International Higher Education Teacher Award ^2024/25

In recent years, a new education system has been developed at METU, in which competence development, experience-based education, cooperation, creativity, project work, problem-solving thinking, self-reflection, and professional portfolio building is essential. The new approach develops more competencies, namely communication, self-knowledge, self-development, creativity, complex problem solving, collaboration, digital competence, critical thinking, decision making. The student is an active participant in learning, creates and solves creative tasks, collaborates with peers as colleagues. The evaluation system is designed to better support the above objectives. In structuring the course, it is important that students carry out a project that has important milestones and where what they have learned needs to be put into practice. It is essential for progress to receive feedback on the work done at each milestone. The instructor acts as a kind of mentor. Because they work in groups, peer evaluation also plays an important role. At the end of the semester, they present their work to all students in the course, where they receive feedback not only from the teacher but also from fellow students. At the end of the course, we consider individual summaries and self-reflections to be important, not only in terms of the development of the acquired knowledge, but also in terms of competence. These summaries, as well as their own project work, are an important part of the portfolio they build during their university studies. As we work with a complex evaluation system and have recently had to do it online, we are using several digital tools to make the process as transparent as possible. The basis of all this is a Learning Management System, where all the documents needed to complete the task are available. The practice tests, communication between the student and the teacher and the group members are provided here. All participant can keep track of which group members performed which tasks, and can find the teacher evaluation related to each milestone. The final evaluations, portfolio and self-reflection will also be uploaded to the framework. The applied methodology and the related assessment system have developed and are still developing on the basis of experience of many teachers and the feedback of students, as we consider flexibility to be always important for the given situation, educational conditions and the given group of students.

Methodology

The role of the student in the new approach to education is changing. They are not only an „audience”, ie not passive participants in the lessons, but become active participants who influence the process of education themself and consciously shape and build their own professional and personal portfolio. The role of the teacher is also changing, in which the teacher develops, helps, creates opportunities and supports much more than “teaching”. The developed methodology contains a number of novel, innovative digital elements. Planning: cooperative learning planning, learning about assessment methods (literature, teacher workshop, teacher mentoring program), development of an innovative education system at our university level called myBRAND at Budapest Metropolitan University. Designing a specific course; formulation of goals, selection of methodology, development of a related development evaluation system. (Teachers of Mathematics and Statistics from Institute of Methodology) Implementation: Forms of evaluation Students evaluate students: In own project team: Students continuously evaluate each other's tasks orally, sometimes in writing. It’s important to pay attention to each other. If someone thinks the solution incorrectly, the others can modify it. They should do this, because the team will get the point at the end. Continuous consultation, coordination and follow-up of work processes are possible on CooSpace, e.g. Creating forum groups. Here the group members can consult with each other and the teacher, follow and check each other's subtasks. Students often use Facebook, Google Drive, and other apps to stay in touch in addition to this feature. Thus, as a non-negligible result, they learn to utilize these opportunities, which until then could only be used for fun and friendly contact. In seminar group Before submitting a section, students also show the task they want to submit to the members of the other teams. Oral evaluation takes place, errors and inaccuracies are indicated, new ideas are born. When presenting the projects, questions are asked for each other’s performances, and at the very end they are also evaluated with a score, thus helping the instructor evaluation. We were a little scared of this at first, assuming the students would score biasedly, but that was not the case. Very realistic assessments have been made. (In a further study, it will be worthwhile to compare students’ and teacher’s evaluations with testing methods of relationship. We hypothesize that the two criteria are independent.) After all the presentations, there will be a vote on which is the best project in the group. The Institute of Methodology plans to set up a Research Group, in which we would like to involve students who have done outstanding work on the projects. Among all students studying the subject in that semester (plan) From the best projects in seminar groups, students decide which project was the most successful in a given semester. The Institute of Methodology awards the most successful students with a diploma. We recommend the further development of worthy projects for OTDK (national scientific student conference). Self-assessment At the end of the semester, each student submits a subject portfolio. It has an important element: self-assessment. Each student evaluates his or her own performance in writing, both numerically and textually, as expected. Because they are also constantly familiar with each other’s work throughout the semester, each student is able to place their own performance appropriately in relation to the others. With one or two exceptions, they realistically evaluate their half-year work. Students also often use self-criticism, describing that they were not diligent or cooperative enough, and so on. Scenes for student evaluation: 1. CooSapce Forum 2. CooSpace Group Task 3. CooSpace Survey and other opportunities of CooSapce 4. CooSpace Poll 5. Google Spreadsheets 6. Google Jamboard 7. Mentimeter The role of the instructor is to guide these processes. Demonstrates unknown applications to students on demand. Teacher evaluates students At the beginning of each lecture and seminar, the teacher gives verbal feedback on the assignments given by the students. In it, he highlights good ideas, interesting solutions, draws attention to the tipical errors. At the end of the semester the teacher summarize the points collected and gives the final mark. At seminar After submitting each section, the teacher provides a written assessment to the teams in the form of a score and a textual assessment. At the end of the semester, after the presentations, the teacher evaluates each team orally, asks questions, and gives the final mark taking into account the students' evaluation of each other. Regularly there are CooSpace tests and minor papers. Students collect points throughout the semester so they can always know where they are going. By making and solving creative assignments or homework given by the teacher, semester scores can be increased. The scene of the teacher evaluations is mainly the Coospace Forum, Tasks, Exam Tests. At lecture 1. Practice tests The continuous % assessment obtained for these is good feedback to the students. Each test can be completed more than once. The teacher can configure CooSapce to report and/or count the best score. 2. Instructional/Tutorial videos There are tutorial videos for each weekly material, for each topic. At each end, students can use test questions to measure how well they have mastered the material. These materials can be reviewed again any time. 3. issue and evaluation of creative tasks Students can immerse themselves in the topic by creating their own tasks, and with the evaluations and scores they receive, they increase the score of the exam. Students bring a topic from their area of interest or work, for that they make analyzes using the knowledge they have learned during the semester. At the end of each semester, we invite experts from the CSO (Hungarian Central Statistical Office) or other business areas to give presentations. These give students an even more realistic picture of what they have learned in practice. After the lectures, they will also answer some test questions about what they have heard. Students evaluate teacher At the end of the semester, each student submits a subject portfolio in which they usually (though not necessarily) evaluate the teacher’s semester work. It is also possible to do so in the form of a centrally organized (OMHV) by the university. Here, however, it is possible to make more specific comments, suggestions or criticisms in connection with the subject. Introduction: in the autumn semester of the 2020/2021 academic year (540 students, 19 groups, 8 lecturers) Review: minor redesign due to transition to online education (because of Covid): spring semester of the 2020/2021 school year. Instructors were consulted online every week.

