The Consortium of the Diverse Courses Project met on February 11th and 12th 2025 for their second Transnational Project Meeting in Portugal. In the beautiful facilities of the former black powder factory of Bacarena in Oeiras, the project partner Universidade Atlântica invited all members of the consortium to work on the current tasks and challenges of the project. In the two days, partners discussed a variety of topics:
Project management and SWOT analysis: The two-day working meeting was opened by the coordinating organisation FH JOANNEUM, which gave an overview of the current status of the project and an outlook of the project management for the coming months. The project consortium then devoted itself to a detailed and in-depth SWOT analysis of the current activities and results, which was developed by the Greek organisation DAFNIKEK, which is responsible for the quality management and evaluation agendas.
Manual of tools and personas tutorial: An important focus of the transnational project meeting was the exchange of experiences and the further development of results in Work Package 2, coordinated by the organisation Cramars from Italy. Following the successful realisation of courses in which didactic tools for understanding diversity in teaching were tested, the next step will be to create a ‘Diversity Mapping Tool’ manual, the structure of which was discussed together. The manual combines examples of good practice with implemented tools and provides instructions on how to select the appropriate tool for teaching. Cramars also presented a tutorial on developing personas, which was used and tested experimentally by all participants. Based on objective data, personas can be created in this tutorial in order to recognise diversity in the needs of students.
Excursion to the coast and Lisbon: On the evening of the first day, we went on a short excursion to the coast to the famous rock formation ‘La Boca del Inferno’ and also visited the beautiful city of Lisbon to walk around the Belem district and end the evening with a meal together.
Toolkit of Scenarios and dissemination activities: The second day of the project meeting was dedicated to the discussion of a toolkit of scenarios that are also currently being trialled and tested in teaching. The Portuguese Atlântica University, which is coordinating Work Package Three, presented the structure of the toolkit. Similar to the Manual, the Toolkit should showcase different didactical approaches in dealing with diverse needs in the classroom. In step-to-step guides, educators can learn how to adapt their materials and lectures to the diverse needs of the learners. The interactive platform, coordinated by the Spanish Organisation Fundación Docete Omnes, will disseminate all results and tools that the project created during the last months. You can take a look here: https://toolkit.diversecourses.eu/ The final conference will take place in Graz, Austria in September. In the build-up to this project closing event, the consortium will organize several workshops with stakeholders and interested people to disseminate and talk about diversity in adult education. The last big point on the agenda was the dissemination strategy and the publications that will come out of this project, coordinated by the Portuguese organisation Escola Profissional Amar Terra Verde. For more updates and info about the project you can follow the social media pages of Diverse Courses (Facebook, LinkedIn)
Outlook: The project consortium developed a variety of tools, good practices and guides on how to identify and deal with a diverse classroom setting. The following months will be used extensively to present these results to the public in order to achieve the projects’ goal of improving inclusion and diversity in adult education across Europe.
