Previous research and practice have shown that the existing education system for future economists pays insufficient attention to the development of digital skills and competencies of teachers, and consequently, students. The ‘DIGI4Teach’ project was inspired by passive learning, a lack of out of the box thinking, and above all, insufficient use of digital technologies in education. This is precisely why the University of Zagreb Faculty of Economics, together with partners, launched a strategic partnership project titled ‘Challenges and practices of teaching economic disciplines in the era of digitalization’ (DIGI4Teach), which started in November 2020 and successfully concluded in April 2023, co-financed by the European Union through the ERASMUS+ program.
The importance of this topic is evidenced by the fact that the Agency for Mobility and EU Programs also recognized the idea and accepted funding for the international strategic partnership project – the exchange of good practices. The project was coordinated by the University of Zagreb – Faculty of Economics, and the project leader was Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sc. Nikolina Dečman.
Participants in the Project and Objectives
A total of eight partners from four countries (Croatia, Germany, Poland, and Serbia) participated in the project activities. Four partners are higher education institutions: the University of Zagreb – Faculty of Economics (HR), Cracow University of Economics (PL), The Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences – Faculty for Management, Culture and Technology (DE), and the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Economics (RS). The remaining four partners are secondary vocational economic schools: Prva ekonomska škola (HR), Druga ekonomska škola (HR), and Treća ekonomska škola (HR) from Zagreb, and Ekonomska, trgovačka i ugostiteljska škola (HR) from Samobor.
The main objectives of the ‘DIGI4Teach’ project included improving teaching skills and methods in various economic disciplines, with an emphasis on the era of digitalization, by sharing existing good practices and analyzing the use of new digital teaching and learning technologies in vocational education for economists. It has been shown that the exchange of good practices among project partners was an excellent recipe for successfully overcoming challenges related to the use of digital technologies in teaching economic disciplines.
The most important result of the project is certainly the significant improvement of digital competencies and skills of teachers necessary for teaching economic disciplines in the age of digital transformation. The achieved results were accomplished through the learning, teaching, and professional development of teachers and the exchange of good practices among partners. Specifically, four cycles of teacher training in the fields of accounting, finance, trade, and international business were successfully completed, and a three-day practical workshop on the application of digital tools in developing case studies with an emphasis on the ‘train the trainers’ approach was held at the Faculty of Economics – Zagreb. On the last day of the activities, the created case studies were tested with students in digital classrooms. Students were thrilled with this way of working and learning through gamification and the application of various digital tools.
