The 10th International Conference on Virtual Learning VIRTUAL LEARNING – VIRTUAL REALITY

Phase II - Period 2010-2020: e-Skills for the 21st Century www.icvl.eu | www.cniv.ro

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Proceedings of the 10th

International Conference

on Virtual Learning

OCTOBER 31, 2015

MODELS & METHODOLOGIES, TECHNOLOGIES, SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS

Phase II - Period 2010-2020: e-Skills for the 21st Century

, 2015

ICVL and CNIV Partners: Grigore Albeanu, Mircea Popovici, Radu Jugureanu, Adrian Adăscăliței, Olimpius Istrate

www.icvl.eu www.cniv.ro

ISSN: 1844-8933 – ISI Proceedings,

accessed via Web of Science, since year 2006

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MMOOTTTTOO

„„The informatics/computer science re-establishes not only the unity between the pure and the applied mathematical sciences, the concrete technique and the concrete mathematics, but also that between the natural sciences, the human being and the society. It restores the concepts of the abstract and the formal and makes peace between arts and science not only in the scientist' conscience, but in their philosophy as well..””

GGrr.. CC.. MMooiissiill ((11990066--11997733)) Professor at the Faculty of Mathematics, University of Bucharest,

Member of the Romanian Academy, Computer Pioneer Award of IEEE, 1996

http://www.icvl.eu/2006/grcmoisil

„Learning is evolution of knowledge over time”

RRooggeerr EE.. BBoohhnn

Professor of Management and expert on technology management, University of California, San Diego, USA,

Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies http://irps.ucsd.edu/faculty/faculty-directory/roger-e-bohn.htm

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51

Expert system Smartex based on artificial intelligence for analyze data tracked from medical sensors

Raluca Maria Aileni

347

52 Virtual Instrument for the Study of the Signals Generating

Mihai Bogdan

350

53 Virtual Instrument for the Study of the Signals Sampling

Mihai Bogdan

354

54 A Continuous Development Strategy for a Higher Education Virtual Campus

Diana Andone, Andrei Ternauciuc

359

55

Development and formation aria of transversal computer skills through own designed educational software

Natalia Burlacu

363

56

Designing an End User Auto-Adaptive Interface for Inventory Software Application

Liviu Şerbănescu

368

57

Recursive Techniques in Designing Software Applications to Assist the Quality Management

Liviu Şerbănescu

374

Section Intel® Education

58

Running OER MOOC Electrical Engineering and Technology Courses by Using Moodle Platform

Adrian Adăscăliţei

381

59 Do you MOOC? An exploratory view for Romanian academic landscape

Gabriela Grosseck, Laura Malița

388

60 Teachers’ Perspective into Higher Education and MOOCs in Romania

Vlad Mihăescu, Radu Vasiu

393

61

Exploring Excel spreadsheets in the teaching and learning of certain concepts of Statistical physics and Thermodynamics

Ionel Grigore, Cristina Miron, Emil-Stefan Barna

399

62 Interactive ITC Applications for Technological Education - "Energy" Module

Steliana Toma, Ion Baciu

406

63 Rethinking education through blogs

Andreea Vișan, Michaela Logofătu

413

Do you MOOC? An exploratory view for Romanian academic landscape

Gabriela Grosseck1, Laura Malița1

(1) West University of Timișoara

4 Bd Vasile Pârvan, 300223 Timișoara, ROMÂNIA E-mail: gabriela.grosseck[at]e-uvt.ro, laura.malita[at]e-uvt.ro

Abstract

In the last years the European higher education is confronting with major challenges – the growth of education quality and correlation of teaching-learning process with ample needs of society and labor market; adaptation to globalization and a significant growth of students’ number in HE institutions in the world, which affect the Europe position as world leader in education; enhancing and broadening the access at higher education through valorization of new technologies and pedagogies like OER (open education resources)/OEP (open education practices), MOOCs (massive open online courses) and flipped classrooms. At the moment, no Romanian university offers a MOOC course. Moreover, young people are not familiar with them; for instance, less than 1% of students at global level are from Romania. In this context, the authors explore the challenges MOOCs can offer for Romanian higher education institutions, to raise the access to education of thousands of students and to stimulate universities to adopt new teaching methods, more innovative and flexible.

Keywords: MOOC, open education, higher education

In the last years the European higher education is confronting with major challenges. In a

series of documents about recent strategies [1] [2] [3], European Commission underlined these challenges – the growth of education quality and correlation of teaching-learning process with ample needs of society and labor market; adaptation to globalization and a significant growth of students’ number in higher education institutions in the world, which affect the Europe position as world leader in education; enhancing and broadening the access at higher education through valorization of new technologies like MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses).

