The EDUCABILITY Project addresses the need for professional development of VET teachers, trainers, mentors, and librarians in the Information and Knowledge Society era. It focuses on equipping educators and librarians across various types and levels of education with skills in Information Literacy and related literacies crucial for personal, social, and environmental sustainability. These literacies—Critical Information Literacy, Digital Literacy, Mobile Literacy, Media and Information Literacy, Data Literacy, and Sustainable Development Literacy—remain insufficiently integrated into formal education systems across the partner countries due to organizational challenges and their relatively recent emergence. To bridge this gap, the Project developed an online, open-access, self-paced, and free vocational training package. The innovative Educational Framework offers a dual approach: foundational skills in Information Literacy (horizontal goal) and specialization in the six literacies (vertical goal). This enables educators and librarians to embed these competencies in diverse educational and real-life contexts, promoting active citizenship and sustainable development. The initiative also fostered transnational cooperation through a memorandum for sustainability and transferability among partners. Collaborative efforts resulted in four Intellectual Outputs (IOs), each led by a partner. Highlights included a guide from U3CM-SPAIN to convert IO2 materials into interactive online learning content, and a pilot implementation of the training package, showcased through four Multiplier Events and a Final Conference in Limassol, Cyprus, on February 22, 2023. The Project’s progress was supported by 23 online meetings and 4 Transnational Project Meetings (1 online, 3 physical), ensuring coordination and success across partner countries. Ultimately, EDUCABILITY promotes a strategic, transnational effort to enhance educators’ and librarians’ roles in disseminating information related literacies within their communities.

Project Τitle: BUILDING THE CAPACITY OF EDUCATORS & LIBRARIANS IN INFORMATION LITERACY (EDUCABILITY)

Project Duration: 01/12/2020 – 28/02/2023 (27 months)

Project URL: https://educability.cut.ac.cy/

Project Framework & Funding: Erasmus+/ Key-Action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices/ Action: Strategic Partnerships/ Action Type: Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training / Main Objective of the project: Innovation / Identification: Foundation for the Management of European Lifelong Learning Programmes/ This project has received funding from the European Union’s Erasmus + programme under grant agreement 2020-1-CY01-KA202-066032/1 / Total Budget: 161,473.00 euros

Scientific coordinator (UNIWA): Dimitrios Kouis, University of West Attica, Department of Archival, Library and Information Studies, Information Management Research Lab (IML)

Consortium – Partners: Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), University of West Attica (UNIWA), University of Novi Sad Central Library (UNS), Centre for Social Innovation (CSI)

Research Publications / Results / Patents

IO1 – TILEM Book

IO1- “Transnational Information Literacy Ecosystem Mapping – TILEM-Book” is the final result of a cooperative process that took place during 2021-2022, among the 5 partners of EDUCABILITY Project. It was coordinated by the partner University of West Attica, Department of Archival, Library and Information Studies, Information Management Research Lab (IML)

In TILEM-Book you may find an introductory discussion for six (6) scientific subjects related to information literacy, as well as six relevant curricula aimed at educators and librarians:

• Digital Literacy & Mobile Literacy by CUT-Cyprus
• Media and Information Literacy by UNIWA-Greece
• Critical Information Literacy & Data Literacy by UC3M-Spain
• Sustainable Development Literacy carried out by UNS-Serbia

The cooperative process that resulted in these curricula included:

• mapping of the international literature on six (6) scientific subjects related to information literacy, based on a protocol of systematic review of sources, which examined the latest research and publications on the above literacies and classified them by the type of each source and their relevance to EDUCABILITY objectives
• text analysis that identified the reliability of the sources, their key concepts and content and recorded all the information that could form the basis for the development of six (6) relevant curricula
• six (6) different surveys that were conducted with the method of Delphi Study to ensure the adequacy of the proposed curricula

Each proposed curriculum has been summarized and codified in the following categories:

• (1) New and/or supplementary definitions of each literacy
• (2) Key concepts and content of each literacy
• (3) Learning objectives and outcomes integrated in distinct thematic units of each curriculum
• (4) Teaching approaches and evaluation methods common for the six curricula

The findings of IO1-TILEM were used as the ground floor to build the full curricula of the six (6) aforementioned literacies and to deliver the second Intellectual Output, namely “IO2-Six Information Literacy Learning Modules Curriculum Development (SILLMCD)”, coordinated by CUT-Cyprus.

