News Archives

Presenation of OER technologies @ UNESCO HQ

The UNESCO Chair on Open Technologies for Open Educational Resources and Open Learning (OER), was invited at UNESCO headquarter on 26 October 2016 at 10 am to make a presentation on “OER Techniques”. The presentation was aimed at UNESCO ED and CI colleagues working in or interested in this field.

The presentation to be threefold:

  • Presenting the OpeningupSlovenia collaboration model with the multiplier potential for an OpeningupMemberState model – placing the UNESCO National Commissions in a centrefold social innovation position for the OER/Open Education global agenda in connection with the SDGs, particularly the SDG 4
  • Presentation on a set of Data Science based applications that could tackle OER as a big data phenomena with the logic that OER are in their nature digital files. These could be applied also as a layer on top of other UNESCO themes and SDGs, concluding and
  • Capitalising on these approaches for the 2017 OER Congress as leverage mechanisms for reaching SDG 4 in the rapidly changing landscape of open education and OER on a global digital scale.

Commonwealth of Learning invitation to the First Meeting of the Task Team and the Steering Committee for the Regional Consultations for 2nd World OER Congress

Professor Asha Kanwar, President and CEO of COL , invited our Chair to the first meeting of the Task Team for the Regional Consultations/2nd World OER Congress 2017, during 9‐11, and the Steering Committee on 11th and 12th August 2016 at COL in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.

The purpose of the meeting of the Task Team was to guide the Steering Committee in planning and implementing the Regional Consultations leading to the 2nd World OER Congress.

As a representative of Government of Slovenia that has a strong commitment to the cause of Open Educational Resources (OER), and we have hopefully enriched the working of the Task Team, the Steering Committee and shape the 2nd World OER Congress.

Publication event for “Making Sense of MOOCs: A Guide to Policy Makers in Developing Countries”

The Chair was present at the launch of a new UNESCO-COL publication, entitled “Making Sense of MOOCs: A Guide to Policy Makers in Developing Countries”. The event was co-chaired by COL’s President and CEO, Professor Asha Kanwar and UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Education, Dr Qian Tang at The Organization’s Headquarters in Paris. The audience consisted of representatives of Permanent Delegations of Member States to UNESCO, high-level experts (China, France, India, Malaysia, The Netherlands) and UNESCO staff.

— download here —

 

2016 Annual Informal Meeting of the European Network of National Commissions for UNESCO

The UNESCO Chair on Open Technologies for Open Educational Resources and Open Learning had a successful presentation at the Annual Informal Meeting of the European Network of National Commissions for UNESCO on 24th until 26th February 2016 in Krakow, Poland.

The Chairs team presented in the session “New challenges for education in Europe concerning the 2030 Agenda and SDGs: with special focus on media and information literacy (MIL), arts education, vocational education”.

Expert meeting on the draft OER Recomendation concept note

On Thursday, 4 February the Chair held a planning meeting consultation at UNESCO Headquarters. The challenge was to create a preliminary meeting examination of the Draft OER Recommendation Concept note and plan for the Experts Meeting dedicated to examining the Concept Note in March 2016.

 

Chair presents ideas at UNESCO Forum Slovenia

The Slovenian National Commission for UNESCO organized a networking event of all UNESCO stakeholders including presentations by established UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks.

 

UNESCO Chair in OER to kick-start “Openingup” in the Balkans

UNESCO Chair in OER, Knowledge 4 All Foundation, Microsoft Bosnia and the Ministry Of Education, Science And Youth Canton Sarajevo organized an OER and open technologies for open learning  “best practice transfer” event in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The theme and the goals of this International Conference were very well aligned and articulated with UNESCO’s vision and action, in support of Member States, to build a  people-centered, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society where everyone can create, access, utilize, and share information and knowledge. The event was a great opportunity to discuss and design best practice transfer from Slovenia and Europe, stimulate a strategy for new regional “Openingup” initiatives and present what is already being developed in the SEE region.

German UNESCO-Chairs meeting on OER

German National Commission for UNESCO and UNESCO Chair in Hydrological Change and Water Resources Management at RWTH Aachen University held a meeting together with UNESCO Chairs in OER. The meeting focused on the exchange of experience in OER of all Chairs and on discussing opportunities and challenges of OER in higher education institutions. More details can be found on the UNESCO Chair Meeting on Open Educational Resources (OER) website at OpeningupSlovenia.

Invitation to the High Level Policy Forum in Pretoria

Our Chair has been invited to participate in the High Level Policy Forum 2015, on “Higher education for the sustainable future we want. The way ahead for Online, Open and Flexible learning: Opportunities and Actions”, 17 October 2015, Pretoria, South Africa. It will be organised by the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) in partnership with UNESCO, Commonwealth of Learning (CoL), and Open Education Consortium (OEC).

