Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Up2U (Up to University - Bridging the gap between schools and universities through informal education)
Berichtszeitraum: 2018-07-01 bis 2020-05-31
The main objective of Up2U was to bridge the gap between secondary schools and university. This has determined the activities leading towards the major results and achievements.
Up2U activities were split into different thematic areas. Two major areas in which Up2U provided results were defined: pedagogy and technology. Different work packages worked in each of these areas for providing results to the education community.
Up2U worked on the pedagogy aspects to provide solutions for students, including critical thinking and project-based techniques. It focused strongly on the pilot activities to execute all learning technologies based on the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) methodology, including teachers’ and students’ participation and feedback for improvements. The technology based on the next-generation digital learning environment (NGDLE), Up2U built more opportunities and flexible functionality supporting students in bridging the gap from school to university. During the last period of the project, when COVID-19 broke out, Up2U created, and made freely available openUp2U, which is a light version of the initial architecture to support online education.
Up2U activities were split into different thematic areas. Two major areas in which Up2U provided results were defined: pedagogy and technology. Different work packages worked in each of these areas for providing results to the education community.
Up2U worked on the pedagogy aspects to provide solutions for students, including critical thinking and project-based techniques. It focused strongly on the pilot activities to execute all learning technologies based on the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) methodology, including teachers’ and students’ participation and feedback for improvements. The technology based on the next-generation digital learning environment (NGDLE), Up2U built more opportunities and flexible functionality supporting students in bridging the gap from school to university. During the last period of the project, when COVID-19 broke out, Up2U created, and made freely available openUp2U, which is a light version of the initial architecture to support online education.
The following work have been performed between 1 September 2017 and 31 May 2020:
WP 1: WP1 added a new process of peer reviews and technical authors. This improved oversight and control and the quality of deliverables. We organised 2 General Assembly meetings, 3 Board meetings and 1 All hands meeting. The Project Coordination team was extended with a technological and pedagogical expert and had over 70 meetings and 7 webinars. We established relationships with the European Schoolnet and European Parents Association, UNESCO Global Education Coalition. EC liaison was more structured with monthly reporting.
WP 2: D2.2 Dissemination and Outreach Report Year 1, D2.3 Dissemination and Outreach Report Year 2 submitted. D2.4 Final Dissemination and Outreach Summary submitted. WP2 deliverables provided comprehensive reports on all activities relating to dissemination and outreach, trainings. A motion graphic video was created. The project presented, organised sessions and workshops at 36 international and national educational events. IT security flyers, video, webinars, campaign was created for students and teachers.
WP 3: D3.5 Final Cloud Platform Overview submitted. A Content Delivery Network (CDN) was developed. A survey with 26 NRENs was conducted and technical scenarios presented. Federated Cloud Storage and Sharing, tests were finalised, further development of Open Cloud Mesh (OCM). Interoperability link between ownCloud and CERNBox achieved. New eduOER home page was launched. DSpace xAPI integration with Learning Record Store. Videotorium was added to the eduOER platform. Monitored and maintained the project’s virtual machines (VMs). Repositories expanded with 67 online educational repositories, 72,000 learning objects (LOs). User guides on all WP3-related tools created.
WP 4: The Application Toolbox was improved. D4.2 Enhanced Application Toolbox and Technical Specifications submitted. D4.3 Tool Integration Report submitted, it described multiple learning scenarios implemented in the pilots and how they were supported by the Up2U technologies. It described the architecture for the openUp2U instance.
WP 5: D5.2 Interaction Model Designs, D5.4 Learning Community Interactions Report submitted. D5.5 Summary of Learning Scenarios, Pedagogical Aspects and Social Innovation submitted. WP5 provided training materials and models for collecting and analysing data. WP5 created the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) modules. WP5 developed and organised an online course, Get Started!. WP5 analysed the project goals, set the pedagogical methodology and designed the evaluation plan. The data was analysed and disseminated.
WP 6: WP6 worked on security courses and on GDPR issues. D6.2 Security, Privacy and Identity Roadmap submitted. D6.3 Assessment of the Roadmap Adoption in the Project submitted. Joint Controllers Agreement (JCA) between all of the consortium partners was signed. A Privacy Notice was created and translated. WP6 created IT security flyers: 6 guidelines on information security checks, measures and management in schools. WP6 prepared cyber security videos.
WP 7: D7.2 Report on the First Release and Demonstration of Scalable Pilot Services and D7.3 Report on the Large-scale Pilot Services, Essential Features and their Improvements submitted. D7.4 Final Demonstration and Report on Large-scale Pilots submitted. WP7 worked on the execution of the pilots and collected feedback and data from pilots. Pilot countries were Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Slovenia. WP7 has issued invitations to over 11,000 high schools in 9 European countries, 2,300 teachers from 984 schools participated in the Up2U CPD. Teachers from 237 schools, 72,000 students worked in Up2U. Pilots provided feedback on the platform improvements.
WP 8: D8.4 Final Report on Up2U Sustainability and Exploitation submitted. The main aim of WP8 is to ensure that Up2U will continue to exist after the project lifetime and that each partner will exploit the project results appropriately, according to the objectives of the project.
Subject Matter Committee: advised the pedagogical team and collaborated with them for a better design, execution and evaluation of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) methodology.
