Evaluation of DALEC (Danube-Networkers Lectures 2)

Evaluation of DALEC (Danube-Networkers Lectures 2) Project information Between March and April 2013 an online lecture series was organized by the Donaubüro Ulm / Neu-Ulm in cooperation with the ZAWiW (Centre for General Scientific Continuing Education) of the Ulm University. Three online lectures were held by young scientists and simultaneously transmitted per video conference to the partner s locations. Each lecture was followed by a moderated intergenerational and international discussion. The lectures held in English were consecutively translated in the respective national languages. The main topic of the lecture series was the Changes of perspectives between generations and cultures along the Danube. The following questions were discussed from various points of view in relation to age and place of origin in the Danube Region: What does tourism mean in the Danube Region? Is it an economic factor or encounter? What are the effects of the demographic change in the Danube Region? What are the solutions to this problem? How are tradition and modernity seen by the different generations in the Danube Region? Can learn Old and Young from each other? What is the future of the education? The target group of the project consists of every generation: pupils, students, professionals and seniors. After a short introduction of the given topics our aim was to generate an intergenerational and international discussion between the participants. Methods of the evaluation process The ZAWiW of the Ulm University was responsible for the evaluation of the project. The aim of the accompanying research was not only to give a summarizing resultoriented evaluation about DALEC 2, but also giving a relevant feedback by the use of the observation charts during the lectures. Several instruments were created to get an overview about the process and the outcomes of the project. This summary is based on the results of these instruments. The ZAWiW developed instruments on three levels. On the level of the participants a questionnaire had to be filled out by every lecture. The followings had to be rated: the content of the lecture, the speaker and his presentation; discussion; general conditions of the lecture: audio and video transmission, translation; recommendations and comments. 1

At each partner university the observers had to evaluate and summarize the above mentioned questionnaires. Also an observation chart had to be filled out by the observers during the lectures. This instrument was an observation data collection about the speaker, the participants, audio and video transmission, translation, etc. Considering these documents we got an exact overview about the progress of the lectures on-site. At the end of the lectures and the project each partner had to complete an overall questionnaire, which gave many information and recommendations for the evaluation process: questions concerning the organization of the project; questions concerning the technology; general questions; website and online discussion; perspectives and suggestions for improvements. Participants The participants of the lectures came from all generations: pupils, students, professionals and seniors took part in the project. In the following they will be examined from different point of views. It is important to mention, that we know the exact number of the participants, but not all of them filled out the questionnaires. Altogether 366 participants took part in the project in Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Germany. The age distribution of the participants: 121 pupils and students between 15-25 years, 133 professionals between 25-65 years and 75 seniors over 65 years. Age distribution of the participants 23% 40% 37% pupils 15-25 professionals 25-65 seniors 65- Background of the participants The participants of all generations came from different institutions with diverse background. A short summary about the participating institutions: 2

Germany Serbia Romania Bulgaria International School of Neu-Ulm Faculty of Philosophy University of Belgrade Popular University of Timisoara Union of Pensioners 2004 AK Europakontakten (ZAWiW) Pensioners Union of Serbia Cultural Association C. Brancusi High Vocational Secondary School on Construction, Architecture and Surveying Ruse seniors Society of Pensioners municipality Stari Grad High School of Pharmacy and Physiotherapy National Foundation for Human Aging Dr Laza Lazarevic Society of Women municipality Vozdovac Tourist Society of Zemun University of Third Age Djuro Salaj Gerontological Society of Serbia League of Romanian Writers University of Ruse Faculty of Natural Sciences and Education University of Ruse Faculty of Business and Management Newspaper Student spark Allocation of the participants between the lectures 145 participants took part in the first lecture, 109 in the second and 112 in the third lecture. The difference between the first and the last two lectures is partly due to a decision of the partner university in Serbia, who told that 70 participants were too much for an active discussion and the group was divided in two groups. One of them came to the second lecture; the other half of the group participated in the third lecture. Another reason was the reduction of the participants in Germany caused by the fact of that, the lectures did not meet the expectations of the German seniors. Participants 145 109 112 1st lecture 2nd lecture 3rd lecture 3

