Project meeting in Vilnius 2017

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On January 26 – 28 Vilnius Business College hosted the second meeting of Unity In Diversity project partners. The aim of the project was to discuss application of gamification elements in foreign language teaching using Moodle platform and creating special tasks online, to discuss the work done and plan further activities to be carried out until the next partner meeting in April in Riga, Latvia.

On January 26 VBC managing director Jolanta Skirgailė opened the meeting, greeted the project partners and wished to have a productive session. Guest lecturer from Mykolas Romeris University Marius Kalinauskas gave a lecture about Game Elements and Game Design Techniques in the Context of non-Gaming for learning purposes; Benefits and Challenges. The lecturer shared his experiences about students‘responses to the use of gamification in lectures as well as for evaluation (badges, symbols, feedback). He also noted that gamification elements can be means to engage students into learning activities and encourage them for further research.

Later on VBC teachers Gitana Čechamirienė and Dr. Violeta Jadzgevičienė conducted a hands-on workshop on Virtual Learning Environment; Moodle Plug-ins with Gamification Elements. Project partners learned to create electronic gamification elements in Moodle (crossword, hangman, sudoku, ladder, etc.) which make the learning process more engaging. After the workshop, project partners shared their experiences, insights and remarks on benefits and application of these elements.

Project partner from Murska Sobota Ekonomska Šola Dejan Petje demonstrated how to upload practically data onto the Moodle platform. All partners shared their opinion about intergating gamification elements into language learning tasks.

On January 27 Prof. Ineta Luka from Turiba University in Riga spoke about blended-learning curriculum and its challenges, also she discussed with partners creating case studies with possible issues of intercultural communication. A teacher from the same university Valerija Malavska presented the structure of intercultural module. Later on F2F tasks for other modules were analyzed by a lecturer of Sapientia University Dr. Zsuzsa Ajtony. Project partners shared ideas about the structure and content of modules created by respective countries. Erna Voroš (Ekonomska šola) presented curriculum in 16 languages. Together with David Sephton from the UK (Primrose) they discussed translations, mobile app and online tasks. Then Simona Pellizzari from Italy (IPSSA Nino Bergese) and Hilarija Lozančić Benić from Croatia (TUSDU) took the floor and analysed further tasks.

In the morning of January 28 project partners gathered together to discuss administrative issues. They were presented and explained by the project coordinator Hilarija Lozančić Benić (TUSDU). The partners agreed upon the next project partner meeting in Riga, Latvia, which is scheduled for April 26 – 29, 2017.

After finishing the project activities, project partners with colleagues from Vilnius Business College visited the Dukes‘Palace where they got a lot of information on the history of Lithuania, other nations and their common interrelations, saw the artefacts found in the Palace location and enjoyed the panorama of Vilnius.

After lunch, project partners completed the meeting being very happy about the work done and questions discussed. They also planned their activities for the coming months. The three days‘meeting was indeed productive and responses from the partners really positive.

Vakaris Šaulys

Project manager

Vilnius Verslo kolegija, Lithuania

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