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Advanced Digital Design course ON modern buildings developing SKILLS for young engineers

Erasmus + (2020-1-PL01-KA226-HE-095244)

Total grant: 261 018,00 euro

Period: 2021-2023

Project Summary

ADD_ON_SKILLS project responds to an increasing need for taking up new challenges in digital and remote times, that set the bar high for teachers and trainers in technical universities. Thus, they need not only to follow quick-changes in the construction sector, but also face the prospect of remote or hybrid learning. Preliminary research about the competences of graduates of technical universities as well as results of analysis of our previous Erasmus+ project, showed inability to conduct comprehensive analysis taking into account different aspects and technical solutions to create the best energy-effective and ecology-friendly solution. The analysis of the previous project in this area showed a gap to be filled, thus, we decided to face the challenge. Moreover the pandemic situation made students stay home or conduct blended learning, that raised requirements to educators. Modern lessons would thus move from an approach centred on the teacher’s performance to one based on the construction and development of new students’ skills, guided by the teacher working with them on the evaluation of content, making it clear, comparing results, developing new ideas. The teacher would therefore not only be entrusted with the role of controlling learning but also that of facilitating the interaction of knowledge, managing relationships, developing practical hard and soft skills.

 

smart city
 

Multimedia modules are aimed at stimulating subsequent reflections and activities to be carried out by students. They must deal with the topics with an integrated approach between different disciplinary areas, encourage questions and develop creative thinking. We need to prepare engineers to enter the international labour market. To achieve the aim of the project a cohesive consortium with active involvement of 5 HEIs and one association of engineers has been established. All partners understand inevitability of changes in the education system and have wide experience in different areas related to designing low energy and eco-friendly buildings for sustainable cities. Common work of our teachers, their participation in an international short training, project meetings will enable the exchange of knowledge about designing and workmanship of modern, smart buildings using eco-friendly solutions. It will also contribute to the creation of a long-lasting network of cooperation in the didactic and scientific field. We will create an innovative learning module for blended mobility course, taking into account that the full course could be done remotely if necessary. We will develop at least 4 e-labs that will provide remote access to the equipment or will allow to simulate operation of systems depending on external variables to replace typical labs on site. Our ideas, tools and methods will be tested on two groups of students working in international and interdisciplinary teams. All products verified during the courses (syllabus of the course, didactic e-modules, e-labs, e-book) will be delivered and available free of charge on the ADD_ON_SKILLS web page.

 

interactive menu
 

The innovative ADD_ON_SKILLS module will be included in our HEIs programmes and offered to students from various universities as a facultative subject (4 ECTS), or/and as a course to upskill young engineers. The implementation of this module will allow to enhance the attractiveness of the studies, complement the programme with modern IT technology achievements and make the teaching content more consistent with the practical aspects to prepare graduates to enter the demanding international labour market. It is worth to note it will ease HEIs virtual teaching and sweeten the pot. Participants of ADD_ON_SKILLS project (students, teachers) will improve their language competence, interpersonal skills, raise their multicultural awareness and get specialist engineering knowledge. Employers taking part in meetings will find HEIs open for cooperation with business and industry in many fields (joint case-studies, thesis, trainings etc.). In the future, ADD_ON_SKILLS module that is open to new technologies and adapts to the needs of the labour market demand will contribute to the development of the economy, filling the gap in education observed.

We will organize at least 3 multiplier events in Poland and Lithuania, to promote results of ADD_ON_SKILLS project and ERASMUS+ ideas at various levels. We will disseminate the results among students, teachers and scientists–we will share our outputs, facilitate access to materials that will be helpful in different disciplines and courses.

The results of the project will be also submitted to the executives of HEIs to inspire them to further improvements in the educational process. Moreover, we will disseminate the results of our analysis among local citizens to make them more environmentally conscious, which hopefully will result in larger use of modern innovative solutions, reduction in energy consumption and decrease of greenhouse gasses emission in the future.