DIGITEKA – Digitisation Initiatives for Student Engagement and Study Quality Improvement at the University of Latvia and Project Partner Universities
Project name: “Digitisation Initiatives for Student Engagement and Study Quality Improvement at the University of Latvia and Project Partner Universities”
Project No: 8.2.3.0/22/A/006
Project Duration: 12/2022-12/2023
Project partners: University of Latvia, Latvian University of Biosciences and Technologies, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, SIA “Biznesa, mākslas un tehnoloģiju augstskola”RISEBA”, A/S “TTransporta sakaru institūts”, SIA “Tilde”, SIA “Baltijas datoru akadēmija”, SIA “Datorzinību centrs”.
Project Objective: To strengthen the digital capacity of Latvia’s leading higher education institutions by introducing common shared digitisation initiatives in five Latvian higher education institutions to improve the quality of studies, including student engagement, by adopting the experience of global higher education institutions and the global and Latvian ICT industry from three of Latvia’s leading information and communication technology companies, which have more than 20 years of experience in the development of digital competences, thus raising the level of digital skills of students, bringing them closer to the needs and requirements of the future labour market, and transforming the study environment, indirectly increasing the competitiveness of universities in the international environment.
Project result: digitisation initiatives have been implemented in five Latvian higher education institutions, collaboratively improving existing and developing new study courses/topics, improving and modernising the study environment and the quality of studies in higher education institutions.
Funding recipient: University of Latvia
Co-funded by REACT-EU funding for pandemic crisis mitigation.
The project has developed 40 vertical and horizontal study courses to develop digital skills at least at level 5 of the competences identified in the European Framework for Digital Citizenship – security, digital content creation, communication and collaboration, information and data literacy or problem solving, as well as the approval of these study courses at 5 higher education institutions – the University of Latvia, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, RISEBA University of Business, Arts and Technologies and the Institute of Transport and Communications. The University of Latvia developed 7 study courses, RISEBA University of Applied Sciences 17, Baltic Computer Academy 8, Computer Science Centre 7 and Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences 1.
The GitHub digital labs of the Microsoft Learn platform have been used to create horizontal and vertical course content, independent work and homework. The learning materials are automated so that they work without the instructor’s involvement and students can receive feedback on their performance automatically.
The course “Civil Protection” developed by the University of Latvia integrates 4 Minecraft games developed by SIA “Datorzinību centrs” as digital laboratories, which allow students to test the theoretical knowledge acquired in the course in an interactive way. For the course, Tilde also developed a virtual assistant to support students in learning the course content, while allowing lecturers to better identify students’ contributions to the course and, consequently, to support student assessment. The elements of game-playing have also been integrated into the course “Cyber Security” developed by Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, which includes a virtual reality laboratory.
During the project, Tilde developed and made available to the universities involved in the project an artificial intelligence-enabled neural machine translation technology specifically adapted to the e-learning environment of universities, thus enabling the use of various third-party digital learning content, including specialised courses from various cloud-based learning platforms and knowledge bases, to complement their own courses and study programmes.
The project also introduced a personalised learning and digital skills identification platform with integrated Motival technology developed by RISEBA University of Applied Sciences in the participating universities. The platform enables the participating universities to offer students the most appropriate digital skills courses developed in the project. The platform also helps to identify learning needs that are not yet covered in order to develop future courses.
The University of Latvia, in cooperation with the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, RISEBA University of Applied Sciences, Institute of Transport and Telecommunications and three industry partners – SIA “Tilde”, SIA “Baltic Computer Academy” and SIA “Datorzinību centrs”, from 01.11.2022 to 31.12.2023 implements the project “Digitisation Initiatives for Student Engagement and Study Quality Improvement at the University of Latvia and Project Partner Universities” (No. 8.2.3.0/22/A/006). The aim of the project is to prepare digital course materials to facilitate the development of students’ digital skills.
Co-funded by the REACT-EU pandemic crisis mitigation funding
Information updated 28.12.2023
Project partner universities: RISEBA, LU, LLU, VRU, Vidzeme University
In the period of July-September 2023 in the project “Digitisation Initiatives for Student Engagement and Study Quality Improvement at the University of Latvia and Project Partner Universities” was carried out the evaluation of the approbation of study courses of the project 1st stage.