Although the MOOC movement became popular in USA and Canada (where also began in 2008), in Europe only in the last two years we’re facing the “MOOC revolution” [4]. Thus in April 2013 was launched at paneuropean level the first initiative (OpenupEd) of this kind (http://www.openuped.eu/) with partners from 11 countries and run by the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities – EADTU [5]. On the other hand, the EU portal for quality OERs produced in the EU, indicates that in February 2015 there were over 1500 MOOCs1, with a very strong interest in Spain, United Kingdom, France and Germany [6]. At the moment, no Romanian university offers a MOOC course. However, in Romania there are several ongoing MOOC initiatives [16]:

a) Developing MOOCs. Examples include: - UniCampus (http://unicampus.ro): Started in April 2014 by University Politehnica

Timisoara, Unicampus is a project supported by the Ministry of Education and developed by the Association of Technical Universities from Romania (http://rouni.ro) bringing together the country’s main polytechnic institutes. The project will offer MOOCs on a version of Moodle platform based on cMOOCs methodology [11].

1 See https://ec.europa.eu/epale/en/content/more-1500-courses-new-european-mooc-scoreboard

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Figure 1. European MOOCs Scoreboard (source [6], updated Sept. 2015)

- UniBuc Virtual (http://www.unibuc-virtual.net): Credis, the Department of Distance

Learning from Bucharest University, is developing three MOOCs for Teachers Training on a Google Apps-based platform.

- „VasileGoldis” University from Arad will offer MOOCs in partnership with Fédération Européenne des Écoles.

- Critical Thinking MOOC was developed and ran in 2014 by Maastricht School of Management Romania on Iversity (http://www.msmromania.org/content/msmro-produces-first-mooc-eastern-europe).

b) Integrating MOOCs in blended academic courses. Such projects can be found at University Politehnica Timisoara, for the Web Programming course and the Instructional Technologies course [12];

c) Organizing scientific events related to open education. For example, the Romanian Coalition for OER (http://acces-deschis.ro/ro/oer) organized two national conferences; University Politehnica Timisoara (http://elearning.upt.ro/workshop-opening-up-education/n-32-70-185/d) held workshops during the Open Education Week in March, 2014 and 2015; starting with 2014, the International Conference eLSE has a special section dedicated to OER and MOOCs, co-chaired by the first author (http://elseconference.eu);

d) Publishing studies assessing the degree to which students and teachers are familiar with MOOCs [11, 12, 16].

Moreover, young people are not familiar with MOOC courses; for instance, less than 1% of students at global level are from Romania. In this context, the proposed paper advocates in favor of a MOOC by a Romanian higher education institution. We consider the research enterprise of MOOCs as a central element of the strategy to raise the access to education of thousands of students and to stimulate schools and universities to adopt new teaching methods, more innovative and flexible.

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On the other hand. according to 2014 Eurostat statistics, only 21,8% of the adult population has graduated a form of higher education, which places Romania at the bottom of the list [7]. A favorable reaction would be generating and implementing initiatives and actions which would result in access to and graduation of higher education for a larger segment of the population. With this goal in mind, our paper can be considered a good starting point, to anticipate the specific educational needs for a better response in preparing the labor force with low costs.

Due to the fact that MOOC courses are not entirely certified; having an overcrowded class; low rate of graduation; staying motivated; the absence of real human interaction; a fallible grading system etc. is possible that these type of courses to have a negative / opposite effect and to disrupt the academic life [8].

Despite all these limits MOOCs are heading to become a significant and possibly a standard element of credentialed University education, exploiting new pedagogical models, discovering revenue and lowering costs [9].

Developing and implementing in an innovative approach of a MOOC into the Romanian socio-cultural space is mainly based on the analysis of the training needs of educational actors. Thus, it is imperative to improve the training of teachers by carrying out a MOOC course which integrates open access educational resources (OERs). In order to achieve this one can take the following steps:

- Realization of a qualitative, prospective study regarding the development and implementation of MOOCs towards opening new research directions in the educational field.

- Implementation of a sociological quantitative research adapted to the particularities of the Romanian socio-cultural area.

- Elaboration of recommendations regarding educational policies of MOOCs implementation in the context of higher education institutions from Romania.

- Promoting examples of good practices and making pedagogical design recommendations in the valorization of MOOC resources offered within professional and continuous training.

- Creating an academic network between the Romanian universities, based on mutual knowledge of the realities and problems encountered in developing institutional and regional MOOCs.

- Publishing articles in specialized journals (BDI and/or ISI indexed) upon interpretation of research results.

- Developing teachers’ new abilities and competencies (transversal skills) after participating in at least one MOOC; the course offers the opportunity to keep up with modern applications, technologies, and open educational resources.

