On July 1 EDI starts work in research consortium “Life with COVID-19: Evaluation of overcoming the coronavirus crisis in Latvia and recommendations for societal resilience in the future” (COVIDzīve), which will solve challenge 6.10. of the State Research Programme “Covid-19 mitigation” – to research, develop and improve solutions for:
6.10.1. conducting research on Latvian society behavior patterns, value transformation, social processes and possible structural changes in crisis and post-crisis conditions, including changes in household income and its sources, work-life balance, employment changes and the role of employers in the development of remote forms of work; and ensuring a safe working environment, the effectiveness and coverage of state and local government social support measures and the impact of significant restrictions on social services (eg. health, education, social services) on the population, the short- and long-term psychological impact of the crisis on individuals and families; establishing and maintaining secondary and tertiary social contacts, mental and physical health of individuals, as well as distance learning and technology-enhanced learning approaches;
6.10.2. optimal approaches to the promotion of public media literacy and prevention of misinformation, promotion of public civic responsibility and participation in the evaluation of strategic communications for crises caused by a pandemic, including the evaluation of the effectiveness of information channels and information support measures;
6.10.3. digital transformation of the education sector in all levels of education, using artificial intelligence and augmented reality technologies and developing innovative approaches to monitoring learning outcomes, teaching strategies and the acquisition of design skills in digital and virtual environments, including new methods and solutions for development of traditional, digital and transferable skills and social competences.
The leading partner of the Project is Riga Stradiņš University, and the team also consists of researchers from University of Latvia, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences and Rezekne Academy of Technologies .
In this project EDI is responsible for sub-task 6.4, which is related to examining existing technological solutions (including artificial intelligence and augmented realitytechnologies) for digital transformation of all stages of higher education, including remote learning, learning design development of digital learning materials, theoretical and practical aspects of learning in online environment and development of evaluation criteria. The results will be used to develop guidelines forremote course design and evaluation in higher education.