INNOVATUR – Expected Impacts of the Project

This project is expected to impact positively in the quality of teaching skills of academic staff of both universities and in the learning outcomes of undergraduate students in the field of sustainable and smart cities. It also expects to impact positively in the way both universities cooperate with local external stakeholders towards the improvement of the tourism sector.

The project outcomes will be evaluated after self-evaluations or surveys conducted with representatives of stakeholder groups, including the academic staff of both universities and from other universities, undergraduate students, representatives of ´public institutions dealing with the tourism sector, representatives of private companies and entrepreneurs acting as tourism developers, representatives of tourism associations, among others.  Some interviews involving key staff members of the project and representatives of key stakeholder groups may be considered during the multiplier events.

The publications to be elaborated during the project (the four intellectual outputs) will be made FREELY available through this project website and through the project section in the website of both universities to all stakeholder groups after the project ends.

The professionals from academia who will have access to the intellectual outputs are expected to be inspired with the supply of new educational content, innovative teaching methods and tools and be driven for a change in their current teaching approach. The academic staff will also feel better prepared to undertake future initiatives aimed at modernizing the academic curricula by incorporating citizenship values, tourism inclusiveness and sustainable entrepreneurship in rural tourism and community-based tourism destinations.

Additionally, as part of the dissemination activities, the team will describe the project objectives and its outcomes in a publication that will later be used as a relevant reference for a paper to be presented in an international conference related to modernization in science education and research. This will allow further development of initiatives in this thematic area with a wider impact.

The expected impacts of the project will be perceived through developed generic skills related to interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral collaboration and challenge-based learning processes in the field of sustainable and smart tourism. The attainment of skills will be evaluated on the basis on online self-evaluation surveys conducted after each peer learning activity (LA). The self-evaluation will assess whether the participant has a better understanding of the topics covered in each LA.

After the project ends both universities are expected to foster joint collaboration towards the improvement of higher education in the postgraduate level through other European grant schemes. The project is also intended to launch a deeper inter-institutional collaboration with external stakeholders on education and applied research related to smart and sustainable tourism.