News

news

Press release

By | Press Release | No Comments

16 New, online, all-access free courses and 1 do-it-yourself course on designing a digital programme for a large amount of participants including the use of social media for peer review.

These brand new online courses are for you, the teacher and they will help you understand the potential of new technologies for your classroom. 17 Massive Online courses called MOOCs were launched as pilot earlier in 2014 covering various topics and in 6 different languages. But all from the same springboard: the ECO Learning MOOC platform, a pan-European registration point for course participants and those who may want to become digital teachers. The project´s central message Learn. Teach. anywhere, everywhere refers not only to the freely accessible nature of these massive online courses, but also in the social inclusive concept behind the methodology. From April 20th onwards the second round of the tried, tested and improved MOOCs commences. Each MOOC round last for 8 weeks, guided by a teacher or group of teachers. If you want to discover what distance learning, digital learning and in addition how to design your own digital course, becoming a member of the ECO platform is an excellent way of discovering what a new era of digital learning and teaching has to offer.

The ECO Project Consortium is constituted by 22 universities and companies from Europe and Latin America* and funded by the European Commission.

All MOOCs can be accessed via https://portal.eco-learning.eu, where new users will be prompted to create a login (+3 minutes):

In English:
1.       Videos for teaching, learning and communication

In German:
2.       E-Learning-Projektmanagement an Schulen (E-learning and project management at schools)

In Portugese:
3.       Introdução aos Sistemas de Informação Geográfica (Introduction to basic Geographic Information systems GIS)
4.       Competências digitais para professors ((Digital competences for teachers)
5.       Necessidades Educativas Especiais. Como ensinar, como aprender (Special education needs. How to teach, how to learn).

In Italian:
6.       Introduzione alla matematica per l’università: Pre-Calculus (Preparation course mathematics for university: Pre-Calculus)
7.       M’appare il mondo: dalle carte alla Terra digitale partecipata (Geomatics course)

In Spanish
8.       Sexualidad Amigable y Responsable (Friendly and non-abrasive sexuality)
9.       Flipped Classroom
10.     Comunicación y aprendizaje móvil  (Mobile communication and learning)
11.     Alfabetización Digital para Personas en Riesgo de Exclusión: Estrategias para la Intervención Socioeducativa (Digital literacy for people with high risk of social exclusion. Strategies for digital socioeconomic intervention).
12.   Recursos Educativos Abiertos. Aplicaciones pedagógicas y comunicativas (Open educational resources: pedagogical and communicative applications).
13.   Competencias creativas para el profesorado (Creativity MOOC Camp) (Creative teacher competencies)
14.   Artes y tecnologías para educar (Arts and technologies for education)

In  French:
15.   DIY Education aux médias et à l’information – (DIY Media and information Education)
16.   MPSW : « Ma pédagogie à la sauce web 2.0 » (My pedagogy web 2.0-style)

E il MOOC trasversale per progettare il tuo MOOC in tutte le lingue precedenti:
17. Social sMOOC step-by-step

*European Association of Distance Teaching Universities, FEDRAVE – Fundação para o Estudo e Desenvolvimento da Região de Aveiro, Geographica, Humance, Open Universiteit Nederland, Politecnico Di Milano, Reimer IT, Riverthia, Sünne Eichler Beratung Für Bildungsmanagement, Tabarca Consulting, Telefónica Learning Services, Universidad de Cantabria, Universidad de Oviedo, Universidad de Quilmes, Universidad de Valladolid, Universidad de Zaragoza, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Universidad Manuela Beltrán, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Universidade Aberta, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle and University of Manchester.

A growing MOOC movement highlights ECTS

By | Accreditation, Credits | No Comments

By Darco Jansen, Programme Manager at EADTU

EADTU – coordinating the HOME project – recently published a report on Institutional MOOC strategies in Europe. The report showcases data on the perception and objectives of European higher education institutions on MOOCs and the main drivers behind the MOOC movement. In addition, the report draws a comparison between similar studies conducted in the United States in 2013 and 2014.

This report observes substantial differences between US and EU education institutions. Not only are European institution more involved in MOOCs than the US, and the number of European institutions with MOOC involvement is rising, but MOOCs are also perceived as a sustainable method for offering courses in Europe. It seems that in Europe the institutions are increasingly developing a positive attitude towards MOOCs and have positive experiences regarding the added value of MOOCs.

One topic that was highlighted is the degree of accreditation when it comes to MOOC valoration. The report compares responses between US-institutions and Europe on the following question: “Credentials for MOOC completion will cause confusion about higher education degrees?” The results are shown in figure below:

ECO MOOC credentials

A large majority of European higher education institutions disagree on the claim that credentials for MOOC completion will cause confusion about higher education degrees while a majority in the US agrees. Therefore Europe does not fear credentials for MOOC completion.

