Within the frame of Erasmus+ PRINTeL project in February-March, 2019 an internal Teacher Training (TT) Course directed at retraining BrSTU teaching staff members is programmed to take place at Brest State Technical University (BrSTU).

The trainers of the TT Course from BrSTU who took part in the ToT (Training of Teachers) courses at 5 EU Project partner universities (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Universitat de Barcelona, Universidade do Porto, Linköpings Universitet, FH Joanneum Gesellschaft mbH) have designed training courses on teaching and learning in innovative methods for BrSTU teaching staff members and have planned to share with them all the experience they gained during the abovementioned ToT courses. 

The TT courses are going to be delivered by the 10 ToT courses participants from TeSaU and up to 100 BrSTU teaching staff members will undergo the TT course.  

During the course BrSTU lecturers are going to be trained in a number of fields related to innovative technology-enhanced teaching and learning.

To see the video of the TT courses delivered at BrSTU, please refer to:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHr1m2ELjWE&feature=youtu.be

TT Course #10 "Application of Active Learning in Technical Science"

Trainer: PhD, Associate Professor Volha Semianiuk (BrSTU Faculty of Civil Engineering, Department of Concrete Technology and Building Materials)

On May 10-15, 2019, a five-day teacher training (TT) course titled «Active Learning Application in Technical Science» was delivered to the academic staff of different departments of Civil Engineering Faculty of the Brest State Technical University by Volha Semianiuk, Associate Professor at the Department of Concrete Technology and Building Materials.

The knowledge and experience, that was gained by the TT course trainer after her participation in the TOT course held at KU Leuven (Belgium) within the frame of Erasmus+ PRINTeL project, was introduced to and shared with BrSTU teaching staff members. The TTcourse conducted by Volha Semianiuk was based on the training course held at KU Leuven and moderated by the expert in the field of active learning – Wim Van Petegem.

Based on the theoretical course presented by Volha Semianiuk, the TT course participants structured their suggestions and visions on how to apply active learning methods in lectures and practical courses for students who study technical sciences.

At the final stage of the course, all of the participants made a general conclusion that active learning can improve studying process and active learning approaches are useful for making technical science more attractive for students, as well as for increasing the efficiency of studying process.

The knowledge attained during the TT course will be shared among other colleagues and it will be integrated into future courses delivered by the academic staff of the Civil Engineering Faculty of the Brest State Technical University.

TT Course #9  “Active Learning in the Flipped Classroom”

Trainer: Associate professor, Alena Charnavokaya (BrSTU Faculty of Economics, Department of Intelligent Information Technologies)

Starting from February 28 to March 14, 2019 at the BrSTU Economic faculty a training course on “Active Learning in the Flipped Classroom” was held by Alena Charnavokaya, a participant of "Erasmus+ PRINTeL" project (TOT Course at University of Linkoping).

10 lecturers/professors representing BrSTU Economic  faculty attended the training.

This training includes 5 lectures:

1. The pedagogical development in digital world
2. Active learning methods
3. Technological support of active learning methods
4. Welcome to a Flipped Classroom
5. Creating an effective syllabus using the "Flipped Classroom".

Alena Charnavokaya presented topic about LiU and Didacticum, Course syllabus. She outlined the concept of active learning, its content characteristics, told about “Active learning classroom”: what is an ALC, designing teaching and learning activities in an ALC, presented topic “Introduction to Flipped Classroom”: definition of Flipped Learning, the four pillars of F-L-I-P, five steps to try flipped classroom.

Then there was presented the topics about Digital Pedagogical Competence, as well as Technology-Enhanced Teaching Self-Assessment Tool (TET-SAT) Developed as a part of the MENTEP project 2015-2018, financed by Erasmus+. Participants took part in the discussion on TET-SAT statements  using tool Mentimeter,  response system to collect initial reaction. They also worked in groups using a survey on-line system Padlet.

