order to raise awareness of this topic among more people and organisations in the long term.

We wanted to give organisations and employees in the education sector an understanding of data protection and get them excited about the topic. The aim was to offer comprehensive basic training on data protection on the one hand and to use specific practical examples to show how data protection can be considered and integrated in everyday working life and especially in the implementation of projects on the other. Many data protection training courses on the market are characterised by legal interpretations. There is little comprehensive information that is both simple and practical. Many people tend to see data protection as an obstacle (too complicated, only prohibitions). This is often due to ignorance and uncertainty. We therefore wanted to offer these people a simple introduction and, by providing templates, checklists and documents, help them to put what they have learnt into practice and implement the data protection requirements accordingly. However, it was also important to convey the topic in an easy-to-understand, practical way.

The core of the project is the e-learning including the accompanying toolbox, which contains the accompanying templates. The core activities were therefore the planning and implementation of an e-learning course on the Moodle system (including the creation of content, structure and interactive elements) and the design and implementation of accompanying templates and checklists ("toolbox"), including the data protection assessment of common software applications and tools. All material was provided in German, English and Greek. An online survey on the importance of data protection in organisations was also conducted in January 2023 to analyse needs and review the company's own theories. In addition to designing, planning and implementing the survey, this activity also included analysing the results (which were published at the beginning of May 2023). In addition, a data protection training course in the form of an LTTA was organised for the Greek partner to transfer knowledge. Activities at the end of the project included various dissemination activities as well as the organisation of individual online project presentations in German, Greek and English and an LTTA for employees from the education sector in Greece.

On 9 January 2023, we launched an online survey using the Cryptpad tool in German, English and Greek. The results of the survey were published on 4 May 2023 in the form of a PDF document. On approx. 17 pages, the document summarises the results in text and graphics and gives the concrete figures. The core of the project is e-learning, which was developed using the Moodle learning platform. The e-learning consists of three modules with subordinate online courses. The modules are "Data protection basics" (3 online courses), "Data protection in practice" (6 online courses) and "Tools and instruments" (2 online courses). Each learning unit consists of texts as well as tasks and interactive content such as reflection questions or short tests at the end of individual chapters. All e-learning content is available in three languages. The "Tools and Tools" learning unit in the "Tools and Tools" module provides a step-by-step introduction to the accompanying materials, which are also available for download as a "toolbox". A total of 12 documents were created as part of this toolbox. These are templates and information sheets such as a template for documenting processing activities, information sheets on the subject of consent, etc.)