In the frameworks of Erasmus+ PRINTeL project in February-March, 2019 an internal Teacher Training (TT) Course aimed at retraining teaching staff members is programmed to be held at Iakob Gogebashvili Telavi State University (TeSaU).

The TeSaU trainers of the TT Course 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 trainings on teaching and learning in innovative methods for TeSaU teaching staff members and have planned to share with them all the experience they gained after passing the abovementioned ToT courses. 

The TT courses are going to be delivered by the 6 ToT courses participants from TeSaU and up to 60 TeSaU lecturers will undergo the TT course.  

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

TT Course #6 “Active Learning: Technology Enhanced Collaborative Learning”

Trainer: Assistant Professor, Nino Dzamukashvili (TeSaU Faculty of Humanities, Depart. of Foreign Languages and Literature)

“Active learning: Technolgy Enhanced Collaborative Learning”, 5-day-training course has been recently (March 22 and 25-28, 2019) attended by 30 lecturers from 8 different departments of 4 faculties (Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Business and Law) at Iakob Gogebashvili Telavi State University.  The trainer was Ms. Nino Dzamukashvili who attended the training session with the same title in Leuven, Belgium at KU Leuven in November 2018.

The trainees were introduced to the innovative methodology of active learning, both on theoretical and practical levels. They were encouraged to apply TPACK, ADDIE and SMART models to practice while re-designing and re-thinking their existing courses. The participants were divided into groups conveniently according to their specialties thus illustrating the model of collaborative learning themselves.

The participants became familiar with a number of types of group work,  Knowledge Café, Jigsaw, Think-pair-Share, to name a few. The trainees especially liked Mentimeter, the online tool that was tested on the spot. They saw the multiple usage possibilities of the innovative tool in their practice.  All along the training course, the trainees weighed the pros and cons of technology enhanced collaborative learning. 

At the end of the TT course, all the participants presented their curricula, re-designed and modified with the newly acquired knowledge of active learning methodology and activities. Also, they found it quite a rewarding experience to present the product of their collaborative work- recording an extract of a well-known short story by a famous Georgian writer (assigned at random to each participant). Thus, by compiling the audio book the participants applied the active learning knowledge to teaching such a theoretical subject as history of literature.

TT Course #5 “Active Learning and ICT-Enhanced Teaching: M-Learning and Gamification”

Trainer: Associate Professor Maya Gonashvili (Faculty of Social Sciences, Business and Law, Department of Economics)

The TT Course “Active Learning and ICT-enhanced teaching : M-learning and gamification” was delivered by Professor Maya Gonashvili at Telavi State University. The trainer attended the training session with the same title in the University of Barcelona, Spain, in December, 2018. Thus, the course was designed similarly to the training course conducted in the mentioned university. However, there was time limit, as the course had to be 10 hours in TESAU. The trainer decided to include more independent practice and homework in the training course.

34 participants attended the training sessions. The trainees of the TT Course were lecturers from different departments of 5 TeSaU Faculties (Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Agrarian Sciences, Faculty of Education Sciences, Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Business and Law).

The course included the following topics: Day 1 - active learning; Polling activities; Key aspects AL-Digital; Day 2 – Gmification-educational escape room; simple gamification; Putting some tools into practice: Mobile&Gamification Kahoot / Socrative; Day 3 – M-learning: fundamental concepts; Mobile apps; Instruction design for mobile learning (practice), making infografics video using screen recorder, Day 4 – info graphics using Canva , Day 5 – PechaKucha presentation.

The training was aimed at the innovative teaching methods. It was a discussion-based course including lectures and seminars, as well as individual and small group work. The course was very practical in nature putting participants in the role of learners so that later they could reflect on the teaching procedures.

The trainees were introduced to digital competence for educators and different tools for teaching and learning: Slido, Poll everywhere, canva, sograte, using QR codes for assignments, creating badges, gamification, making posters and spark video. They designed and preparated 3 activities: Pecha-Kucha presentation, info graphics using Canva, video presentation using spark video.

During the training, participants designed individual teaching intervention based on m-learning and gamification. By means of using Moodle, learning an training materials and individual pages were prepared for each participant. (http://moodle.tesau.edu.ge/course/view.php?id=33 ).

During the 5 days, The participants realized the activities outlined within the TT course, designed an individual teaching intervention based on m-learning and/or gamification in collaboration with their peers learning in practice: they developed and/or improved skills using Mobile and computers, and the application of computers and Mobile for teaching and learning.

In conclusion, the training “Active Learning and ICT-enhanced teaching : M-learning and gamification ” was successfully conducted at TeSaU and the participants’ highly positive evaluation substantiated the benefits that the training yielded. The teachers expressed their readiness and willingness to implement this new approach in their teaching. The following recommendations were drawn:

• It is important to regularly conduct such training courses for teachers
• Training students in using the same software, e-platforms is essential. It will raise students’ motivation and expectations towards teaching courses

TT Course #4 “Video as a Tool for Teaching and Learning”

Trainers: Associate Prof. Shalva Tchkadua (TeSaU Faculty of Social Sciences, Business and Law, Department of Philosophy), Assistant Prof. Ana Gigauri (TeSaU Faculty of Humanities, Department of Foreign Language and Literature)

In the frameworks of Erasmus+ PRINTeL project, a Teacher Training (TT) course “Video as a Tool for Teaching and Learning” was delivered by Shalva Tchkadua and Ana Gigauri at Iakob Gogebashvili Telavi State University (TeSaU). The training was conducted two times. It took place from 1 March to 7 March, 2019. The training lasted for five days (2 hours per day).

