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SPOT PLUS

19 September 2016

SPOT PLUS (Students’ Perspective On Technology in Teaching and Learning in European Universities – Participation and Learning of University Students) aimed at exploring, conceptualising and developing university students’ perspectives with regard to a targeted use of ICT for educational purposes.

In particular, four issues were be investigated, which represent potential motivations on the students’ side and influence the value of higher education to their eyes:

  • ICT as a means to develop a number of “transversal skills”, such as social, communication and organisational skills, which are fundamental to live and work in the Information Society. The critical use of ICT integrated with traditional classroom-based lectures would allow students to mature their key competencies and transversal skills, increasing their employability and savoir-être-related skills.
  • ICT as a tool to develop a collaborative approach to learning and to stimulate a more autonomous, learner-centred and democratic way of learning. By increasing the degree of familiarity with technological devices allowing remote communication and distance learning, students are introduced to a complex scenario, in which they are part of a learning community and experience self-managed learning processes.
  • ICT as a tool to reduce barriers of access to higher education for those segments of student population that are less favoured in social, economic, organisational or physical terms.
  • ICT as a tool to add an international component to the study experience of most European students, which prepares, follows and complements the physical mobility of European students across national borders.

The project activities helped to assess the added value brought about by the use of ICT for didactical purposes in terms of collaborative learning methodologies, access for less favoured categories, effective development of students’ transversal skills, and enhancement of the outcomes stemming from physical mobility experiences.