"<< Objectives >>The purpose of this project is to develop and implement an innovative approach to teaching STEM subjects in which teacher develops skills related to STEM subjects in non-technical majors by changing the model of teaching model: 1--profiling STEM subjects for a given major and actual labor market requirements, in order to demonstrating the practical utility of the skills and knowledge taught in STEM subjects; 2. Transforming the forms of classes to a project model.<< Implementation >>The project intends to implement the following work packages:1. Project management2. Development and testing of the ""Teach-BEASTs"" approach 3. Development, implementation and testing of the ""DT meets STEM"" approach 4. Dissemination of project results in the community<< Results >>The project will develop the following results:Instructors Manual for Teach-BEASTs Approach - a methodological manualProfessional Awareness Pills - stimulating students' reflection on the discussed contents Program for ""Teach-BEASTs"" training and ""DT meets STEM"" training Instructors Manual for ""DT meets STEM"" Approach - methodological manualModel for reference -DT meets STEM""Transformed subject from STEM group"

Physiotherapists have a unique and expanding role in global health work due to their broad scope of practice. Besides providing direct patient care, pysiotherapists act as educators for example in prevention and management of several diseases and life-style-related conditions, injury prevention, and infection control. This role is related to delivering health information and instructions to clients/patients, which requires extensive communication and suitable communication skills. As a result of the growing sociodemographic changes in Europe, physiotherapists face the challenge to provide care to vulnerable client groups, such as older people, persons with lower socioeconomic status, individuals with migration background and/or language difficulties, and with chronic diseases. These client groups typically show decreased knowledge and motivation to access, understand, and apply health information for taking adequate decisions concerning their own health – a state defined as Health Literacy. Inadequate to problematic health literacy (HL) has been reported in nearly 45% of the European citizens and has been linked to reduced usage of health care services, increased risk of hospitalization and to higher healthcare costs.The client groups with lower HL require individual therapeutic and communication approach provided by physiotherapists. To respond to these requirements, physiotherapists need to acquire solid HL competencies during their higher education. The bachelor physiotherapy (PT) programs in most EU member states do not adequately consider the role of the physiotherapist as a patient educator. The HL competencies offered in the PT study programs are insufficient to respond to the clients’ needs. The demand for HL competencies will increase further along with the growing number of the elderly population, chronic disease patients and people with migration background. The project, “Health Literacy in Physiotherapy Education” (HELPE) addresses the health literacy in the PT education. The objective is to develop the HL competencies of bachelor physiotherapy students in the partner higher education institutions (HEIs), adequately adapted to the needs of the various client groups. A further aim is to enable the PT students to understand their own role and responsibility as patient educator and to increase the HL understanding among students, educational and PT professionals and clients. This can be achieved by developing shared knowledge of HL competencies and continuous curriculum development work. First, partners develop a HL Framework based on the current state of the art to ensure high standard scientific background for the project outcomes. Second, integrating the specific expertise of participating HEIs, facilitates partners to develop teaching and training contents. These HL contents will be integrated in the PT courses of each partner institution. Third, partners evaluate and disseminate the developed knowledge and results into a HL Handbook suitable for use by the target groups. To achieve the defined objectives, an intensive cooperation is planned with the consortium of 5 HEIs: University of Applied Sciences FH-JOANNEUM Graz (AT); University for Health Studies Bochum (hsg, DE); University Ramon Llull Fundacio Barcelone (SP); HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht (NL) and JAMK University of Applied Sciences (FIN). PT educators with relevant expertise and PT students with interest in the topic from these institutions will be involved. In addition, PT professionals and selected clients from each partner country will participate in the project.The project offers an opportunity to the educational and PT professionals and to students to cooperate transnationally utilizing co-design, co-creation and digital methods. Joint activities include: research and lecturing, performing training scenarios, developing educational video materials, and course contents on HL, teaching and training possibilities for students and teaching staff.The HELPE project focuses on the following target groups: PT teachers to improve their didactic and research excellence; PT and other health profession students to improve their HL competencies and thus increase their professional qualifications; clients with low HL to improve their HL and digital HL; PT professionals and other health professionals to share best practises; health care organisations to acquire novel working methods to enhance health care quality; health profession higher education sector to improve the education excellence.Partners ensure sustainability, transfer and impact of the project results primarily by renewing the existing PT curricula, but also by using open sources and publishing material subsequently to the project. The HELPE project will increase the awareness of integrating the HL topic in the curricula of other health profession HEIs, which may open further educational and clinical perspectives to a broader international scene.

