From April to May 2020, more than 30 professionals from Romania and Greece trialled the first version of the Train-ASD e-Learning platform in order to provide feedback on how the training and its digital environment can better help teachers to support autistic children and individuals through alternative systems of communication. The final version of the platform will be officially launched by September 2020. Pilot Sessions

 

The trials have been carried out in two rounds, from April to May 2020, and on July 2020. From 30 Greek and Romanian professionals who participated on the trials, 20 provided with comments that allowed to improve the content and the functionality of the platform.

Apart from the pilot sessions, a “training the trainers” session was also organized in July 2020 with around 20 professionals and Train-ASD partners from Greece, Romania and Belgium. The meeting provides partners with some constructive feedback about the curriculum and the user-friendliness of the platform in order to reach a final version. Despite the session was originally planned to be a face-to-face, it was held online to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reflecting back on the pilot training, professionals (mostly special educators) greeted the quality and user-friendliness of the platform, and identified a lot of practical strategies and approaches from the training that they will put into practice in their classrooms:

  • “The content is well structured. The curriculum contains state-of-the-art knowledge that is accessible to different kind of learners, including mainstream and special education teachers, ABA therapists, parents, students, speech therapists, or school counselors.”
  • “The platform is interactive and animated by visuals that capture attention and facilitate the learning process.”
  • “The way the training is built makes the information easy to remember. It is user-friendly and the completion of the course does not take much time.”
  • “I did not encounter any technical problems when using the platform. The information was sufficient and useful. The presentation was easy to follow. I look forward to hear from other courses using the same format and presentation.”
  • “The platform Train-ASD is a modern learning tool. The platform has a dynamic and interactive structure. The information is very well organized and structured, which facilitates the learning process. Also, the evaluation questionnaires at the end of each module are useful for memorizing the information.”
  • “The platform had alternative courses, well- structured information, impact images, and also hyperlinks to videos for a deeper understanding of the lessons. In addition to the easy access information, helpful questions for understanding the given content were integrated throughout the course. Personally, I am satisfied with the course, especially since I went through each item. I found useful information about children with autism.”
  • “I completed the training in two days. I studied all the slides and I found them perfectly understandable, comprehensive and targeted. I did not encounter any difficulties during the training. I used three different devices (MacBook, iPad, iPhone) and all of them worked normally. I had access to the Train-ASD e-book and received the certificate of completion at the end.”