In the frameworks of Erasmus+ PRINTeL project in February-March, 2019 a Teacher Training (TT) Course directed at retraining NPUA teaching staff members is planned to take place at National Polytechnic University of Armenia (NPUA).

The trainers of the TT Course who passed 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 prepared courses on teaching and learning in innovative methods for NPUA teachers and have programmed to share with their colleague teachers all the experience they have previously gained in the course of the trainings at the abovementioned universities. 

The TT courses are going to be delivered by the 11 ToT courses participants from NPUA. It is envisaged that up to 110 NPUA teaching staff members will pass the TT course.  

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

TT Course #11 "Active Learning in the Flipped Classroom"

Trainer: Assistant Professor Vahram Muradyan (NPUA Gyumri Branch, Faculty of Energoenergetics, Informationand Automation Systems)

A 5-day training course entited “Active learning in Flipped classroom” was delivered to more than a dozen of teachers from NPUA Gyumri campus department of Mechanics and Graphics, Physics and Mathematics, Electroenergetics, Information and Automation Systems, Branchy Economics and Management, Machine-building and Transport Systems, Textile and Light Industry. The program and the schedule of the course together with reading materials and a guide to key concepts of active learning and flipped classroom had been provided them well beforehand. Results and impacts of the course were discussed after each day’s session.

1st day: PRINTeL project, its aims and intended outcomes were briefly presented to the participants. The structure, schedule, aims and outcomes also were briefly presented and discussed. The concept of active learning was introduced and its meaning was discussed in the context of achievement of higher order outcomes in Bloom’s taxonomy. Padlet toolkit was presented and a group exercise on active learning experience and future plans was completed. The participants read about a number of active learning techniques and methods making notes about whether they fully or partly use them or do not use yet but wish to use. Then those methods and techniques were classified according to their complexity level (both in methodological and in high technological means) on active learning grids in group works. The results of group works were presented by the participants.

2nd day: The model “Flipped Classroom” was presented and discussed. A group exercise on what students do before, during and after classes using Padlet toolkit was completed. An exercise using Mentimeter also was completed. Then the participants were taught to create a video material converting their PPT lectures into video with their voice recorded.

3rd day: Some of the participants were happy to announce that they already used some active learning methods and techniques. Absence of corresponding equipment and traditional form of classroom design were counted as major problems. The University College London ABC learning design was introduced and a long lasting workshop was completed. On a pair basis the participants mapped their teaching course syllabi with the help of the provided learning types (acquisition, discussion, investigation, collaboration, practice and production) and activities.

4th day: The concept of the Linkoping University DEF course development lab was introduced and discussed. The participants redesigned parts of their course syllabi. The trainer circulated and provided methodological assistance. The participants were assigned to prepare PPT presentations on their redesigned parts of course syllabi.

5th day: The redesigned parts of course syllabi were presented, discussed and amended.

TT Course #10 “Active Learning in the Flipped Classroom”

Trainer: Associate professor, PhD Meri Ghazaryan (NPUA, Institute of Energy and Electrical Engineering, Chief of Chair of Thermal Power Engineering and Environmental Protection)

Within the framework of the Erasmus + PRINTeL project, the representatives of the academic teaching staff of the Institute of Energy and Electrical Engineering Cheirs participated in the TT Course on "Active Learning in the Flipped Classroom" (March 11-25).

The purpose of this course was to figure out the basic concept of active learning and to point out the main strategies and methods of active learning and principles of applying Flipped Classroom as an approach in Active learning.

Training consisted in the presentation of key materials, providing supporting links and holding discussions with the duration of 8 hours and presenting current and final results by trainees and summarizing the course with the duration of 2 hours.

The 1st day of the training includes the presentation of the re-training purpose and the timetable, the active learning (AL) methodology, the possibilities of increasing the effectiveness of the teaching process by using AL, analyzing the aim and objectives of student-centered learning within the framework of Bloom Taxonomy, active learning methods, the advantages and disadvantages of their application.

The second day of the course included studying some ICT tools and online systems/programmes used in the active learning process. In particular the TAT-SAT: self-assessment tool, Mentimeter: interactive presentations tool, Padlet: "brainstorming" tool, and otherswere partially used during the training along with the discussion of the results.

On the third day of the training, the "Flipped Classroom" method was considered within the framework of Bloom Taxonomy and Student-centered Learning. Four Principles of the "Flipped Classroom" and 5 Key Steps of its implementation were presented, together with Training/Module schedule by using of "Flipped Classroom" methodology (the example of Lynchoping University). Some ICT tools for organizing the training process, such as Lightboard, Explain everything, and the Powerpoint video presentations were also introdueced during the training course. The trainees prepared and then submitted a presentation with the help of Power Point, either individually or in groups (by chairs), for 7 to 10 minutes, by using the Recording Narration function or separate slide audio recording.

