Descriptors and EU Standards to support the recognition of MOOCs
- Digital technologies have enabled a variety of learning offers that opened new challenges in terms of recognition of formal, informal and non-formal learning, such as MOOCs. This paper focuses on how providing relevant data to describe a MOOC is conducive to increase the transparency of information and, ultimately, the flexibility of European higher education. The EU-funded project ECCOE took up these challenges and developed a solution by identifying the most relevant descriptors of a learning opportunity with a view to supporting a European system for micro-credentials. Descriptors indicate the specific properties of a learning opportunity according to European standards. They can provide a recognition framework also for small volumes of learning (micro-credentials) to support the integration of non-formal learning (MOOCs) into formal learning (e.g. institutional university courses) and to tackle skills shortage, upskilling and reskilling by acquiring relevant competencies. The focus on learning outcomes can facilitate theDigital technologies have enabled a variety of learning offers that opened new challenges in terms of recognition of formal, informal and non-formal learning, such as MOOCs. This paper focuses on how providing relevant data to describe a MOOC is conducive to increase the transparency of information and, ultimately, the flexibility of European higher education. The EU-funded project ECCOE took up these challenges and developed a solution by identifying the most relevant descriptors of a learning opportunity with a view to supporting a European system for micro-credentials. Descriptors indicate the specific properties of a learning opportunity according to European standards. They can provide a recognition framework also for small volumes of learning (micro-credentials) to support the integration of non-formal learning (MOOCs) into formal learning (e.g. institutional university courses) and to tackle skills shortage, upskilling and reskilling by acquiring relevant competencies. The focus on learning outcomes can facilitate the recognition of skills and competences of students and enhance both virtual and physical mobility and employability. This paper presents two contexts where ECCOE descriptors have been adopted: the Politecnico di Milano MOOC platform (Polimi Open Knowledge – POK), which is using these descriptors as the standard information to document the features of its learning opportunities, and the EU-funded Uforest project on urban forestry, which developed a blended training program for students of partner universities whose MOOCs used the ECCOE descriptors. Practice with ECCOE descriptors shows how they can be used not only to detail MOOC features, but also as a compass to design the learning offer. In addition, some rules of thumb can be derived and applied when using specific descriptors.…
Author details: | Ada Giannatelli, Alessandra Tomasini |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-623967 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.25932/publishup-62396 |
Title of parent work (English): | EMOOCs 2023 : Post-Covid Prospects for Massive Open Online Courses - Boost or Backlash? |
Publisher: | Universitätsverlag Potsdam |
Place of publishing: | Potsdam |
Editor(s): | Christoph Meinel, Stefanie Schweiger, Thomas Staubitz, Robert Conrad, Carlos Alario Hoyos, Martin Ebner, Susanna Sancassani, Agnieszka Żur, Christian Friedl, Sherif Halawa, Dilrukshi Gamage, Jeffrey Scott, May Kristine Jonson Carlon, Yves Deville, Michael Gaebel, Carlos Delgado Kloos, Karen von Schmieden |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2023/11/14 |
Publication year: | 2023 |
Publishing institution: | Universität Potsdam |
Release date: | 2024/02/01 |
Tag: | Digitale Bildung; Kursdesign; MOOC; Micro Degree; Online-Lehre; Onlinekurs; Onlinekurs-Produktion digital education; e-learning; micro degree; micro-credential; online course creation; online course design; online teaching |
Number of pages: | 14 |
First page: | 133 |
Last Page: | 146 |
RVK - Regensburg classification: | ST 670 |
Organizational units: | Digital Engineering Fakultät / Hasso-Plattner-Institut für Digital Engineering GmbH |
DDC classification: | 0 Informatik, Informationswissenschaft, allgemeine Werke / 00 Informatik, Wissen, Systeme / 000 Informatik, Informationswissenschaft, allgemeine Werke |
Peer review: | Referiert |
Publishing method: | Universitätsverlag Potsdam |
Open Access / Gold Open-Access | |
Collection(s): | Universität Potsdam / Sammelwerke (nicht fortlaufend) / EMOOCs 2023 / Beiträge |
License (German): | CC-BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |