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Digital Competence in Erasmus+ during Covid-19 Pandemic

31st Economic Forum Expert Features

Education systems have emerged as one of the spheres most severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, and no country has been prepared to face this challenge. Almost all countries surveyed by UNESCO and the World Bank reported the inclusion of remote learning as the main response to the Covid-19.

An unprecedented experiment on teachers and learners came into being almost overnight and demanded an immediate response of ministries responsible for education, school management and teachers themselves, not to mention the paramount role of parents in supporting students in this process.

The Covid-19 pandemic also influenced the international dimension of education – the courses and studies of many international students and pupils have been interrupted, postponed, moved online or even cancelled. According to a survey carried out by Erasmus Student Network on a sample of 21 930 international students from all over Europe, 25% of student learning mobility periods were cancelled. For those students, who continued their stay abroad, 37,5% experienced at least one major problem related to their exchange, and a half declared that their classes were moved online.

However, international learning mobility, especially within European Union Erasmus+ Program, is not limited to students. Also school, youth, and staff exchanges were negatively affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. So were strategic partnerships between educational institutions and international trainings for teachers, youth workers and academic staff. All these activities were either cancelled or carried out online, depriving their participants of the opportunity to experience the social, cultural and networking aspect of international learning mobility. Transferring teaching and learning to the online world brought about a journey which was often an unknown world of digital technology for teachers, learners and parents and digital competence seems to be one of the key to face these challenges, especially in the context of the Erasmus+ programme.

The course of international education projects during the pandemic was the main topic of the study over project leaders’ competences which was conducted by the Foundation for the Development of the Education System. Data coming from 990 respondents led to distinction of the following four competences of international project leaders: managerial, cognitive, social and digital. While the first three were considered as contextual factors, the latter was of major significance. The digital competence is a feature composed of several indicators concerning among others: everyday use of electronic equipment, digital literacy in private life and technical ability to use specific programs and tools.

The results of the study demonstrate that Erasmus+ project leaders with higher digital competence seemed to be more efficient in the implementation, management and sustainability of their projects. Moreover, higher level of digital competence in studied group was coherent with better auto-evaluation as a project leader. Finally, higher level of digital competence was also linked to increased willingness to develop skills and knowledge. Lifelong learning approach is more common among respondents with higher digital competence.

The evidence of the research presented above demonstrate that digital competence can be a factor contributing to assuring continuity of both online classes at school and international education projects. Teachers who had pre-pandemic experience with the use of online tools and methods in class declared not to have significant technical challenges while online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. The same applies to international educational projects’ coordinators – the implementation and sustainability of such activities, despite mobility and sanitary obstacles caused by the Covid-19, depended, among other factors, on the level of their digital competence. The effective ability to teach and work online has therefore become one of the fundamental skills nowadays.

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