EMOOCs 2023: European MOOCs Stakeholders Summit 2023 Hasso Plattner Institute Potsdam, Germany, June 14-16, 2023 |
Conference website | https://emoocs.hpi.de/ |
Submission link | https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=emoocs2023 |
Submission deadline | March 15, 2023 |
The European MOOCs Stakeholder Summit, Potsdam, June 14-16, 2023
After a long period of travel restrictions, we are very excited to host the next EMOOCs locally again. The Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering welcomes you to our beautiful Griebnitzsee campus in Potsdam near Berlin. Limited participation will also be possible online.
These topics are in focus
- Impact of the pandemic on digital education: Digital education, whether micro-credentials, MOOCs, blended learning formats, or other e-learning tools, received a major boost. How has the pandemic affected the development and delivery of MOOCs and other e-learning offerings all over Europe? Which projects can serve as models for successful digital learning and teaching? Which roles can MOOCs and micro-credentials bear in the current business transformation? Do we return to the routine we knew from pre-Corona times? Or have many things become established in the meantime, e.g. remote work, hybrid conferences, etc.?
- Formalization of digital learning: we are currently seeing how the formerly informal MOOC offerings are becoming more and more formalized and embedded in existing ecosystems. Micro-credentials are just the beginning. From online study programs to fully online universities – what scenarios are conceivable?
- MOOC networks and cooperations: Cooperations and networks such as MOOChub, the European MOOC Consortium, and the Common Micro-Credential Framework not only make MOOC research and developments more visible but also are an important building block for more standardization of formats and metadata.
The conference has 5 tracks:
Keynotes & Sessions will let you explore topics you didn’t know and deepen those you do know.
Networking is an integral part of EMOOCs. Find like-minded people and experts and strengthen your professional network.
Brilliant ideas will inspire you to think diffent, creatively and come up with solutions for the modern digital education world.
Submission Guidelines
All papers must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference.
- Short Paper: up to 5 pages including references
- Full paper: up to 10 pages including references
Formats and templates might differ from track to track.
For more details, please see here: https://emoocs.hpi.de/index.php/call-for-papers/
Research and Experience Track
The Experience and Research Track sessions will provide participants with the opportunity to debate and learn more about the role, current trends and future directions that MOOCs are taking to continue their online learning delivery in Higher Education as well as to present results with the latest research advances. The track will bring together diverse stakeholders to discuss four important areas around MOOCs. First, by discussing best practices in MOOC production processes, quality assurance, with emphasis on sustainable models that address the issue of certification and credentialing. A second focus is on the incorporation of pedagogy and MOOC design elements that can bring rich learning experiences, as well as new innovative teaching and learning models (e.g. blended or inverse blended learning strategies) that can match the expectations of the stakeholders. Third, we also invite contributions that reimagine and bring new affordances to the role of technology in MOOCs, such as the development or use of new virtual learning environments and social spaces, interactive and interoperable learning objects, immersive and wearable technologies, or techniques such as a gamification, and how all of these impact student engagement and learning outcomes. Last, the multiple roles of analytics within the MOOC ecosystem, for example to systematically optimize production or measure quality, to quantify the effectiveness of different learning designs and models in terms of learners’ engagement and outcomes, or to be included as part of new technological analytics products such as dashboards, adaptation or recommendation engines.
This track welcomes contributions from the different stakeholders involved in the process of developing, teaching, and researching with MOOCs such as educational technologist, designers, policy makers, managers, practitioners or analysts. As in previous editions of EMOOCs conference, in the case of sharing specific experiences, we encourage the submission of contributions that quantify the impact of these experiences and initiatives that they report to some degree while also highlighting best practices that can be useful and applied by different stakeholders. We welcome papers including, but not limited to, the following topics on a MOOC context:
- Best practices in MOOC production processes, open educational resources, open licenses and interchangeability, methodologies for quality control, teacher training, scalability issues.
- Innovative teaching practices, MOOC design, new forms of alternative yet rigorous assessment, hybrid and flipped models.
- Model sustainability, alternative credentials, pricing elasticity, certificate value.
- Emerging technology trends, learning tools, immersive learning VR/AR, infrastructure as a service, interoperability of learning objects, artificial intelligence, blockchain.
- New data products embedded in MOOCs, data privacy and policy, attempts to measure the impact of MOOCs on learners, cross-referencing on-campus and online data, learners’ engagement, institution analytics, curriculum design supported by data.