Tools, equipment, technology used

LMS system: CooSpace - The documentation and administration of the entire educational process can be available here (tests, forums, document sharing, evaluation forms, voting systems, feedback questionnaires) Software supporting calculations: GeoGebra, Excel Presentation: MS PowerPoint, prezi Instructional videos - curriculum developed at the university (within the framework of the METU Learn project, electronic curriculum of the instructor of that subject) Expression of opinion, voting, interactivity: Mentimeter, Kahoot, Socrative Online communication, lessons: zoom Teamwork online: zoom breakout rooms

Outcomes and outputs, main results

The most important result was that the students enjoyed the whole learning process, as the goal was clearly visible, which they were able to reconcile with their own learning and professional goals. The cooperative learning method gave a sense of confidence because they were not left alone with their problems; and developmental assessment helped them to progress and made the learning outcomes visible, which also functioned as a motivating element.

Lessons learnt

Good practice, unfortunately, can never be applied one-by-one, it must always be adapted to the specific learning situation. You need to allow time to mature, so don’t think that everything will work perfectly at first. We must always be prepared for this and deal with the problems that arise with sufficient flexibility. In all cases, it is recommended to involve students in the development of the method and in the analysis of its effectiveness, and they often give the best advice. The new methods of assessment and teaching are in constant interaction. The development of one brings about the change of the other. Thus e.g. the Peer instructions method has been developed, which can be read in more detail in the attached materials. https://tinyurl.hu/92HT/ (4. field: Other materials)

Adaptability and sustainability of the best practice (for other institutions)

The method can be adapted to any institution and introduced in any course. We use it in almost all subjects of Institute of Methodology.

Promotion of best practice

Within the Institute of Methodology, we talk about it on a daily basis, we always come up with new ideas, we share our experiences with each other. At the institutional level, in educational forums, we present it as a good practice and publish it in the university's publication. For other universities: we present it at conferences, we publish it in conference publications, in study volumes. We hope that with the help of this application we can make our method even better known either.

Scope and impact

• Course/department level
• Faculty level
• Institutional level

Course level: the principles set by the University and Institute of Methodology, one of the most important elements of which is student-centeredness. Faculty level: the developed good practice is consistently related to the role of the course in the sample design and the basic norms represented by the Faculty, and even from a methodological point of view it is a kind of flagship of the Faculty (Faculty of Business, Communication and Tourism) At the institutional level: the methodology developed is fully in line with the mission of the university https://www.metubudapest.hu/mission-and-vision We would be happy to help in transferring our method to other universities, even abroad.

6.1 Digitalization

• Outstanding, innovative, excellent practices of online / blended / hybrid learning
• Innovative, novel methodology in using digital tools/devices in teaching
• Digital skills development and assessment both general and profession-related, embedded in course design, in teaching and assessment
• Novel digital solutions (tools, frameworks, devices, tasks to enhance efficiency and motivation)
• Data security and responsible digital presence embedded in learning outcomes

Reasoning: The developed methodology contains a number of novel, innovative digital elements. We involved a number of digital tools for cooperative work, both in online and blended education. Application of GeoGebra and Excel in solving optimization (SOLVER), mathematical and statistical problems is a daily. We have introduced several new uses for the zoom program. Students learn to protect their personal and project data, which will be useful in their future work. See: Justification_6 file attached

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6.2 Internationalization

• Courses offered to international multicultural students both online and offline

Reasoning: The courses we teach are part of international mobility, as they have been recommended to Erasmus students visiting us.

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6.3 Inclusion and diversity, universal design

• Inclusive course design, universally designed divers activities to meet special students' needs
• Universally designed teaching material - adjustable for special needs
• Alternative, flexible assessment methods for students with special needs

Reasoning: An important aspect of designing a course is to give students (who have different backgrounds and different skills) the opportunity to find their own learning path and to receive support in everything. Curriculum design allows even a dyscalculic, dysgraphic student to successfully overcome obstacles. But also because of the current viral situation, the students came up with a myriad of individual needs for which a solution was always found. See: Justification_6 file attached

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6.4 Sustainability

• Sustainability goals are addressed in the course(s)

Reasoning: Aspects of sustainability are fundamental in the design of the course. This is supported by activity-based education, where individual opinion-making has a special role to play. This aspect also applies to the choice of project topics, where particularly valuable work is done if the sustainability aspect also prevails. We hardly use paper-based task assignment or evaluation, almost everything is done electronically.

3.3 Public contact datas

Name	Email address	Website
Józsefné Libor	jlibor@metropolitan.hu	https://tinyurl.hu/92HT/