Allocation of the participants per country It is also interesting to see the allocation of the participation per country. There are many reasons for the different attendance figures. In Serbia, as it was mentioned, by the first lecture there were too much participants for an interactive discussion. They divided into two groups for the second and third lectures. In Romania there were fewer participants as it was planned because of a partner change. The Popular University of Timisoara is a smaller organization than the University of Craiova. Due to the short time for the implementation of the project in Timisoara and the small spatiality there were only 11-12 participants by every lecture. Decrease of the number of the participants There was a decrease of the number of the participants in Ulm. 39 persons took part in the first lecture, by the second and the third lecture there were only 19 and 18 participants. The reduction of the attendance is due to the different interest of the seniors in Ulm in comparison with the participants from the other countries. In one hand in Germany there are many different programs and activities for this generation and it is difficult to attract their attention, on the other hand they already knew many things about the topics of the lectures and the seniors had slightly opportunity to discuss with the other participants of the project. Another problem is that the German seniors take part in many different European projects and they travel a lot. That s why many of them could not participate in the third lecture. 4

In the other partner countries there were no changes in the number of participants. However, the last lecture on 24 th April had to be reprised in Bulgaria. At this time there were elections in the country and there were only two participants by the lecture. A week after the lecture an alternate lecture was held with the same topic and presentation given by the project manager. The evaluation documents of these lectures were used in this document. Project advertising For gaining more participants the project was advertised in many different ways. A common project flyer 1 (EN/DE) was created by the Donaubüro Ulm / Neu-Ulm, which was sent to all partners. The project had an official homepage 2 and an internet forum 3 for further discussions after the lectures. Also a Facebook profile 4 was registered to establish more contact with the younger generations. A great advertising campaign was accomplished by the Spring Academy of the ZAWiW of Ulm University. 500 participants got a flyer and an invitation to the participation in the project. Numerous press releases, posters, leaflets, presentations of the project, official invitations on private persons, different institutions and associations announced the project in every partner country. Learning groups (Europakontakten ZAWiW), society of women, society of seniors, school classes and other various groups and associations were involved this way in the project. Motivations of the participants The participants of the lectures had different and very complex expectations and motivations according to the project. One of their main expectations was to learn 1 http://www.donaubuero.de/uploads/engels/projekte/dalec2/dalec_130131_end_en.pdf 2 www.donaubuero.de/dalec2-en 3 www.donaubuero.de/community 4 https://www.facebook.com/pages/dalec-2/486361488076321 5

more about the topics of the lectures (seniors) and to raise the communication and intergenerational cooperation to a higher level (seniors). Seniors from Serbia wrote that using a new media application taught an interactive manner, to hear what people from other countries are interested in and it also opened a new space for communication. Some of the Bulgarian participants were interested in the application of the online lecture and new media in training process as pedagogical method and its possibilities for using it in the education. There was also a great demand on getting new contacts and creating new initiatives between the participants. The organization of the lectures In comparison with the first DALEC project, there were several changes which played an important role in the organizational process of the lectures. According to the recommendations of the participants of the first DALEC project, the language of the lectures was changed from German to English. Each partner organized a translator, who consecutively translated into the national languages during the lectures. For a longer and more interactive discussion the presentations were shortened. They took ca. 30 minutes long together with the consecutive translation. As the presentation in all four partner countries had to be consecutively translated, it was highly important to have an exact schedule for the lectures. After the first lecture according to the feedbacks of the participants some organizational changes were needed. The lecture started with delay and with very long welcome words (seniors from Ulm). The lecturer also didn t stopped his speech for translation slid-by-slide despite the fact, that it was advised him before the lectures. In the end of the lecture there was simultaneous translation instead of consecutive translation (seniors from Ulm). In some locations the lecture was simultaneously translated instead of consecutive translation and this lead to empty breaks as long as it was translation time at the other places. In the partner s opinion there was no clear common sign in the different places to show, whether the translator is ready or not with the translation. Different signs were used, which were not clear for the other partners. Also the discussion of the participants had to be better structured wrote the Serbian partner University. By the organization of the second and third lectures all recommendations of the partners and the participants were taken into account. A clear schedule was created with exact time sharing between the lecturer and translator. Common signs were made for all partners to show, whether they are ready with the translation, whether they have technical or other problems (happy yellow smiley and sad red smiley). After the first lecture also the structure of the discussion had to be reorganized. At Serbia s suggestion a central question was given to all partners and they had about 10 minutes to have a local discussion with the groups, afterwards an international discussion took place between the participants. 6