The 4th day of the course was devoted to thediscussion of ABC learning developing method (Arena Blended Connected Learning Design), its application in other countries, ABC learning design cards, info and graphs sheet, storybouard sheet, design plan and the steps for developing any course/module.

On the 5th day of the training a course/module was designed by using the ABC method with the principle of group-work (per chair). Presentation, discussion, and final analysis of the training results were summarized at the end of the training course.

As a result of the training, the audience will be capable to:

• compare and contrast/combine Active Learning and Flipped Classroom with Traditional models,
• define/understand the advantages and limitations of AL&FC,
• enhance pedagogic-digital competences,
• design or redesign of own courses.

TT Course #9 “Video as a Teaching and Learning Tool for Teachers and Students”

Trainer: Assistant Professor Armen Amirjanyan (NPUA, Chair of Economics and Transportation, Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Transportation Systems and Design)

Within ERASMUS + PRINTEL project lectures and practical classes on “Video as a Teaching and Learning Tool for Teachers and Students” were conducted at National Polytechnic University of Armenia starting from March 11 to March 25. The total number of attenders was 11.

The purpose of this teacher training (TT) course was to provide new approaches in making and conducting lectures by means of video recording, the role and benefits of video lecturing, the methodology how to make it as well as to develop skills for making their own video lectures through various tools.

The training included presentations with video applications, demonstrations, discussions, practical applications.

Participants reflected and discussed the role, different implications and challenges of using video in teaching and learning processes as well as were presented with tools that would contribute for the enhancement of their own training video materials.

The techniques and methodology of video recording and editing has been presented to the participants. Practical classes of video editing have been conducted using the tools of Adobe Premier Pro software. There were represented the advantages of Panopto and Explain Everything programmes as well as recording opportunities of Power Point programme.

At the end of the training course all attenders successfully made and presented their own short video training materials.

TT Course #8 “E-content recording. Interactive Classroom: Video as a tool for flipped learning”

Trainer: Lecturer Ella Hovhannisyan (IICTE Institute, Chair of Information Security and Software Engineering)

The purpose of this teacher training course was to provide teachers with a specific expertise in e-content recording methodologies along with innovative information technology tools and software. During five-day training 11 participants were trained. Trainings days were held on 12 March - 26 March 2019.

In the course of the trainings the usefulness and the applicability of the video in the context of the classroom, the advantages and disadvantages of video lectures, the useful of videos in Video Lecture Capture and in flipped classrooms were discussed with practical examples. The participants learned the role and effectiveness of interactive learning in teaching and got acquainted with the innovative teaching and learning methods.

The course explored the using videos in flipped classrooms. Furthermore, a methodology to produce small videos as support of classes or to be used in a flipped classroom context, applied in the course. The participants learned a simple Video Lecture Capture System, by using MS Power point and Movie Maker.

As a result of this training participants made:

• Practical examples of Video Lecture Capture, by using the MS Power Point.
• Practical examples of editing Video, by using the Movie Maker.

TT Course #7 “Active Learning and ICT-Enhanced Teaching: M-learning and Gamification”

Trainer: Hasmik Hovhannisyan (Senior specialist, NPUA Centre for Continuing Education and Lecturers Professional Development)

Within the framework of the “Erasmus+ PRINTeL” project 11 lecturers/professors from NPUA Faculty of Chemical Technology and Environmental Engineering, attended the training course on “Active Learning and ICT-enhanced teaching: M-learning and gamification” starting from March 13-27, 2019.

Participants were introduced to the role and meaning of active learning, goals and capabilities, methods and ways of their application, as well as gamification and the application of mobile devices in the active learning process.

Within the framework of the training, gamification of learning process, the elements of gamification, types of players, gamification methods and possible options in the learning process were actively discussed, and as well as the use of mobile devices to motivate students and ensure their active involvement in the learning process.

During the five-day training course, a number of innovative tools such as Slido, Mentimeter, Kahoot, Adobe Spark Video, QR code techniques of creating were presented to the participants and their advantages and limitations were discussed as well.

Participants had the opportunity to work independently using presented tools and developing quizzes and tests with Slido, Mentimeter, Kahoot, as well as preparing various QR codes.

At the end of the training the participants presented a demonstration on their own gamification teaching strategy and application of mobile technologies.

