Teaching Innovation Groups
The creation of the European Higher Education Are, as well as the emergence of new standards in the field of universities, favoured the commitment of the University of Murcia to teaching innovation. From this perspective, the University decided to strengthen and give stability to the innovation-oriented work teams, configuring them as "Teaching Innovation Groups (GID)" in order to equate the teaching function with the research function that the teaching staff carries out through the "Research Groups", both of which define the work of the university teaching staff. The GID are stable work teams that collaborate around some lines adopted by the group, from among those proposed by the institution or accepted by it, with a commitment to their development and implementation for the sake of teaching innovation and improvement, having the Research Groups as a reference.
Of the 49 public universities analysed, only a quarter of them have found some reference to the existence of teaching Innovation Groups or to calls/procedures for the constitution of such groups. Most of these calls are open, and applications can be submitted at any time, as is the case at the University of Murcia. All GIDs will be attached to one or several lines of action among those established in the call at the time of making their request for creation as a group. The University of Murcia currently has the following priority lines of action
1. Promotion of virtual and semi-presential teaching.
2.Promotion of projects and actions of innovation and teaching improvement: Innovation in teaching methodologies designed for student learning and evaluation, extension of good practices, development of attention, orientation and tutoring mechanisms aimed at students.
3.Initiatives in favour of internationalisation and bilingualism in teaching.
4.Support to open education: Design, production and integration of open educational resources for teaching (Open Educational Resources), mobile learning (M learning), Flipped classroom.
5.Incorporation of technologies for face-to-face training: Use of social networks in learning.
6.Initiatives for the dissemination of the different trends of Open Access applied to teaching.
7.Other lines of action, subject to justification of the interest, relevance and suitability of the proposed line of action.
With this criterion, a protocol was drawn up at the University of Murcia for the creation of the GIDs and, based on this, a call was published in March 2016 for the recognition of the groups. During the 2015/16 academic year, the first call for the creation of teaching innovation groups was published and resolved, through which 111 GIDs were created, with the participation of more than 900 PDIs, including approximately 140 people who joined the group as collaborating personnel. At the end of 2018, a second call for the creation, modification and extinction of GIDs was published with the particularity of being a permanently open call so that interested parties can make their applications at any time. Since then, partial resolutions are made of the applications presented during the interval of dates decided by the Innovation Committee. In February 2022, the University of Murcia has 191 teaching innovation groups and 1,550 participants, including collaborators and temporary collaborators.
Evolution of Teaching Innovation Groups (2016-2022)
In all universities, the GID teaching teams are mainly made up of teaching and research staff. Within the GID there are four different figures: coordinator, members, collaborators and temporary collaborators. The management of the Teaching Innovation Groups (GID) is carried out, in almost all universities, through specific computer applications. The Teaching Innovation Groups (GID) of the University of Murcia are made up of more than 1300 participants.
PDI participant evolution in Teaching Innovation Groups (2016-2022)
Likewise, the University of Murcia has made an important commitment to include collaborators and temporary staff in these groups. In this way, in 2022 the Teaching Innovation Groups (GID) of the University of Murcia, have a number of more than 191 people who have joined the group as collaborators or temporary staff.
Evolution of collaborators and temporary collaborators in Teaching Innovation Groups (2016-2019)
Since 2019, the University of Murcia manages everything related to Teaching Innovation Groups (GID) through a specific application called INNOVAGID.
On the websites of Spanish universities, anyone interested in teaching innovation is invited to participate in a teaching innovation group. To do this, you must contact the person who coordinates the interest group(s), using the e-mail address indicated in each case. In the particular case of the University of Murcia, those interested may contact the GID coordinator directly or send a suggestion to the Innovation Unit e-mail address uni_innova@um.es
The information on the Innovation Groups that appears on the website of the Spanish universities is limited in most cases to the publication of the groups that have already been set up. This information contains the essential data such as the members that make up the group, the name of the group or the lines of action. In the particular case of the University of Murcia, it is possible to consult a list of the main Teaching Innovation Groups (GID) classified by field of activity in the following link.
https://www.um.es/web/innovacion/gid/listado
*This report has been prepared by the Innovation Unit of the University of Murcia from an exhaustive review of the data from the Conference of Rectors of Public Universities (CRUE). We inform you that any use, disclosure, distribution and/or reproduction of this information without express authorization is strictly forbidden under current legislation.
