TEACHERS' DIGITAL COMPETENCES BEFORE AND DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF SECURITY AND DEFENCE HIGHER EDUCATION

COVID-19 hastened a trend that was already ongoing before the pandemic outbreak: the progressively increasing use of distance and online teaching and learning, alongside with lectures and classes. The potentialities of online teaching allowed a didactic continuity that would have been impossible otherwise, and this approach is likely to be maintained even after COVID-19 related restrictions end. From these remarks, it immediately follows that it is of great importance that teachers, students and other personnel, such as technicians and program managers, possess digital skills devoted to education. In the context of security and defence, areas with a strong international vocation, these skills are even more valuable. This research investigates the impact of COVID-19 on education in these contexts: the changes caused by the pandemic, the teachers’ perception about some aspects of their job, such as the way they relate with students, and their ability to perform the same commitments in a different scenario. The research has been conducted based on the analysis of an online anonymous questionnaire with more than 500 responses. Results suggested the importance of the development of a training devoted to improving teachers’ digital skills, since they live frontline in education, and they have been directly impacted by disruptive changes. This study is part of the European project Digital Competences for Improving Security and Defence Education - DIGICODE. Pursuing to the Digital Education Action Plan, the project aims at improving education quality in security and defence, by means of digital tools in didactics, and the development of teachers’ professional competences. © Proceedings of the International Conference on E-Learning 2022, EL 2022 - Part of the Multi Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems 2022, MCCSIS 2022. All rights reserved.

Effectiveness of Automatic Formative Assessment for learning Mathematics in Higher Education

The health emergency due to COVID-19 has highlighted the need of new and flexible digital methodologies for learning and teaching Mathematics, which can support the individual student's needs and help shape education. In this paper, we propose to use Automatic Formative Assessment (AFA) activities designed according to an innovative model, framed on the theories of formative assessment and feedback. The model includes: availability of the activities and multiple attempts;algorithmic questions;open mathematical answers;contextualized tasks;immediate and interactive feedback. We analyzed an experience using AFA in a blended module in Mathematics for 96 first-year students in Biotechnology. We collected data from the platform on grades and attempts of AFA activities and cross-checked them with the final exam grades. The results show that the feedback gained from AFA helped students improve their performance and supported them in the exam preparation. In light of these results, we can conclude that similar activities can be an effective

Teachers' perception of higher education in a transition scenario

Distance and online teaching and learning have become common forms during the COVID-19 pandemic that forced the change of pedagogical and didactical approaches from residential to virtual and online settings. Given that these novel forms of teaching and learning possess advantages beyond the needs of this contingent situation, it is reasonable to suppose that they will be used also after the end of the pandemic. In light of this, it is important for all the stakeholders to possess digital skills fine-tuned to education, in order to teach and learn at best, even more so in international contexts such as those regarding security and defence. This is in accordance with the more general setting of future skills, that considers personal development related to what the world is requiring. In this paper, we investigate changes from before to during the pandemic in the perception of teachers working in programs or courses concerning security and defence on several aspects, such as the relation with their students and the time required to carry out various tasks. Our investigation, conducted through the analysis of an online anonymous questionnaire, triggers the suggestion that teachers need a specific training in digital skills, since they experience difficulties in relating with students and in performing tasks without excessive time consumption. Our analysis took place in accordance with international partners from the European project DIGICODE, which aims at improving the security and defence education quality by using digital tools in the didactic activities and by developing teachers' digital competencies. © 2022 IEEE.

LESSON LEARNED FROM AN EXPERIENCE OF TEACHING SUPPORT IN HIGHER EDUCATION FOR A DIGITAL TRANSITION IN THE NEW SCENARIO CREATED BY COVID-19

