News

PBL4COLLAB Dissemination - T4Green

On 9 September, professors Rui Lima (UMinho) and Diana Mesquita (UCP) took part in an event organised by the University of Beira Interior (Portugal) as part of the T4Green project – Transforming Teacher Education for Green and Digital Transition in Armenia and Moldova.

The aim of the event was to present what has been developed in Portuguese universities, sharing insights that can be applied to different educational contexts. In the session ‘STE(A)M Training for Teachers: Introduction and Importance’ the teachers covered topics such as fundamentals of active learning, Projects based learning, assessment and resources and tools for education, sharing some of the outputs and results of the PBL4COLLAB project.

PBL4COLLAB Results - Chatbot Conference Paper

After taking part in the 1st edition of the international training Digital Enhancement of Active Learning in Higher Education of PBL4COLLAB project, one of the trainees continued with the project and published the paper at the PAEE/ALE’ 2024 conference.

The article ‘Developing a Chatbot for Process Modelling Learning: contributions for active learning in engineering education’ deals with the development of a chatbot for teaching, seeking to make it possible for teachers who don’t have a background in IT to build bots to help with their activities and student learning.

The full text will be available in the event proceedings: https://paee-ale-2024.pbllatam.org/.

2nd Edition - International Training - PBL4TEA

Between May 6th and 8th, the Vilnius University hosted the 2nd edition of the international training Digital Enhancement of Active Learning in Higher Education, as part of the ERASMUS+ project PBL framework for Digital Collaborative Teacher Training – https://pbl4tea.idea.uminho.pt/

More than 50 professors from Higher Education and doctoral students from several countries participated in this training. They were encouraged to transform a course or part of it by leveraging the knowledge addressed in the training: active learning, Problem & Project Based Learning, and assessment, adopting digital tools (e.g., artificial intelligence).

With the support of the trainers and project partners (University of Minho, Catholic University of Portugal, Koç University, Munster Technological University, and Vilnius University), the aim is to follow up and support the implementation of the proposals presented by the participants with the practice community named #PBL4TEA Community.

One last edition is planned at the end of the year at the University of Minho.

#PBL4TEA Community

Our first community meeting on March 22nd was a resounding success! Participants shared valuable insights and challenges in implementing active methodologies since our training in Porto.

Join us for our upcoming in-person event in Vilnius from May 6th to 8th! For more details, visit the “Training” section on our website.

To join our future community meetings, please email pbl4collabtt@gmail.com.

Save the Date: TRAINING EVENT 2 - @Vilnius University

Dear colleagues,

We’re happy to announce that the 2nd training program on Digital Enhancement of Active Learning in Higher Education is taking place from 6 to 8 May 2024, in Vilnius.
If you are looking for an international, certified, evidence-based, and hands-on training experience, this opportunity is for you.

Please save the following details:
Date – 6 to 8 May 2024
Location – Vilnius, Lithuania
Venue – VU  MKIC: Scholarly Communication and Information Centre  of Vilnius University 

Participants must register to participate. Do not miss your place!

For registration and more information, please visit  the training section.

We look forward to seeing you there,

1st Edition - International Training - PBL4TEA

Between February 14th and 16th, the Catholic University of Portugal, Porto, hosted the 1st edition of the international training Digital Enhancement of Active Learning in Higher Education, as part of the ERASMUS+ project PBL framework for Digital Collaborative Teacher Training – https://blue.dps.uminho.pt/pbl4tea/.

More than 50 professors from Higher Education and doctoral students from Lithuania, Brazil, and Portugal (represented by eleven higher education institutions) participated in this training. They were encouraged to transform a course or part of it by leveraging the knowledge addressed in the training: active learning, Problem & Project Based Learning, and assessment, adopting digital tools (e.g., artificial intelligence).

With the support of the trainers and project partners (University of Minho, Catholic University of Portugal, Koç University, Munster Technological University, and Vilnius University), the aim is to follow up and support the implementation of the proposals presented by the participants, starting with the creation of the practice community named #PBL4TEA Community.

Two more editions are planned: one in May 2024 at Vilnius University (Lithuania), and another at the end of the year at the University of Minho.

Save the Date: TRAINING EVENT 1 - @UCP Porto

Dear colleagues,

We’re happy to announce that the 1st training program on Digital Enhancement of Active Learning in Higher Education is taking place from 14 to 16 February 2024, in Porto.
If you are looking for an international, certified, evidence-based, and hands-on training experience, this opportunity is for you.

Please save the following details:
Date – 14 to 16 February 2024
Location – Porto, Portugal
Venue – Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto 

Participants must register to participate. Do not miss your place!

