DHBW Forschungstag 2020
The German OEPass Multiplier Event was part of the Forschungstag, an event of DHBW across all nine locations, which took place in Mosbach on 30 January 2020. In a workshop session, an overview of the OEPass project and the current challenges of the present credentialing system was presented by Jochen Ehrenreich and Raimund Hudak.
At the beginning, the difference between recognition and validation in the German Higher Education system was explained and placed into the context of Open Learning and MOOC recognition. Subsequently, the current mechanisms for this process at the DHBW were shown and described in more detail. This formed the basis for the later discussion whether and how small-scale training courses could be recognized and offered at the DHBW.
The OEPass project created an “Open Education Passport” in which education certificates can be collected safely and transparently to facilitate the recognition and credition of credentials not acquired at one’s own university. A reference was also made to the thematically related Erasmus+ projects MicroHE and ECCOE.
Following the theoretical part, it was discussed how we could enable more flexible learning paths in the DHBW study programmes.
The Multiplier Event produced the following results:
- Validating all OEPass Intellectual Outputs in a German context, with a focus on the Learning Passport and the Future Scenarios and Policy Recommendations.
- Stimulating strategic thinking about e-learning, open learning recognition, flexible learning pathways and unbundling of education at DHBW institutions.
- Exchange of ideas and good practices on open learning recognition.
OEPass European Multiplier Event in Berlin
The OEPass team held a strategy workshop on Future Scenarios for Digital Credentials and Open
Learning Recognition at the International Strategies Beyond Borders conference on December 10, 2019 in Berlin. The conference was organized by Hochschulforum Digitalisierung (HFD) and DAAD. Our partner Stifterverband is a leading player at HFD, therefore integrating the Multiplier Event into the strategy conference was a logical step. It gave us the opportunity to discuss and validate our results with a larger audience. Marie Ullmann and Florian Rampelt were on site for Stifterverband, while DHBW was represented by Jochen Ehrenreich and Raimund Hudak.
The workshop started with a presentation on open education, digital credentials and the strategic implications for higher education, followed by a short overview of the OEPass project. To find answers to the question of how open education through credentialisation could transform higher education by 2030, the project team determined five future scenarios:
- A wallet in your pocket (fully open)
- European scenario (hybrid – focus on standards)
- Fluidity between Higher and Continuing Education (hybrid – focus on collaboration)
- Higher Education Institutions as credentials clearing house and testing center (hybrid – focus on quality degrees)
- Higher Education Institutions resist open learning recognition (fully closed)
For the following discussion, the participants were divided into three groups:
- Group 1: Labour Market and Society 6.0 (employer perspective)
- Group 2: Learning in the Cyberspace – Higher Education Institutions in a Virtual World
(institutional perspective) - Group 3: A Brave New World – Technology & the Learner in 2030 (learner perspective)
Each group developed their own ideas in a three-stage process (10 minutes each) and shared them after each stage:
– “dreamer” – creative distruction;
– “critics” – inhibitors and barriers;
– “realistic”.
Finally, the participants were asked to select their top 3 scenarios using a scoring system. The result showed that Scenario 3: Fluidity between Higher and Continuing Education (hybrid – focus on collaboration) is considered as the most likely, followed by Scenario 2: European scenario (hybrid – focus on standards) and Scenario 4: Higher Education Institutions as credentials clearing house and testing center (hybrid – focus on quality degrees).
We would like to thank all workshop participants for the intense discussion. The workshop provided valuable input for validating and further refining the future scenarios.
OEPass at the 2019 Annual Conference of EUA
The European University Association (EUA) invited a representative of our sister initiative, the MicroHE project, to its Annual Conference in the Support to HE Reform Experts (SP-HERE) held in Prague on 12-13 December. This international event provides a major networking space for approximately 120 HE Reform Experts from 20+ Southern and Eastern Neighbourhood countries, and provided a platform for various sessions on topically relevant issues. The invitation asked for an introduction to micro-credentials, tailored to the level of experience of the audience, plus how MicroHE is approaching the two major discussion points, i.e. granularity level and evidence required for assessment and recognition, and a results overview of the MicroHE project survey and Delphi study.
