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OERs and MOOCs

Introduction

OERs over the last 20 years and MOOCs over the last 10 years have variously impacted higher education institutions worldwide. Whether they are used to extend existing modes of open education or as adjuncts to classroom based education they are seen as a means to increase the accessibility and quality of higher education and to provide lifelong and flexible training of the workforce. Indeed, the European Commission expects that open education in general and OERs and MOOs in particular will be a means to develop 21st century skills and to address the problem of early school leavers and high rates of unemployment (of younger adults). However there is much variation in how OERs and MOOCs are recognised and supported by countries and their higher education institutions alike. There is an ongoing need to review and synthesise best practice and provide guidance and orientation for institutions that would like to develop their own strategies regarding OERs and MOOCs.

Meet our experts on OERs and MOOCs
Andy Lane, Open University of the United Kingdom (OUUK) [CHAIR]

Andy Lane is the Emeritus Professor of Environmental Systems in the School of Engineering and Innovation at the Open University in the UK. He was most recently the Academic Director for the TIDE international development project which used open educational practices. Previously he was seconded as the founding Director of The Open University’s multi-award winning OpenLearn Initiative from 2006-09. He has taken a prominent role in the OU's work on Open Educational Resources and was the Senior Fellow in the Support Centre for Open Resources in Education at the OU from 2009-12. Internationally he has served as a Board member of the OpenCourseWare Consortium (now Open Education Consortium) from 2008-10 and been involved in a number of European OER initiatives such as MORIL and OER-HE. His research and scholarship covers systems of open education and takes the phenomenon of open education resources and extends that to open educational policies and practices and how that influences formal, non-formal and informal education for both classroom-based and distance learning-based HEIs. In 2021 he was awarded the ICDE Prize of Excellence for Lifelong Achievement in Open, Flexible and Distance Learning.

Frederik Truyen, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven)

Frederik Truyen (°1961) has a Phd in Philosophy (logic) and is professor at the Faculty of Arts, KU Leuven. He publishes on digitalization, photographic heritage and e-learning for the humanities. He is in charge of CS Digital. He is experienced in data modelling and metadata development for image databases in the cultural-historical field, and currently works on digital transformation issues in then GLAM/CHI sector. He is the president of Photoconsortium, an international membership organization for photographic archives. Truyen is treasurer of the Europeana Network Association and a member of DARIAH-VL.

He currently directs the programme of the Master in Digital Humanities. In the Cultural Studies Master Programme he teaches online publishing and digital cultural heritage. His main research focus is the digital transformation roadmap for cultural heritage institutions. He has been involved in setting up the e-learnign envoronment for KU Leuven and in the development of a MOOC strategy. 

 

Catherine Mongenet, France Université Numérique (FUN)

Catherine Mongenet is professor in Computer Science. From 2009 to 2012, she has been vice-president of the University of Strasbourg in charge of the digital strategy. In May 2013, she was appointed Policy Officer at the French Ministry of Higher Education in charge of the project “France Université Numérique”. The aim of this national project is to support the French universities to develop online education and promote innovative teaching and learning methods using digital and online tools. She was responsible for the development of one major project is this agenda: the FUN MOOC platform, launched in October 2013 and dedicated to French and Francophone universities and their international academic partners. Since September 2015, she is the CEO of the public organization that has been created to carry on the FUN platform. The objectives of this organization are to manage the platform and its evolutions, to develop new partnerships and activities, especially in the context of life-long learning education and to increase its Francophone and international visibility. 

Christian Dalsgaard, Aarhus University

Christian Dalsgaard is Associate professor at Aarhus University. His area of research is online education, and his fields of expertise includes open and flexible education, OER and MOOCs, and blended education. 

He participated in the Online Education: Coronacrisis support webinar April 21st. 

Paz Diez, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)

Paz is a esearcher in philology and education projects: “European Short Learning Programmes”, “Data-Driven Learning (DLL) for the English writing competence improvement. Pilot experience in MOOC, bachelor degree and master degree”, and “Gamification and ubiquitous learning in Primary Education. Development of a map of teaching, learning and parental competences and resources "GAUBI”. Candidate for PhD Research Personnel Training Aid on the Languages MOOCs line of research: “A study about the use of MOOCs in foreign languages learning: framework, strengths and weaknesses”. Scientific contributions published in educational journal and conference proceedings in language learning and MOOCs language learning areas https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4095-7881 

Esteban Vázquez-Cano, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)

Esteban is a professor of the Faculty of Education in the Department of Didactics and School Organization. PhD in Education with Extraordinary Doctorate Award. Vice Dean of Students Affairs, Internationalization and Social Education (2017-20). Director of the Master's Degree in Educational Inspection and Supervision at UNED; his priority lines of research are: Mobile-ubiquitous Learning, Digital Language and Open and Flexible Education, with more than 200 scientific contributions published on these topics (see Google Scholar, Scopus and Publons). Currently, he is the Project Coordinator of the Research Project entitled: "Gamification and ubiquitous learning in Primary Education. Development of a map of teaching, learning and parental competences and resources "GAUBI". (RTI2018-099764-B-100) (MICINN/FEDER) financed by FEDER (European Regional Development Fund) and Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of Spain. Associate Editor of the British Journal of Educational Technology (JCR Q1). He has been invited as technical committee of more than 60 conferences around the Word (Japan, USA, Canada, Turkey, UK, Chile, Morocco, China, Italy, Puerto Rico, Czech Republic, France, etc.). 

Jordi Claramonte, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)
Cengiz Hakan Aydin, Anadolu University
Nilgun Ozdamar Keskin, Aarhus University (AU)
Miguel Santamaria Lancho, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)
Mairéad Nic Giolla Mhichíl, Dublin City University (DCU)
Nicola Paravati, UNINETTUNO
Achilles Kameas, Hellenic Open University (HOU)

EMPOWER offers

EMPOWER experts can help you to develop an open education strategy for your institution. This strategy development takes into account the educational, organizational, legal, technical, economical and last but not least quality assurance aspect of open education. More specifically, the experts can support you in questions related to open licenses, platform hosting, accreditation, target group identification, educational and didactical approach and questions of deployment and support. The approach followed by the experts is based on European values like diversity in terms of culture and language and openness.

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