Dear EDEN Members, Partners, Friends,
With the European Online and Distance Learning Week (EODLW) having come to an end, EDEN wish to thank all the participants, moderators, panelists, organisers and partner institutions for supporting us in hosting an incredibly insightful and significant online event series, for the fifth year already. From November 2-6th (+9th) we had a full week + 1 day of exceptional sessions at which we had an opportunity to show the full strength of our community and professional collaboration. We held 13 sessions altogether, with 62 moderators and speakers, having attracted more than 2400 participants all over the globe. This year we were in partnership again with USDLA and ODLAA jointly with FLANZ who were launching the Australasian Online and Distance Learning Week. We had special contribution from ICDE and EADTU and we embraced an Open Classroom Conference and the European Vocational Skills Week as well. We are also happy to have contributions from the European Student Union and Commonwealth of Learning. This week was a good time to reflect on present changes influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and to enhance the possibilities of online and distance learning and foster the quality of education in today’s “new normal”. The online webinars (up to 2-3 in a day) with expert scholars and practitioners presented a variety of cutting edge open and online learning topics, from innovations in design to assessment and open educational research.
New international mobility perspectives and challenges for the raising European Campuses
Monday, November 2, 2020, 15:00-16:30 CET
Moderator: Elena Caldirola, EDEN EC member, Director of the eLearning Center of the University Pavia, Italy
Description:
The education landscape across Europe is changing. At the 2017 Gothenburg Summit, EU leaders outlined a vision for education and culture. In its December 2017 Conclusions, the European Council called on Member States, the Council and the Commission to take forward a number of initiatives, including: ‘…strengthening strategic partnerships across the EU between higher education institutions and encouraging the emergence by 2024 of some twenty ‘European Universities’, consisting in bottom-up networks of universities across the EU which will enable students to obtain a degree by combining studies in several EU countries and contribute to the international competitiveness of European universities’. The panelists will discuss about perspectives and challenges that will affect international mobility in this new scenario, prepared in the previous years by a number of EU projects regarding virtual mobility, virtual exchange and virtual Erasmus, highlighting innovative practices in the digital era and the taking up of digital technologies and of innovative and open pedagogies in education.
Panelists:
- Ignacio J. Blanco
Senior Lecturer, Department for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, University of Granada (UGR), Spain - Dorothy Kelly
Professor, University of Granada (UGR), Spain - Antonella Forlino
Pro-Rector for International Affairs at the University of Pavia, Italy - Liliana Moreira
Head of International Relations Unit of the University of Coimbra
The Great EODL Week Debate: Online Learning vs. Traditional Face-to-Face Models of Education
Monday, November 2, 2020, 17:00-18:00 CET
Moderator: Tom Farrelly, Social Science Lecturer & Educational Developer IT Tralee
Description:
The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in many universities and colleges rapidly pivoting to online learning in response to unprecedented times. While 2020 has been described as the year of “the great onlining” of higher education there remains a common perception that online learning is inferior to traditional face-to-face models of education. This debate aims to confront this perception as two teams respond to the moot, “this house believes that online learning is just as good as traditional face-to-face models of education”. The debate is intended to address this serious issue as panel members present and reflect on the advantages and disadvantages of online learning in comparison to traditional delivery modes in both a scholarly and entertaining manner. This is a unique opportunity to reflect on our experience of online learning over 2020 and to ponder the future of high education in the post-pandemic digital society.
Panelists:
- Diana Andone
EDEN Vice President
Director of the eLearning Center, Politehnica University of Timisoara - Mairéad Nic Giolla Mhichíl
Head of the Ideas Lab@National Institute of Digital Learning, Dublin City University - Alexandra Cristea
Professor, Head of the Innovative Computing research group at the Computer Science Department, Durham University - Mark Brown
Professor, Dublin City University
EDEN EC member, EDEN Treasurer - Don Olcott Jr.
