D4.7 - Methodology for implementing lifelong competence development situations based on TENCompetence outcomes

Hernández-Leo, D., Perez, M., Chacón, J., Santos, P., Lemmers, R., & Krekels, B. (2009). D4.7 - Methodology for implementing lifelong competence development situations based on TENCompetence outcomes. TENCompetence.The goal of this deliverable is to serve as a getting started source for organizations adopting the TENCompetence infrastructure to implement competence development solutions in the domains of eLearning, Personal Competence Development and Knowledge Management. In particular, this document describes a set of real scenarios (pilots and business demonstrators) implemented with previous versions of the TENCompetence tools. These scenarios are useful examples focused on one of the three domains or on combinations of them. The deliverable also provides some methodological indications that take into account the experience learned from pilots / demonstrators and the latest version of the tooling. The methodological indications also refer to other TENCompetence outcomes and deliverables for further reading. The TENCompetence reference implementations are strongly recommended to be checked together with this document in order to understand the full potential of the TENCompetence outcomes.The work on this publication has been sponsored by the TENCompetence Integrated Project that is funded by the European Commission's 6th Framework Programme, priority IST/Technology Enhanced Learning. Contract 027087 [http://www.tencompetence.org

Developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: Learning from OpenLearn users’ motivations and experiences

Universities across the globe have, for some time, been exploring the possibilities for achieving public benefit and generating business and visibility through releasing and sharing open educational resources (OER). Many have written about the need to develop sustainable and profitable business models around the production and release of OER. Downes (2006), for example, has questioned the financial sustainability of OER production at scale. Many of the proposed business models focus on OER’s value in generating revenue and detractors of OER have questioned whether they are in competition with formal education. This paper reports on a study intended to broaden the conversation about OER business models to consider the motivations and experiences of OER users as the basis for making a better informed decision about whether OER and formal learning are competitive or complementary with each other. The study focused on OpenLearn - the Open University’s (OU) web-based platform for OER, which hosts hundreds of online courses and videos and is accessed by over 3,000,000 users a year. A large scale survey and follow-up interviews with OpenLearn users worldwide revealed that university provided OER can offer learners a bridge to formal education, allowing them to try out a subject before registering on a formal course and to build confidence in their abilities as learners. In addition, it was found that using OER during formal paid-for study can improve learners’ performance and self-reliance, leading to increased retention and satisfaction with the learning experience

Open educational resources for all? Comparing user motivations and characteristics across The Open University’s iTunes U channel and OpenLearn platform.

With the rise in access to mobile multimedia devices, educational institutions have exploited the iTunes U platform as an additional channel to provide free educational resources with the aim of profile-raising and breaking down barriers to education. For those prepared to invest in content preparation, it is possible to produce interactive, portable material that can be made available globally. Commentators have questioned both the financial implications for platform-specific content production, and the availability of devices for learners to access it (Osborne, 2012). The Open University (OU) makes its free educational resources available on iTunes U and via its web-based open educational resources (OER) platform, OpenLearn. The OU’s OER on iTunes U reached the 60 million download mark in 2013; its OpenLearn platform boasts 27 million unique visitors since 2006. This paper reports the results of a large-scale study of users of the OU’s iTunes U channel and OpenLearn platform. A survey of several thousand users revealed key differences in demographics between those accessing OER via the web and via iTunes U. In addition, the data allowed comparison between three groups: formal learners, informal learners and educators. The study raises questions about whether university-provided OER meet the needs of users and makes recommendations for how content can be modified to suit their needs. As the publishing of OER becomes core to business, we reflect on reasons why understanding users’ motivations and demographics is vital, allowing for needs-led resource provision and content that is adapted to best achieve learner satisfaction, and to deliver institutions’ social mission

Towards a Capability Maturity Framework: Adopting the universal elements of Digital Capability Maturity as an Organisational Strategy

As technology continues to evolve, there is a need for organisations to develop the ability to assess themselves and find ways to not only survive but also flourish in the dynamic economy. This paper reports part of the findings from a more extensive research work that aims to develop a Digital Capability Maturity (DCM) Framework for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Such a framework would allow organisations to leverage their capabilities for differential value. A systematic review was undertaken to uncover the key elements contributing to DCM, to stand as a baseline for the Maturity Framework. The objective of this paper is to report on the proposed standardisation for elements of DCM. A universal taxonomy is proposed suggesting these themes should be present in any organisational attempts to formalise digital initiatives. Furthermore, to maximise the impact of DCM on quality of output, the proposed framework must adopt the ecological systems perspective