- Hands-on experiences with MOOCs and examples in terms of usage, pedagogical models or teachers’ as well as students’ experiences
- Special experience regarding MOOC production, implementation and their usage during the COVID19 pandemic.
- Role of MOOCs in blending strategies also raised as a consequence of the pandemic period.
Formats, templates, deadlines: https://emoocs.hpi.de/index.php/research-and-experience/
Policy Track
The growth of MOOCs has helped to make higher education institutions (HEI), higher education organsiations, quality assurance agencies, national higher education authorities and policy makers, but also societies at large more aware of the wide and still untapped potential of open and online education. MOOCs can provide flexible and scalable solutions for a transnational, truly European response to the lifelong learning needs of the European societies and economies, to be shared globally. Through continuous education and training, they can keep knowledge and skills of the workforce up to date, and in view of the rapidly changing careers of tomorrow. But they also provide an offer for a wide range of learners of different ages and backgrounds, to explore knowledge beyond the offer of their formal education, and contribute to knowledge creation and sharing in Europe’s society, as part of the European citizenship project. Within HEI, they make part of the ongoing digital transformation that impacts the education offer, but also research and administration.
Therefore MOOCs and MOOC platforms should be considered in university strategies, but also in regional, national and European policies for education and training, employment and growth proposing strategies for change and action plans. Supportive policies, in turn, can enable and promote the further development, uptake and use of Europe’s MOOC offer, at various levels.
The policy track sessions will address the potential of MOOCs for the enhancement and transformation of higher education institutions as well as their contribution to Europe’s general political and societal needs and challenges. This includes HEIs policies, conditions/possibilities to include MOOCs for credits or micro-credentials in short programs and traditional degrees, supporting policies of IGOs and governments. There is also a growing need for additional new applications of MOOCs for K-12, high school, lifelong learning, continuing professional development and professional training.
For the Policy Track the following topics are proposed:
- Higher education institutional strategies and approaches on MOOCs regarding
- increasing visibility and impact at regional, national and international level
- tackling global and social challenges
- widening access and participation, in addressing a wider range of learners, etc.
- aspects of research and open science
- Interinstitutional collaboration and partnership in Europe (such as the European University Alliances) & internationally
- innovation and transformation of education, also in view of role that play of Moocs for degree programmes, and other formats (microcredentials)
- Governmental policies and approaches of using MOOCs for lifelong and continued learning, and for tackling general political and societal issues (e.g., unemployment, skills mismatches, accessibility and inclusion, refugees and migrants’ crisis)
- National and European strategies and approaches including MOOCs as part of a European and national open learning space (informal learning, micro-credentials, credits in short programs and conventional degrees, joint programs of HEIs, related policies and practices for quality assurance and accreditation)
Formats, templates, deadlines: https://emoocs.hpi.de/index.php/policy/
Business Track
The EMOOCs Conference is firmly established as the premier MOOC community conference in Europe and annually brings together all parties interested in debate, current research and testimonies of practice in a wide variety of MOOC related topics.
MOOCs for business has prospered and grown considerably during the past decade in all European countries. Remarkable development has taken place in the variety of offers available on MOOC platforms, triggered by the exchange of ideas, frameworks and methods among the business and MOOC developers’ community. This growth has stimulated productive dialogue and academic research agendas.
Business today, along with the whole society, faces an unprecedented challenge to transform as a whole.
- The survival of our planet is threatened by unsustainable business practices and “business as usual”. The last few years have brought additional new business challenges.
- Remote work and virtual teams require upskilling and/or completely new skills from managers all around the world.
- Resilience and adaptiveness move into the forefront of firms’ agendas, while technologies are disrupting long-standing business models.
- A new generation of employees represents a new mindset, new expectations and needs.
- Employee retention and talent acquisition have become one of the biggest problems for many firms.
There are reasons to believe that MOOCs and micro credentials bear potential to take a relevant role in this urgently required business transformation. Following a decade of steady growth, more than 200 million learners chose among almost 20,000 courses and +1,500 micro credentials building on MOOCs in 2021 (Shah, 2021). With this unprecedented reach, MOOCs are expected to deliver on the aforementioned challenges facing business by providing new knowledge, guidance, training & education and dissemination of best practice.
Join the conversation!
We welcome practitioners and researchers from academia and business to submit research papers, lightening talks, case studies, and/or panel discussion proposals.
Submission topics include but are not limited to:
- Ways in which MOOCs support and/or activate and/or accelerate business transformation towards sustainability
- MOOCs as support for the unemployed and/or burnt-out/bored-out employees in rediscovery of sensemaking and, subsequently, finding purpose again?