Global Higher Education Consultant - Deborah Arnold
National and International Projects Coordinator, AUNEGe
Member of the Board of EDEN Fellows Council - Ulf-Daniel Ehlers
EDEN EC member
Professor, Baden-Wurttemberg Cooperative State University
Promoting Digital Education in the Commonwealth
Monday, November 2, 2020, 18:30-19:30 CET
Moderators: Ebba Ossiannilsson, EDEN EC, EDEN SIG TEL QE, EDEN NAP, EDEN Council of Fellows, ICDE EC, ICDE OER Advocacy Committee, Chair, Swedish Association for Distance Education, Digital Job and Skills Coalition Sweden, Swedish Institute for Standards, ISO
Description:
The presentation will focus on the importance of digital education skills in the contemporary world, especially in the Commonwealth. Focusing on the design, development and experiences of the Commonwealth Digital Education Leadership Training in Action (C-DELTA) framework and its implementation in the Commonwealth and beyond, it will elaborate on the efforts of COL in promoting open, distance and technology-enabled learning models and best practices. Participants will be able to contextualise these developments to the European Commission’s Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027).
Panelists:
- Sanjaya Mishra
Education Specialist, Commonwealth of Learning, Canada
We are all in this together – Rising to the challenges
Tuesday, 3 November 2020, 15:00 CET
Moderator: Timothy Read, EDEN Vice-president for Open-professional collaboration, Senior Lecturer, Department of Computer Languages and Systems, UNED
Description:
Aim of this season is to share on the global level insight on how four leading professional bodies—European Distance and E-learning Network (EDEN), United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA), Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia (ODLAA) and Flexible Learning Association of New Zealand (FLANZ)—have risen to the challenge of supporting online and distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. A panel of representatives from each association share their lessons and experiences from supporting educators, institutional leaders and policy-makers in the rapid shift to online education. By sharing initiatives and resources developed and made available over 2020 the panel want to emphasize the value and importance of professional networks and learning communities in these uncertain and challenging times. With joint effort you will hear how the panel believes we can support the challenges facing us and more fully harness the potential of new models of online and distance learning. Accordingly, we invite participants to share their opinions and perspectives about what kind of support they expect from such professional bodies and what kind of problems they encounter in fostering more creative, innovative and impactful approaches to teaching, learning and assessment in the digital-era. This discussion will also help to inform a joint position paper arising from the collaborative activities spread across the start of November.
Panelists:
- Rhonda Blackburn
President of the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) - Reggie Smith III
Chief Executive Officer / Executive Director
United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) - Marci Powell
Marci Powell and Associates, CEO, United States - Sandra Kucina Softic
EDEN President
University Computing Centre SRCE, Croatia - Mark Brown
Professor, Dublin City University
EDEN EC member, EDEN Treasurer
Executive Committee Member of the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia (ODLAA) - Lisa-Marie Blaschke
EDEN Senior Fellow and Chair of the Board of EDEN Council of Fellows
Programme Director, Center of Lifelong Learning (C3L), Oldenburg, Germany
Exploring new avenues of online assessment
Tuesday, November 3, 2020, 17:00-18:00 CET
Moderator: Lisa-Marie Blaschke, EDEN Senior Fellow and Chair of the Board of EDEN Council of Fellows, Programme Director, Center of Lifelong Learning (C3L), Oldenburg, Germany
Description:
Assessing student work within an online environment can be challenging for instructors, especially those new to teaching online. Traditional forms of assessment that work well in a face-to-face classroom don’t always easily transition to online. This session will explore and discuss creative and effective forms of assessment for online learning, such as portfolios for authentic assessment. Drawing on the expertise of our expert panel of online instructors, who will share practical tips and guidance for online assessment.
Panelists:
- Orna Farrell
EDEN NAP SC Member
Assistant Professor- National Institute for Digital Learning, Coordinator- Digital Learning Design Unit, Dublin City University, Ireland - Richard Powers
Project Coordinator at the Professional School of Education, Stuttgart-Ludwigsburg, Germany - Aaron S. Blackwelder
Teacher, Woodland School District, Vancouver, United States, MA Ed
https://twitter.com/AaronSBlackwel1
Practical and pedagogical ways to assess your students online
Wednesday, November 4, 2020, 12:00-13:30 CET
Moderators:
- Orna Farrell, EDEN NAP SC Member, Assistant Professor- National Institute for Digital Learning, Coordinator- Digital Learning Design Unit, Dublin City University, Ireland
- Vlad Mihaescu, EDEN NAP SC Chair, Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania
Description:
This interactive session will explore practical and pedagogical ways to assess students online. The session will begin by exploring a range of alternative assessment approaches, Suzanne Stone and Rob Lowney will share their resource of crowd sourced case studies of technology enhanced assessments. Then, Lisa Donaldson, Dr. Tom Farrelly and Karen Buckley from Eportfolio Ireland will share practical and pedagogical examples of eportfolio for assessment. Finally, Dr. James Brunton will share his experiences of creating and enacting open pedagogy assignments in an online psychology degree.