The participants were generally satisfied with the organization of the second and third lecture. The lecturer and their presentation All of the lectures were held by young experts and scientists, who got very diverse feedbacks from the participants. Generally the lecturers got good feedbacks from the participants. The first lecturer was well-prepared, provocative and made efforts to engage the audience to participate more actively in the discussion (pupils and seniors). He gave a lot of new and useful information about his topic and also many good ideas (seniors) for a discussion. The second lecturer got different feedbacks. According to the senior and pupil participants from Germany it was difficult to understand her presentation, because there often was no link between the graphics and the topic of the lecture. Her presentation was also not enough professional because of the lack of headlines and sources of the information (pupils from Germany). Similarly to the first lecture the third lecture also got a good feedback. As the senior and pupil participants wrote the lecturer was well-prepared, inspiring and presented a very actual topic for the audience and generated an interesting discussion. Above on the diagram you can see the rating of the lectures by the participants. In general, they were satisfied with the speakers, their presentations and the content of the lectures. The first lecture and third lectures got the best feedbacks from the audience. The negative feedbacks were given from the German participants. As earlier mentioned, there are many interesting activities and projects are offered for the 7

German audience in Ulm and it is difficult to attract their attention. The quality of the lectures and the discussions did not satisfy their high expectations. Discussion by the lectures By the first lecture there were some problems with the structure of the discussion. A moderator coordinated the whole discussion process from Ulm, whereby according to the opinion of the participants from Germany there was no enough time for an interactive discussion. Due to a strict schedule and the reorganization of the structure of discussion we managed a more active and interesting discussion by the second and third lecture. All countries got a central question and about 10 minutes to discuss this question in their local groups. Afterwards there were an international discussion about the given topic and its aspects. The overall feedback of the participants and the partners was very good, except Germany. There were some opinions of seniors, that the discussions were not enough useful and interactive. However, the German participants were at least of all active in comparison with the other countries. Below you can see the selfassessment of the participants, how actively they in the discussions of the lectures participated. 8

Translation during the lectures The translation of the lectures was a very important factor during the project. Because of financial reasons the English lectures were consecutively translated into the national languages of the partner countries. During the planning of the project it was discussed, that it would have been a better solution using simultaneous translation by the lectures, but regarding the high costs (technical equipment, honorary of the translators) it was decided to use the obviously cheaper consecutive translation despite of its disadvantages. Even though there were problems because of the lack of common signs by the first lecture, this form of translation got a good feedback from the partners. According to the Serbian partner it was much more functional than the simultaneous translation. Signalization was very good and meaningful, so there were no many interruptions that could lead to a decreased quality of translation. To the contrary the German participants were not satisfied with this kind of translation. Many of them understood the lecture and the discussion in English, only a few seniors took the occasion of the translator. Many of them had to wait during translation time. In their opinion this method of translation leads to delays, to the lack of active discussion between the participants (seniors from Germany). 9

Applied technology during the lectures The Ulm University has very modern technical equipment for transferring lectures as videoconference that the partners in Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria don t have. That s why a simple videoconference application came into use, which according to the technical staff in Germany was not suitable for transferring online lectures. The base infrastructure was Adobe Connect, provided by the German National Research and Education Network (DFN). This platform works on any computer with a browser and a flash plugin installed, a camera and a microphone were also needed. The technical staff of the Ulm University recommended using two computers. This enabled the partners to place one computer on the speaker s desk and to place another computer (for administration, etc.) somewhere behind the scenes. It was also recommended to use 2 microphones (depending on the size of the rooms) one for the local moderator (English) and one for the local translation. Only the English tone had to be transmitted to the international audience. In Ulm beside the above recommended equipment also audio equipment with mixer console was used for avoiding problems with background noises, etc. After several local and international tests between the partners and the Ulm University it was managed to find the appropriate settings for the lectures. The partners used different technical equipment depending on their technical background. Some of them used LAN internet connection; others used WLAN connection. WLAN connection does not ensure a continuous internet connection, which lead to some technical problems during the lectures. Most of the partners used two computers and 2 micros as it was recommended. Generally the data transfer worked fine all the time. Sometimes there were some problems with the picture transfer from Bulgaria during the second lecture. There were also some problems with the audio stream from Timisoara during the second lecture, the sound was multiply broken and it was very difficult to understand the speaker from Romania. They had this problem due to their WLAN Internet connection. There were some difficulties with the screen layout and tone, when the partners changed that or when they forgot to mute the micro during translation time. According to the feedbacks of the technical staff from Germany, there is a better technical background needed with professional technical support, as the Serbian partner did it. The tasks of content-related moderation and the technical support of the project have to be separated from each other, using a professional technical staff in the background is evident for a better quality of the lectures. Below you can see the feedback of the participants according to the general technical conditions of the lectures. As it was mentioned, the third lecture in Bulgaria had to be reorganized because of the low interest of the participants during their elections. In this lecture 43 persons participated, but this number is not represented on this diagram, because there was no video and audio transmission. The 10

