elearning_label_learning_and_society
Project Maths resources on Probability and Statistics
A series of high-end complementary maths teaching resources directly aligned with the Irish Department of Education’s “Project Maths” syllabus and the Irish Leaving Certificate Exam are being offered by Alison (Advance Learning Interactive Systems Online).
These resources were created in collaboration with two Galway-based, Project Maths trained, secondary school teachers in partnership with the Galway Education Centre and the Athenry Maths Academy.
Currently available is Strand One of the curriculum: Probability and Statistics (Ordinary Level and Higher Level), an area found to be of traditional difficulty among students, and an area of increasing importance in the growing knowledge economy.
These are a complementary resource, not a replacement to in-classroom teaching of maths, and are made up of video lectures as well as interactive lessons from teachers and tutors from all over the world.
A Certificate of Completion is awarded to students who complete the full course.
IT Administrator Competences Development and Acknowledgement
The project intends to transfer the EUCIP Competence System, in particular the IT Administrator profile and related Full and Fundamentals certifications, to technical schools. Developed by CEPIS at European level and run by AICA in Italy and FEE in Spain, it is a “competence-system” which addresses companies and informatics professionals.
ITACA promotes the cooperation between informatics schools and companies to improve the training system quality and make students acquire competences and certifications useful to enter the world of work.
It’s composed by:
1. a detailed syllabus
2. a self-assessment tool to identify a “proximity competence profile” and related training gap
3. automatic exams assessing knowledge (and test simulations)
4. practical exams assessing skills.
The ITACA project intends to:
- Plan a learning path in the computer study field based on the EUCIP IT Administrator syllabus and organised in Units of Learning Outcomes following the ECVET model. Such a learning path aims providing students knowledge, skills and attitudes required and is based on project-work activities and placements in companies in the view of creating a suitable context where to develop competences.
- Promote a pilot course based on collaborative online activities addressing about 30 Italian teachers who, interacting with companies, define such a learning path in details.
- Deliver cascade training courses to Italian and Hungarian teachers make them familiar with such a model so that they could activate IT Admin courses for their students
- Certificate teachers and accredit schools as IT Administrator awarded bodies
- Pilot the learning model devised with students in Italy and Hungary
- Promote a community of teachers which will keep the debate on competence-based learning and the cooperation with companies alive
- Present the project results to relevant stakeholders in Italy, Hungary and Spain to obtain public validation and recognition of the IT Admin EVET points.
SPARC
The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) is a library membership organisation that promotes expanded sharing of scholarship.
SPARC believes that faster and wider sharing of outputs of the research process increases the impact of research, fuels the advancement of knowledge, and increases the return on research investments. Hence, the coalition is promoting changes in both the infrastructure and culture needed to make Open Access the norm in scholarly communication.
Developed by the Association of Research Libraries, SPARC activities aim to advance acceptance and long-term sustainability of an open system for scholarly communication, with a primary focus on advancing open-access models for publishing and archiving the results of scholarly research.
The three key programme areas of the coalition are:
- Educating stakeholders about the problems facing scholarly communication and the opportunities for change;
- Advocating policy changes that advance the potential of technology to advance scholarly communication and that explicitly recognize that dissemination is an essential, inseparable component of the research process;
- Incubating real-world demonstrations of business and publishing models that advance changes benefiting scholarship and academe.
Membership in SPARC currently numbers nearly 800 institutions in North America, Europe, Japan, China, and Australia.
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!
Memorandum of Understanding OCWC ICDE 2013
The OpenCourseWare Consortium (OCWC) and the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) signed on 8 May, 2013 a Memorandum of Understanding between the two global associations.
The signature took place during a ceremony at the OpenCourseWare Consortium (OCWC) Global Conference 2013 at Bali, Indonesia.
With this agreement, ICDE and OCWC enter into closer cooperation in recognition of their mutual interest in expanded access to high quality higher education through open and distance education.
Both parties undertake to explore opportunities in the following areas:
- Mutual promotion of activities.
- Joint regional conference.
- Explore a joint initiative to support policy discussion and development facilitating open and distance education at governmental and institutional levels.
- Joint membership services.
- Opportunities to have synergy in projects, for example in giving attention to and promote "flagship projects".
Yishay Mor “Are MOOCs really as adequate to open up the educational scene as they seem to promise?”
“MOOCs and Beyond” is the title of issue number 33 of eLearning Papers, a quarterly online magazine published by the European Commission. Guest edited by Dr Yishay Mor, Senior Lecturer in Educational Technology at the UK’s Open University, he believes the publication is coming out in an “incredibly timely” moment, at a point when “we are getting over the initial excitement about MOOCs [Massive Open Online Courses] and people are trying to get a more critical view” about them.
