Increasing the uptake of MOOCs by regional support centers

Date: 18 October 13:00-17:00 
Venue: Conference center gli Archi, room PIO IX
            S.Lucia dei Filippini, 20
            Rome
Registration: Event is for free and open to all. Please use this form to register.
Different independent studies show a strong MOOC involvement of higher education institutions (HEIs). At least about 40% of HEIs in Europe are having MOOCs or planning to develop MOOCs soon. Collaboration between European HEIs, governments and civil societies seems to accelerate the development, delivery as well as the uptake of MOOCs. This event will provide you with up-to-date knowledge on how existing regional support centres efficiently collaborate in MOOC provision and in new forms of open and online education.

Multiplier Event organised by SCORE2020 project as a pre-conference event of OOFHEC2016. SCORE2020 will realise a consortium of regional players in the field of open, online and flexible education. The partnership will set up regional expertise centres for the development and use of MOOCs and open education.

Program and experts-speakers

13:00-13:30 Registration and coffee
13:30-14:00 The uptake of MOOC in Europe (Darco Jansen)
Leading question: What are the most likely reasons why the uptake of MOOCs in Europe is not only maturing but is doing so at a much higher level when compared to the US?
14:00-14:20 Governmental Involvement in MOOCs / open education (Susanne Koch)
Leading question: What are the reasons why governments are involved in MOOCs and open education? And what are the reasons not be involved?
14:20-14:45 Business models of MOOC provision (Frank de Lange)
Leading questions: Are there any sustainable business models for MOOCs? How important is the level of stakeholder involvement (e.g. only at MOOC level, institution or even at society / governmental level)?

14:30-15:00 Break

15:00-15:25 Critical support services for the development and uptake of MOOCs (Darco Jansen)
Leading questions: What kind of support services for the development and uptake of MOOCs are seen to be outsourced? Which services are scalable and are most likely need collaboration beyond institutional level?
15:25-15:50 Supporting the design and development of MOOCS (Tiberio Feliz Murias)
Leading questions: What kind of support is needed in the development of MOOCs? At what level and how detailed?
15:50 – 16:15 Assessing Quality of MOOCs (Darco Jansen)
Leading questions: What are the most important quality dimensions of – models for MOOCs? And how to support the development of quality MOOCs?
16:15 – 16:45 Set up of Regional Support Centre
Leading questions: What are critical issues for setting up a regional support centre? In what regions/countries is such support centre likely? And how can we stimulate a European collaboration between these centres?

16:45 – 17:00 Follow up and Planned activities


Background information

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are becoming mainstream in Europe. Different independent studies show a strong MOOC involvement of higher education institutions (HEIs). At least about 40% of HEIs in Europe are having MOOCs or planning to develop MOOCs soon. Although some differences are observed between countries, it seems that a strong European involvement is widespread. In addition, an increasing number of supportive policies to stimulate the uptake of MOOCs at various levels are created, including IGOs/NGOs (e.g. UNESCO, OECD, EADTU), European Commission (for example through programmes of DG EAC and DG Connect), national governments (e.g., France, Netherlands, Slovenia) and private companies (like MOOC platform providers). As such, collaboration between European HEIs, governments and civil societies seems to accelerate the development, delivery as well as the uptake of MOOCs.

The development and uptake of MOOCs for education equality essentially needs contributions from many stakeholders, government as well as civil society organisations. This already should start when designing MOOCs. Bringing social approaches and thinking to these design processes is essential to realise the full potential benefits of MOOCs. In addition, different collaboration schemes should be applied to maximise the uptake of MOOCs and to achieve efficiency in their design and development. For example, taken into account the design principles of participatory culture strengthen intercreativity and interculterallity.

Each stakeholder involved in this widespread uptake of MOOCs has different objectives related to improvement of (higher) education provision. MOOCs could be successfully designed and adapted to support the expansion of access to post-secondary education for all categories of learners and to maintain their motivation. They could also play a significant role in providing learning opportunities for those in fragile/emergency circumstances. The recent UNESCO-COL publication “Making Sense of MOOCs: A Guide for Policy Makers in Developing Countries” is in this respect a call to re-vitalise the role MOOCs can play in different society goals. 
NB. Especially chapter 7 and 8 of this UNESCO&COL publication describes the role of regional support centers as developed within the SCORE2020 project..

In addition, countries and educational institutions around the world have formulated policies and launched initiatives in favour of developing, adapting, adopting and sharing quality online educational provisions like MOOCs. With technology rapidly evolving, policy makers at different levels need to better assess ways in which MOOCs and OER could be effectively leveraged to improve access, enhance quality and potentially lower the cost of higher education. The responsibility to stimulate the uptake of MOOCs must be shared between government agencies, academic and non-academic institutions, employers, and other concerned stakeholders. Governments should support and scale up multi-stakeholder partnerships for efficiency reasons but also for the benefit of society as a whole.

At a centralised regional or national level, a support centre provides the services that are most effectively positioned across institutions. In some European countries (e.g., France, The Netherlands, Norway and Slovenia), such support centres already exist, generally focusing on those services that are most efficiently done in collaboration between institutions. This pre-conference event on 18 October in Rome will provide you with up-to-date knowledge on these issues as developed by partners in the SCORE2020 project.