Project Description

The crisis related to the COVID-19 pandemic brought organizational and educational challenges to universities across Europe. All educational units were forced to reorganize the educational process based on direct interaction and adjust it almost immediately to the working conditions and remote education. How do they handle it? Research conducted by the project partners among the academic community after the first semester of distance learning showed that while this process ran quite smoothly in terms of organization, the following questions “How to motivate students on the Internet? How to encourage online cooperation? How to create good online courses?” – remained open. Lack of direct contact with the teacher and the group, no direct help from the teacher, no motivation to actively participate in classes, and difficulty in building trust between the teacher and the student – these were the basic challenges indicated by the respondents. It was clear that the educational aspects of distance learning were still experimental.

How to meet these challenges?

Based on the partners’ extensive experience in effectively building trust through the use of coaching in the educational process, a method of distance coaching (e-coaching) was created. This method allowed students to “activate” (inclusive education) and personalize the learning process. Coaching is a method of shaping skills based on the art of asking questions that mobilize self-analysis, action, and searching for knowledge. While coaching itself is a well-known and well-defined method, there was no good description and methodology for its application in distance and tertiary education through interdisciplinary or science courses. The project defined the role of a teacher who is not in the real place but establishes a distance relationship without seeing the students, their movements, and reactions. The method of communication between the teacher and the student was also determined. The new method aimed to improve the quality of distance teaching and learning, motivate students to learn, and increase satisfaction with the results achieved.

The effects of the project implementation were:

• Innovative teaching methodology for distance learning (E-Coach Methodology), which created the basis for building trust between the parties to the educational process.
• Integrated e-learning platform on the use of e-coaching methodology, including a teacher activation program.
• Pilot examples of e-coaching courses, i.e., a total of 12 scenarios of Mathematical Analysis, Algebra, Programming, and Entrepreneurship using the innovative e-coaching methodology dedicated to higher education institutions.