The average score of students for the knowledge and skills acquired during the courses was 8.48 out of 10 possible points, while the average score of lecturers for the project courses was 8.59 out of 10 possible points. Also during this period the University of Latvia, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, RISEBA University of Business, Arts and Technology, Baltic Computer Academy and Computer Knowledge Centre worked on the development of the Phase 2 project courses.
During the reporting period, Tilde Ltd completed the development and integration of a virtual assistant in the course “Civil Protection”, while Datorzinību centrs Ltd finalised the Minecraft games for this course. The piloting of the Civil Protection course content and the first two Minecraft games was completed in the spring semester of the 2022/2023 academic year, while in September a fully developed course integrating four Minecraft games and the Digne virtual assistant was delivered to lecturers for piloting with students, providing support for both the students taking the course and the lecturers who teach it.
Starting in the autumn semester of the academic year 2023/2024, the participating universities will gradually start piloting the Phase 2 courses. The piloting will conclude at the end of 2023.
During the reporting period, Tilde Ltd. continued its work on the development of a machine translation tool for automated translation of courses, while RISEBA University of Business, Arts and Technology Ltd. continued its work on the development of a personalised learning and digital skills identification tool.
Project partners: University of Latvia, Latvian University of Biosciences and Technologies, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, SIA “RBiznesa, mākslas un tehnoloģiju augstskola “RISEBA”” and A/S “Transporta un sakaru institūts”, SIA “Tilde”, SIA “Baltijas Datoru akadēmija” and SIA “Datorzinību centrs”.
Co-funded by REACT-EU funding for pandemic crisis mitigation.
Information updated: September 2023
he project “Digitisation Initiatives for Student Engagement and Study Quality Improvement at the University of Latvia and Project Partner Universities” (Nr. 8.2.3.0/22/A/006) invites faculty members to attend free short seminars.
In December and January, both lecturers and students are preoccupied with questions about the evaluation of the study process and performance – how to assess, how to diversify tasks in exams, how to automate the assessment process, etc.
Within the project “Digitisation Initiatives for Student Involvement and Study Quality Improvement at the University of Latvia and Project Partner Universities” (Nr. 8.2.3.0/22/A/006) we invite lecturers of higher education institutions to online short seminars with the format of 25-30 minutes on the topic – use of digital tools in planning and assessment of the study process, knowledge construction, feedback, as well as for meaningful learning analytics:
Digital evaluation. 5 and/or 12 December from 14:00 to 14:30 University of Latvia, Faculty of Pedagogy, Psychology and Arts (PPMF), assistant prof. Sanita Baranova will share her experience on how to use digital solutions (Padlet, Mentimeter, Google Form, Moodle forum) in student self-assessment/assessment. The content of the workshop will be similar on both days
In the workshop “Eduaide – a Teaching Assistant”, Daiga Kalniņa, assistant professor at the University of Latvia, Faculty of Pedagogy, Psychology and Arts (PPMF), will explain how to use the Eduaide tool for defining learning outcomes, lesson planning and differentiating teaching methods. The short workshop will take place on 5 December 16:00 – 16:30.
Grading in Moodle. On 11 December from 12:00 – 12:30 Daiga Kalniņa will share her experience on how to assess learning outcomes in the Moodle environment – how to create questions of different difficulty levels with automated assessment, how to build test questions for situational analysis?
Knowledge construction. On 13 December from 16:00-16:30 and/or on 15 December from 14:00-14:30, you will have the opportunity to hear the insights of Edmunds Vanags, assistant professor at the University of Latvia, Faculty of Pedagogy, Psychology and Arts (PPMF), on how students construct knowledge, what are the limiting and facilitating factors of knowledge construction, and how can we support students in the learning process?
Login to the webinarThe University of Latvia, in cooperation with the Latvian University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, RISEBA University of Applied Scineces, Transport and Communications Institute and three industry partners – SIA “Tilde”, SIA “Baltic Computer Academy” and SIA “Computer Science Centre”, is implementing the project “Digitisation Initiatives for Student Engagement and Study Quality Improvement at the University of Latvia and Project Partner ULogin to the webinarniversities” (Nr. 8.2.3.0/22/A/006). The aim of the project is to prepare digital course materials to facilitate the development of students’ digital skills.
Co-funded by REACT-EU pandemic crisis mitigation funding
1st December, 2023