- Personal and professional development of various generations of employees through MOOCs
- Role of MOOCs in building virtual trust and cooperation among teams
- Promotion and cultivation of intercultural exchange and intercultural competences
- Role of MOOCs in corporate retention strategies
- MOOCs as a booster for a learning corporate culture
- Business models and new trends in MOOCs for the business world
- Risks, malpractice, and pitfalls of MOOCs in business
- Case studies of MOOCs for business
- The potential of MOOCs for supporting organizations in developing sustainability strategies answering to the UN SDGs and ESG
- The role of MOOC-based micro-credentials in business training
- Taking one ”O” out of MOOCs and MOOCs commercialization
Formats, templates, deadlines: https://emoocs.hpi.de/index.php/business/
International Track
Since their popularization in late 2011, MOOCs have grown into a global movement and a fertile ground for innovation and research, capturing the interest of both academics and industry actors, and contributing to the rise of conferences such as EMOOCs, IEEE Learning with MOOCs, and Learning @ Scale. However, despite being a global movement, US-based and EU-based MOOC initiatives have received the lion’s share of the attention on the international stage, while MOOC innovation and research from other nations and continents have been left aside. This has resulted in a very narrow view of the global MOOC ecosystem.
The international track aims to address this issue by explicitly calling for and shining a light on international contributions. We welcome submissions from all over the world, but we encourage in particular submissions from or about Latin America, Australia, Africa, or Asia. Wanting to define this track through inclusion rather than exclusion, contributions from or about other parts of the world, including the US and EU, are welcome as long as they encompass features related to equality, diversity, or inclusion. For instance, a study about the impact of language or nationality on MOOCs offered on US MOOC platforms would be a good fit for this track. Contributions in the international track of previous EMOOCs conferences include:
- Factors driving enrollment in a French MOOC platform
- Hybrid MOOCs enabling global collaboration
- Intervention using MOOCs to develop Cambodian undergraduate research skills
- Toolkit for fostering women in STEM MOOCs
- Analyzing the current situation of MOOCs in Ecuadorian universities
- Effect of MOOC monetization across countries of different economic status
- Revision of a monozukuri MOOC
- Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) education at scale
The international track welcomes a wide variety of perspectives — from research to news, from formal studies to casual reports, and from cross-border ventures to local projects. For instance, a presentation about the peculiarities of a local MOOC platform would be a good fit for this track. But so would a data-driven analysis of MOOC trends across multiple countries. Finally, we invite contributions from stakeholders with diverse backgrounds, such as instructors, administrators, researchers, analysts, designers, technologists, or decision-makers, among others. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
- Global MOOC statistics & trends
- Regional & national MOOC providers
- Regional or national patterns in MOOC integration with job market or formal educational systems
- MOOC language & content localization
- Global collaboration in MOOCs
- Cross-border MOOC studies
- Role of culture in MOOCs
- Equality, diversity, and inclusion in international MOOCs
- Global MOOC policy & practices
Formats, templates, deadlines: https://emoocs.hpi.de/index.php/international/
Committees
Program Committee
- Carlos Alario Hoyos, UC3M, Spain (Research and Experience Track Chair)
- Martin Ebner, TU Graz, Austria (Research and Experience Track Chair)
- Susanna Sancassani, Politecnico Milano, Italy (Research and Experience Track Chair)
- Yves Deville, UCLouvain, Belgium (Policy Track Chair)
- Michael Gaebel, European University Association, Belgium (Policy Track Chair)
- Agnieszka Żur, Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny w Krakowie, Poland (Business Track Chair)
- Christian Friedl, FH Joanneum, Austria (Business Track Chair)
- Sherif Halawa, Green Meadow Studios / UAE (International Track Chair)
- Dilrukshi Gamage, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan (International Track Chair)
- Jeffrey Cross, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan (International Track Chair)
- May Carlon, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan (International Track Chair)
- Carlos Delgado Kloos, UC3M, Spain (Workshop Track Chair)
- Karen von Schmieden, Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering, Potsdam, Germany (Workshop Track Chair)
For the full committee, please see here: https://emoocs.hpi.de/index.php/program-committee/
Organizing committee
- Christoph Meinel, Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering, Potsdam, Germany (General Chair)
- Thomas Staubitz, Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering, Potsdam, Germany (Local Arrangements Chair)
- Stefanie Schweiger, Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering, Potsdam, Germany (Local Arrangements Chair)
Contact
All questions about submissions should be emailed to conferences@openhpi.de