On April 23, the intermediate meeting of the Erasmus+ KA220 FTDCHE/Sollertia project (Promotion of Transversal Digital Competences in Higher Education), took place in Hasselt, Belgium. The event was hosted by the Centre of Expertise in Education and Development located in the Diepenbeek Campus of the University of Leuven-Limburg (UCLL) in Hasselt, capital of the Flemish region of Limburg. This research centre studies the practice and exchange of knowledge on new discoveries about learning and development, educational vision, policy and innovation.

With the additional participation of the Polytechnic University of Bucharest (Romania), the University of Primorska (Slovenia) and the University of Applied Sciences of Šiauliai (Lithuania), the attendees have planned the completion of the teaching materials of the pilot course on Digital Competences that will soon be launched online. This course is aimed at students and graduates of Higher Education from any discipline and addresses the acquisition of the most in-demand digital skills in today’s job market.

Currently, the materials already developed by this consortium of experts can be consulted free of charge on the Sollertia virtual platform without the need for registration. With the aim of promoting cohesion between partner countries, all content will be available in Spanish, Dutch, Romanian, Lithuanian and Slovenian, as well as in English, as an additional language to facilitate dissemination.

Finally, partners agreed to hold the next Transnational Project Meeting in Šiauliai, Lithuania, in September 2024 under the auspices of the University of Applied Sciences of Šiauliai (SVAKO).

On November 28, 2023, a new meeting of the international partners of the Erasmus + project FTDCHE -Fostering the Transversal Digital Competences in Higher Education- took place at the University of Malaga (Spain). Its School of Engineering and Computer Science hosted researchers from the University of Applied Sciences of Leuven-Limburg (Belgium), the University of Primorska (Slovenia), the Polytechnic University of Bucharest (Romania) and the University of Applied Sciences of Šiauliai (Lithuania). It is the second face-to-face meeting held by the members of the project, since FTDCHE began its journey last December.

The FTDCHE project focuses on the creation of an advanced platform for training in digital skills in higher education: Sollertia. On this occasion, partners discussed relevant aspects related to the dissemination of the project through its website and, especially, through the Sollertia Learning Management System, which already has a sample of content for each of the five courses it integrates. Their first lessons can be consulted without prior registration and provide the general outline that will be followed in the remaining 11 topics.

Likewise, the partners established control mechanisms over the quality of translations into the official languages ​​of each member country in order to facilitate dissemination among students who do not master the English language. In this sense, Sollertia constitutes a platform completely integrated with each of the partners’ languages, where both the study contents and the evaluation and self-assessment tests are fully translated.

The possibilities of teaching an official course were also discussed from the academic-administrative perspectives of each partner. The final objective is to provide students with the possibility of receiving official accreditation of the digital competences taught through by Sollertia (equivalent to 10 ECTS). The initial proposal is to hold the course during the spring semester of 2025.

Finally, partners agreed to hold the next Transnational Project Meeting in Hasselt, Belgium, in April 2024 under the auspices of the University Colleges of Leuven-Limburg (UCLL).

The international Erasmus+ project FTDCHE – Fostering the Transversal Digital Competences in Higher Education- for the creation of the advanced platform Sollertia which will promote training in digital competences in Higher Education adds new advances, after the meeting held last week at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest (Romania).

This is the first face-to-face meeting that the partners have held since FTDCHE began its journey in December, and has included representatives of the University of Málaga (Spain), the University of Applied Sciences of Leuven-Limburg (Belgium), the University of Primorska (Slovenia), the Polytechnic University of Bucharest (Romania) and the Šiauliai University of Applied Sciences ( Lithuania).

At the meeting, which was held in the ‘PRECIS’ building on the Romanian campus, the guidelines for the development of a curriculum on digital skills based on the European benchmark DigComp were outlined. Likewise, the tasks that will give rise to the teaching materials that are part of the project have been planned.

With a duration of 30 months, this Erasmus+ project integrates five European partners, leaders in the research and development of Information and Communication Technologies. There is a period of two and a half years for its development, and a financing of 250,000 euros, granted by the European Commission.

Fostering learning in digital skills through transversal and inclusive content is the objective of this initiative, which is committed to the internationalization of education.