At the end of the course the participants presented their recorded lecture snippets to the whole class and got feedback from the other participants and designed a course, incorporating active learning techniques and the flipped learning approach.

TT Course # 8 “Blended/Hybrid Teaching and Learning”

Trainer: Associate Prof. Tatsiana Shalabyta (BrSTU Faculty of Civil Engineering, Department of Management, Economics and Finance)

Teacher Training course entitled “Blended/Hybrid Teaching and Learning”, conducted by Tatsiana Shalabyta (Associate Professor at the Faculty of Construction faculty, Chair of Associate Professor of Concrete technologies & Building materials of BrSTU), took place from 28 February to 7 March 2019 at BrSTU. The main objective of this training course was to impart knowledge and experience, obtained at the Training of Trainers (TT) Course within Erasmus+PRINTeL project.

During the five-day course, teachers were introduced to the basic concept of hybrid/blended learning, the new role of the teacher as an e-moderator, a five-step online learning model, the Moodle platform's abilities in the learning process, the objectives of creating an e-portfolio, features of using video in educational scenarios, and more.

The training was conducted in accordance with the developed program. Troughout the training, all the participants were involved in team work, which allowed discussing all important issues related to the introduction of hybrid / blended learning in the educational process for engineering students, exchange ideas, new approaches and individual experience. The teachers also appreciated the multimedia tools that can contribute to the development of student motivation and higher education productivity.

All participants in the training have increased their competence in the field of new and innovative teaching and learning methods.

Summing up the training, it can be said with no doubt that today the integration of modern technologies into educational processes has become a necessary prerequisite for ensuring the competitiveness of students in the international education and labor market.

TT Course #7 "Hybrid / Blended Teaching and Learning"

Trainer: Head of Department, Associate Prof., PhD, Natallia Chetyrbock (BrSTU Faculty of Engineering and Economics, Department of Management, Economics and Finance)

Training "Hybrid / blended teaching and learning" for academic staff and specialists in education was held in Brest State Technical University in the period from 25 February 2019 to 05 March 2019.

Instructor, head of Management, Economics and Finance Department, associate professor, Ph.D. in Economics, Chetyrbock Natallia presented new innovative teaching methods to trainees.

The purpose of this teachers training (TT) course was to provide teachers knowledge about basic concept of «Hybrid/Blended Teaching and Learning», focused on the combined e-learning and traditional classrooms methods/independent study. It represents a much greater change in basic technique than simply adding computers to classrooms; it represents, in many cases, a fundamental change in the way teachers and students approach the learning experience. 

Trainees:
• studied the pedagogical concepts of hybrid/blended teaching and learning;
• gained knowledge about online learning and communication processes;
• studied the work with Moodle system, studied the possibilities of Moodle;
• got acquainted with the experience work with Trello platform, the possibilities of Trello;
• studied the practice of working with an electronic portfolio, how to create an electronic portfolio and how to implement it in the process of education;
• mastered practically the technique of creating video lectures on their mobile phones or computers.

TT Course # 6 “Video as a Learning Tool in Modern Education”

Trainer: Associate Professor Iryna Hranik (BrSTU Engineering and Economics Faculty of Distance Education, Department of Management, Economics and Finances)

A five-day teacher training course «Video as a learning tool in modern education» took place at the Institute of Professional Development and Retraining of Brest State Technical University. Iryna Hranik, Associate Professor of the Department of Management, Economics and Finances, shared her knowledge and experience received while participating in the program Erasmus plus PRINTeL at the University of Porto. She presented information concerning recording and edition of video materials.

Course attendants learnt technical characteristics and the basics for recording of educational video on «Panopto» platform during the study; they discussed the role and the potential of video used for didactic purposes, the specifics of educational video edition with «Panopto» applied, the use of video as a tool for «inverted training». The methodical recommendations for independent video management were made.

During the final stage of the course a roundtable conversation took place. It was dedicated to the advantages and possible problems in video management, as well as to the fields of knowledge application.