Active participation and involvement of the teachers in the training shows that these innovative methods will be useful and applicable in their further educational process as well.

TT Course #6 “Active Learning and ICT-Enhanced Teaching: M-learning and Gamification”

Trainer: Armen Hovhannisyan (Doctor of Sciences, Professor, Head of Mining and Metallurgy Chair, Faculty of Mining and Metallurgy)

A training course on “Active Learning and ICT-enhanced teaching: M-learning and gamification” was held at NPUA faculty of Mining and Metallurgy from March 12 to 26, 2019, by Armen Hovhannisyan, participant of "Erasmus+PRINTeL" project. The training was attended by 11 lecturers/professors representing all chairs of NPUA faculty of Mining and Metallurgy.

The participants were introduced to the role and importance of active learning, goals and opportunities, methods and ways of their application, as well as gamification and the application of mobile devices in the active learning process.

During the training, the following issues were discussed: gamification of learning process, the elements of gamification, types of players, gamification methods in the learning process, the use of mobile devices for students’ motivation and for ensuring their active involvement in the learning process as well.

Within the framework of the training, a number of innovative tools such as Slido, Mentimeter, Kahoot, Adobe Spark Video, QR code techniques of creating were presented to the participants and their advantages and limitations were discussed as well.

Training participants had the opportunity to work independently using presented tools and developing quizzes and tests with Slido, Mentimeter, Kahoot, as well as preparing QR codes.

At the end of the training the participants presented a demonstration on their own gamification teaching strategy and application of mobile technologies.

Active participation and feedback of the teachers in the training shows that these innovative methods will be useful and applicable in their further teaching process.

TT Course #5 “Blended Learning and Teaching”

Trainer: Lecturer, Kristina Khudaverdyan (NPUA, Institute of Information and Telecommunication Technologies and Electronics, Chair of Information Security and Software Development)

A ten-hour Teacher Training course entitled “Blended Learning and Teaching”, conducted by Kristina Khudaverdyan (participant of ERASMUS+ PRINTeL Project), took place on 12 - 26 March 2019 at NPUA.

The main purpose of this training course was to provide lecturers with a specific expertise in blended learning and teaching, based on the using of the innovative methods of e-learning, information technology and related software which was obtained at the Training of Trainers Course at FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences in Graz, Austria.

During the five days of the course the participants were introduced with fundamentals of e-learning, basic concepts, online learning approaches, project-based learning, etc. The methodology of “Hybrid/Blended Teaching and Learning” implies replenishment of traditional teaching with innovative methods and technologies of electronic learning, as well as implementation of virtual classrooms and online electronic platforms. The lecturers were interested in the opportunity of implementing blended learning because it can promote the development of learners' motivation, reflexivity and the involvement of the learners' in the creative process of learning.

The theory was followed by practical assignments, lecturers performed different tasks. At the end of each day, there was a daily feedback for knowing about the participants’ views about the new approaches, what they had learnt. Lecturers were involved in teamwork for discussing their individual experiences. Participants practised using online tools for project collaboration to put the theory of project-based learning into practice in the academic environment and also they were gained experience in online environment for organizing lectures, they also learnt how to do practical and laboratory work by using LMS systems.

At the end of the training, there was a sum-up of the course, which was aimed at estimating the knowledge and the understanding of the participants about the topics discussed during the training.

TT Course #4 “Blended Learning and Teaching”

Trainer: Lecturer, Levon Kirakosyan, Ph.D. (Institute of Information and Telecommunication Technologies and Electronics, Chair of Computer Systems and Networks)

A ten-hour Teacher Training course entitled “Blended Learning and Teaching”, conducted by Levon Kirakosyan (participant of ERASMUS+ PRINTeL Project), took place on 13 - 27 March 2019 at NPUA.

The purpose of the course was to introduce to the NPUA faculty some new innovative teaching methods, which will ensure the quality of teaching, as well as the increase in student engagement. The experience was gained during the training course for lecturers at the Yoanné University of Applied Sciences in the Austrian city of Graz.

The five-day training sessions featured a range of electronic tools aimed at more effective organization and oversight of the teaching process. The tools are as follows: Microsoft Office 365, G-Suite for Education and Trello. With the use of the tools, lecturers will be able to keep in contact with each student through the electronic mailbox provided by the university, electronically appoint meetings with other lecturers or students who will be able to respond electronically to the offer. In addition, the G-Suite for Education toolkit was introduced to the lecturers, which will provide a new and flexible way of presenting the curriculum, which in its turn will increase student engagement. The trainee professors expressed their desire to use the LMS toolkits, and during the course of the trainings, they developed the subjects they teach in the G-Suite for Education system.

