eMundus Webinars 2015

In order to spread its findings and to engage as many actors as possible in the debate on Open Education and International academic cooperation (including MOOCs and Virtual mobility), the eMundus project will be organising six webinars during the Open Education Week.

To make sure you can have a seat at the webinar, please confirm your participation to cristina.stefanelli@gmail.com. In any case,participants can freely join anytime at this link: https://unir.adobeconnect.com/unirresearch

The webinars are hereby presented:

Webinar 1: “Awarding academic credit for free online OER courses: Lessons from the OERu”

Monday 9th March 2015, h 9.00 CET

The nexus of MOOCs, virtual mobility and OER is a key focus of the eMundus project. While the phenomenon of commercial MOOC providers are widening access to free online learning opportunities, typically these courses use closed educational resources and do not provide pathways leading to formal academic credit towards recognised university degrees. In contrast, open online courses based solely on OER provide unprecedented opportunities to widen access to more affordable education opportunities and can provide pathways leading to credible credentials especially for learners, who for lack of funding or access to provision in their home countries, will not have the privilege of a tertiary education. The OER universitas (OERu) international innovation partnership of universities, colleges and polytechnics is responding to responding to this social challenge and implementing solutions for awarding academic credit towards credible credentials for free online OER courses. During this webinar, we will share how the OERu international network is implementing solutions for virtual mobility using OER courses and awarding formal academic credit.

Main speaker: Wayne Mackintosh, OERu, New Zealand

Dr Wayne Mackintosh is the founding director of the OER Foundation, an independent non-profit organisation which provides leadership, networking and support to educational institutions around the world to achieve their strategic objectives using open education approaches. The Foundation is coordinating the implementation of the OERu innovation partnership who will provide more affordable access to higher education using OER. Wayne also holds the UNESCO, Commonwealth of Learning and ICDE Chair in OER at Otago Polytechnic and the OER Foundation.

Discussant: Cristina Stefanelli, SOPHIA, Italy

Cristina Stefanelli, project manager at SOPHIA R&I, works on OER since the year 2000. An Open Education enthusiasts, she has coordinated the OportUnidad project (www.oportunidadproject.eu/), an ALFA III action-research project aimed at fostering the adoption of Open Educational Resources and Practices in Latin America.

Webinar 2: “Credit and Collaboration in MOOCs: Where are we now”

Tuesday 10 March 2015, h 10.00 CET

eMundus can be simply understood as a project researching and promoting higher education activity at the intersection of ‘open’ and ‘collaboration’. As universities worldwide are beginning to participate in MOOCs (which are arguably about open practice), which of these are collaborating with their MOOCs, and which are offering credit for their MOOCs? This presentation will look at examples of MOOC credit and collaboration from around the world, offering insight to educators and decision-makers considering how these may benefit their students and institutions.

Main speaker: Terese Bird, University of Leicester, UK

Research and implementation of innovative educational technology solutions at the higher education level since 1998. Recent focus: pedagogical deployment and evaluation of mobile learning in one-iPad-per-student programme at University of Leicester Medical School; eMundus EU-funded open educational practice project; implementation of history-themed open educational resources into learning resources (Manufacturing Pasts – JISC), open educational practices and OER (HEA Fellowship and Open University SCORE Fellowship), e-books and e-readers, iTunes U in learning, social media, webinars and multimedia.

Discussant: Zoraini Wati Abas,

Dr. Zoraini Wati Abas is a Professor in the field of instructional technology. She is Acting Vice-Rector, Academic and Student Affairs as well as Director, Center for Learning, Teaching and Curriculum Development at the Sampoerna University in Jakarta. In 2014, she received the Education Leadership Award from the World Corporate Universities Congress in Mumbai, India and named second of 14 influential higher educational technology leaders in Southeast Asia.

Webinar 3: “OER is simpler than you think”

Wednesday 11 March 2015, h 10.00 CET

This presentation reports on the status of Open Educational Resources (OER) policies and initiatives in Canada, focusing on recent development in supporting open textbooks in western Canada.And, on virtual mobility in Canada focusing on credit transfer and Prior Learning Assessment.

Main speaker: Rory McGreal, Athabasca University, Canada

Rory McGreal is a professor at Athabasca University, Canada and the UNESCO/Commonwealth of Learning/International Council for Open and Distance Education Chair in Open Educational Resources. He is also a co-Editor of the International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (IRRODL).

Discussant: Prof Vasudha Kamat, Vice Chancellor, SNDT Women’s University TBC

Prof Vasudha Kamat is since 2011 the Vice Chancellor of the SNDT Women’s University. Before she has been the Director of the NCERT, a center specialised in trying out new ideas to make education (school as well as teacher education) more relevant and valuable through ICT. In collaboration with HP, she developed “Lab in Box”, a computer lab with 15 systems with broadband connectivity and FOSS.