WP 1: WP1 added a new process of peer reviews and technical authors. This improved oversight and control and the quality of deliverables. We organised 2 General Assembly meetings, 3 Board meetings and 1 All hands meeting. The Project Coordination team was extended with a technological and pedagogical expert and had over 70 meetings and 7 webinars. We established relationships with the European Schoolnet and European Parents Association, UNESCO Global Education Coalition. EC liaison was more structured with monthly reporting.
WP 2: D2.2 Dissemination and Outreach Report Year 1, D2.3 Dissemination and Outreach Report Year 2 submitted. D2.4 Final Dissemination and Outreach Summary submitted. WP2 deliverables provided comprehensive reports on all activities relating to dissemination and outreach, trainings. A motion graphic video was created. The project presented, organised sessions and workshops at 36 international and national educational events. IT security flyers, video, webinars, campaign was created for students and teachers.
WP 3: D3.5 Final Cloud Platform Overview submitted. A Content Delivery Network (CDN) was developed. A survey with 26 NRENs was conducted and technical scenarios presented. Federated Cloud Storage and Sharing, tests were finalised, further development of Open Cloud Mesh (OCM). Interoperability link between ownCloud and CERNBox achieved. New eduOER home page was launched. DSpace xAPI integration with Learning Record Store. Videotorium was added to the eduOER platform. Monitored and maintained the project’s virtual machines (VMs). Repositories expanded with 67 online educational repositories, 72,000 learning objects (LOs). User guides on all WP3-related tools created.
WP 4: The Application Toolbox was improved. D4.2 Enhanced Application Toolbox and Technical Specifications submitted. D4.3 Tool Integration Report submitted, it described multiple learning scenarios implemented in the pilots and how they were supported by the Up2U technologies. It described the architecture for the openUp2U instance.
WP 5: D5.2 Interaction Model Designs, D5.4 Learning Community Interactions Report submitted. D5.5 Summary of Learning Scenarios, Pedagogical Aspects and Social Innovation submitted. WP5 provided training materials and models for collecting and analysing data. WP5 created the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) modules. WP5 developed and organised an online course, Get Started!. WP5 analysed the project goals, set the pedagogical methodology and designed the evaluation plan. The data was analysed and disseminated.
WP 6: WP6 worked on security courses and on GDPR issues. D6.2 Security, Privacy and Identity Roadmap submitted. D6.3 Assessment of the Roadmap Adoption in the Project submitted. Joint Controllers Agreement (JCA) between all of the consortium partners was signed. A Privacy Notice was created and translated. WP6 created IT security flyers: 6 guidelines on information security checks, measures and management in schools. WP6 prepared cyber security videos.
WP 7: D7.2 Report on the First Release and Demonstration of Scalable Pilot Services and D7.3 Report on the Large-scale Pilot Services, Essential Features and their Improvements submitted. D7.4 Final Demonstration and Report on Large-scale Pilots submitted. WP7 worked on the execution of the pilots and collected feedback and data from pilots. Pilot countries were Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Slovenia. WP7 has issued invitations to over 11,000 high schools in 9 European countries, 2,300 teachers from 984 schools participated in the Up2U CPD. Teachers from 237 schools, 72,000 students worked in Up2U. Pilots provided feedback on the platform improvements.
WP 8: D8.4 Final Report on Up2U Sustainability and Exploitation submitted. The main aim of WP8 is to ensure that Up2U will continue to exist after the project lifetime and that each partner will exploit the project results appropriately, according to the objectives of the project.
Subject Matter Committee: advised the pedagogical team and collaborated with them for a better design, execution and evaluation of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) methodology.
Up2U project aimed to build and train the learning community. Pedagogy was a major focus area in the pilot activities.
The project made significant progress on the participation of users (schools and teachers) in the CPD activities and evaluation.
• 11,000 invitations were sent to high schools in 9 countries.
• 2,300 teachers from 984 schools participated in CPD.
• 72,000 students participated in CPD.
• All pilot partners completed at least one CPD Module 1.
• 2,454 students received training on how to produce their own video, following specific learning strategies.
• 880 teachers answered both the pre- and post-course surveys.
• 877 students answered both the pre- and post-course surveys.
Learning analytics and the different sources of data that were used in the project:
• Tracking of the Up2U services by using eXperience API (xAPI) and Matomo.
• Learning analytics and other tools for data analysis (Jupyter Notebooks)
• Experimental usage of language analysis to integrate learning analytics.
The pedagogical WP worked on courses development, they are now available in the Up2U central instance. Examples:
• Cybersecurity
• Open educational resources (OER)
• Learning analytics
Up2U consortium worked on the University as a Hub (U-HUB) initiative.
The project made significant progress on the participation of users (schools and teachers) in the CPD activities and evaluation.
• 11,000 invitations were sent to high schools in 9 countries.
• 2,300 teachers from 984 schools participated in CPD.
• 72,000 students participated in CPD.
• All pilot partners completed at least one CPD Module 1.
• 2,454 students received training on how to produce their own video, following specific learning strategies.
• 880 teachers answered both the pre- and post-course surveys.
• 877 students answered both the pre- and post-course surveys.
Learning analytics and the different sources of data that were used in the project:
• Tracking of the Up2U services by using eXperience API (xAPI) and Matomo.
• Learning analytics and other tools for data analysis (Jupyter Notebooks)
• Experimental usage of language analysis to integrate learning analytics.
The pedagogical WP worked on courses development, they are now available in the Up2U central instance. Examples:
• Cybersecurity
• Open educational resources (OER)
• Learning analytics
Up2U consortium worked on the University as a Hub (U-HUB) initiative.