For registration and more information, please visit  the training section.

We look forward to seeing you there,

Third face-to-face consortium meeting at Cork

The works of the PBL4TEA are speeding up towards the first teacher training event, due in February 2024. Preparation works were developed in a new face-to-face meeting, that was hosted by the Munster Technological University, in Cork (Ireland), at the beginning of September. 

Members from all the national teams, a total of 11 people, participated in the meeting to set up the objectives, topics and structure of the training program.Using a project-based learning approach, the first training program will take place in Porto (Portugal) and intends to share and discuss how a teacher can digitally enhance their teaching while promoting active learning. An international team of active learning trainers will work with university teachers from the four countries represented in the team who are willing to introduce changes in their pedagogical approaches.

During the meeting, the members of the team had also the opportunity to visit the Student Engagement Office of MTU and get to know all the exciting activities they develop. The members also attend a meeting of students who are developing a program to welcome new students.

PBL4COLLABTT/PBL4TEA Project @Spring International Week at Universidade Católica Portuguesa

On March 30rd, 2023, Diana Mesquita (UCP) Portugal had the opportunity to disseminate the PBL4COLLABTT/ PBL4TEA project in the Spring International Week 2023, held by the Faculty of Education and Psychology at Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Porto. A total of 17 participants from 11 countries attended this session in which an overview of the project was presented, namely the partners involved, the objectives, the activities of each work package, and the expected results. Based on the enthusiasm and positive feedback from the audience, the participants were invited to follow the project for the next two years!

Second face-to-face consortium meeting at Koç

The second face-to-face meeting of the project will be hosted by Koç University in Istanbul between 5-7 June 2023. In this meeting, first, each partner will present their reports on teacher training practices compiled through systematic literature review, document analysis, and interviews. Project groups from each partner institution work together to analyze these reports to identify, discuss and select essential themes to be used in the development of the framework for the teacher training program.

First face-to-face consortium meeting: Kickoff meeting

On December 5 to 7, 2022, the kickoff meeting of the project was held in Braga, marking the beginning of the PBL4COLLABTT/PBL4TEA Project, funded in 250 thousand euros by the Erasmus+ program. During these days, a team from the University of Minho received partner members from Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Porto, Portugal), Vilnius University (Vilnius, Lithuania), Koç University (Istanbul, Turkey) and Munster Technological University (Cork, Ireland). 

On the last day of the kickoff meeting, on December 7, the team visited Universidade Católica Portuguesa – Porto, which is one the partner members. The project, which began in December 2022, also provides for three moments of pedagogical training for teachers and a final conference that will take place at the University of Minho in 2024. Below you can find a brief description of the project.

Projeto ERASMUS+ Cooperation Partnership – PBL4COLLABTT

Project ID: 2022-1-PT01-KA220-HED-000087857

Title: PBL4COLLABTT – PBL framework for Digital Collaborative Teacher Training

Programme: Erasmus+ – Call: 2022 – Round: Round 1 – Action type: Cooperation partnerships in higher education (KA220-HED)

Objective: Develop a flexible PBL approach for collaborative teacher training focused on digital enhancement for active learning, allowing personalised and flexible learning pathways.

Description: Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are expected to engage with contemporary challenges, creating learning environments connecting learning to authentic societal challenges. Teacher training is a key area of intervention for innovation in HE, whose relevance is acknowledged, although being still in a frail state of development. 

Educational systems around the world are currently working hard to react to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The exploration of distance teaching and learning has expanded greatly, bringing about new challenges and opportunities. One of the main challenges is to ensure the effective use of digital environments, enhancing equity and participation, along with the development of more student-centred methodologies.

Looking ahead, the main contribution of this project is to develop and investigate teacher training and innovation more systematically, and to provide initiatives that prepare teachers to innovatively deal with a digital world where both face-to-face and online teaching practices will tend to co-exist. Thus, creating a framework and open access materials focusing on Problem and Project-Based Learning as a momentum process that may involve trainers (teaching staff, support staff and researchers) collaborating in inter-institutional international context and trainees (teaching staff in partner institutions) for the development of digital enhancement active learning approaches will help higher education institutions to make an improved contribution for an inclusive and sustainable world. 

Main results: Output 1: A co-designed inter-institutional framework for the implementation of PBL approaches for digital enhancement of collaborative teacher training, allowing for personalised and flexible training pathways. Output 2: Online repository of materials to support the teacher training actions.

Partners: University of Minho (Braga, Portugal); Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Porto, Portugal), Vilnius University (Vilnius, Lithuania), Koç University (Istanbul, Turkey); Munster Technological University (Cork, Ireland).