SI-Qualitative training for adult student-workers in Cochabamba using innovative and interactive virtual and hybrid teaching methods

BO2023SIN365A104 01/09/2023 - 31/08/2025 The dropout of students in higher education institutions is high in Bolivia. Therefore, an important number of people try to resume studies later in life in order to improve their living conditions. This a reason why the Universidad Simon y Patino (USIP) created a few years ago a special evening program for these students ("working study program"). This program represents 70% of the students enrolled in USIP. Up to now, this program is organised in a classical way (mainly presential face-to-face ex cathedra courses), which makes it difficult for those student-workers to combine their studies with their work and their family like. "Thanks" to the pandemic, e-learning and online teaching were introduced, but without being really integrated using a systematic and evidence-based methodology. In this project, we first intend to update the hardware and software facilities to support virtual and hybrid teaching. We will also trainprofessors and teaching assistants in original (inter)active teaching and learning methods that have been used at the University of Hasselt for almost 20 years. These methods will be adapted to a virtual / hybrid teaching environment as well as to the local Bolivian context in a co-construction exercise with teachers of 3 chosen pilot courses at USIP and 1 at UMSS. A possible technology gap of some student-workers will be eventually remediated after testing their IT skills. The domains of the pilots have been pre-selected, and the training needs will be checked with civil associations of these domains. These innovative and (inter)active virtual and hybrid pedagogical methods will be implemented in those 4 pilot courses during 2 consecutive academic years and the quality will be monitored by looking at the performances of the students (comparison of pre- and post-tests) and their satisfaction, using a construction cycle and quality management of evaluations.