As a consortium of Higher Education Institutes (HEI) in urban areas (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Lisbon, Paris, Vienna) we are increasingly aware that we, students, teaching & research staff, have a role in contributing to develop a more sustainable, inclusive and resilient economy and society in our cities. We build on experience since 2007 with an international intercity cooperation programme for students: International Virtual Consulting Firm (IVCF) related to city marketing questions from companies & municipal departments. In 2020 the needs of cities and HEIs have changed. Cities struggle to reclaim a balance between the popular central area and unpopular peripheral areas. The narrative of cities needs to be enlarged. Urban peripheral areas are new centres of interest. HEIs need to prepare students to be critical thinkers in the age of information and for jobs which have not yet been defined.The Researching the City: Mapping Imaginaries (IMAGE) method combines these needs. A new approach uses mapping tools to bring attention to the peripheral, often neglected, areas of our cities and maps them as enclaves of dynamism and creativity. With this method students are trained to actively search for information, stimulating critical thinking. Students work with city partners such as city council, inhabitants, citizens initiatives and local cultural organisations and companies on real life societal challenges. In interdisciplinary and intercultural settings they share their research findings with colleague students abroad in this way enhancing the solutions to include knowledge and experience from other cities. This cooperation as partners is the core of this method.Original partners in the IVCF cooperation, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Ramon Lull University/Blanquerna and Ecole Supérieure de Gestion de Commerce Paris are joined by University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna and Escola Superior de Comunicação Social at Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa.At least 10 city partners are involved as associate partners. Cooperating in the assignment design with specific examples, expertise and network. Also contributing to teaching material and training of teaching staff. During the final interactive conference they present and showcase on location. Data generated by the project is used by them in their policy plans and implementation of solutions.METHODOLOGYThe 2-year project will produce 6 Intellectual Outputs (IO) together forming the IMAGE teaching & research method. Each IO and activity is led by a HEI based of its experience and expertise. During three testing pilot rounds teaching staff will design a prototype, test, evaluate and then revise the prototype with all stakeholders, students, teaching staff, city partners. All partners feel joint and equal responsibility for the results of the project. Three pilots for students and teaching staff to work with the IMAGE method, will contribute to the dissemination of the project within the HEIs and partners. Two training events will prepare the teaching staff for the development and running of the pilots. Transnational Project meetings will contribute to team building, the common understanding of the project, the tasks, the responsibilities and the lines of communication. A final multiplier event will present and share the results of the project. A popular scientific magazine and a documentary will show the training of students, the mapping of the peripheries, the train the trainers and the outcomes of the student research findings. A community of practice on Researching the city is established including stakeholders from HEIs and city partners. RESULTS & IMPACTA suite of open access materials (IOs) can be used by everyone to implement the IMAGE method; the Knowledge Hub platform, teaching case & process guide, teacher training material, mapping toolkit. Individual impact: students develop in their understanding of places and their employability skills, including first generation HEI students from peripheral areas. Teaching Staff become researching the city experts. Inhabitants and city partners in the city peripheries experience an uplift of the image of the area they live in and feel empowered.Institutional impact: IMAGE is an influential research-based didactical method at all partner HEIs and part of the curricula.Regional/National/international impact: engaged extended European intercity network of stakeholders, including HEIs, municipalities, business and civil life. Peripheral areas have become more visible and prestigious, an integrated part of the city as a whole. Beyond project time IMAGE is to be further disseminated within partner university networks to enhance growth of collaboration projects. Project results will be multiplied outside the local project teams in each (city) partner via the media in the cities and in an Expanded Researching the City Network. Written during Covid-19 times, IMAGE gives us hope for the future.