Teaching skills are fundamental for academic positions, which combine research and teaching activities. Thus, universities should look for candidates with excellent research records and teaching experience or skills;another strategy is the training of teaching staff. On the other hand, when dealing with already in-service teachers, the challenges for universities are completely different and it is often difficult to cope with digital technologies for education. Moreover, roles in the education process assume different perspectives. This is the background of this research, which investigates the measures adopted at the University of Turin to deal with the scenario of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent periods. 30 young graduates halfway between students and teachers, one per university department, support teachers and the digital transition. Their role ranges from the didactical support (online teaching methodologies and the use of the Learning Management System) to the preparation, delivery, and monitoring of online assessment and exams. These young assistants received a grant for their role and proper training over all these topics and other themes related to online education, such as accessibility, copyright, video editing. At the start of the second semester, a questionnaire was delivered to these grant holders to receive feedback on their activity during the first semester and exam period. We collected 26 answers from the questionnaire. Results show that, among the different roles, they were more involved with online examinations and students' support, while collaborating more with professors and with their peers. Most of these grant holders would like to participate again in such an experience, it being useful for their future career, the teachers of the future. © 2021 Virtual Simulation Innovation Workshop, SIW 2021. All rights reserved.

Mathematics in higher education: A transition from blended to online learning in pandemic times

The outbreak of a pandemic in the middle of the academic year unavoidably brought severe consequences to universities' educational organizations, since it disrupted timetables and programs that are usually designed months in advance. With millions of students around the world unable to physically attend lectures and other activities at universities, distance learning soon became a pivotal solution to allow studying from home. On the other hand, online resources as a complement or alternative to physical attendance have been part of the academic context for more than a decade. Still, they were usually not intended for replacing in-person didactics in an emergency setting. In this paper, we consider a module in Linear Algebra and Geometry at the University of Turin. The module was originally intended as blended, with lessons and activities in presence supported by asynchronous remote activities, but it had to be redesigned as purely online a few weeks after the beginning of the semester. The use of a Digital Learning Environment, with technologies and methodologies, which already proved crucial in a blended setting, was fundamental in giving an immediate response while transitioning to distance during these pandemic times. We discuss this transition using students' answers to two questionnaires and through the analysis of students' activities in relation to their exam results. The outcomes are generally positive, highlighting confidence in the course and the students' preparation, even in such a challenging context. © 2021 IEEE.

Maple for Distance Education in Secondary Schools During the COVID-19 Emergency

Many educational institutions have been closed to contain the spread of COVID-19 and teachers took action to continue education through remote learning with the use of technologies. The context of this research is a community of Italian STEM teachers from different secondary schools, within the Ministerial Project PP&S-Problem Posing and Solving. The project involves the use of a Digital Learning Environment (DLE), a Moodle platform integrated with Maple. The research question is: what kind of support can Maple integrated in a DLE give for Distance Education? To answer this question, we considered teachers who used Maple through the DLE during this school year. We carried out an analysis on 74 courses to understand how much they used this type of resource;for what purpose it was used;and whether this type of resource is related to the participation of the students in the course. Analysis shows that there are teachers who have conducted the entire course with this teaching material. They have used Maple in a meaningful way to propose problem-solving activities, theoretical explanations, interactive resources, explanation of Maple commands and text of exercises and resolution. Representative examples of each category are shown. Student views of worksheets increase when teachers use at least three categories of worksheets within a course. In particular, student participation increases when using the problem solving methodology. This type of resources is very effective for online teaching, where immediate feedback and interactivity are essential to involve students more. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Teacher support in COVID-19 pandemic to develop blended learning disruptive models in higher education

Covid-19 pandemic has created significant changes in higher education institutions. After university lockdown, a transition from face-to-face learning to distance learning was unavoidable and several teachers and students had to approach new technologies. The DELTA (Digital Education for Learning and Teaching Advances) Research Group provided support to six degree programs at the University of Turin: each professor received specific trainings and the group constantly helped and checked the implementation of the online courses. In this paper the support provided during the emergency period has been analysed in order to evaluate the improvements in teaching methodologies, and to assess professors' transition to future blended learning disruptive models. The results show an important change in methodology for some courses, aiming at improving the online learning processes. The research data analysis and qualitative study about the usage of the Digital Learning Environment describe the courses' disruptive models. They are useful to understand which elements of the emergency response turned out to be positive and which ones to be unfavourable, in order to be able to redesign post-Covid higher education. © 2020 17th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age, CELDA 2020. All rights reserved.