Subsequently, Trello system was introduced, which is designed for managing the course as a project. During the training, various workshops were carried out and all the trained lecturers agreed that the system could be successfully applied for work with separate groups of students, as well as for managing students’ theses.

At the end of the training, a summary of the material was presented to assess the knowledge and willingness of the participants to reflect upon the topics discussed during the training.

TT Course #3 “Active Learning: Getting Students to Work and Think in the Classroom”

Trainer: Associated Professor Yeghisabet Alaverdyan (NPUA, Institution of Information and Communication Technologies and Electronics, Chair of Information Security and Software Engineering)

Within the framework of the Erasmus + PRINTeL project, the representatives of the academic teaching staff of the faculty of Communication Systems and Radio Engineering participated in the TT Course on "Active Learning: Getting Students to Work and Think in the Classroom:" (March 15-29).

In the course of the training, the participants were introduced to the innovative pedagogical methodologies, techniques and special tools used to activate the processes of teaching and learning. TPACK and ADDIE models in Instructional design were actively discussed and adopted by the academic staff. A SWOT analysis aimed at revelation of opportunities and obstacles to embed active learning has been conducted. Appropriate digital software and interactive cloud tools were demonstrated, the use of which made the training more inspiring and relevant for the audience.

All the training participants agreed on the integration of modern technologies into teaching processes in order to ensure the students’ competitiveness. Also, reinforcement of classrooms with response systems and interactive cloud tools were stated to be the necessary preconditions for implementing active learning.

TT Course #2 “Teaching and Learning Innovative Approaches”

Trainer: Assist. Prof. Arusyak Abrahamyan (NPUA, Faculty of Economics And Management, Department of Economics and Management)

An interactive ten-hour TOT on “Teaching and Learning Innovative Approaches”, was implemented by Arusyak Abrahamyan (Assistant Professor at the National polytechnic University of Armenia, the faculty of Economics and Management). A group of professors of the department of Economics and Management and the Language Scientific Center of NPUA was actively involved in blended-learning format training course organized in period of 12-26 March, 2019.

The main objective of the training was to acquaint target group with innovative approaches, models and tools of learning and teaching based on the experience of EU developed countries, especially, taking into consideration the example and experience of KU Leuven, Belgium. The training provided and covered both theoretical and practical aspects of innovative teaching and learning technologies.

Firstly, the new approaches towards the innovative pedagogy, as well as innovative competencies and innovative environment were presented. The questions of ADDIE instructional design methodology and clear methods of formulation of learning goals and outcomes were provided and discussed in details on the basis of Bloom’s taxonomy.

During the five days’ meetings the participants also discussed the features of active, collaborative, cooperative and flipped forms of learning, the advantages and disadvantages of each type for the concrete educational environment. In parallel with theoretical activities, several e-tools for active learning /Mentimeter, Mindmeister etc./, online content development /exeLearning/, online assignments /Hot Potatoes, iSpring, etc./ and learning management /Moodle/ were applied in practice, also the Galicaster video capturing system was approbated by the trained group.

At the end of the training the participants designed their online environment on Moodle platform and started the elaboration of their online pilot courses. All the participants expressed their willingness to continue the implementation and deepen the knowledge and experience obtained during the training.

TT Course #1 “Teaching and Learning Inovative Approaches”

Trainer: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Arman Arakelyan (NPUA Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Physics, Generalized mathematical education chair)

The five-day training course at NPUA High School titled “Teaching and Learning Inovative Approaches” on March 13-27, 2019, brought together 12 various lecturers specializing in different fields – mathematics, physics, languages, social sciences etc.

During the training, participants were introduced to innovative approaches, models and tools of learning and teaching with a special focus on Active and Blended Learning.

Throughout the training course the theory was coupled with practical assignments. Certain active learning tools were introduced to put the theory into practice in the academic environment.

A particular attention was paid to the application of ICT tools in the educational process (in the context of blended learning): selection and usage of online information resources, educational platforms (Moodle, Google Classroom) online presentations, survey questionnaires, mind-mapping and evaluation tools.

One of the key parts of the training was introduction of the instructional design ADDIE model and its application to the design and development of the preliminary selected Courses of participants.

Overall the training has received positive feedback from the participants and the group decided to meet next time at the end of April to share experience about applying knowledge received in the course of the training.

To find out more about the TT courses held at NPUA, please refer below:

http://www.itacademy.am/printel/project_news_inhouseTT.html