The Forum will bring together leaders and decision makers from around the world, including senior officials of education ministries and policy makers in higher education, academia, representatives of teacher associations and student organizations, UNESCO Chairs in ICT/ODL,  ICDE Chairs in OER, Ed-Tech industry, global and regional networks, researchers, and leading non-governmental organizations in the system.

Open Vacancies on Open Education @ Open University of the Netherlands

We got news from our colleague Dr. Christian M. Stracke who is UNESCO Chair for Open Education and Innovation and Associate Professor at the Welten Institute Open University of the Netherlands on open vacancies for Open Education at the Open University of the Netherlands. Three vacancies for his research team are published now online (one Post-Doc and two PhD positions):

Currently there is much attention for Open Education solutions and namely MOOCs as an alternative way to provide education to the mass. However, their quality is often criticized in relation to their design, organization and the high numbers of students (up to 97%) that are not finalising courses. This PhD research project is aimed to develop and assess quality indicators and evaluate their significance and usability. For this purpose, an alternative approach to quality development of Open Education solutions is developed in the research that focuses the quality of Open Education solutions and their delivery and that takes into account motivation, intentions and strategy of both parties: the open education designers and providers and the learners themselves.

This PhD research project will combine and use different important theories in the fields of open education, constructivism, systems theory, critical pedagogy, competence building, quality and organization development. The research will use learning analytics, questionnaires and structured interviews for gathering the data. Statistical methods will include structural equation modelling and design of experiments techniques.The PhD candidate will be passionate about open education and will strive for developing the project in a self-organized manner supported by a daily supervisor and a professor. S/he will publish results of the research in high-impact scientific journals and will present intermediate results in international, peer-reviewed conferences. The candidate will actively contribute to the dissemination and application activities in European research projects and s/he will collaborate with other researchers in the research cluster on open education and innovation.

Currently most Open Education solutions lack a long-term engagement and sustainability: Many learners are joining MOOCs and online communities but are losing motivation and interest as they are not finalising the courses or becoming inactive. This PhD research project is aimed to develop and assess quality indicators and evaluate their significance and usability. For this purpose, an alternative approach to the design and delivery of Open Education solutions is developed in the research that focuses the long-term engagement of learners in Open Education and that takes into account motivation, intentions and strategy of both parties: the open education designers and providers and the learners themselves.

This PhD research project will combine and use different important theories in the fields of open education, constructivism, systems theory, critical pedagogy, competence building, quality and organization development. The research will use learning analytics, questionnaires and structured interviews for gathering the data. Statistical methods will include structural equation modelling and design of experiments techniques.

The PhD candidate will be passionate about open education and will strive for developing the project in a self-organized manner supported by a daily supervisor and a professor. S/he will publish results of the research in high-impact scientific journals and will present intermediate results in international, peer-reviewed conferences. The candidate will actively contribute to the dissemination and application activities in European research projects and s/he will collaborate with other researchers in the research cluster on open education and innovation.

The Post-Doc research position will focus on the strategic and design decisions at the macro-level of Open Education. The macro-level is related to the organisational embedding of Open Education activities and of the design of Open Education solutions. The PostDoc/Assistant Professor will analyse and evaluate the current state-of-the-art and develop a framework and related instruments for decision making on the Open Education strategy, design and implementation by Open Education providers in close cooperation with the other researchers in the research cluster on open education and innovation: The overall objective is the development and evaluation of a comprehensive and applicable framework approach for school education, Higher Education and vocational education that is used and tested in practice for organizational development and educational innovation and can be transferred to enterprise development and lifelong learning.

The PostDoc/Assistant Professor will facilitate the strategy and design of Open Education solutions (MOOCs and online communities) and their testing, data collection and evaluation within several European research projects. It is expected that the candidate will be able to take an integrative and multi-disciplinary perspective and that s/he will pro-actively develop ideas for a common framework and data analysis as well as publications across several European research projects. It is expected that the Post-Doc/Assistant Professor is actively involved in the management of these research projects.

The candidate will be passionate about Open Education and will strive for developing the project in a self-organized manner supported by the other principal investigators and leading professor. S/he will have already a publication record in Open Education or related domains. Output of the project will be submitted to high-impact scientific journals and intermediate results will be presented in international, peer-reviewed conferences. The candidate will play an active/leading role in dissemination and knowledge utilization activities in the research projects and s/he will collaborate with other researchers in the research cluster on open education and innovation.