Panelists:
- Suzanne Stone
- Rob Lowney
- Lisa Donaldson
- Tom Farrelly
- Karen Buckley
- James Brunton
Next normal: Including students’ views into shaping future higher education
Wednesday, November 4, 2020, 17:00-18:30 CET
Moderator: Ulf-Daniel Ehlers, EDEN EC member, Chair of Educational Management and Lifelong Learning at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University in Karlsruhe, learning innovation expert, Vice-president of EURASHE, Germany
Description:
The past months have changed higher education in a quick and unprecedented way: from March on, Higher Education has mostly happened online and at distance. Since then, we have interviewed students on their experiences, ideas and visions on studying now and in the future for our podcast series “Studium im Shutdown” and “NextNormal”. But what should the “NextNormal” of European student life look like? How can we learn from the digital turn in order to create a better future higher education? In our webinar, we want to talk about the past months, but also about how students perceived being heard and included in the debate or not – and what potentials there are in better including them for creating a better future of higher education together. We will talk to learning innovation expert Ulf-Daniel Ehlers, a student participation expert from ESU and to students that have been part of the podcast series in order to discuss ways of including students into creating a better future higher education.
Panelists:
- Laura Eigbrecht
Researcher at the Chair of Education Management and Lifelong Learning at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University, Germany and
NextEducation research team - Lilith Diringer
Student and part of the Digital Changemaker initiative, Germany - Carmen Romero
Membership Coordinator, European Students‘ Union - Ruben Janssens
European Students’ Representative at ESU for the VVS/Vlaamse Vereniging van Studenten
Digitally enhanced learning at European higher education institutions – state of play and prospects
Thursday, 5 November 2020, 13:00 CET
Moderator: Sandra Kucina Softic, EDEN President, University Computing Centre SRCE, Croatia
Description:
The presentation will provide some data from the DIGI-HE survey report carried from March to June 2020 (within the framework of the Erasmus+ EUA-led project, DIGI-HE). The European University Association carried out a survey on digitally enhanced learning and teaching among higher education institutions across Europe. Coinciding with the lockdown and physical distancing, the survey results provide some information on the sector’s crisis response, but mainly focussed on the status ante, and on a plan for the future.The online survey was open to universities and other higher education institutions across Europe. About 80% of the participating 368 respondents in 48 European countries are conventional universities offering mainly on-campus tuition, although the majority offered, already before the crisis blended and also some online learning, usually through short courses. This survey is a timely update to EUA’s 2013 survey on e-learning, also as it provides some insights on how institutions responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. During this session, some of the key findings of this survey will be presented, and discussed with a panel of three university representatives.
Presenters and speakers:
- Michael Gaebel
European University Association - Airina Volungevičienė
Director of Innovative Studies,Vytautas Magnus University
EDEN Senior Fellow - Philippe Emplit
Full professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles - Marta Zuvich
Vice-Rector for Students, Studies and Quality Assurance at University of Rijeka, Croatia
ICDE Global Outlook to OER: What’s on the calendar and how to engage?
Thursday, 5 November, 17:00 CET
Moderator and speaker: Ebba Ossiannilsson, EDEN EC, EDEN SIG TEL QE, EDEN NAP, EDEN Council of Fellows, ICDE EC, ICDE OER Advocacy Committee, Chair, Swedish Association for Distance Education, Digital Job and Skills Coalition Sweden, Swedish Institute for Standards, ISO
Description:
International Council for Open and Distance Education – ICDE is the leading global membership organisation for open, flexible and distance learning. ICDE is a not-for-profit, Non-Governmental Organisation registered in Norway with more than 250 members and partners impacting 15+ million students across six continents. The organisation is in a consultative partnership with UNESCO and shares UNESCO’s key value – the universal right to education for all. ICDE has been active on the open education global agenda for two decades. In the past years, ICDE has been very involved in the consultation of the UNESCO OER Recommendation and is currently strongly supporting its implementation as a member of the UNESCO OER Dynamic Coalition since its launch in March 2020. ICDE deeply believes in the potential of open education to achieve education for all. Open Education in general and OER in particular has been a continuous strategic priority and is again reflected so in the ICDE Strategic Plan for 2021-2024. In this workshop, participants will be introduced to ICDE’s recent and upcoming projects and initiatives within OER, and invited to interact with international experts on how to engage in these activities.
