Open Source
Berlin-based start-up sets up digital campus
Seven digit funding enables global expansion after a successful beta phase
Starting this September, professors and students will gain access to a novel online collaboration network called iversity. $1.6 million dollars of venture capital from the European Union, the federal state of Brandenburg and BMP media investors allow for a thorough redesign and development of the online platform.
“This funding provides us with a sizeable launch pad. It enables us to present a world-class product this fall,” says iversity's founder Jonas Liepmann.
More than 11,000 users registered at www.iversity.org during the beta phase. Their feedback is now driving the redesign process. The new iversity website will go live in September 2011. Until then, it is possible to sign up for early access on iversity.org.
Using iversity, lecturers can easily organize courses, research projects and conferences, all for free. Moreover, iversity also provides students with tools for interaction and collaboration that standard e-learning systems do not provide. According to Jonas Liepmann, “iversity offers, what I always felt was lacking during my own studies – possibilities for real student collaboration outside the classroom.”
Thus, iversity addresses one of the key problems of universities in the age of mass higher education.
Co-founder Hannes Klöpper notes that “iversity appears at exactly the right point in time. For example, in Germany, not only is the number of incoming students rising year over year, but changes in the high school system in some federal states means that two full year groups will enter universities this year. Rather than just sitting alongside each other in anonymous lectures, iversity enables students to learn from and with each other online.”
About iversity
Twenty international young graduates from a variety of academic backgrounds make up the iversity team. They have studied, amongst others, at the Universities of Cambridge, Columbia, Duke, Princeton, the Humboldt Universität, the Freie Universität Berlin, the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris and the National University of Singapore. Together, they set their goal to develop an academic infrastructure fit for the digital age.
Press Contact:
Hannes Klöpper
h.kloepper@iversity.org
Mobil: +49 (0)170 239 07 56
Büro: +49 (0)30 57 70 93 – 38
iversity GmbH
Dahlwitzer Straße 78
15366 Neuenhagen
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Die Nutzung unseres online E-Learning Programms der Kunstgeschichte ist kostenlos. Unser erstes Angebot konzentriert sich auf die Kunststadt Venedig mit Kursen, die auch als offline-Kurse (Apps) nach und nach angeboten werden. Sie können nach dem Bausteinprinzip Ihre eigenen Kurse zusammenstellen.
Crowdfunding und Social Payments - Im Anwendungskontext von Open Educational Resources
Mit dem Internet haben sich neue Formen der Finanzierung etabliert: Crowdfunding und Social Payment sind zwei neue Varianten, mit denen versucht wird, mit zahlreichen UnterstützerInnen und Kleinbeträgen größere Unternehmungen zu ermöglichen. Zu solchen Unternehmungen gehören auch die Erstellung offener Bildungsressourcen (Open Educational Resources, kurz OER), also frei zugängliche und nutzbare Lern- und Lehrmaterialien: Auch sie müssen finanziert, sollen aber nicht verkauft werden. In dieser Projektarbeit führt die Autorin zunächst in Crowdfunding und Social Payment ein und zeigt dann, wie diese bei offenen Bildungsressourcen genutzt werden können.
Success stories and examples of best practice
ICDE has launched a call for short articles demonstrating the successes of open and distance education as part of the organizations work to contribute to the development of new methodologies and technologies.
This area of the ICDE website will be dedicated to articles on activities which demonstrate the successes of open and distance education as part of the organization's work to contribute to the development of new methodologies and technologies. The Success Stories database aims to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and best practice and motivate further initiatives by providing exposure for institutions worldwide which have successfully utilized the potential of open and distance education. Call for success stories ICDE has launched a call for short articles demonstrating the successes of open and distance education as part of the organizations work to contribute to the development of new methodologies and technologies. Articles are welcome which: Demonstrate key achievements through the use of ODE Describe how ODE was successfully embraced Show how an institution has created the prerequisites for a quality flexible learning experience Describe how individual learners overcame obstacles to learning
A Basic Guide to Open Educational Resources (OER)
A summary of the key issues as FAQs: to provide readers with a quick and user-friendly introduction to Open Educational Resources (OER) and some of the key issues to think about when exploring how to use OER most effectively. Plus: A comprehensive analysis of these issues. And: A set of appendices, containing more detail.
Open Educational Resources for social inclusion
This special issue explores Open Educational Resources (OER) and the ways in which they can be used to support social inclusion, one of the key challenges that needs to be addressed in today’s technologically rich digital environment (Conole, 2011). This fits well with the scope of Distance Education in terms of reporting on research in open, distance and flexible learning, as OER are a key mechanism for supporting these different types of learning, as well as learning across formal and informal educational contexts.
Content of this special issue
This special issue calls for papers, reflections, reviews, and reports focusing on the relationship between OER and social inclusion, as well as looking at ways in which OER might be used to promote social inclusion. We welcome both theoretical as well as positional papers, and also empirical case studies of practice. Key questions to address include:
- Who is using OER? Why? Where? What factors can explain the growth (or lack of growth) of OER use?
- How are new open, social and participatory media and OER being used in learning and teaching? In what ways are they leading to social inclusion/exclusion? In what ways can they be harnessed to promote social inclusion?
- What digital literacy skills do learners and teachers need to make effective use of these technologies and resources? To what extent are they evident and how can they be developed?
- What is the impact on organizations of these new technologies and resources? What are their implications for institutional structures and roles?
- How can we design OER more innovatively to harness the potential of these new technologies and resources? What new approaches might be used?
- How are the ways in which learners and teachers communicate and collaborate changing with the use of these technologies?
- How can we create effective new digital learning environments to promote the use of OER? How can informal learning using OER be assessed and accredited?
- What kinds of policy directives are in place to promote social inclusion through the use of OER and how effective are they?
Also welcome are:
- empirical studies of the use of OER and a reflection on the implications for promoting social inclusion
- empirical studies on examples of social exclusion or inclusion in learning and teaching using OER
- reports on case studies or educational programs using new technologies and OER in novel ways to enhance and support student creativity
- critical theoretical approaches to transferring modern social, community, and private learning practices to educational contexts
- explorations around the design and use of OER.
Guest editor: Professor Gráinne Conole, The Open University/University of Leicester, United Kingdom
Submitting your proposal
Submit your proposal to Gráinne Conole (g.c.conole@open.ac.uk).