Ferenc Tátrai (EDEN) represented both MicroHE and OEPass at the conference. He was member of the “Skills and the labour market” panel, and moderated a presentation session in a break-up group on Digital provision & new credentials (micro credits). His presentation “Credentialing open non-formal learning in Higher Education: the MicroHE approach” created a fruitful discussion in the workshop.
The results of the two projects were well received by the audience, and created a very positive evaluation in the conclusions of the break-out groups in the closing plenary.
Open Learning Recognition
At the end of November of 2019, the sixth Multiplier Event of the OEPass project entitled “Open Learning Recognition” took place at UNED, Madrid (Spain). The main purpose of the event was to disseminate the project results and discuss the following topics:
- volume, scope and types of open credentials offered by open educational providers;
- current state of recognition of open educational credentials in Europe;
- the Learning Passport as a way to facilitate recognition of open credentials in Europe; and
- impacts of increased open educational provision on HEIs.
These topics were covered by a total of four presentations and one open debate. Firstly, Timothy Read and Beatriz Sedano from UNED presented the OEPass project and its objectives, stages, outputs and results with publications. Following this introduction, José Antonio Márquez Aguirre, educational consultant and leading expert on digital competences in Spain, gave a presentation about the scope of open educational credentials in Europe. The third speaker, Jorge Arús-Hita from Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain), talked about the impact of increased open educational provision for HEIs. As a fourth and final presenter, Ildiko Mazar, from Knowledge Innovation Centre, introduced and explained the functions of the Learning Passport that was developed within the OEPass project as a way to facilitate the recognition of open credentials in Europe. After the presentations, Elena Martín-Monje and Timothy Read from UNED moderated an insightful debate on the future of open education recognition and certification.
Among the participants, there were mostly university professors from different European HEIs (Spain, Belgium, Turkey, UK); and some master and doctoral students related to online open education at national and European level.
The detailed programme, all the presentations and their video recordings are available for consultation.
ICDE World Conference on Online Learning
The 28th ICDE World Conference on Online Learning was organised by the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) and the National Institute for Digital Learning (NIDL) at Dublin City University (DCU) in Dublin (Ireland) on 3-7 November 2019. The conference was titled “Transforming Lives and Societies“.
The conference theme anchored the growth of new models of open, online and digital learning in a number of big questions and the wider context of the Sustainable Development Goals. It aims to explore many of the contemporary problems and opportunities facing today’s educators in the globally connected digital-era.
OEPass colleagues, Jochen Ehrenreich and Elena Trepule, attended this prestigious event and delivered a presentation about “Utilising a Meta-Data Standard for Digital Credentials and Recognition of Open Learning“. You can find the full paper here.
OEPass presented at DAAD
This year, from the 15th to the 16th of October 2019, again a meeting of all project coordinators took place in Bonn, Germany, at DAAD as part of the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships.
DAAD acts as the National Agency for EU Higher Education Cooperation in the Erasmus+ programme (and its predecessors), and it is one of the most experienced agencies in Europe.
DHBW presented our project OEPass in a poster session organised in small groups. In addition to content focuses, such as the Learning Passport, administrative topics were also discussed. Since both “newcomers” and already longer running Erasmus+ projects were represented, a lively exchange on implementation took place.
This was a great opportunity not only to present our project, but also to participate in valuable networking activities.
Thanks for having us there!
Lithuanian OEPass Multiplier Event
The third official OEPass multiplier event was organised by the Lithuanian Distance and e-Learning Association on the 27th of September, 2019. There are 50 Lithuanian educational institutions (universities, colleges, adult learning centres, etc.) in the membership of the Association. The educators from these institutions were invited to participate in the event, leading to the attendance of more than 25 participants at the event.
The OEPass project results, and their applicability for other educational institutions, were presented and discussed. Thus the results of event may be summarised as follows:
- The OEPass Learning Passport is a useful tool for the representatives of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) as it is a tool for today’s learners to gather and provide institutions with the evidence of learning; it is a tool for institutions to analyse what kind of information may be provided by learners; and also to guide learners that when selecting open learning opportunities they need to focus not only on the topic of a MOOC, but also to think how it might be recognised in their formal learning records.
- Other types of institutions (Schools, VET centres and teacher qualification centres) found the Learning Passport too complicated to be used in their daily activities due to its availability only in English (that is not spoken by the majority of older teachers) and due to the fact that their programmes are relatively short and former recognition possibilities are not a necessity.
- All institutions’ representatives were glad to learn about the classification of education credentials. The quality criteria for credentials attracted most attention from the institutions which focus on open course preparations.
- The technological roadmap of open credentials was an interesting outcome for the event participants, but as most of them are not IT experts but teachers working in online learning, it drew less focus and led to limited discussion.
OEPass at the EDEN 2019 Annual Conference
EDEN’s 28th Annual Conference, titled “Connecting through Educational Technology – to produce effective learning environments” was held on 16-19 June 2019, hosted by the VIVES University of Applied Sciences in Bruges (Belgium).
New generation of learning technologies and networks are ubiquitous, embedded and mobile which reshape access to, and delivery of, learning. Cutting edge fields are artificial intelligence, learning analytics, micro-learning, new credentialing, revolution of assessment, massive open online courses (MOOCs), personalized learning, game-based learning, flipped classroom, Digital Makerspaces and alike.
OEPass deals with the topic of micro-credentials, the most timely and relevant concept in higher education and adult learning. OEPass researchers updated the experts in this important topic and the concept of the Learning Passport.
The workshop presented an extended meta-data standard and a corresponding learning passport for digital credentials and micro-credentials. It explored possible scenarios, stakeholders and guidelines. The proposed standard adds specific HE and micro-credential extensions to the ESCO (European Skills, Competences, Qualifications & Occupations) metadata schema. The aim was to showcase how a secure digital, blockchain-enabled credentialing solution could look like and function, creating a reference for developments and standardizations.
Title of the workshop: Utilising a Meta-Data Standard for Digital Credentials and Recognition of Open Learning
Jochen Ehrenreich, Raimund Hudak, DHBW Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative
State University, Germany
Synergies at EDEN19
Ferenc Tatrai, Senior Advisor of the consortium member EDEN, presented the OEPass project in the conference’s Synergy session, pointing out its natural synergy with its “twin” project MicroHE.
As part of the OEPass project, the Learning Passport was also introduced.
He emphasized that an improved version of the Learning Passport is ready for public testing – everybody is welcome to experiment with the tool and determine its usefulness by filling in the online form. The OEPass partnership also welcomes feedback on how well the Learning Passport facilitates the recognition and transferability of non-traditional learning experiences.
The OEPass project creates a standard format for describing open education and virtual mobility experiences in terms of ECTS which:
- Addresses common criticisms (lack of trust) of open education, in particular with respect to student assessment and identity;
- Is scalable to hundreds or thousands of students through automatic issuing and verification of certificates;
- Can capture a wide range of non-formal and formal open education experiences.
The most significant public results of the project are identified as follows.
- Proposal of a concept of quality assurance whereby credentials would be assessed in terms of their transparency, portability, recognition by employers and academia, stackability and a number of other factors. It will also propose an initial quality-hierarchy for the most common open education credentials currently being offered.
- Proposal of a standard format for describing open education and virtual mobility experiences in terms of ECTS called Learning Passport, capturing a wide range of non-formal and formal open education experiences.
- Elaboration of an outline an ontology for the recognition of open learning, together with a meta-data standard and technology roadmap, which would allow for the automatic exchange of credit between European Higher Education Institutions.
The session audience received the direct link to the online form to experience the credential documentation first hand and to determine the main advantages of, as well as the difficulties in, using the Learning Passport.
Jochen Ehrenreich, the co-author of the presentation supported the discussion on the subject of micro-credentials.
