Category Archives: News about ECO

Sep 20

ECO Project Webinar on “Sustainable Business models for MOOCs: the need for cross-institutional cooperation” on Sep 28

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Business models for MOOCs – realistic and sustainable. Is that possible? We think so, and we’d like to share our points of view. If you want to increase your expertise in the matter,  do not miss the next ECO Project webinar  on 28 September 2016, 10:30-12:00 CEST.  Hosted by EADTU, a series of ECO Project experts will lecture on the wide range of opportunities provided by MOOCs as a globally integrated tool for education-focused business.

webinar-sep-01

Simply provide your name and email here to join the webinar. When using Clickmeeting app for smartphones or tablets you need to provide the following Room-ID 389-241-428 (and for some apps also Participant PIN 967889#). Note that the webinar will be recorded.

Agenda of the webinar
10:30-10:45:   Introduction on MOOCs, their European dimension and ECO project
by Darco Jansen (EADTU)

10:45-11:00:    How to make / keep MOOC provision sustainable?
– overview possible business models from different stakeholders perspectives
– what services should / must be provided at a decentralised level and what at a
centralised level
by Darco Jansen (EADTU)

11:00-11:15:    Promotion of social inclusion and intercultural values through ECO decentralized models
by Angela Benavides Barahona (UNED)

11:15-11:30:    ECO MOOC offering at decentralised MOOC level: services on pedagogical approach
and quality assurance
by Divina Meigs (U Paris 3-Sorbonne)

11:30-11:45:    An overview of the ECO architecture
– how did we manage to integrate 6 different MOOC platforms?
– how can you plug your own MOOC platform into this architecture?
by Kjeld Loozen (Reimer IT Solutions B.V.)

11:45-12:00:   How to become a business partner of ECO
by Vicente Montiel Molina (Tabarca Consulting)

Jul 20

ECO partners discuss Project final stages in Milan

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ECO Consortium held their sixth biannual meeting in Milan (Politecnico di Milano) on July 13-14, 2016. With the project running at full throttle on its third, final year, some critical issues were discussed, such as further improvements on quality research, new MOOCs from e-teachers, dissemination campaigns on Social Media, Associate Partners joining the project, and some interesting options to ensure continuation and development after ECO’s project life in January 31th, 2017.

Currently on its 30th month, ECO project is fully developed and growing fast. Participation figures have been achieved and efforts are currently focused on the increasing number of new MOOCs designed and developed by e-teachers, which enrich ECO catalogue . Also, ECO is raising interest among educational institutions and companies worldwide, and a number of agreements are being signed. The new members usually join the project as Associate partners and contribute with their own MOOCs, specifically designed to meet ECO’s quality standards and pedagogical approach.

Partners will hold a final meeting in January, 2017, right before ECO ends its project life. By then, the future features of ECO will have been planned and discussed in detail.

Milan meeting

Author: Ángela Benavides (UNED)

Jul 20

Webinar: “Socially inclusive pedagogical models for MOOCs”

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Last Wednesday, 27th of July, at 10:30 (CEST) our partner EADTU (European Association of Distance Teaching Universities), coordinated the second ECO webinar in our series: “Socially inclusive pedagogical models for MOOCs“. During this 90-minute webinar, teachers from different university partners of ECO Consortium elaborated on the need of an adjusted pedagogical model for MOOCs such as to achieve the aim to use MOOC to provide quality education to all.

Screen shot of webinar WP4 presentation

Below you can find the slides used by the speakers in order of presentation:

For those of you who could not attend now you can watch the whole session recording on our YouTube Channel:

Jul 06
ECO MOOC

Social Learning Environments for MOOC Learning

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On the 15th of June, representatives of the ECO project organised a workshop on social learning at one of the most relevant MOOC conferences in Europe, the EDEN Conference in Budapest:

ECO to host workshop at EDEN

ECO hosting a workshop at EDEN on Social Learning

The ECO-workshop was entitled “Social environments for Learning: Using commercial networks versus internal platform functionalities in the ECO project.”

and was prepared and conducted by:

  • Convenors: Divina Frau Meigs, Adeline Bossu, Sorbonne Nouvelle
  • Moderator: Sünne Eicher, SE, ECO Project

Social Learning as an accelerator
MOOCs are an essential part of open education and highly effective tool for social inclusion. The very nature of the massive, open learning modules such as proposed by ECO and other MOOC providers creates a socially inclusive platform. In addition, the ECO MOOC designers created modules that derive their learning models based on peer reviews and learning by sharing knowledge. In this workshop, social learning within the ECO Project is being used actively in the global MOOC Step by Step, which teaches the participants and future eTeachers how to create their own MOOC module. Knowledge sharing between is an essential part of the social learning premise of this MOOC.

ECO Workshop Content at EDEN MOOC Conference

In this workshop ECO discussed the controversial use of commercial social networks within learning environments, where privacy and traceability, are an issue in proposing this format.

Understanding the dynamics of such participatory tools is crucial to social MOOCs. They are a vital part of the 34 ECO MOOCs.

Participants were invited to share, compare, and comment on their own practices and ideas. Questions that were asked the workshop participants:

  • How to keep the potential of social networks while building learning and educational competences?
  • What is the right balance between commercial and non-commercial uses in sMOOC pedagogical design?
  • Are social networks valid tools that contribute to constructivist forms of knowledge?
  • What new learning strategies can emerge from such network effects?…

The presented went on to comment on the democratic foundings of the ECO MOOC design and the importance of ubiquitous and social learning in this context.

The workshop was very well received and attended.

Jun 27

ECO attends Policy Forum on European MOOCs

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Tomorrow, 28th of June, our partner Universidad de Oviedo, represented by Santiago Fano, is taking part in the Policy Forum on European MOOCs, organized by EADTU and HOME (Brussels, Dutch House of Provinces). As stated on the project’s website: “The forum will contribute to better position decision makers to understand the “MOOC phenomenon” and capitalise on the advantages of these large-scale courses and use them as a strategic opportunity to help meet local needs and develop related capacities.”

Santi Fano will take part in the panel “Shared MOOC services: regional, European or global level?” along with other project’s representatives, such as the French MOOC service provider, FUN. His policy paper “MOOC Development Policies: The ECO Project in the European and Spanish Context” is available (p. 78) at the full publication “European Policy Response on MOOC opportunities“.

310518_Events_website_ECO-policy forum

Image taken from http://home.eadtu.eu/news/109-policy-forum-on-european-moocs

 

Jun 23

Award to the MOOC “Digital Literacy for Groups in Risk of Social Exclusion” at Innodoct

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Innodoct is an International Conference about Innovation, Documentation and Teaching Technologies that has taken place in Valencia the days 18- 20 of May 2016. The aim of this conference is to provide a forum for teachers,  researchers and professionals that allows sharing their investigations, actual projects, results and challenges and discussing ideas related with New Technologies of Information and Communication; it also will allows sharing innovations and methodologies applied to Education and to Investigation.  In the context of this conference the eTIC team of the University of Oviedo has presented the communication “Teaching Innovation in the training about Digital Literacy for groups in risk of social exclusion” where the teaching roles of the MOOC “Digital Literacy for groups in risk of social exclusion” of the project ECO Learning is analysed, this shows the possibilities that social networks open for teaching innovation through the strengthening of the paper of teaching teams that develop massive online training, which finally is one of the challenges that are considered currently in this area.

This paper  has gotten a double recognition in Innodoct: the award for the best paper and the award for the best video presentation. The awarded video sums up the most relevant aspects of the  paper and shows the experience developed has teachers in the MOOC about Digital Literacy of groups in risk of social exclusion of the ECO Project.

Please, use YouTube’s self-winding translation to read the subtitles of the video in English.

Author: Isabel Hevia (Universidad de Oviedo)

Apr 01

Learn Spanish while travelling with ECO Project e-teachers’ new MOOC

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After a MOOC-based, specific training, participants in the educational, EU-funded ECO project have turned into e-teachers: they have designed, developed and now prepare to launch their own MOOCs. Among the first four courses ready to open up on April 5th, one may prove essential for a holiday in Spanish-speaking countries. Would you like to try?

Español para viajeros (Spanish for travellers) is an accessory course of Spanish as a Foreign Language, focusing on communicational situations likely to take place while travelling in Spain. Scenes and featured situations can be personalized according to participants’ interests and preferences.

The MOOC targets intermediate level students of Spanish as a Foreign language (A2-B1 according to CEFR) planning to visit a Spanish-speaking country and hoping to improve their language skills on real-life, travelling-focused situations.

Forum boards and Social media are essential tools in this course, aimed at promoting interactive and learning of both spoken and written Spanish. Team work and peer-to-peer assessment will also enhance the participant’s capacity to develop learning skills in a self-sufficient, collaborative way, according to the MOOC designers.

The teaching team consists of educators from all paths of life, who previously completed a number of ECO Project MOOCs, mandatorily including the “sMOOC Step by Step”, through which they got capacitation to later develop their own social MOOCs. ECO Consortium provides them with virtual space to host the courses, which are now part of the project’s catalogue. All further information on how to become an e-teacher is available on ECO-learning website. .

For those already fluent in Spanish, there will be three other MOOCs available on April 5th as well: Road sMOOC: Un viaje Eduktransformador on edu-communication; Running Saludable 2.0 which implements technology and social media to improve daily training routines for amateur runners and Introducción a la escritura científica: Retos y potencialidades del entorno digital, a tutorial on scientific writing texts.

Meanwhile, the latest edition of ECO MOOC pilots is successfully unfolding. All 11 updated courses (among 25 in the catalogue) are midway its tutorized period and, therefore, open for all those interested!

Mar 03

ECO reloaded with Brand new MOOC releases & updates

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Enrollments are open for a new edition of ECO Project’s MOOCs, to be launched on Monday, March 7th. ECO’s catalogue has been enriched with updated editions of the most successful MOOCs and 2 brand new courses.

The new MOOCs, in Spanish, focus on cutting-edge topics such as applications of robotics and computational thinking to digital education and entrepreneurship and social network management in professional environments.

Eight other, improved editions ECO MOOCs will be relaunched on March 7th. Among them are several courses focused on enhancing teachers’ competences, a community Management training and ECO’s successful MOOC aimed at preparing for B1 level English exams.

The MOOC on Videos for teaching Learning and Communication, developed by Manchester University in English, will be also reopened and tutored from March 7th onwards.

Likewise, all systems go for a new edition of ECO’s transversal ´sMOOC Step by Step´, available in 6 languages (English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and German). Created according to an innovative pedagogical approach, the sMOOC Step by Step is designed to guide educators from all professional backgrounds through all the stages needed to create their own MOOCs. Moreover, those completing this MOOC, plus yet another course listed in ECO catalogue, are invited to actually make their educational MOOC projects real and become e-teachers. ECO offers monitoring throughout the process and virtual space on ECO portal to host their MOOCs. For further info on how to become an e-teacher, check participants’ FAQs on ECO website.

In addition, the English version of Instituto Politecnico di Milano’s MOOC ´To Flip or Not to Flip´ – Discover the flipped clasroom methodology , will be launched on its second edition on March 14th.

Feb 18

ECO’s Masterclass at eMOOCs 2016 Conference

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18.02.16 – ECO Project is deploying a team of 10 experts to the upcoming edition of eMOOCs 2016, for a pre-conference event. Designed as a multidisciplinary workshop and in the hope to encourage collaborative learning and active participation for all those attending, the event is announced as a “Masterclass” under the title: Intercreativity and Interculturality in designing MOOCs and in applying business models.

eMOOCs2016, is the European MOOCs Stakeholders Summit, organized by the University of Graz and Graz University of Technology, in Austria. The conference will include three tracks: Institutional & Corporate, Experience, Research and a Pre-Conference MOOC

As for ECO’s Masterclass, it will consist of two parts related to the design of sMOOCs and to sustainable business models for MOOCs. The first part will actively guide you through the activities in creating a sMOOC. sMOOCs (seamless/social MOOCs) are based on constructivist and connectivist pedagogical theories which foster intercreativity and interculturality. The basic principles of these concepts will be introduced and translated to design guidelines of MOOCs. Next, the pedagogical model will be discussed and illustrated with several examples. The implementation process of the sMOOC model in the ECO project will be described by two local partners, based in Germany and Italy. In addition, discussion will spin around ECO Project’s sMOOC “step by step” (6 languages, several European partners). This transversal course acted as a regulator of quality because it was designed calling on all the teams and their best practices. It also augmented interculturality and intercreativity across institutions and countries.

The second part will introduce the participants to the different business models for MOOCS as developed by ECO partners. The audience will be guided through different business models at different (stakeholders) levels, starting by business models at the MOOC level using principles of the freemium model. Next, business scenarios at the institutional level will be discussed, in close related with business providers. Lastly different governmental business models will be illustrated.

Experts:

Chair: Darco Jansen, EADTU, The Netherlands

  • Divina Frau-Meigs and Adeline Bossu, U Paris 3-Sorbonne, France
    Sara Tejera, UNED, Spain.
    António Teixeira, António Moreira Teixeira, U Aberta, Portugal
    Alessandra Tomasini, Polimi, Italy
    Sünne Eichler, Sünne Eichler Beratung für Bildungsmanagement, Germany
    Vicente Montiel, TABARCA, Spain

Details: Monday, 22.02.2016, 09:30-12:00, Room. Nr. HS 01.13

Jan 29

Outcomes year 2: ECO MOOCs partners meet in Heerlen

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On the 13th and 14th of January, the ECO Learning Consortium Members met for the first in the Netherlands in the city of Heerlen* and hosted by the OUNL.

The results of year 2 of the project were discussed as well as the upcoming project review before the end of Q1 of 2016.

All project groups (WPs) presented the outcomes of their individual task fields, focusing on the improvements made on the MOOC learning methodologies, MOOC contents & creation (in particular the transversal MOOC) as well as improvements at operational level such as the project website and online MOOC catalogue.

Partners discussed performance and results, both as a recapitulation of the period’s process and as a preparation for Year 2 review by European Commission.  Each WP leader reported on the tasks carried out, focusing on the achievements for each activity, results compared to measures of success, obstacles found, lessons learned and actions planned.

A general overview of results from each hub was given as well, focusing on the rescent ECO MOOC’s third iteration and its results, as well as future plans for a potential fouth iteration of courses taught by those hubs which intend to increase their enrolment figures. In particular,  “sMOOC Step by Step” was discussed in lenght due to its crucial role in the project as a transversal MOOC course which showcases ECO’s final goal of spreading its values, pedagogical model and social objectives among the academic community within (and beyond) EU’s borders. There was a mention to Intercreativy and Interculturality concepts as part of the added value which is positioning ECO beyond similar projects currently developing across Europe.

A lenghty discussion was held around the business plan developed by WP6 and strategic plans proposed for the continuation of ECO beyond its life as an EC-funded project. Questions arised about the role universities would play in a future business-shaped ECO, as well as the services it would provide and cost to be assumed.

Learning Analytics’ results and challenges were also detailed and discused among partners, with a special interest from HUBs.

Finally, attendants worked on the upcoming review of year 2, remarking goals achieved and results obtained following instructions given in the previous Year 1 review. The meeting ended by discussing details concerning ECO’s workshop at eMOOCS2016 and reminding all partners of the next meeting to be held in Milan, on 13th-14th July, 2016.

*Prior to Heerlen the conssortium met in:
Manchester, 13th and 14th of July, 2015
Paris, 22nd and 23rd of January, 2015
Lisbon, 30th of June and 1st of July, 2014
Madrid, February 2014