Speakers:
- Torunn Gjelsvik
- Jacques Dang
- Anaïs Røed Malbrand
- Daniel Burgos
- Davor Orlic
European MOOCs for the Labour Market; Microcredentials for continuing education
Friday, 6 November 2020, 13:00 CEST
Moderator: Ebba Ossiannilsson, EDEN EC, EDEN SIG TEL QE, EDEN NAP, EDEN Council of Fellows, ICDE EC, ICDE OER Advocacy Committee, Chair, Swedish Association for Distance Education, Digital Job and Skills Coalition Sweden, Swedish Institute for Standards, ISO
Description
- George Ubachs
- Catherine Mongenet
CEO of FUN-MOOC
Open Education Technologies for online education
Friday, November 6, 2020, 15:00-16:30 CET
Moderator and panelist: Diana Andone, EDEN Vice-president, Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania
Description:
In the last months the world of education has seen its major changes from decades. By remote learning and teaching, moving education from in-campus to online, hybrid education, all educational institutions have relied on educational technologies. The education actively responded to these changes by including more and more open education principles, quite often using diverse technologies to achieve so. There exists a rich ecosystem of open educational technologies (OET) created by educational, open source, and commercial organizations around the world. Open Educational Technologies (Open EdTech) is a diverse group of organisations, open source projects, and individuals advocating for the use of open technologies, content, and standards in education. They are guided by the 12 principles as listed in the Barcelona Blueprint 2019 and they constantly plan to thrive the learning ecosystems. This workshop intends to discuss its guiding principles but also to present some recent developments with technologies in innovative education. Moodle, MoodleNet, H5P, BigBlueButton and RaspberryPi are among the most used open source solutions, and the future plans for development will be presented. Participants will have the chance to interact directly, ask questions and give feedback to the major ‘brains’ behind them.
Panelists:
- Martin Dougiamas
CEO, Moodle, Australia
Open Educational Technologies and the Barcelona Blueprint - Svein-Tore Griff With
Founder of H5P, Norway
Managing Director of Joubel - Miguel Díez Blanco
Open Source Programme Office, European Commission, DG Informatics (DIGIT) - Sandra Moldoveanu
Programme Manager, RedHat Academy
Opening session of the Open Classroom Conference
Friday, 6 November 2020, 17:00 CEST
Open and Distance Education: New challenges and Perspectives
Welcome from Dr Sofoklis Sotiriou, Ellinogermaniki Agogi and Jean Francois Réveillard, DBC
Address from the president of European Distance and E-Learning Network Sandra Kucina Softic
Keynote speeches
Chair Nikos Zygouritsas, Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Greece
- “Open Schooling for Science with and for Society”, Sylvia Osipof, European Commission, Research Executive Agency
- “SELFIE: A self-reflection tool empowering schools to become agents of change in the process of digital transformation”, Nikoleta Giannoutsou, European Commission, Joint Research Centre
- “Real Connection to the Real World: First Steps Towards Open Schooling”, Yair Ben-Horin, ORT Israel – Technology & Science Educational Network, Israel
- “Schools as sites for food system transformation”, Christian Bugge Henriksen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
European Vocational Skills Week 2020 – VET and digital tools
Monday, November 9, 2020, 13:00-14:30 CET
Moderator: Alfredo Soeiro, EDEN Executive Committee member, EDEN Senior Fellow, University of Porto, Portugal
Description:
The session presents case studies applied to VET and based on work based learning and training, recognition of competences with employers and training providers and innovative practices in apprenticeships based on the use of digital tools. Two of the presenters are members of two expert providers groups (EURASHE and EUproVET) of Platform of European Associations of VET Providers of DGEMPL and of the VET4U2 group. The third presenter has worked across education and training sectors with experience in dealing with different stakeholders. The session may represent cues to future cooperation between associations dealing with VET and with online teaching and training.
Panelists: