About SCORE2020

Support Centres for Open education and MOOCS in different Regions of Europe 2020 (SCORE2020, 2014-2016) builds a European consortium of regional expertise centres on open education and MOOCs with the support of the European platform of OpenupEd experts.

The MOOC hype in the media might be over, but investment and uptake of MOOCs are increasing significantly worldwide. By the end of 2015, approximately 4,200 courses were offered by 500+ universities to 35 million students. This has increased by 2016 to 6,850 courses by over 700 universities to 58 million students (Class Central, 2016). However, these figures exclude many European MOOC offering as Class Central mainly list MOOC offering of the big (commercial) MOOC platforms. Many European universities have built an own platform or use a regional platform with a limited visibility.

MOOCs are becoming mainstream in Europe. Already four independent European studies show a strong MOOC involvement of higher education institutions (HEIs). At least about 45% of HEIs in Europe are having MOOCs or planning to develop MOOCs soon against 12% in the US. Although some differences are observed between countries, it seems that a strong European involvement is widespread. These surveys show that the uptake in Eastern Europe is catching up. However, strongest involvement is seen in those regions with supportive policies and structures.

Most European universities are not accepted by the big MOOC platforms in the US by lacking the reputation (in ranking) and finances to become a partner. Consequently, many HEIs in Europe that want to be involved in MOOCs cannot connect to big MOOC players and are potentially left behind or need to invest in platform, tools and services themselves. As MOOCs are for massive audiences and relate to economy of scale – regional support structures and European strategic partnerships are essential.

To this end the SCORE2020 project builds a European consortium of regional players in offering support of MOOCs and open education. The partnership stimulates the set-up of regional support centres for the development and use of MOOCs and open education. These regional support centres promote, stimulate and activate the development and the delivery of MOOCs and other modes of open education as well as use of MOOCs in their region.

In total 13 Intellections outputs were realised tailored to the identified needs of various target groups. Next five Multiplier Events and two training events were organised. Quality assurance frameworks, the different support scenario’s, the financial models on MOOCs and the Business Canvas Models developed in the SCORE2020 project are already re-used and applied by various institutions and even used in the setup of support regions like in Slovenia and Czech Republic.