participants found the general technical conditions of the lectures good; however, they could be improved in case of a third DALEC project. Accessibility and usability of the project website and forum A bilingual (English 5 and German 6 ) website and forum were created for the project on the website of the Donaubüro Ulm / Neu-Ulm. You can find here all information about the project and the partners, lecture materials, photos and videos, etc. Although the internet address of the project was published in many ways (flyers, posters, information E-Mails), according to some senior participants it was difficult to find the website of the project. Because of some technical reasons (subtitling) it took long to upload the videos on YouTube. A virtual forum was also made for continuing the discussions after the lectures. Due to some technical problems by the service provider, many senior participants weren t able to register and write their comments in the forum. As an alternative solution the partners could send their comments to the project coordinator in Germany and she uploaded their comments on the forum. Overall review of the project The partners from Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania gave a positive feedback about the project and its technical aspects. They gained numerous advantages from DALEC 2. The project encouraged a dialogue on key issues regarding the Danube Region and it facilitated collaboration between the different generations and developed the social responsibility of all participants. 5 www.donaubuero.de/dalec2-en 6 www.donaubuero.de/dalec2-dt 11

According to the didactic aspects and the content of the lectures the partners found videoconferencing a very innovative educational method. They learned a lot and found many common things between them and their foreign counterparts and they had the opportunity to discuss with people from other countries in the Danube Region. There partner s didn t have any problems with the language, because the project gave the possibility to use professional translators. On the other hand there is a complete another feedback about the project on the German side, which is up to the different expectations of the partner and the participants. According to their opinion the structure of the lectures, the topics and the method of translation had to be changed making the project more attractive for the German audience. Perspectives and suggestions for improvements Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia desire the continuation of the project. In Germany it could be possible, but in another form. However, according to the suggestions from the German technical staff efforts should be launched toward improvement of quality of Internet connections in terms of stability and data transferring speed. Since there were some issues concerning the quality of picture and sound from some locations maybe the acquisition of higher quality equipment (computers, cameras, microphones, audio equipment with mixing console etc.) should be reviewed. It is also highly recommended for all partners using technical staff in the background during the tests and lectures. Although Germany had the best technical equipment, they always had 2 technicians for the video and audio transmission. There were also some methodological suggestions from the participants. The time for discussion has to be extended. Online practical trainings, creating a Google Group and enabling people from different countries to discuss with each other could lead to a better understanding and cooperation. Concrete suggestions from the different project partners Lectures with following topics: Natural reserves along the Danube Educational perspectives along the Danube Computer education in the Third Age methods and didactics in teaching Cities through Danube flows Stereotypes of Old and Young and how to overcome them Best practice from developed countries History of education in different sciences Alternative energy resources, ecology, methods of saving green areas 12

Project ideas camps for 60+ strengthen the relationship between the Danube countries establish a publication with the experiences Internet education (training) Internet campus for Old and Young Online practical training Online seminar Summary To sum up the feedbacks of the partners, the project had a success in Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania. According to the German senior participants the topics and the structure of the project (another method, possibility for more discussion) should be changed making the project also for German seniors more attractive. The other partners would be pleased to continue the online lecture series in this form. In the next months it has to be considered, which kind of project could meet the needs of the participants, so that it is attractive and satisfying for everyone. 13