On 28 September, CESAER Network organized an online workshop on “Learning & Teaching in the Next Ten Years”. The goal of the workshop was to discuss what changes, challenges, and possibilities key technologies bring for higher education and offered a glimpse of what developments we can expect in the next ten years.
Pirjo Spuul, a Senior Researcher at the Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology of TalTech, gave a presentation on “Virtual learning environments: use of virtual laboratory simulations”. Ms. Spuul introduced the virtual practical laboratory course she has created for second-year Bachelor students within the department. She also talked about the integration of the simulations created by Labster Company into online learning management systems (LMS) TalTech Moodle, as well as how the E-support has been created for the students and the concept for virtual laboratory simulations. The workshop also held a panel discussion about the teaching challenges where Ms. Spuul shared the TalTech´s experience handling distance and hybrid learning and teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the most important conclusions of the panel discussion was acknowledging the additional use of new technologies, virtual environments that are complementing the theoretical studies and could replace the basic practical training. Ms. Spuul says, “Participation of the CESAER Network workshop led by the Task Force Learning & Teaching was very useful because it is very important to share the best practices and discuss the challenges with colleagues and experts from different universities”. CESAER Network (Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research), founded in 1990, is a non-profit association that unites over 50 leading research-intensive specialized and comprehensive universities of science and technology in Europe and beyond.