In a podcast interview given to eLearningeuropa.info Dr Mor expresses his wish to contribute with this special issue to “open up the discussion about MOOCs” and have a conversation started about questions that are currently on the table, such as “are MOOCs really adequate to open up the education scene as they seem to promise?”.
This new eLearning Papers offering shows the wide array of formats MOOCs can take. However, Mor points out that there are still several barriers for participation: basic access (not everybody has a broadband connection) and cultural barriers (some people are not comfortable using means such as blogs or chats). MOOCs generally seem to assume “people are comfortable with a variety of technological tools and channels”, and this is not always the case.
Nevertheless there is no doubt that “MOOCs do open up the educational scene. They have the potential to democratize education further and open up the scene in a different way: anyone with something to say can run a MOOC.”
The “possibilities are there for democratization and increase access, but the barriers are still there and we have to think hard about this”, stresses Dr Mor, who recommends “MOOCs and Beyond” to educational practitioners interested or intrigued about this phenomena, university administrators, higher education institutions considering to step into this area, and policy makers, who should remain vigilant and not feel tempted to stop investing in universities because of these online courses. “Both, higher education institutions and MOOCs have their purpose. The two should synergise in various ways. And in order to understand the relationships between both it is good to read this special issue of eLearning Papers”, he recommends.
Five new partners join the FutureLearn MOOCs platform
Five new partners are joining FutureLearn, the first free, open, online platform for courses from multiple UK universities and other leading organisations.
Launched in December 2012, the latest five partners to join the project are: the British Museum, Loughborough University, University of Sheffield, University of Glasgow and University of Strathclyde. Each of these institutions is committed to providing engaging and entertaining courses through the platform, which with these new additions has now a total of 24 partners across the UK.
“We are committed to removing the barriers to education by making learning more accessible, inspiring and useful to people, no matter what stage of life they are at. These partnerships will enable us to open up access to the best academics from world-class universities and cultural institutions and deliver new forms of social learning at large scale”, said FutureLearn CEO, Simon Nelson.
King’s College London, University of St Andrews, The British Library and the British Council are among the members of the platform, founded by the Open University.
The first tranche of FutureLearn MOOCs will be launched throughout 2013.
IAC-ETeL 2013 in Prague
International Academic Conference on Education, Teaching and E-learning in Prague 2013 is an important international gathering of scholars, educators and PhD students. IAC-ETeL 2013 will take place in conference facilities located in Prague, the touristic, business and historic center of Czech Republic.
All accepted papers will be published in the "Proceedings of IAC-ETeL 2013", ISBN 978-80-905442-1-5 and indexed in: Google books, NKC - National Library of the CR and EBSCO
MOOCs and disruptive innovation: Implications for higher education
The opportunity that Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) offer for cost effective massification of learning has generated significant interest from governments, higher education institutions (HEI) and commercial organisations. A growing number of HEI have been involved in experimenting with MOOCs for the purposes of expanding access, marketing and branding, as well as the potential of developing new revenue streams. The motivation for some MOOC providers is a philanthropic one and for others a business proposition. However, in both cases, there is the challenge of finding a viable business model that allows for sustainability of MOOC provision.
This paper will use the theory of disruptive innovation (Bower and Christensen, 1995) to examine MOOCs development and how their approach could be used to help institutions explore innovative approaches for teaching and learning and to develop new business models in order to gain competitive advantages in the education market. MOOCs provide institutions with a vehicle to think creatively and innovatively to explore new business models and flexible learning paths in HE provision. However, there is a need to rethink current higher education structures and policies and working practices that obstruct innovation. This includes funding arrangements and the ability to disaggregate teaching from assessment and accreditation for differential pricing and pursuit of marketing activities.
MOOC Design Principles. A Pedagogical Approach from the Learner’s Perspective
The debate around Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is much more focused on the social, institutional, technological and economical aspects than on the need for development of new pedagogical approaches that provide consistent guidance on how to design for this emergent educational scenario.
A new understanding of knowledge production and learning challenges the core of learning design, demanding innovative and appropriate approaches to teaching and learning. We present a set of learning design principles drawn from the learner’s perspective. They focus on empowering learners in networked environments for fostering critical thinking and collaboration, developing competence based outcomes, encouraging peer assistance and assessment through social appraisal, providing strategies and tools for self-regulation, and finally using a variety of media and ICTs to create and publish learning resources and outputs.