During the lockdown, near-universal school closures affecting 192 countries and impacting more than 60% of the world’s student population heightened concerns about the vulnerability of many countries to significant long-term learning losses. Reducing the negative impact of this situation is an urgency for the whole HE sector. All the lecturers have faced issues related to the impossibility of physical coexistence with the students and among these issues they have faced those that affected negatively the lessons’ effectiveness as well as the learners’ motivation.The general objective of the project is to enhance HEI educators skills for enabling them to develop digital training contents promoting equal opportunities for learners attending courses in the virtual/extended class. The detailed objectives include:- improve/innovate online teaching so to fulfil the needs of HE when delivering training in the V/E class and remote class- promote blending pedagogical, technical and technological aspects in the redesign of the training course- increase the lecturers’ skills in the three aspects highlighted above, considered individually and in their mutual interactionsTo win this challenge and close the gap between in-presence lessons and virtual lessons the educators should be supported in developing their skills and innovating in three dimensions: pedagogical, technical and technological. The partnership is composed of 4 Universities (Poznan University of Technology (PL) - Distant learning support unit and Faculty of Industrial and Management; LUMSA, Rome (IT) - Department of Pedagogy; University Ramon Llull - Barcelona (SP) - Department of Engineering; University of Maribor (SL) - Knowledge Transfer Office and Department of logistics) and one company, ValueDo, Florence (IT), operating in the field of online and digital training. Valuedo will contribute in a transversal way to the project outputs and will boost the innovativeness of the results. To achieve the goal the workflow includes 4 major phases producing 4 intellectual outputs. IO1's workflow aims at producing a gap analysis that will provide the inputs for the definition of the validated list of digital tools to be further analysed in the other IOs. To reach this output the partner will conduct a desk research, in-deep interviews and collect questionnaires from both lecturers and students that will be analysed in IO2 and IO3. IO2 “The virtual/extended class (V/E) Teaching & Learning Tasks Dynamic Toolkit” is designed to support teachers in the acquisition of pedagogical and digital skills. It will be organized as an open online tool with searchable and downloadable items, analysing the pedagogical features of the digital tools selected in IO1 and providing suggestions for their adoption. In parallel with the development of IO2, the partners will create, test and release IO3 “Adaptive interactive platform supporting HE educators in solving technical problems”. This output is designed to diagnose teaching capabilities maturity and support the lecturers with tips and methods to be retrieved in just one place (the online platform). Finally, URL will lead the activities for developing IO4 “Software and dashboard for monitoring the technological aspects of the virtual training” that will allow the partners to measure several indicators (audio and voice quality, face landmarks, etc.) from all the attendants to assess their engagement and suggest the lecturers corrective measures. All the contents of the last three outputs aimed at providing an holistic support to the academic staff will be piloted jointly by the Universities: they will develop 16 new lessons, involving at least 8 lecturers and reaching at least 480 students (30 students in each class) to ensure the effectiveness and efficacy of the tools. To monitor the impact the partners will conduct both semi-structured interviews and quali-quantitative questionnaires. Thanks to the IOs, the project will deliver ready-to-use solutions for:- improving the skills of educators in various pedagogical methodologies, suggesting them practical online and free tool that could be used for delivering innovative training contents- identifying easy solutions to the most frequent technical problems- ensuring technological quality of the online lessons identifying in an automatic way when the attention of students in the online environment is decreasingIt will result in short term impacts including the raising of skills of the lecturers regarding the pedagogical, technical and technological tools necessary for the effective conduct of lessons with virtual/extended class (V/E) classes and an increase in student participation and involvement. In the long-term the project aims to ensure greater inclusiveness that will allow every learners (in class or online) equal opportunities for participation in the training, also through appropriate customization of the educational path in respect of individual difference.