Open Education Week is a celebration of the global Open Education Movement. Its goal is to raise awareness about the movement and its impact on teaching and learning worldwide, the free and open educational opportunities that exist for everyone, everywhere, right now.
With the success of previous years’ Open Education Weeks in the background, EDEN once again organised a very successful online event this March. The high online attendance and exceptional webinar sessions were truly inspiring to experience.
This year 5 webinars with 370 registered participants were held. The participants came from 38 different countries including 16 countries from outside Europe from Canada to Argentina, from South Africa to Australia, encompassing all continents and demonstrating a strong geographical coverage and a substantial outreach.
Altogether 28 facilitators contributed to the successful implementation of the ambitious programme, among them representatives of UNESCO, ICDE and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. EDEN thanks the valuable contribution of the facilitators and trusts that the initiative contributed to the European dialogue about the state and the future of Open Education.
All participants and facilitators received EDEN open badges for their contribution. Presenters’ slides can be viewed on EDEN’s SlideShare page.
During the Open Education Week, EDEN offered the following online events:
2019 Education 2030 – Open knowledge, skills, attitudes and values in Europe and the world
4 March 2019, 13:00 CET
Moderator: Sandra Kucina Softic, EDEN Vice-president, SRCE
Description:
Education and learning are changing and developing on the basis of a range of drivers and technology is among the most prominent of these. Educators will increasingly find themselves in an environment in which there is an overload of information, and so their tasks will, among other things, move to evaluating information effectively, selecting teaching content wisely and helping learners to cope with information of different value and reliability. The Council of the EU recently acknowledged that, together with literacy and numeracy, a digital competence is crucial for accessing and progressing in the labour market and engaging in further education and training. In a changing world and a more unpredictable future, lifelong learning is becoming a central element in people’s lives, and digital learning is in many cases already making this more accessible, flexible and cheaper. As open education models grow in prominence, efforts should move towards making teacher-developed content and materials more widely available. Join us in the discussion on future of education in next decade.
Speakers:
- Airina Volungevičienė, EDEN president, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania – What does it mean to open up education? Lessons learnt and challenges raised
- Morten Flate Paulsen, EDEN Senior Fellow, ICDE – Open leadership. Mapping and tracking global initiatives
- Svetlana Knyazeva, EDEN Fellow, UNESCO IITE – Openness of education: Urgent need for recognizing OER-based learning outcomes in Europe and worldwide
- Katrien Bardoel, NUFFIC – e-Valuate Effective Policies for Recognition of New Forms of Online Learning
- Paul Bacsich, EDEN Fellow, Matic Media Ltd and Sero Consulting Ltd – Do we have a business model for openness in Europe?
2019 The story of the Open University in Europe and the world
5 March 2019, 13:00 CET
Moderator: Mark Brown, EDEN EC member, EDEN Fellow, Dublin City University, Ireland
Description:
The Open University has a long tradition and this webinar brings together four distinguished speakers who will share their reflections on following questions:
- What makes the Open University unique from other universities?
- What major challenges have open universities faced over the past 10-years?
- To what extent is the Open University still relevant in the digital-era?
The first question offers an opportunity to discuss the uniqueness of the Open University and the role it has played in different contexts across Europe and the World more generally. The second question is aimed to reflect back on some of the major challenges that the Open University model has experienced in recent times and what changes have taken place. Following on from this question the final question looks ahead to some of the issues facing the Open University in modern times and what role they should play in the future. In light of the digital-era where online education has arguably become the “new norm” our invited guests are challenged to make the case for the continued relevance and importance of the Open University in meeting the rapidly changing needs to today’s students and our ever-changing societies.
Speakers:
- Liz Marr, The Open University, UK
- Josep M. Duart, EDEN Vice-president for Research, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
- Sarah Guri-Rosenblit, EDEN Fellow, The Open University of Israel, Israel
- Antonio Teixeira, EDEN Senior Fellow, Universidade Aberta, Portugal
Ongoing initiatives for Open Education in Europe
6 March 2019, 13:00 CET
Moderator: Lisa Marie Blaschke, EDEN Senior Fellow, Chair of EDEN Council of Fellows, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany
Description:
A number of innovative and unique initiatives around the topic of open education have been emerging throughout Europe, specifically in the areas of micro-credentialing and prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR). Three EU initiatives in open education will be presented in this webinar: OEPass, MicroHE, and ReOPEN. In addition, the session will include retrospectives on the challenges and opportunities of open education, as well as on the open education movement’s impact upon higher education over the past decade.
Speakers:
- Andreia Inamorato, European Commission, Joint Research Centre – Practical Guidelines on Open Education for Academics: Modernising Higher Education via Open Educational Practices
- Jochen Ehrenreich, Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg Heilbronn – OEPass project
- Raimund Hudak, Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg Heilbronn, Germany – MicroHE
- Airina Volungevičienė, EDEN President, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania – Validating Open and Online Learning for Recognition, ReOPEN solutions
- Elena Caldirola, University of Pavia, Italy – Open Education in Italy: Challenges, Opportunities and Perspectives
- Grainne Conole, Dublin City University, Ireland – Reflecting on the Impact of the Open Education Movement
2019 OER quality assessment
7 March 2019, 13:00 CET
Moderator: Antonella Poce, EDEN Fellow, EDEN NAP SC Chair, University Roma III, Italy
Description:
In the context of Open Education, quality assessment tools are necessary. Speaking of quality means quality assurance, quality audit and quality enhancement.
Atenas and Havemann (2014) list a series of actions to identify resources to be taken into consideration such as choose resources already valued as high quality by peers, start a community discussion on a specific resource, use resources where keywords and metadata are clearly identified.
During the webinar different perspectives will be addressed thanks to the participation of various experts in the field. Moreover, quality models developed in the Erasmus Plus Open Virtual Mobilty and Digiculture projects will be presented. The webinar has been planned and organised thanks to the joint involvement of EDEN NAP and SIG and TEL representatives.
Speakers:
- Gemma Tur Ferrer, Universitat de les Illes Baleares – Assessing the quality of OERs. The Open VM Project
- Ulf- Daniel Ehlers, EDEN Fellow, EDEN EC member, State University Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany – Current and future Open Educational Resources Quality
- Ebba Ossiannilsson, EDEN Fellow, EDEN EC member, Sweden – Quality Assurance Guidelines for Open Educational resources. The TIPS framework
- Neil Butcher, OE Africa, South Africa – Developing new CPD models for effective OER practices in African higher education
- Diana Andone, EDEN Vice-president for Communication and Communities of Practices, University of Timisoara, Romania – Quality issues in The Digicult project
- Antonella Poce, EDEN Fellow, EDEN NAP SC Chair, University Roma III, Italy – The road to Bruges EDEN 2019
- Svetlana Knyazeva, EDEN Fellow, UNESCO Institute of Information Technologies in Education, Russia – Quality assurance in open online education: OER and MOOC
Researching openness – evidence-based approach
8 March 2019, 13:00 CET
Moderator: Josep M. Duart, EDEN Vice-president for Research, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
Research questions to be discussed in the panel:
- How openness is approach in research? Thematic overview (levels of openness, other dimensions that are addressed through research publications, e.g. open online learning, open distance learning, OER, OEP, etc.).
- What impact does openness have upon education?
- What kind of openness do we (society) need?
- What are the characteristics of open learning, open curriculum, open education and open learner/ teacher?
Speakers:
- Antoni Pérez, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
- Mairéad Nic Giolla Mhichíl, Dublin City University, Ireland
- Andrea Saltelli, University of Bergen, Norway, Open Evidence Research Group
- Paul Prinsloo, UNISA