The BLISS project aims to respond, with an integrated intervention from both an educational and a social point of view, to the 'need for health', which is closely linked to the need for tools to find, analyse and understand health news. Skills that are part of the so-called 'digital health literacy', as defined by the WHO.

The aim is to promote innovative pedagogical strategies in the context of digital transformation by offering a training course aimed primarily at teachers but which will then benefit secondary school students from 6 European countries.

Given the strong increase in the use of digital technologies, both as a reaction to the isolation (due to the years of the Covid-19 pandemic) and as a consequence of all those activities -training and non-training - that have gone digital (DAD included), the project will provide training paths and content on digital health learning that are accessible, understandable and engaging.

The course, combining the use of Open Educational Resources (OER), interactive online material and a MOOC course for teachers, will enable beneficiaries to take advantage of online interaction, collaboration tools and peer-to-peer learning opportunities.

BLISS, therefore, by offering an innovative pedagogical path in an as yet unexplored field of education, intervenes at European level in the professional development of teachers, creating the preconditions for the development of new skills in students, promoting a safer and more responsible use of the web.

Aiming at the development of basic digital skills and critical thinking, BLISS therefore intends to strengthen students' ability to move with awareness and confidence in the world of online health information.

The project will enable tomorrow's citizens to better manage their health and illness, improve prevention, enable more accurate diagnosis and treatment, and facilitate communication with health professionals. This will lead to a spin-off not only in terms of education and training, but also in social terms, as the correct use of health-related sources and information enables more correct behaviour towards health services and healthier lifestyles.

BLISS aims to contribute to the development of Digital Health Literacy in Europe through targeted training, documentation and experimentation actions in the school sector.

The specific objectives that the project aims to achieve are as follows:

1. Define a digital health literacy framework (Methodological Framework for Digital Health@School) to make it easier for teachers and pedagogical/didactic school staff to plan and propose flexible and responsive training paths for high school students, many of whom come into contact with health-related issues during adolescence.
2. Develop and test a modular training pathway, mapped on the previous framework, which aims at advancing digital health literacy at European level by focusing on the proliferation of virtuous processes of collective awareness, peer learning and crowdsourcing.
3. To create a set of training tools (training toolkit) that can be used in face-to-face and distance learning for the formulation of eHealth educational pathways, including a "European Health Charter", a code of conduct with recommendations on how to promote health literacy in schools.

Aims and objectives

The aim of the project is to promote innovative pedagogical strategies in the context of digital transformation by offering a training course aimed primarily at teachers and school staff, which will then benefit the respective secondary school students.

The project aims to train about 300 teachers in 5 European countries on digital health issues, through an innovative online training course (MOOC) that will involve teachers first and then students through interactive and workshop activities in each of the participating countries.

This training course will use the teaching materials available on the BLISS online platform, where training materials for teachers and students will be uploaded, resulting from the work of the European experts involved in the project.

The steps of the training course

1. First phase: training of teachers and school staff - Training will be delivered via MOOCs (Massive Online Open Course) for a total of 40 hours of training (including viewing of videos, documents, in-depth analysis, infographics, slides).

The MOOC is to be used between January and May 2024. The teachers will be supported by experienced trainers (digital mentors), trained in the BLISS methodology, who can be contacted via a special chat set up on the BLISS platform, where they will answer technical and educational questions and queries.

2. Second phase - Classroom experimentation (toolkit and piloting) - From February to May 2024, until the end of the school year, the trained teachers will apply the skills learnt in experimental training courses with their classes.

In preparation for classroom testing, training is available in a dedicated section on the MOOC, lasting about 2 hours for each module.

3. Third phase - Conclusion of the piloting and creation of information campaigns by the classes. At the end of the pilot, participants will not only have the opportunity to learn and experience how to use the training toolkit, but will also be able to create and share digital campaigns. Schools will then be invited to present all their information campaigns through virtual presentations and/or streaming links.

As a further step, all partners, supported by the data collected by the digital mentors during the pilot phase, will work together to produce a document with recommendations and guidelines for the transferability and up-scaling of the project results, included in the Operational Manifesto. This final document will be called the "European Charter for Health", as it will contain the basic principles for good and correct digital health information and guidelines for the implementation of digital health literacy pathways in schools and other educational contexts (PR4).

4. Fourth phase - Awarding of the winning classes and dissemination of the results. The digital campaigns created during the testing phase will then be the subject of the "contest for the best information/communication campaign", whose winners (1 student and 1 teacher per country) will be present during the final event in Brussels (June-July 2024).

This international event will also be an opportunity to discuss the final version of the European Health Charter produced during the entire project.