E-Learning Performance and Students’ Results Case of a French Business School

E-learning experiments in higher education are becoming more recurrent. However, these experiments are seldom tangibly applied to an entire academic year group. Integrating e-learning into a pedagogical program implies performance analysis in terms of both students and teachers, but also from the institute’s point of view. Due to the lack of Information Systems based research into e-learning performance modeling, the article propose an analysis mixing this research area with some findings in Education Sciences. The first part of this article presents an analysis of the main scientific publications on which we have built our research model. The second part presents the initial findings of our on-going research project at Montpellier Business School (France). A comparison between traditional teaching and face-to-face teaching was carried out using the student marks in five different courses of study. The results show that the teachers’ predisposition to adopting these new teaching techniques is not directly related to an improvement in the students\u27 results. In other words, the paper is consistent with the need to avoid any techno-centered approach to on-line education. In the same way, the article concludes that a measure of the e-learning performance must not be limited to the students’ results alone. Indeed, the case studied puts forward that the legitimacy of an e-learning project can lie more in the satisfaction of being able to meet new strategic challenges through its development, than in simply improving an existing teaching tool

Avaliação e tecnologias no ensino superior

Esta obra constitui um testemunho da discussão ocorrida na I Conferência sobre Avaliação e Tecnologias no Ensino Superior, realizada em 18 e 19 de julho de 2013 (CATES 2013). O tema em debate centrava-se, como o nome indica, na relação entre a avaliação e as tecnologias e traduziu um momento importante do projeto Elearning e Avaliação no Ensino Superior - @assess.he, financiado pelo Fundação Portuguesa para a Ciência e Tecnologia

Design, implementation and validation of a Europe-wide pedagogical framework for e-learning

This work has been carried out within the project UNITE 026964: Unified e-Learning environment for the school, partially supported by the European Community under the Information Society Technologies (IST) priority of the 6th Framework Programme for R&D. The research has also been supported within the Project 177-0361994-1998 Usability and Adaptivity of Interfaces for Intelligent Authoring Shells funded by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports Technology of the Republic of Croatia.Within the context of a Europe-wide project UNITE, a number of European partners set out to design, implement and validate a pedagogical framework (PF) for e- and m-Learning in secondary schools. The process of formulating and testing the PF was an evolutionary one that reflected the experiences and skills of the various European partners and secondary schools involved in the project. The framework involved pedagogies which underpin the teaching of subject matter in a number of European secondary schools as well as the ways in which learning is delivered and assessed. The PF represents an essential part of the e-Learning system conceptualization and development and offers sound concepts for the development of learning scenarios in order to enhance the learning experience of students in secondary schools. A five-component framework which, by means of its constituents, drives and guides the creation of e-Learning scenarios was designed and tested. It is composed of the pedagogical framework context, pedagogical approaches, assessment techniques, teacher education and national specifics and current pedagogical practices implemented in national curricula. A series of learning scenarios were created to test the PF in classrooms. A detailed exemplar of a scenario in practice is offered. An evaluation of the scenarios based on [Reeves, T. C., 1994. Evaluating what really matters in computer-based education. In M. Wild, D. Kirkpatrick (Eds.), Computer education: new perspectives (pp. 219–246). Perth, Australia: MASTEC] pedagogical dimensions revealed that UNITE is based on constructivist and cognitive foundations. With increased experience of the system the teachers’ implementation of the pedagogical framework developed into increased mastery in the school context. Teachers from the second validation phase became more confident in their application of the framework principles and evaluated more positively the outcomes. This helped them to become more aware of the opportunities offered by the framework in their secondary school teaching. In order to bring this about the supports for change were put into place at the levels of pedagogical design, administrative support and the provision of the required resources and appropriate continuing professional development. The project has sought to create this support structure to ensure maximal benefits of the system for teaching and learning. Such a pedagogical support PF has offered scope for both collaborative and autonomous learning which have brought about value-added teaching and learning effects in the Europe-wide network of schools.peer-reviewe