Teaching innovation and the skills gap in connected learning environments. A study of Higher Education Teachers from four European Universities

The digitalization of educational processes has raised a number of critical issues and nodes around which the Higher Education system has always questioned itself. The raising of teaching quality standards focused on the assimilation of student-centred pedagogical practices. Secondly, the importance of providing training for Higher Education Teachers, centred on the acquisition of technical and interpersonal skills, which are increasingly in demand within connected learning environments. The ADVICE (Erasmus+)/Advancing digital competence in Higher Education project is a scientific enterprise involving a network of four European Universities: University of Rome Sapienza; Collegium Civitas Polnska; University of Northampton; Agricultural University of Athens. The project raised reflection around methodological innovation implemented in the learning digital environments through a qualitative analysis of the innovative teaching strategies and practices of the European universities involved, launched in the 2021-2022 period. The technical and socio-relational skills gap, complained by the teachers interviewed, was assessed against a set of questions that reconstructed the context in which the learning had been delivered. This represents an interesting result from which evaluative guidelines and recommendations to be provided to stakeholders and decision makers involved in the European Higher Education system.