Student-centered learning and teaching is requirement 3 in the Graduate Program certification process and has an important part in enhancing students’ motivation, self-evaluation and in their active participation in the learning process. This entails continuous monitoring of the application of study programs and the evaluation of their results.

The application of student-centered learning and teaching among other things:

• It respects student diversity and takes care of their various needs, by adopting flexible learning directions
• It studies and uses different ways of lecture delivery, depending on the case
• It uses a variety of pedagogical methods in a flexible way
• It regularly evaluates the course delivery methods and the application of pedagogical methods and intervenes in a regulatory way for their improvement
• It regularly evaluates the quality and effectiveness of the teaching work, especially as documented by its evaluation by students
• It enhances the student’s feeling of autonomy, while at the same time assuring his adequate guidance and support by the professor
• It promotes mutual respect in the student-professor relationship
• It applies procedures for the management of students’ complaints

MODIP promotes the cultivation of a student-centered learning culture in the academic departments of D.U.Th by devising a special strategy (RN:DUTH/MODIP/63916/27-8-2020 decision by MODIP with subject: “Approval of strategy for the implementation of study-centered learning goals”) which is summarized as follows:

1. Sending to the academic Departments for data collection the check list questionnaire about student-centered learning by ESU translated by a committee appointed by the MODIP of D.U.Th. (.xlsx)
2. Recording the Student-centered learning practices
3. Ανάλυση αποτελεσμάτων για κάθε ακαδημαϊκό Τμήμα.
4. Individual suggestions for each Department based on results.
5. Monitoring the implementation progress and detection of possible change in Department practices..
6. Qualitative evaluation of change.

Additionally, on 14-12-2020 MODIP carried out a webinar with the title: Documentation of the student-focused learning application in D.U.Th.

Presentation (.pdf)

Questionnaire (.xlsx)

The Centre of Teaching and Learning (https://ctl.duth.gr/) is a novelty of the Democritus University of Thrace with the mission to support the design of the teaching approach of courses promoting innovative, alternative teaching practices, assisting the teaching work provided by the Institution and enhancing good practices, while it assists the teaching staff and the students by uploading rich documentation material and digital resources, organizing thematic symposiums and seminars, focused trainings and diffusing information regarding policies for the design of the study programs of the Departments

Useful material issued by the Centre of Teaching and Learning:

• Poster about effective distance learning 
• Guide for distance learning 
• Teaching Transformation in Higher Education

An article by the President of MODIP, Professor Zoe Gavriilidou, entitled “Beyond snapshots of student performance: How to promote institutional assessment literacy” (22/01/2022) was published on the EUA “Expert Voices” online platform, which includes comments and analysis for the higher education and research sector in Europe.

Democritus University of Thrace participated for the first time in one of the thematic groups of the European University Association (https://eua.eu/), which worked during the year 2020 on the theme “Approaches in learning and teaching to promoting equity and inclusion”. The conclusions of this thematic group are summarized in the following electronic version:

  Approaches in learning and teaching to promoting equity and inclusion

The findings of the thematic group were presented on 18 February 2021 in a special meeting, in the framework of EUA’s “2021 European Learning & Teaching Forum”, held online on 18 – 19 February 2021. One of the three moderators of the meeting was the President of MODIP, Professor Zoe Gavriilidou.

Also, Democritus University of Thrace participates in the DIGI-HE Project of the European University Association (EUA), which explores different ways in which higher education institutions can strengthen their strategic approaches to digitally enhanced learning and teaching.

In the framework of the DIGI-HE Project, D.U.Th. participated in:

a) in research on “Digitally enhanced learning and teaching in European Higher Education Institutions” by completing an extensive questionnaire. The specific survey, in which a total of 368 European universities took part, (including three more Greek universities – OPA, AUTH, Open University) aimed to identify the different ways applied by higher education institutions in order to strengthen their strategic approaches for tele – learning and tele-education with the aim of improving them.

The results of the survey were summarized in the following online publication:

 Digitally enhanced learning and teaching in European Higher Education Institutions

b) in a Workshop on 19-10-2021 on the topic: “Developing a high-performance digital education ecosystem: Strategy and organizational culture”.

As part of the DIGI-HE project, it was developed the following report, for which four universities collaborated, with the aim of supporting higher education institutions to develop and strengthen their strategy regarding the use of digital media in the educational process. More specifically, 20 tools designed for the self-evaluation of higher education institutions around the world in Digitally Enhanced Learning and Teaching (DELT) are presented.

  Developing a high performance digital education ecosystem – Institutional self-assessment instruments

The Democritus University of Thrace, following the actions of MODIP of D.U.T.h., submitted a proposal to participate in the LOTUS (Leadership and Organisation for Teaching and Learning at European Universities) program of the EUA (https://eua.eu/resources/projects/786-lotus.html) funded by the European Union. Through a demanding judgment process, with great competition, our university was selected to participate in the Program.

The objectives of the LOTUS Program are the following:

• Strengthen the capacity of higher education institutions to develop and implement structured and systematic approaches to enhancing learning and teaching.
• Providing opportunities for institutional representatives of the selected institutions to share experiences and discuss strategy development and implementation, capacity building and change management in learning and teaching in their institutions.
• Assist selected institutions to implement their own strategic priorities through a learning and solving approach

At D.U.Th. quality in teaching and learning is a strategic goal that we serve with consistency and coordinated actions (establishment of GRADIM DUTH, peer learning working groups for equality and inclusion, implementation of student-centered learning questionnaires, experiential workshops, participation of MODIP in EUA), while at the same time we participate in European fora that set up a strategy!

    The presentation of the President of MODIP, Professor Zoe Gavriilidou and the coordinator of GRADIM of DUTH, Associate Professor Aikaterini Kedraka, at the 3rd meeting of the LOTUS Program held on 10/12/2021 (.pdf)

    The LOTUS study report on national developments in learning and teaching in Europe was published (16/02/2022) and is available (.pdf). The report analyzes important and recent national policies and initiatives aimed at supporting the improvement of learning and teaching in 30 countries of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA)