EC-TEL Conference 2016

Reestablishing Open Education with Openness for All

Lyon (F), September 2016 - ICORE and MOOQ are joining forces and inviting all experts and practitioners to a joint workshop on open education for all. It will take place at the eleventh edition of the EC-TEL Conference , 13 September 2016 in Lyon, from 09:00-13:00.

Globalisation, worldwide connectivity, and online services are changing the world of work as well as all our societies and lives. While creating challenges for lifelong learning, they are also offering new opportunities for innovative (formal, non-formal, and informal) learning. There is a huge need to change and open up education for the citizens of tomorrow.

Opening up education through innovations like online cooperation, MOOCs, and technology-enhanced learning has achieved broad awareness and agreement. It has been supported by the UNESCO OER Declaration and newly launched policies, e.g., of the European Commission and the Government of the Philippines. Nevertheless, investment in education and training is decreasing in many countries despite the general recognition of its importance.

The vision and overall objective is the launch of a global joint initiative to facilitate and improve open education. An important milestone would be the re-establishment of openness as a default as it was in the 1960s.

EC-TEL 2016 is supported by UNESCO IITE, OEC, and other organizations from open education. In the run-up to the event, ICORE, the International Community for Open Research and Education, and MOOQ, the European initiative for the quality of MOOCs and Open Education, are inviting all interested individuals and organizations worldwide who share this vision to join forces.

As a further step, ICORE and MOOQ are joining forces in organizing a joint interactive workshop at EC-TEL 2016 to continue the first ICORE Workshops, which took place at ICDE Global Conference 2015 in South Africa and OE Global 16 in Poland. The event will provide a venue for a debate on open education and its potential and impact on societies worldwide and will place special focus on (1) re-establishing openness as default and (2) quality dimensions and indicators for open education. As initial input, the latest policies, strategies, and learning innovations for open education will be presented and afterwards, MOOQ and ICORE invite all participants to discuss them and to work together on selected topics.

This interactive workshop will focus the guiding question of "How can open education be improved with openness for all?" Currently, new copyright rules and regulations are hindering the free and open use of published resources. Most educators are struggling with the legal restrictions and potential penalties for copyright violation. Consequently, good open-education practices are still rare and need more awareness, adaptation, and reutilization, as promoted and supported by the MOOQ initiative for improving open Education.

The main goals of the interactive MOOQ and ICORE workshop at EC-TEL 2016 will be the development of a declaration draft as well as quality indicators for open education, including the definition of related first activities. All workshop participants will work communally and actively on these tasks, which will hopefully be achieved and approved in consensus by all.

All workshop participants can share their visions and proposals, actively collaborate, and discuss future strategies and activities to foster openness of education for all, facilitating innovative learning in schools, universities, and societies.

ICORE and MOOQ hope that many interested participants and organizations will join the EC-TEL workshop to contribute and enrich our discussion on quality indicators for improving open education, developing the declaration draft, and defining first activities to achieve the overall vision of "Open Education for All"!

This interactive workshop is supported by the following organizers:

  • Christian M. Stracke (ICORE / OUNL)
  • Alexander Khoroshilov (UNESCO IITE)
  • Stavros Panagiotis Xanthopoylos (OEC)
  • Esther Tan (OUNL)
  • António Texeira (UAB)
  • Achilles Kameas (HOU)
  • Bill Vassiliadis (HOU)
  • Cleo Sgouropoulou (TEIA)
  • Gérard Vidal (ENS)