europe
Consultation on Opening Up Education Initiative Launched
The consultation on "Opening up Education - a proposal for a European Initiative to enhance education and skills development through new technologies", will explore the perceived need for EU action to promote the use of open educational resources (OER) in education.
From 13 August 2012 to 13 November 2012.
New technologies, in particular the internet, together with globalisation and the emergence of new education providers, are radically changing the way people learn and teach. Open access to education resources offers an unprecedented opportunity to enhance both excellence and equity in education. The EU aims to help both individual learners and education and training institutions in Member States to benefit from these opportunities and to increase their contribution to society.
In the last quarter of 2012, the Commission will present a Communication on Rethinking Skills aiming to increase the quantity, quality and relevance of skills supply for higher economic and social outcomes. This will, among other actions, announce a new EU Initiative on "Opening up Education": a proposal to exploit the potential contribution of ICTs and Open Educational Resources (OER) to education and skills development. This new EU initiative on "Opening up Education" will be the topic of a subsequent Communication in mid-2013.
View the consultation document 
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À propos MOOC: EU2C - the European Union explained
À propos MOOC: CIFE in cooperation with the Jean Monnet Chair for Political Science of the University of Cologne would like to develop web-based online courses on the EU. Have a close look here.
CIFE in cooperation with the Jean Monnet Chair for Political Science of the University of Cologne would like to develop web-based online courses on the EU.
Have a close look at https://moocfellowship.org/submissions/eu2c-the-european-union-explained-by-two-partners-cologne-and-cife Find the green "Abstimmen" (vote) button and CLICK.
We are applying for technical support to create a web-based online course on the EU.
The more clicks, the better our chances! Thanks for your support!
European MOOC Summit
Many European universities are engaging in MOOCs-related initiatives. Some host their MOOCs on US platforms, while others are developing their own platforms. What strategies do European universities employ?
The École Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) will host a meeting in June in preparation for the Fall 2013 Summit regarding Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) at European Universities.
The questions to be discussed include:
Why do European Universities engage in MOOCs? In which languages are they produced? Which audiences are targeted? How effective have the first MOOCs experiences in Europe been? Why should Europe have its own platform? How do MOOCs build upon existing online learning activities? How do regional, national or European governments see their role? What is the impact on mobility of European students? Which research initiatives are launched in Europe? What are the new business opportunities?
Key actors will gather at EPFL for two days of sharing information. On the first day, participants will have 5-10 minutes to present the state of affairs in his or her institution, i.e., what has been achieved so far and what are the key challenges. The second day will be structured around the themes that will emerge from the first day, such as those mentioned above.
Launch of the first pan-European MOOCs Initiative
Partners in 11 countries have joined forces to launch OpenupEd.eu, the first pan-European MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) initiative, with the support of the European Commission.
The European Commission welcomes the launch of the first pan-European university MOOCs initiative
Partners in 11 countries have joined forces to launch OpenupEd.eu, the first pan-European MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) initiative, with the support of the European Commission.
Around 40 courses, covering a wide variety of subjects, will be available free of charge and in 12 different languages in the portal www.OpenupEd.eu, officially launched on 25 April 2013. The initiative is led by the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) and mostly involves open universities based in France, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, UK, Russia, Turkey and Israel.
Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, launched the European MOOCs initiative in a webcasted international press event hosted by the Open Universiteit in the Netherlands. “This is an exciting development and I hope it will open up education to tens of thousands of students and trigger our schools and universities to adopt more innovative and flexible teaching methods”, she said. “We see this as a key part of the Opening up Education strategy which the Commission will launch this summer.”
Professor Fred Mulder, chair of the EADTU task force on open education and UNESCO chair in Open Educational Resources, is leading the initiative. "Our aim is to respond to the need for a more accessible system of higher education, which puts the learner at the centre. The European MOOCs will provide quality, self-study materials and a bridge between informal learning and formal education", he stressed.
For EADTU President, Will Swann, “the pan-European MOOCs initiative shows our collective passion to further innovate.”
The OpenupEd.eu free online courses range from mathematics to economics, e-skills to e-commerce, climate change to cultural heritage, corporate social responsibility to the modern Middle East, and language learning to writing fiction. Each partner is offering courses via its own learning platform and at least in its home language. Courses can be taken either in a scheduled period of time or anytime at the student's own pace.
All courses may lead to recognition: a completion certificate, a so-called badge, or a credit certificate that may count towards a degree. In the latter case, students have to pay for the certificate, with the cost ranging from € 25 to € 400.
EUNEC statements on the European Commission Communication ‘Rethinking education'
The European Network of Education Councils (EUNEC) has issued a statement as a reaction to the European Commission’s recent Communication “Rethinking education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes.”
On 20 November 2012 the European Commission published a set of policy recommendations to reinforce the cooperation between EU Member States and give a new impetus to education policy. The most important part of the proposal is the Communication “Rethinking education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes”, where the EC takes the opportunity to gather all aspects of European Education and Training policy in an encompassing framework and to give some new impetus.
As a first reaction to this Communication, EUNEC issued on April 2013 a document with comments and recommendations regarding the EC’s text, stressing the need for a broad approach of education and training policy.
“Sustainability, social cohesion, equal opportunities and a development oriented approach are as important as the labour market orientation. EUNEC cannot support an approach to Education and Training that is exclusively labour market oriented”, says the statement.
The lack of attention to the role of school communities and school groups in the Communication and the lack of transparency of the decisions are also issues of concern for EUNEC.
Online Master in EU Studies
This Master in EU Studies is offered by the Centre International de Formation Européene (CIFE) and the University of Cologne through a combination of e-learning and face-to-face sessions (mainly during weekends in Berlin, Brussels, Istanbul, Rome and Budapest).
This Master in EU Studies Online, a two year programme, gives participants a working knowledge of recent developments in the European integration process and the skills to negotiate within an international context, to draft reports, to plan and manage international projects, and to present their ideas in a transnational legal dimension. Deadline for the online application is 5 September 2013. A limited number of scholarships are awarded to eligible candidates to cover part of their tuition. More information, see: http://www.eu-online-academy.org/
A European Commission call for Visionary Papers on the future of “Open Education” and the use of OER
The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) --part of the Joint Research Center of the European Commission- in a study for Directorate General Education and Culture -- is now calling upon experts and practitioners to come up with visionary papers and imaginative scenarios on how Open Education in 2030 in Europe might look with a major focus on Open Educational Resources and Practices.
Open Educational Resources (OER) and Practices (OEP) have recently become hot topics, not only for educational researchers, but also for policy makers in Europe and abroad. There is a general agreement that openness has the potential to widen access to education and to improve, amongst others, cost-efficiency and quality of teaching and learning. In its recent Communication on Rethinking Education, the European Commission announced a new initiative on "Opening-up Education" to be launched mid-2013.
To this end, the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS)--part of the Joint Research Center of the European Commission- in a study for Directorate General Education and Culture--is now calling upon experts and practitioners to come up with visionary papers and imaginative scenarios on how Open Education in 2030 in Europe might look with a major focus on Open Educational Resources and Practices, in each of the following education sectors:
The University of Tuscia (Italy) Joins the Agricultural Competences Project (AGRICOM)
The University of Tuscia (UNITUS) based in Viterbo, Italy has just joined the AGRICOM consortium, providing expertise in Italian agriculture and food production, as well as forestry and energy efforts.
The full first version of the AGRICOM Competence Model (ACM) was developed by the end of the first project year and is now undergoing extensive testing in AGRICOM partner countries. Now, the University of Tuscia (UNITUS) will coordinate the Italian portion of pilot-testing phase. Their efforts will complement the on-going pilot-testing in the other countries like Germany, Greece, and the Netherlands. Together, their results will demonstrate a variety of national implementations and applications.
For the lastest AGRICOM updates, please visit the project website, Facebook page, or Twitter account.
LINQ Conference 2013: Deadline for Papers and Projects Approaching
Participants in the 2nd European Conference on "Learning Innovations and Quality" (LINQ 2013) are encouraged to submit their entries as soon as possible, before the March 4th, 2013 deadline. Paper or project templates are available on the LINQ website.
The extended submission period for scientific papers and research project descriptions to be presented at the 2nd European Conference on "Learning Innovations and Quality" (LINQ 2013) will come to an end on March 4th 2013. Submissions of papers related to the conference (max eight pages) must be sent by March 4th, 2013, using the official LINQ template. Submitters will be informed of their acceptance by the 20th of April 2013.
LINQ 2013, which will take place at the Global Headquarters of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy, has already attracted submissions from throughout Europe, as well as Asia, America, and Africa.
The LINQ 2013 call for papers invites all experts and practitioners to contribute through the submission of high-quality papers related to the following topics:
- Innovations and future trends in Learning, Education and Training (LET)
- Quality improvement and learning outcome orientation in LET
- Harmonization of innovations and quality development in LET
- Digital resources, online repositories and metadata for online objects
- Web 2.0, Social Media and Online Communities for LET
- Open access, open educational resources and user-generated content
- Technology‐Enhanced Learning for schools, universities and lifelong learning
- Learning quality in vocational education and training and HR
- Implementation of learning innovations and quality improvements
- Knowledge, innovation and ideas management in LET contexts
- Standardisation of LET design, production and services
- Quality management, standards, and certification in LET
- Competence and skills development in lifelong learning
- Quality and standardization of learning assessment and evaluation
For the latest information on the conference and to submit any pre-conference feedback, please visit the LINQ Facebook page and follow the LINQ Twitter account.
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