During the trainings 9 lecturers from TeSaU were introduced to the pros and cons of using videos for teaching and learning purposes and tips for making high/good quality videos. Trainers also discussed the applications/sites that give the opportunity to create video/audio recordings.

 The training was delivered through:

• Lectures and instructions,
• Individual exercises,
• Questions and answers,
• Presentations.

Besides the individual assignments, at the end of the training the trainees presented their own videos and expressed their opinion about how the acquired skills can be applied in their courses/lectures.

TT Course #3 “Active Learning in The Flipped Classroom” 

Trainer: Associate Prof. Ia Jimshitashvili (TeSaU Faculty of Social Sciences, Business and Law, Department of Business)

In the frameworks of Erasmus+ PRINTeL project, a Teacher Training (TT) course “Active Learning in the Flipped Classroom” was delivered by Ia Jimshitashvili Iakob Gogebashvili Telavi State University (TeSaU). It took place 15, 18, 19, 20, 21 February, 2019. The training lasted for five days (2 hours per day).

During the trainings 24 lecturers from different Faculties of the University were introduced to the following issues: Active learning Concept, the Flipped Classroom Approach and instructions on how to make Video and Audio Material for Power Point slides, as well as how to convert a traditional lecture to a recorded lecture. Trainers also discussed the peculiarities of planning group-based problem-solving lectures.

The training was delivered through:

• Lectures and instructions
• Individual exercises
• Questions and answers
• Presentations.

Besides the individual assignments, at the end of the training the trainees presented their own product and expressed their opinion about how the acquired skills can be applied in their courses/lectures.

TT Course #2 “Blended/Hybrid Learning”

Trainer: Associate Prof. Tamar Mikeladze (TeSaU Faculty of Educational Sciences, Department of Educational Sciences)

The training session took place on February 8 and 11-14, 2019. The title of the course was Blended/Hybrid learning. The trainer attended the training session with the same title in Graz, Austria at FH Joanneum in November 2018. Thus, the course was designed similarly to the training course in Europe. However, there was a time limit, as the course had to be undertaken in 10 hours in TESAU. The trainer decided to include more independent practice and homework in the training course.

Officially 30 people were enrolled for the training but 29 participants attended the training sessions: 9 invited teachers, 3 assistant professors, 10 associate professors, and 7 professors.

The course included the following topics: Day 1 - Blended learning, e-portfolio (using Google sites); Day 2 – E-moderation in online forums and debates, Moocs, introduction to Moodle; Day 3 – Moodle (practice), making video using screen recorder, Day 4 – Project-based learning (Trello), Day 5 – Summary of the training. The participants realized the definition of blended/hybrid learning in practice: prepared homework in Google sites (e-portfolios), recorded videos using screen recorder (Ice-cream screen recorder), studied the Moodle environment and uploaded materials there, explored and got enrolled in MOOCs (Edx.org), registered in Trello, created a team, board and got connected to each other’s boards.

In the last session the participants summarized the training by making different presentations on importance of blended learning for different target groups: teachers, students, and admisnitrative staff. They also had to identify the obstacles that would prevent them from implementing blended learning in the classroom and their possible solutions.

In conclusion, the training “Blended/hybrid learning” was successfully conducted at TESAU and the participants’ highly positive evaluation substantiated the benefits that the training yielded. The teachers expressed their readiness and willingness to implement this new approach in their teaching.  The following recommendations were drawn:

• It is important to regularly conduct such training courses for teachers
• Training students in using the same software, e-platforms is essential. It will raise students’ motivation  and expectations towards teaching courses
• It would be helpful if a common virtual training area is created, where teachers can ask and answer question.

TT Course #1 “Video as a Tool for Teaching and Learning” 

Trainers: Associate Prof. Shalva Tchkadua (TeSaU Faculty of Social Sciences, Business and Law, Department of Philosophy), Assistant Prof. Ana Gigauri (TeSaU Faculty of Humanities, Department of Foreign Language and Literature)

In the frameworks of Erasmus+ PRINTeL project, a Teacher Training (TT) course “Video as a Tool for Teaching and Learning” was delivered by Shalva Tchkadua and Ana Gigauri at Iakob Gogebashvili Telavi State University (TeSaU). It took place from 1 February to 7 February 2019. The training lasted for five days (2 hours per day).

During the trainings 24 lecturers from TeSaU were introduced to the pros and cons of using videos for teaching and learning purposes and tips for making high/good quality videos. Trainers also discussed the applications/sites that give the opportunity to create video/audio recordings.

The training was delivered through:

• Lectures and instructions
• Individual exercises
• Questions and answers
• Presentations

Besides the individual assignments, at the end of the training the trainees presented their own videos and expressed their opinion about how the acquired skills can be applied in their courses/lectures.