Training Event in Kaunas

Our project Aid Kit for Autonomous Online Classes has organized a training event which took place in Kaunas, Lithuania between the 31^st of January and the 2^nd of February.

Each institution of the partnership sent one representative, a teacher in order to provide them the opportunity to exchange some experiences related to adult teaching processes and to offer each other some useful pieces of advice. However, this was not the sole purpose of the event. The teachers were taught various engaging methodologies on how to keep their students interested in the courses and how to obtain the maximum efficiency thus minimizing the phenomenon of student drop-out.

The main topic and the purpose of the whole event was the following: Upskilling adult education trainers in digital techniques for non-formal learning programs. As the first step of the training event, each institution’s representative spoke about the adult teaching situation in their country, shared the problems they faced when teaching online, the difficulties teachers may encounter throughout the process. Since Lithuania was the country that served as a venue, participants were informed about some essentials of the local culture, basic values.

These presentations and exchange of ideas has served as a basis for the forthcoming events and activities. After the problems have been detected and spoken about, participants had the opportunity to learn about certain digital tools thus uplifting the level of their courses and getting some ideas on how to make them more engaging and efficient. In form of presentations and workshops, each of the institutions chose an educational digital tool and transferred their knowledge and experience to the rest of the group in the following way:

• Iberika – Socrative
• Bridge Language Study House – Studystack
• MHT Consult – Quizlet
• SIF – Canva
• Danmar – EdPuzzle

Apart from the aforementioned tools, Iberika presented some tips on how to record podcasts for Youtube video forum. This was anticipated by a discussion about brainstorming ideas and topics for podcasts. This is really important for result 4 which includes the creation of recordings for educational purposes.

An extra benefit of the training was the Moodle workshop which focused on the inverted classroom format, thus providing knowledge about how to create digital units on the platform. Since Moodle serves as the basis of the whole project, where the units are being uploaded, it is necessary for teachers to learn how to use it and what kind of possibilities may it offer.

As the last step of the training event, a discussion about the presented tools took place, which gave the teachers a final feedback.

According to the feedback form, at the end of the training all participants were satisfied with the information they have received: the background information about the training event, the Guidebook and digital learning/ teaching situation. The second day of the training event can be considered an absolute success. According to the participants, the Socrative, StudyStack and Quizlet methodologies were understandable as well as the Youtube podcast brainstorming session, so they obtained the necessary knowledge about these tools. The overall selection of the tools and their presentation achieved maximum satisfaction from the participants as well. EdPuzzle and Canva were presented in an excellent way according to the participants. So was Moodle, although this last one has received a lesser degree qualification as well.

The venue of the training event was a suitable choice and the overall atmosphere was great. A general satisfaction characterized the opinion of the participants about the learning outcome. ‘Efficient’, ‘professional’ and ‘useful’ were among the keywords they have used to describe the whole event.