DIGITAL AND ONLINE LEARNING IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN SERBIA A CASE STUDY

This case study aims to identify relevant policies and practices for digital and online learning (DOL) in vocational education and training (VET) in Serbia, with a focus on initial VET (IVET). The study was commissioned by the European Training Foundation (ETF) with the following specific objectives: (1) gather information and analyse DOL provision in VET; and (2) provide a set of recommendations. The data-gathering component of this research consisted of field visits to eight secondary VET (SVET) schools in major cities in Serbia selected on the basis of their good practice in respect of DOL. The analysis is structured around the six cross-cutting elements of the European Framework for Digitally-Competent Educational Organisations (DigCompOrg), a European Commission initiative: (1) Infrastructure; (2) Leadership and governance practices; (3) Collaboration and networking; (4) Content and curriculum; (5) Teaching and learning practice; and (6) Assessment. System-level and school-level policy recommendations are included. Contains a list of abbreviations, a glossary, and a bibliography.

" Infrastructure: The basic infrastructure is sound, but the costs of hardware upgrades have, to date, been met largely from donors. All schools have their own website. The lack of a dedicated system administrator is a significant issue in most schools. Teachers often have to maintain networks, fault-find and troubleshoot problems." (Brolpito, Lightfoot, Radišić, & Šćepanović, 2016, p. 17) "Leadership and governance practices: School leaders are consistently strong in their support of DOL. DOL does not feature prominently or explicitly in strategic plans. School leaders state that a critical mass of committed and skilled teachers is necessary to carry forward changes in respect of DOL." (Brolpito, Lightfoot, Radišić, & Šćepanović, 2016, p. 20) "Collaboration and networking: Moodle is the LMS of choice in all the schools visited. BYOD is becoming commonplace, but no minimum functional specification is yet evident. Access to Wi-Fi varies widely: some networks are securely ‘locked down’ with no open access, while others are less restricted. A wide range of cloud-based storage is in use, but no specification or standardisation exists." (Brolpito, Lightfoot, Radišić, & Šćepanović, 2016, p. 22) "Content and curricula: DOL is evident across the curriculum in most subjects, but its expression is teacher-dependent. Only a hazy understanding of digital property rights and net-safe policies exists. Open-source repositories are being used by teachers." (Brolpito, Lightfoot, Radišić, & Šćepanović, 2016, p. 24) "Teaching and learning practices: In most schools about one third of teachers are keen DOL users, one third are beginning to incorporate DOL, and the remaining third carry on with existing practices and do not use DOL. Teachers are often strongly committed to DOL, but little transformational practice is in evidence in most cases. Social media sites are widely used by both teachers and students, mostly as a means of communication." (Brolpito, Lightfoot, Radišić, & Šćepanović, 2016, p. 25) " Assessment: A great deal of testing takes place in the LMS through the use of online tools and facilities. Assessment is mostly summative and fact-based; there is little assessment of application through, for example, e-portfolios. Impact assessment is mostly on the basis of school self-evaluation reports." (Brolpito, Lightfoot, Radišić, & Šćepanović, 2016, p. 25)