Acquired knowledge should improve the teacher qualification level and teaching techniques by means of lecture videos, cooperative platforms and the Internet within the taught disciplines.

TT Course #5 "Video as a Learning Tool for Engineering Disciplines"

Trainer: Associate professor, Pavel Kachurka (BrSTU Faculty of Electronic Information Systems, Department of Intelligent Information Technologies)

On-host teacher training course “The Video as a Learning Tool for Engineering Discipines” in frames of the ERASMUS+ “PRINTeL” project was held at Brest State Technical University on 24-28 February, 2019.

Dr. Pavel Kachurka, associate professor of Department of Intelligent Information Technology, presented the innovative methods of using video in learning process to the colleagues. His experience in the technology of creation of flipped classroom using Panopto tool was met with enthusiasm by the audience.

The course was held in new computerized classroom of Faculty of Information Electronic Systems and participants could try presented technologies within their own small projects.

The lecturer presented the software tools and behavioristic approaches to innovative lectures using video. The participants of the course have gained knowledge about how to create video lectures with Panopto, how to add interactivity into learning process with Explain Everything, how the video lectures can be recorded with One Button Studio, etc.

The results of the course where considered as positive. Most of course participants (total 18 person) said that some of presented technologies could find place in their everyday teacher work.

TT Course #4 "Application of Active Learning in Computer Science".

Trainer: Prof.  Vladimir Golovko (BrSTU Electronic Information Systems, Intelligent Information Technologies)

The TT course was scheduled for the period of 18 February 2019 – 20 February 2019 and 25 February 2019 – 26 February 2019.  The main goal of the courses was the application and performance of active learning in computer science for deeper learning of computer science.

The main motto of the courses was the following: the deeper and more active, the better.

Active learning permits to more deeply learn the subject, forms the skills of self-thinking and the generalizing ability of students. It is very important in computer science, because the future of computer science is artificial intelligence which is closely related to learning theory, especially with deep learning. Therefore the main idea of the course was to integrate active learning and deep learning in order to improve the education in computer science.

The materials were prepared in accordance with KUT courses, named “Active Learning with special focus on Technology Enhanced Collaborative Learning” and own experience in domain of artificial intelligence. During the training procedure the trainees had a chance to exchange their impressions pertaining to the efficacy of the recommended approaches in the atmosphere of open and productive discussion.

In general case, the TT course proved to be very effective and raised great interest in active learning because it permits to diversify the learning process and instill independent work skills. So, for instance, some of the participants expressed their willingness to go deeper into the subject matter and to apply the active learning in practice.

Thus active learning is a very useful and innovative tool for training in domain of computer science and is planned to deepen its application in the intelligent information technologies department.

TT Course #3 “Active Learning and ICT-enhanced teaching: M-learning and gamification”

Trainer:  Associate Prof. Tatsiana Lisouskaya (BrSTU Faculty of Engineering, Department of Humanitarian Science)

From 11 to 25 February 2019, within the framework of the ERASMUS + project Teacher Training course titled «Active Learning and Information Technologies: Mobile Learning and Gamification» was held at Brest State Technical University.

TT Course "Active Learning and Information Technologies: Mobile Learning and Gamification" was aimed at exploring innovative teaching methods, interactive and electronic learning technologies based on information and communication technologies The purpose of this teacher training course was to provide teachers with theoretical knowledge and to generate some experience in applying m-training and gamification in teaching. The main purpose of the course was to expand the teaching competencies in the field of active learning, the use of mobile tools and game techniques for teaching and learning.

The programme of courses was aimed at studying the theoretical aspects of methods of active learning and practical study and application of methods and technologies. The training approach of the course consisted of lecture, independent learning of trainees, practical application, discussion, small group exercises and presentations.

During the five-day intensive course, the importance and capabilities of active learning, goals and ways of its implementation were discussed. At the lecture, teachers have gained not only theoretical knowledge of active learning methodology, also they acquired practical experience.

