In the post-COVID-10 era, Europe has to keep up with innovative ideas to ensure a sustainable and inclusive recovery. “If we choose to hold on to the innovator’s path…we have to focus on people, places and processes.” (European Political Strategy Centre Strategic Notes, 2017)In the last months, we witnessed the creation of a stronger sense of community and people supporting each other and their communities. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, supporting communities and people and promoting their development is essential. The partners of the Count Me In project focused on improving learning opportunities for low-skilled adults, especially from the disadvantaged groups, such as unemployed young people and adults with special needs to improve their life chances, promote their inclusion, and connect members of a community to support it flourishing. The main objectives of the project were to: 1) support development of a quality learning offer in the field of adult education focusing on learning outcomes and learner responsibility and autonomy; 2) promote the use of technology in educational and civil participation processes, 3) provide all interested stakeholders – adult learners, educational centres, civil organisations, decision-makers - with an access to open and innovative teaching/learning tools through the SMART platform; 4) foster the international cooperation of organisations active in adult education and civil participation focusing on active inclusion of the youth and people with special needs.Employing technology maximizes teaching /learning efficiency, encourage active participation of the disadvantaged groups in society processes and, consequently, make them able to better their environment – on personal and community level - transforming it into smart. Even basic digital competences combined with imagination empower ordinary people to design solutions for problems in their environment, making it smarter, conserving resources, and optimizing free time. The project partners sought to raise curiosity of adult learners about the world; help them to understand that they are a main chain in the change process; plant the seeds of the knowledge sharing best practices and working out new creative solutions. Within the project, the partnership 1) designed a SMART platform, an open education resource; 2) designed and deployed a training for trainers and an e-course for adult educators in order to improve their digital and professional competences; 3) designed an e-course for adult learners and organise piloting in partner countries targeting young people and people with special needs in order to improve their digital skills and civic literacy to be able to make “smart” changes; 4) improved attractiveness and access of the disadvantaged groups to new career paths in the field of digital technologies and sustainable community developmentThe strategical partnership pursued the creation of an international network where the partners were able to share information on Smart practices on personal/community levels to find cost-saving tech-solutions. The project was carried out transnationally in order to acquire already contrasted knowledge and, thus, to be able to adapt and apply this synthesized knowledge for future actions on personal/community levels. The developed transversal and longitudinal courses created synergies between knowledge fields. The results of the project are available on the website www.countmein.eu. The developed SMART platform provides an open access to teaching and learning materials for both adult learners and adult educators or volunteers working in this field. All the teaching and learning materials were developed in English and partner languages and are freely accessible for anybody interested in the topic.

Adult education addresses three distinct sets of priorities in socio economic development: the needs and goals of individuals, the needs and goals of the institution, and the needs and goals of the society. Adult education program in agriculture has reached a significant level of importance. Local academic systems should accept responsibility for offering adult education programs that meet the needs of the agriculture/agribusiness industry and entrepreneurs. In modern times, generation and application of agricultural knowledge demand that people working and seeking jobs in agriculture academic and business sector pursue education beyond secondary schools. Local adult agriculture programs can address this demand through carefully prepared and evidence based curricula provision. Project objectives are therefore structured to enhance the cooperation between academia and business sectors in agriculture field and to particularly address the training needs of adult agriculture educators who are the primary target group of the project that will consequently improve the system of adult education in the field of agriculture and rural development in Europe wide communities in the East and South.Through its milestone activities grouped under training courses, webinars, online platform and web site development, Methodology and training syllabus on establishing and operating the LLL agri-units within open-university approach and setting up of the LLL agri-units, the Agri Base project will target 300 adult agriculture educators per country (3000 in total) who will be the key resource for further impact and long term benefits in the cooperation between academia and business sector in the field.The consortium approach in forming the Value Added Partnership will have a multiplier effect in terms of: (1) Access to a broader and higher quality range of professional development; (2) Stronger platform for succession planning and dissemination; (3) Better use of resources; (4) Increased innovation potential of wider European regions, and (5) Fostered potential for replication, sustainability and impact in a number of European agricultural communities in the East and South.