View the Book: https://zenodo.org/record/7821663#.ZDanjHZBzIV

I02 – SILLMCD

The aim of the intellectual output 2 [IO2] was the design of a pedagogical framework and the preparation for the content for six learning modules, based on the results of [IO1],  a needs analysis of trainees and a Delphi Study for the determination and finalization of the key areas of the curriculum development. EDUCABILITY partners have considered experts perceptions on which key concepts to develop, and which teaching and evaluation methods to adopt for the six curriculums.

The Information Literacy Training Package (ILTP) includes:

1. a generic IL curriculum template, based on the established IL Models
2. Critical Literacy (CL) curriculum
3. Digital Literacy (DiL) curriculum
4. Mobile Literacy (MoL) curriculum
5. Media and Information Literacy (MIL) curriculum
6. Data Literacy (DL) curriculum
7. Sustainable Development Literacy (SDL) curriculum.

The leading partner (CUT team), prepared the IL Generic Prototype which all partners could use as an example for their curricula development. A complete Six Information Literacy Curricula Development was created in the form of a text compiled by each partner’s specific contribution. Each partner, including the leading partner, was in charge of the design and creation of their learning modules. This content was then used for the creation of the integrated online, open access, asynchronous literacy course curriculum in Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), for educators and librarians in the participant countries, Cyprus, Greece, Spain, and Serbia.

Each course is independent, but all six courses form a complete Information Literacy Training Package (ILTP) for educators and librarians interested in continuing their professional development in a more comprehensive and specific IL field. Furthermore, the curriculum design took into consideration various learning theories and teaching approaches to offer end-users, a variety of quality educational approaches for the development of the different literacy skills.

In each course a set of interactive activities was developed such as quizzes, crosswords, interactive videos, interactive books, interactive presentations, flashcards, drag-and-drop exercises, etc. and learners can receive comprehensive feedback with the correct answers for each activity. In this way, educators and librarians gain knowledge and skills that will make them confident to plan their own activities and interventions on various topics.

Each course consists of the following components:

• General information about the course (language, scope, target group, contact details, etc.)
• Learning objectives and outcomes
• Learning content (bibliography, theory, activities)
• Complementary material for upskilling (suggested practices, theory, advice, strategies, tools, hacks, resources, etc.)

Download the Report: https://educability.cut.ac.cy/pdf/silmcd.pdf

IO3 – ILTP VLE

EDUCABILITY platform is a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) which hosts 7 online, open access, interactive, self-paced courses: Information Literacy, Critical Information Literacy, Data Literacy, Digital Literacy, Media and Information Literacy, Mobile Literacy and Sustainable Development Literacy. Each literacy course is independent. However, all modules together form a complete Information Literacy Learning Package (ILTP). Curriculum development was based on the structural support of Information Literacy known models, as shown in the basic “Information Literacy” course. The Project proposes innovative approaches and digital technologies for teaching and learning. More specifically it has designed, tested and applied various teaching models and practices, which derive from already established learning theories and can be used in different educational environments. A Transnational Memorandum of Cooperation, Sustainability and Transferability (TMCST) is included, as agreed amongst the Project’s Partners aspiring to promote synergies, cooperation and development of future work between IL community members.

The EDUCABILITY VLE enables the management of online learning and provides areas for participants to engage in asynchronous communication and allows learners tracking and assessment. They can learn at their own space and time about information sources and tools. Each course’s curriculum was designed within the context of Information Literacy. With the completion of modules, EDUCABILITY’s trainees will be able to multiply their IL skills and to develop their own practice every time they transfer the e-content and the training approaches of the ILTP, in order to tailor them to the needs of their own communities.

View VLE: https://vle-educability.uc3m.es/

IO4 – TMCST

The Transnational Memorandum of Cooperation, Sustainability and Transferability – TMCST is a document created alongside with the other intellectual outputs of the EDUCABILITY Project. It is aimed to enlighten the international/transnational essence of the activities done by the EDUCABILITY Project teams. The TMCST was recognized as the easiest way to approach the wide public of teachers, librarians, lifelong learners and other end-users of the EDUCABILITY Project’s intellectual outputs. All the materials prepared in order to facilitate learning of the new types of information literacy are in the open access regime. IOs were created in order to enable downloading and reusing the intellectual content without infringement of the copyrights of the first authors. Everyone willing is free to re-use the Memorandum, as well as the other EDUCABILITY Project’s intellectual outputs.

Download the TMCST: https://educability.cut.ac.cy/pdf/tmsct.pdf