Webinar 4: “Transnational Virtual Mobilities”

Wednesday 10 March, h 15.00 CET

Virtual mobility is a powerful concept, which can radically change the way universities cooperate within and across boarders. A number of European projects have been investigating existing Virtual Mobility practices, reaching some conclusions on what works, and for which purposes. Professor Van Petegen from the Catholic University of Leuven will present some ideas on how to make the best out of the possibilities offered by Virtual Mobility.

Main speaker: Wim Van Petegen, K.U.Leuven, Belgium
Wim Van Petegem is Professor at KU Leuven (Belgium) and Director of the Teaching and Learning Department. He is actively involved in different networks of universities (like EuroPACE, SEFI, EDEN, IACEE and the Coimbra Group). His current research interests are in the field of multimedia production, new educational technology, networked e-learning, virtual mobility, lifelong learning, open and distance learning, knowledge transfer and science communication. He and his team are involved as contractor, partner, coordinator, expert, or evaluator in many implementation and development projects mostly financed by the European Commission (DG Education and Culture). He is also heavily engaged in development cooperation with the South.

Discussant: Judith Zubieta, CUAED from Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico

Webinar 5: “The impact of Open Education on internationalisation models of universities”

Thursday 12 March 2015, h 15.00 CET

MOOCs and other OER applications have the potential to renew the way universities cooperate in teaching and research. The webinar will present some results and reflections from the eMundus project (www.emundus-project.eu) on how new models for opening up education can foster international cooperation, mobility and learners’ achievements.

Main speaker: Fabio Nascimbeni, UNIR, Spain

Fabio Nascimbeni, assistant professor at the International University of La Rioja and postdoc researcher at the Universidade de Sao Paulo, works since more than 15 years exploring innovative applications of ICT for learning, with a specific interest in OER, Open Education and internationalisation. He is leading the eMundus project.

Discussant: Irina Smirnova, MESI, Russia

Irina Smirnova, Chief of the Department for International Projects of Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics (MESI). Being in charge of relations with major international organizations in the field of education (incl. ICDE, EUA, EDEN, EADTU, OECD-IMHE), she repeatedly participated in the international projects on e-learning and open education. Her professional interests are international cooperation and philosophy of education.

Webinar 6: “Integration of OER with regular/formal academic programmes”

Friday 13 March, h 15.00 AM CET

The actual integration of OER in regular academic programmes is required to extend the learning facilities available everywhere. Informal learning is an around-the-clock opportunity for improvement and progress. In this context, OER comes as a natural resource to integrate content and resources worldwide, into the personal learning path. Furthermore, to integrate people behind the OER as the real learning community of individuals and groups, who might support this path. The adequate combination of OER with regular programmes opens an honest collaboration between extended knowledge, and diverse sources, at the service of students and professors. There is a need to find the contract for a good understanding and mutual benefit between OER and regular academic programmes. In this session we will provide a number of keys, actions and risks, along this exciting process.

Main Speaker: Daniel Burgos, Universidad Internacional de la Rioja, Spain

Prof. Dr. Daniel Burgos works as Vice-chancellor for Research & Technology, and UNESCO Chair on eLearning at Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR, www.unir.net). Previously he worked as Director of Education Sector and Head of User Experience Lab at the Research & Innovation Department of Atos, Spain, since 2007, and as assistant professor at the Open University of the Netherlands. His interests are mainly focused on Adaptive and Informal eLearning, OER, Learning & Social Networks, eGames, and eLearning Specifications. He is or has been involved in a number of R&D projects like, i.e. Hotel, Intuitel, Edumotion, Inspiring, VMPass, eMundus, EU-USR, Stellar, Gala, IntelLEO, Go-MyLife, Grapple, Telma, GameTEL, Pauta, Unfold, ProLearn, TenCompetence, EU4ALL, NiHao, Kaleidoscope, Suma, Sister, ComeIn, et cetera. He holds degrees in Communication (PhD), Computer Science (Dr. Ing), Education (PhD), and Business Administration.

Discussant: Carlos Enrique Montenegro-Marin, Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas and Universidad Cooperativa de Bogotá, Colombia

Carlos Enrique Montenegro-Marin is a Ph.D. in systems and computer services for internet from University of Oviedo, Asturias, Spain (2012). He has a Diploma of advanced studies 2008 of the Pontifical University of Salamanca. He is MSc. Science in Information and Communication Systems from the Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. He is a System engineer. His research interests include Object-Oriented technology, Language Processors, Modeling Software with, DSL and MDA. He works in Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas and Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia en Bogotá – Colombia.

You can find all the details of the outcomes on the project website http://www.emundus-project.eu/  and at //research.unir.net/