The dispersed opinions between US and EU institutes can most likely be explained by the embedded ECTS framework in Europe, which provides a sound base for recognition of credentials across institutions and countries. Institutions in Europe that already offer MOOCs are more confident in giving credentials for MOOCs. In addition a EUA study indicates a growing pressure on European institutions to recognise learning outcomes and award credits both for their own MOOCs and those delivered by other institutions. Additionally, recognition of non-formal learning is a formally declared EU-strategy.

The ECO project already offers MOOCs with formal ECTS credits, i.e. those ECO sMOOCs not only provide a non formal certificate (certificate of participation of (verified) certificate of completion) but also offer a formal credit that is validated as a formal degree.  In a parallel post on the ECO Learning Blog, the possible impact ECTS accreditation on the need of tertiary education is discussed.

The ECO sMOOC starts 30th of March 2015 and will offer 3 ECTS credits. This is a course on how to design MOOCs and will be offered in six different languages. You can register at here.

This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Number of MOOCs we need worldwide

By | Sin categoría, Statistics, Technology in education | No Comments

By Darco Jansen, Programme Manager at EADTU

The ECO project is running for 3  years from February 2014 until January 2017. The coming period we will launch more MOOCs by ECO partners (so called second and third iterations). In the final project year we will select about 4.000 teachers who will be able to create their own MOOCs. At the end we are aiming for the provision of minimal 500 MOOCs.

Currently Europe diposes of 1014 MOOCs (see European MOOC Scoreboard). Globally this number is over 4000 MOOCs. But how many do we actually need? Let us figure out ratios that make sense.

Need for tertiary education

Nearly one-third of the world’s population (29.3%) is under 15. Today there are 165 million people enrolled in post-highchool tertiary education. Projections suggest that participation will increase significantly the coming years with a peak at 263 million in 2025. Accommodating the additional 98 million students would require more than 4 major universities (30,000 students) to open every week for the next 15 years.

Are MOOCs a solution to world’s need for tertiary education? It is favourable to be ambitious and try and calculate the number of MOOCs you need to educate these additional 98 million students.  To be able to do this, let us make make the following assumptions:

  1. A master is 60-120 ECTS or about 20 to 40 courses of 3 ECTS or an average of 30 courses of 3 ECTS each.
  2. If a student wishes to complete a master in 4 to 10 years (on average 6 years). Consequently every student each year should complete 5 HE courses of 3 ECTS each and that over the course of 6 (consequitive) years.
  3. Over a period of 15 years 2,5 sstudent (15years/6years) has the need for 5 HE courses each year
  4. If the goal is to educate 98 million students to a master level for the next 15 years. Hence each year we need to offer about (5*98.000.000/2,5)= 196.000.000 certificates of HE course of 3 ECTS.
  5. Each MOOC (on average) attracts 25.000 participants of which 10% (2.500) complete successfully. So about 2.500 gets a certificate that counts for as a Masters Degree (ECTS credit). So with 1 MOOC we are able to issue a certificate to 2.500 participants. If we were to offer 1X MOOC 4 times a year, this equals 10.000 certificates.

In conclusion: the total number of MOOCs to accomplish this ca. 196.000.000/10.000 MOOCs = 19.600 MOOCs.

How can this be achieved?

A. 4 Major universities (30,000 students) to open, every week for the next 15 years

B. Develop 19.600 MOOCs that offer ECTS credits to 10.000 students each year

But this thought experiment brings upon another question. Rory McGreal during EMOOCs, 2014 in Lausanne questioned why we are not changing educational model and increase number of students? The answer to thi question is partly answered in this article on the ECO platform.

In line with the above reasoning, with 45,000 MOOCs is is theoretically possible to issue 450.000.000 certificates each year and therefore educate 15% of the world population to a master (> 1 billion). In 2010 on average the OECD countries spent about 1,6% of their GDB on their tertiary education (see Education at a Glance, 2013). Imagine what would happen if only 1% of that budget is spent  by countries on the development and exploitation of MOOCs.

Although some state that education is not a mass customer industry (see for example Five myths about MOOCs ), one can (and must ) question how the need for affordable tertiary education can be provided.

The optimal solution is probably to continue opening universities (both traditional and distance teaching), as well as to encourage universities to develop high quality MOOCs. Given that we find ways that assist universities in aligning their MOOCs with their business models, the consequence will be better higher education for more people.

We already have produced more than 4000 MOOCs in three years. To accelerate this (and for economic reasons), ECO suggests to start re-using MOOCs for education in other languages and cultures instead of developing more and more from scratch. In the ECO project we are also focusing on open licence to support re-use and we will train teacher such that they will be able to develop MOOCs. From the 23rd of March 2015 the MOOC Design course will be available on the ECO Portal.

Let us seize the moment the opportunity.