Our project aims to support educators in developing and implementing high quality, innovative assessment practices by use of a research-informed participatory assessment framework (EAT; Evans, 2016). The project addresses a significant higher education (HE) need to substantially enhance the quality of assessment practices. EAT emphasises Equity, Agency and Transparency in assessment. It seeks to tackle issues of central importance to universities world-wide, ensuring that assessment is fit for purpose in promoting the knowledge, skills and understanding that graduates need to thrive in the 4th industrial revolution, and that assessment design provides equal opportunities for all students to excel. To enhance assessment practices significantly, an understanding of integrative, inclusive and self-regulatory approaches to assessment is essential. The project addresses the significant rhetoric-reality disconnect between research into assessment and its implementation in HE practice. Assessment should be an enabler of learning, but often poor assessment design is a constraint that unintentionally limits learning. Well-designed assessment lies at the heart of good teaching and high impact pedagogies within HE. Excellent assessment and feedback promotes equality of opportunity, drives curriculum change, directs advances in knowledge and understanding, and supports life-long learning.Our project focuses on: Implementation of relevant and authentic assessment; identification and development of core competencies to support learner ownership of assessment, required as a life-skill; and training for academics and students to realise such goals. The project aims to produce a suite of practical resources to support academic staff in developing a student-centred approach to assessment, and to share good practice.There are 6 partners: 5 universities (in Spain, Portugal, Kosovo, UK) and 1 professional organisation (Belgium). Each partner has strong records of engagement with professional development in HE. They provide a rich assortment of expertise for the development of case studies and resources.In order to promote inclusive integrative approaches to assessment, greater investment is required to support professional development of educators’ assessment literacy. Staff development is a central facet of this project. Research has identified the critical role that educators' pedagogical understanding has on design and delivery of assessment (Evans et al., 2018; Farley-Ripple et al., 2018). The project develops a range of mechanisms to support teacher understanding and implementation of high impact self-regulatory assessment practices. The project is innovative in its use of EAT, an integrated assessment framework that reveals variables impacting learning and teaching in HE. EAT emphasizes the importance of student/staff engagement as partners in assessment. EAT promotes learner self-regulation of assessment, combining understanding of cognitive, emotional and metacognitive dimensions of learning. The integrated theoretical framework is unique in its synthesis of neuroscience, education, and cognitive/educational psychology. The project aligns closely with the EU agenda for HE through its emphasis on: Developing authentic assessment practices; supporting student entry and progression within and beyond HE through development of self-regulatory and resilience skills-for-life; and in addressing social justice issues (equity in learners’ higher education assessment experiences and outcomes).EAT will be used to inform the enhancement of assessment practices, working collaboratively to improve provision for learners. Drawing on the inclusive principles of EAT, we will address the research-practice gap in assessment, to promote transformative change in assessment across the sector. Focus will be on: (i) supporting development of learner self-regulatory skills through development of a self-regulatory competency framework; (ii) providing case studies of how an integrative approach to assessment can be implemented, sensitive to cultural differences, to support learner agency and success; (iii) developing training approaches (courses and materials) to support understanding and implementation of integrative assessment, including a continuing professional development assessment programme; (iv) developing an assessment standards framework to raise standards of assessment practice within/across institutions, with potential for scaling up across the sector; (v) creating an assessment recognition scheme to acknowledge and reward competency in assessment. EAT promotes a participatory and evidence-informed approach to support shared understanding of effective assessment practices for all learners. This implementation-evaluative approach aims to enhance the quality of HE assessment practices at local, national, and international levels, and to be sector-leading in its promotion of research-informed, student-centred, inclusive assessment.

