4 Condensing the results –
Identifying the success factors
The final part of this report condenses the results detai - led above into three hypotheses. It also outlines what factors ensure a successful digital international youth work project. Hypothesis 1: Digital elements allow for more varied and more accessible international youth work formats. Offline and online elements can be combined in many different ways, translating into a wide variety of diffe - rent formats. Indeed the study showed that some of the projects examined cannot be easily assigned to defined categories such as “online”, “blended” or “hy - brid”. Rather, there are many different mixed types that incorporate a number of elements from each of these categories. Furthermore, the duration of the projects is quite varied. The length of some of the projects did not correspond to that of a typical in-person youth exchan - ges (between two and six days). Digital elements also enable greater accessibility provi - ded they remove certain forms of disadvantage. In the projects in scope, the following barriers to access were eliminated: no travel expenses, no dealing with travel restrictions, and less social and personal discomfort. Success factors • Thanks to digital formats in youth work, activities can be offered over a longer period of time. Their duration corresponds to the objectives that are to be reached in each case and is aligned with parti - cipants’ daily lives. • Offline and online elements are sensibly and care - fully combined. A set of criteria is in place to ensu - re this is the case. • The funding can be used for a broad range of di - gital formats. • When planning a project, new target groups are taken into consideration and a deliberate effort is made to reach out to them.
• New forms of disadvantage that arise when imple - menting digital elements are actively addressed. In the projects in scope, these were: lack of finan - cial resources, unstable internet connections and the exclusion of young people with hearing or visu - al impairments. Hypothesis 2: Digital formats require specific competences and resources. In all projects that were examined, selecting an appro - priate set of methods was a key challenge. Specific educational competences are required here to ensure that digital projects, too, meet existing quality criteria. For instance, it emerged that informal interactions and group dynamics acquire a different character when they take place online. Also, since participants have no opportunity to experience the partner country in an up-close-and-personal manner, a suitable environment has to be deliberately brought about so that they can familiarise themselves with the culture of the partner group. Meanwhile, online settings are challenging from a com - munication point of view because, e.g., participants cannot just speak spontaneously since they first need to switch on their camera and microphone. Specific competences are also required to encourage young people to actively participate in the session. Interaction levels are naturally lower in online settings than offline. For instance, the team leaders reported that fatigue tended to set in due to the lack of opportunities for interaction, or because certain activities took unusu - ally long. It must be considered that processes take longer online and that any delays or breaks that occur because of this cannot be bridged with informal chats or similar. Besides competences, specific resources are neces - sary to run digital projects. For one, human resources, that is, additional staff, such as a technical support per- son who can assist the educational team, or additional
15
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs