Work on real-world problems in an online environment requires some specific approaches in order to create trust, build engagement, overcome participant’s anxieties and provide them will all the necessary tools in a timely manner. This result O1 address these issues from the perspective of community facilitators and participants themselves – in order to include these aspects, the above mentioned guidelines were prepared based on desktop research, student’s survey (330 students surveyed) and lecturer’s (60) interviews. These guidelines for facilitators of the online communities include recommendations on the creation of an efficient and collaborative online learning environment where participant solve particular real-world problems. The document suggests strategies, procedures and recommendations on fostering a collaborative environment between participants and enhancing peer-to-peer learning (linking member, distributing leadership and assigning roles, utilizing specific knowledge, strengths and skills of participants, using the platform’s features to engage participants, asking probing and clarifying questions, synthesizing, providing opportunities to reflect on learning).

You can find the Tools and skills for efficient online communities by pressing links below.

During CityGo project consortium developed a concept of efficient teaching/learning in collaborative online community, where students were solving particular societal challenges on Sustainable City. First element of the effective collaborative online community is Digital content library. Modules were created according prepared Framework, following 3 main principles: “How-to?” oriented content, Microlearning and Gamification elements.

6 Modules (6 ECTS-credits each) were developed:  Mental Health Promotion and Well-being (University of Maia, Portugal), Human-Robot Interaction (University of Patras, Greece), Urban Design – Sustainable Downtown Area in the City (Bialystok University of Technology, Poland), Sustainable Mobility (University of Pardubice, Czech Republic), Non-residential Building (s) and Area Development Project (Vilnius College of Technologies and Design, Lithuania), and Resource-efficient 3D Printing (Europa-Universitat Flensburg, Germany).

You can find the Modules following the link.

Based on the University of Maia digital teaching experiences and students’ survey, it was identified that the Discord platform is the most attractive for young people now. Therefore, the Discord platform was the second element of an effective collaborative online community and was chosen as a communication tool

You can join Discord following the link.