"According to FAO and WHO ,,Codex Alimentarius'': organic farming (OF) is comprehensive system of production management that supports sustainability in agro-eco-systems incl. biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity."" The focus is on domestic resource mobilization in the farm with minimizing external investments. The biological system takes into account the fact that the regional (local) conditions require agricultural system, adapted to the specific region. One of the way to achieve that is continuous adult education of the farmers (in other words lifelong learning - LLL) in agricultural, biological and technical approaches of organic farming as opposed to synthetic inputs. BioFarm project aims to improve the adult educational level in the field of organic farming. Organic Farming (OF) contributes to sustainable rural development, environmental protection and ensures better conditions for quality livestock production. OF is a specific production method that maintains the ecological balance and manufactures products covering the principles of ecological cycles of plants - animals – soil. The idea of organic farming existed a long ago, but a state policy for its development was applied from the last decade. Much of farmers oriented to organic production are facing problems and lack of knowledge in this area. OF as a concept and practice is constantly evolving and for its sustainable development it is necessary, the current and future farmers and their teachers to have the opportunity to enrich and improve their level of knowledge through the LLL programs. The objective of the project had been envisaged to be accomplished through a set of training in OF which was specifically prepared and implemented for the project. The topics of the training were according to the newest trends but also necessities for OF and refer on:OF and interdisciplinary approaches, the educational, legal framework and knowledge system of organic production in the project countries, participatory action research with farmers, introduction to OF, legislation and the certification process of organic production, market of organic products, networking of agricultural producers and associations - horizontal and vertical linking in the range of values. The training for the participants who were interested in and professionally in organic farming had been designed as their content had been tailored to the specific agro-ecological conditions of the countries of the consortium and the needs of the farmers. Beside, BioFarm website was created for easy access to educational materials.Some of the farming practices for organic production of plant and animal products and marketing of organic products in partner countries had been explored. Building strategic partnership enabled the development and implementation of innovations in the field of adult education, exchange of best practices to enhance the skills of workers in the field of organic production and shortening the distance between farmers and educational platforms in this sphere.Expectations were that the project implementation would be enabled also employees in the education sector of agricultural to benefit directly from the website-platform for learning and sharing of best practices in organic farming, which would improve their level of knowledge and would join them to a larger professional community."

"FUTURE (Foster, mUltiply and connecT adUlt Edcation) is project for the exchange of good practices that aims to create and promote innovation in the adult education sector, with the objective of fully embracing digital education. Specifically, the project focused on the analysis and understanding of future scenarios for the adult education sector, related to the use of digital-supported tools and methodologies for educational dynamics, teaching processes, inclusive learning and teaching methods for adults.The project was born from an initiative of the European Digital Learning Network and its members (some part of this consortium), which dates back to the European survey promoted between May and September 2017. The consultation “What do you think about the future of digital Education and Training in EU? "" aimed to understand the perspective of those who work in education and training with a bottom-up approach. The intent was to collect relevant data from professionals in this area, gathering a clear picture of the ""As is"" situation and suggestions for improvement and changes. The survey (counting 1000 people engaged at various degrees in the world of education and sponsored as a Pledge of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition) allowed collecting valuable information about education and training, with a dedicated focus on Adult Education. FUTURE produced the following results: 1. a collection of case studies relating to the most effective methodologies applied to learning through Information and Communication Technologies (ICT); 2. a database of tools available online, free, customizable, open-source and easily adaptable to multiple training subjects, analyzed and decoded by the project partners according to their orientation to be adapted on the needs of trainers and students; 3. An online repository (Future kit) collecting the resources developed in the previous two points.A minimum of two educators from each partner was involved in the pilot test of the results produced, in order to validate the case studies and the tools collected in terms of relevance, effectiveness, degree of customization and accessibility. The selection of educators for the pilot test was carried out by each partner within their own national and educational context, thus ensuring the necessary geographical coverage and the representation of various local and national Adult Education sectors. In addition, the feedback collected from the direct target group of the project made it possible to verify the potential impact of the resources obtained among professionals in the sector, thus using the responses collected to refine the results according to a co-creation process.The rproject results have been mainly aimed at adult education educators, providing them with practical tools for improving their skills, in consistency with the strategy ""Upskilling Pathways: New Opportunities for Adults"" (EU 19.12.16 on improvement paths for skill level: new opportunities for adults). In accordance with its pillars, FUTURE's activities have supported initial training and continuing professional development of dedicated staff for the delivery of skills level improvement paths, in particular teachers and professional trainers.FUTURE has shown a significant potential for transferring and disseminating its results on various sectors of education, thanks in particular to the implicit transversal nature of digital skills and the participatory methodology used for the development of project results. In fact, the concept of digital education does not relate exclusively to the field of adult education, but it embraces instead the whole education sector, according to a horizontal approach of mutual contamination and interdisciplinarity. Based on this principle, the products of the project have been designed in order to facilitate an application as flexible as possible, using a simple and never excessively technical language in order to be accessible to a wide audience."