Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia – UNED

Who are we?

The National Distance Education University (UNED) is a Spanish public university that provides distance education at national and international levels. It was founded in 1972 to enable priority access to university and further education for all those who, while capable of pursuing higher studies, were unable to attend on campus classes for work, financial, residential, or other reasons. With more than 260,000 students, it is the largest higher education institution in Spain and one of the largest universities in Europe. It is also the leader in the implementation of cutting edge technologies applied to teaching and learning, with the largest offer of online courses in Spain. The difference between UNED and the rest of universities in Spain lies not only in its student numbers but also on its geographic dimension (national and international) and on the use of a blended-learning methodology and complementary pedagogical tools (television, radio, video and online virtual university campus).

UNED has more than sixty associated regional study centres with more than 100 extensions and classrooms, where tutoring takes place and also the venues for the proctoring of in-person exams, allowing students to access all kinds of academic services, including libraries, audiovisual materials, face-to-face tutorials, videoconferencing and a virtual campus (telematic tutoring). Furthermore, UNED is present in thirteen countries in Europe (Germany, Belgium, France, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Italy), America (United States, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela) and Africa (Equatorial Guinea). UNED has more than 1,400 academic teaching staff, distributed in nine Faculties and two Technical Schools. Moreover, the associated regional study centres have more than 7,000 tutors.

Why we are participating in the project

UNED has a long history of researching in open educational resources and practices. As an organisation, it has a mandate for inclusive education at a national level in Spain. It particularly focusses on the needs of people with disabilities and prison inmates. Over the years, it has lead and been involved in many funded projects, at both national and European level, relating to different aspects of open distance learning. Specifically, UNED was one of the first universities to offer MOOC at a European level, starting in 2012, an initiative that focussed not only on the technical and pedagogical aspects of such open online learning but also its recognition, certification and accreditation.

The participants of UNED in this project research in OER, OEP, ODL, MOOCs and MALL. As such they bring a wide experience to the project and are greatly interested in the research being undertaken therein.

Our role in the project

The role of UNED in this project is to help to achieve the project objectives by leveraging our experience of working in a wide range of areas related to OER and OEP and ODL in general.

We will help by applying our expertise of the underlying academic questions related to the project in a number of ways. Firstly, by undertaking research on the nature and offer of credentials for open education, and subsequently, undertaking a peer-review of the concept paper with experts in the field; researching at least 10 HEIs offering credentials; reviewing typology and classification based on key factors. Secondly, by reviewing the design of the learning passport; pilot-testing it, reviewing the generated publication; and finally publishing and disseminating it through own academic and social networks. Thirdly, by undertaking research into technologies used for awarding credentials; reviewing meta-data standards; reviewing the ontology generated in the project; contributing to the project roadmap; and publishing and disseminating the work through own networks. Fourthly, by reviewing the conceptual design of workload, recommendations, and the quality assurance system. Fifthly and finally, by identifying the key driving forces thought to be important to the future of credentialisation.

Our Team

Dr. Timothy Read

Dr. Timothy Read

Associate Pro Vice Chancellor of Methodology and Technological Innovation and Senior Lecturer in Computer Languages and Systems

Timothy has held positions in the university government at UNED. He is an EDEN Fellow and the cofounder of the ATLAS research group. He is currently working in funded projects in the area of mobile assisted language learning (MALL), massive open online courses for languages (LMOOCs) and open education.

Elena Barcena

Elena Barcena

Professor of Languages and Linguistics. Founding Director of the ATLAS research group. Coordinator of the PhD Programme in English Studies. Coordinator of the Postgraduate Course in ICT for Language Learning and Processing (Masters and Doctorate). Coordinator of the Masters in English for Specific Purposes.

She has lead several officially funded national research projects on CALL related topics and has published extensively in this field at both national and international levels. She is also an expert adviser for national and international institutions and a member of the editorial board of a number of specialized journals.

Beatriz Sedano

Beatriz Sedano

Beatriz Sedano has a Ph.D. in Education & Treatment of Languages through the ICT Doctoral program at UNED. She is working at UNED in an Erasmus+ project called MOONLITE. Her role encompasses research, coordination and administration of the project.