"Active and healthy ageing is a societal challenge shared by all European countries, but it is also an opportunity. It is a chance for Europe to establish itself as a global leader that is capable of providing innovative solutions”.
The 4 EU universities and their associated partners involved in the “Active Ageing Academic Certificate” (3AC) are proposing their contribution for meeting this challenge. Most older people who are still in their healthy years fall outside the scope of social structures such that their “successful ageing” is related to their own ability to take care of themselves. Helping them to reinforce their skills is a challenge and priority. A research-based course for older learners is thus an interesting solution, whose relevance is enhanced by the fact that the university context fits the level of studies reached by many young seniors nowadays, and it avoids the pitfalls of infantilization. One of the expected outcomes is an increase in the ratio of older learners in higher education and upskilling of the elderly population (life skills versus skills for life).
The main objectives of 3AC are to:
increase participants’ knowledge of the ageing-process
improve self-management by older people
help participants preserve their active role in society by allowing them to complete a programme in an intergenerational
Digital pedagogy to develop Autonomy, mediate and certify Lifewide and Lifelong Language Learning for (European) Universities
This project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union and has been funded with support from the European Commission. DIAL4U is a university project focusing on digital language teaching and learning practices. It aims at facilitating the evolution of teaching and training online in a key discipline supported by Erasmus : foreign languages.
The project’s goals is to co-develop an innovative approach and digital tools :
To facilitate mediation in all dimensions of the language learning process (taking into account both formal and informal situations)
To build learning capacity and autonomy of all language-learners
To develop or upgrade the digital/blended pedagogy competence of language educators
To facilitate the recognition and validation of knowledge, skills and competences.
Based upon these 4 goals, DIAL4U will follow 4 steps, developed through 4 Intellectual Outputs (IO)
(IO1) Database on both formal and informal digital pedagogy/content for language learning mediation
(IO2) Develop virtual reality and gamification for inclusion and Language Learning interaction
(IO3) Enhance multimodal language learning and teaching material to develop autonomy
(IO4) Allow recognition and validation of non-formal and informal Language Learning process through badges and micro-credentials
Challenge-Based Learning Hub for Social Innovation
Challenge Based Learning - CBL - a new innovative teaching approach
InclusU is oriented towards the didactic approach of "Challenge Based Learning". Challenge-based learning is intended to enable students to develop joint solutions for technological and social challenges in cooperation with industry, politics and society. The network universities jointly offer courses in a "Student Challenge Hub", where students learn together physically and virtually and develop and implement their projects.
What is CBL?
Higher education institutions (HEIs), as knowledge providers, are closely linked to societal challenges and the transformation towards a sustainable society. One approach to learning in HEIs - often described as 'challenge-based' - is to manage how to test theory by tackling real problems in collaboration with societal actors.
The essence of the concept is that we see students as agents of change. This changes the way we teach and learn, and changes what is relevant in higher education.
Challenge-based learning provides an effective and efficient framework for learning while solving real-world challenges. Implemented in schools in the 2008s, CBL is being introduced in the higher education sector (Johnson & Brown, 2011). CBL draws on different educational theories and pedagogical methods of experiential learning from Kolb (1984) such as Problem Based Learning (PBL), Inquiry Based Learning (IBL), Design for Learning (DFL)....
The learning process is broken down into different phases
A general societal problem that can be explored by students in different ways (multi-solution)
A contextualisation broken down into different key questions and which determines what is important to know about the problem, to refine it and position the problem to be solved (with the stakeholders).
An action plan: The Challenge in collaboration with stakeholders articulates pedagogical and experimental activities that lead to significant actions, from strategic note to experimental prototype
What is the project?
Universities are exploring and experimenting with CBL.
Workshops are held regularly.
The final objective is to jointly elaborate an article on the assets of CBL for our European Universities.
Research on the Dimensions of Constructing Europe - LANDSCAPE
European Landscapes – Module Jean Monnet Programme Erasmus+
Cross-perspectives on Landscape The concept of landscape, at the crossroads of geography, philosophy, art, architecture, urbanism and environmental studies, has received sustained attention in recent decades. It may be understood as an inhabited territory shaped by social and political practices; as the material and physical environment of societies; and as an aesthetic representation to behold. A landscape is thus simultaneously, and paradoxically, an object of contemplation and the outcome of social, political and cultural practices that shape the land. It has, crucially, helped renew the reflection on nature and ecology, and has become an important element in the reflection on the common good in the age of the Anthropocene. Numerous scholars have noted how the focus on landscape is key tool in re-thinking the relationship to nature, and the world in general: as a matter of fact, it is singularly suited to re-imagine politics away from a purely exploitative relationship to nature. Landscapes are part of our environmental aesthetics, but also of our environmental politics; in fact, ecology, and environmental issues more generally, can no longer be thought without the notion of landscape.
This seminar on landscape will study this concept from an interdisciplinary perspective, and in the European context in particular, as the European project was about creating a common landscape, in every sense of the term.
It will be interdisciplinary, bilingual (French/English) and will take place in hybrid form. It will include on-site sessions (visits of the “terrils” and other regional sites, to the Louvre-Lens museum for an exhibition on landscape….), and be open to international students.