The use of ICT tools in lectures demonstrated the possibilities of mobile learning, exercises in small groups and helped the course participants enhance the skills of using ICT tools. Teachers had time to practice hands-on skills, as these were applied in the exercises in small groups and in their independent work.

During the course, students developed their own design to integrate mobile learning and gamification into their own courses.

In addition to theoretical knowledge, the workshop participants also got a real experience of participating in an interactive learning game, completing tasks and saving the world from viruses.

As a result, the participants, having passed the learning game, were able to assess the pedagogical effect of the game, the possibilities of gamification for engaging students in the learning process, as well as their motivation.

BrSTU TT Course participants discussed the issues of mobile learning and revised different apps for different learning purposes.

Upon successful completion of this course, the teachers have developed new pedagogical competencies, such as:

• designing tasks with different methods of active learning;
• planning a gamified learning experience;
• applying specific ICT-tools in teaching (sli.do, Mentimeter, PechaKucha, Canva, Kahoot, Socrative, Quizizz, QR-code, etc);
• presenting information in a PechaKuchaformat;
• developing a strategy for applying m-learning and gamafication in their own courses.

TT Course #2 “Active Learning in the Flipped Classroom”

Trainer: Associate Professor Natallia Mikhalchuk, (BrSTU Faculty of Economics, Department if Accounting, Analysis and Audit)

Starting from February 11 to February 22, 2019 at BrSTU Economic faculty a training course on “Active Learning in the Flipped Classroom” was held by Natallia Mikhalchuk, participant of "Erasmus+ PRINTeL" project (TOT Course at University of Linkoping).

10 lecturers/professors representing BrSTU Economic  faculty attended the training. Course titled “Active Learning in the Flipped Classroom” combined presentations with video applications. The aim of this teacher training course (TT) was to provide teachers with the knowledge necessary to apply active learning methods in the educational process.

During the trainings trainees developed and improved practical skills in the use of active learning methods and technical support to ensure this process. Upon the completion of the course, the trainees had an idea of active learning methods, their types, peculiarities of practical application, mastered the skills of using open Internet-resources Mentimeter and PADLET, improved their program of the course on conducting subject using the methods of “Flipped Classroom” and ABC Learning Design.  At the end of the TT course, the participants prepared and presented their training materials (video presentations and revised course syllabi) in accordance with the “Active learning in the Flipped Classroom” method.

TT Course #1 “Active Learning and ICT-Enhanced Teaching: M-Learning and Gamification”

Trainer: Head of Department, Associate Professor, PhD Andrei Prarouski (BrSTU Department of World Economy, Marketing, Investment Department)

A training course on “Active Learning and ICT-enhanced teaching: M-learning and gamification” was held by Andrei Prarouski, participant of "Erasmus+PRINTeL" project (TOT Course at University of Barcelona) at BrSTU Economic faculty on 18-22 February 2019. 10 lecturers representing BrSTU Economic faculty attended the training.

During the five-day intensive course the participants discussed the importance and opportunities of active learning, goals and ways of their implementation. Participants learned about the role and effectiveness of active learning in the learning process, the possibilities and methods of using a mobile device, as well as got familiarized with innovative teaching methods and special tools used in learning, QR code training methods, various digital applications and programs, such as: Canva, Slido, Mentimeter, on Socrative, Kahoot, Saman SPARK video, etc.  the use of which makes the learning process more interesting, memorable and instructive for students. The issues concerning the advantages and limitations of the usage of these methods were also discussed during the training.

The participants of the training independently tested the proposed methods, performed tasks using various applications, developed quizzes and tests using Slido and Kahoot programs, infographics and booklets, Canva software, short production with Adobe Spark Video, and developed their training programs (fragments) using gamification and presented them in the PechaKucha format.

Games, gamification, serious games, use of mobile applications and mobile devices, as well as m-learning significantly increase the motivation of students and ensure their involvement in educational processes.