- Facilitating access to continuous professional training by means of MOOC especially for socially and economically disadvantaged teachers.

The direction imposed by international researches is the customization of MOOCs to local contexts taking into consideration different aspects such us the liberalization of education. We believe this effect of liberalization and the subsequent opening of education will represent this decade’s true revolution in education.

* How could a university from Romania, offering classic courses, compete with the offer that can

be rapidly accessed online from Harvard or any other top university? [11] Faced with these new challenges, schools, high schools and universities will have to reconsider their strategies and remain competitive [10]. One solution might be offering own MOOC courses with credits and

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MOOCs as part of degree programmes. Also the search for business models – and all the associated sub-issues of scale, sustainability monetization [14], accreditation for MOOC learning and openness. MOOCs are heading to become a significant and possibly a standard element of credentialed University education, exploiting new pedagogical models, discovering revenue and lowering costs [12].

Secondly, we should note the professional mobility, developing competencies specific to the knowledge society, as well as making people aware of the importance of lifelong learning and training, raising self-esteem and belonging to learning and practice communities [13].

Thirdly, specialists are working on a formula of continuous training by using MOOC courses in order to improve educational policies at national level, which we hope will increase the quality of teaching/learning [15].

Thus the results of such recommendations can be used for a broad range of new researches, such as: a) creating opportunities for organizations, teachers and learners to innovate and develop new business and educational models; b) launching large-scale research and policy experimentations to test innovative pedagogical approaches, curriculum development and skills assessment; c) exploring how emerging tools for the validation and recognition of skills, such as 'open badges' or nanodegrees, can be tailored to the needs of learners; d) testing digital competence frameworks and self-assessment tools for learners, teachers and organizations; e) supporting teachers in acquiring a high level of digital competences and adopt innovative teaching practices through flexible training, incentive schemes, revised curricula for teachers' initial education and new professional evaluation mechanisms; f) adaptive learning technologies, learning analytics and digital games for learning, creating links with innovative entrepreneurs etc.[16]

References

[1] Katsarova, I. (March 2015). Higher Education in the EU. Approaches, issues and trends. A document released by EPRS. European Parliamentary Research Service, available at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/EPRS/EPRS-IDA-554169-Higher-education-in-the-EU-FINAL.pdf.

[2] Communication From The Commission To The European Parliament, The Council, The European Economic And Social Committee And The Committee Of The Regions Opening Up Education: Innovative Teaching And Learning For All Through New Technologies And Open Educational Resources. Com/2013/0654 Final, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=140075101 6449&uri=CELEX:52013DC0654.

[3] Raport al Comisiei către Parlamentul European, Consiliu, Comitetul Economic și Social European și Comitetul Regiunilor: Raport privind progresele înregistrate în asigurarea calității în învățământul superior, Bruxelles, 30 January 2014, available at http://register.consilium.europa.eu/doc/ srv?l=RO&f=ST%205855%202014%20INIT.

[4] Weller, M. (2014). Battle for Open: How openness won and why it doesn't feel like victory. London: Ubiquity Press. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/bam.

[5] Jansen, D. & Schuwer, R. (February 2015) EADTU. Institutional MOOC strategies in Europe. http://www.eadtu.eu/documents/Publications/OEenM/Institutional_MOOC_strategies_in_Europe.pdf.

[6] Open Education Europa (6 March 2015). Open Education Scoreboard, http://www.open educationeuropa.eu/en/open_education_scoreboard

[7] European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice (2014). Modernization of Higher Education in Europe: Access, Retention and Employability 2014. Eurydice Report. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the EU. doi: 10.2797/72146.

[8] De Waard, I. (2015). MOOC factors influencing teachers in formal education. Revista Mexicana de Bachillerato a distancia (13). http://bdistancia.ecoesad.org.mx/?numero=numero-13.

[9] Bonk, C.J., Lee, M.M. & Reeves, T.C. (eds.) (2015). MOOCs and Open Education Around the World. Routledge.

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[10] Porter, S. (2015). To MOOC or Not to MOOC: How Can Online Learning Help to Build the Future of Higher Education? Chandos Publishing.

[11] Vasiu, R. & Andone, D. (2014). OERs and MOOCs – The Romanian experience. In Web and Open Access to Learning (ICWOAL), 2014 International Conference on (pp. 1-5). IEEE.

[12] Holotescu, C., Grosseck, G., Crețu, V. & Naaji, A. (2014). Integrating MOOCs in Blended Courses. In Proc. of 10th International Conference eLSE, Bucharest, 24-25 April 2014, doi: 10.12753/2066-026X-14-034.

[13] Katsomitros, A. (June, 2013). MOOCs create opportunities for smaller institutions because of their potential to increase international visibility and create new streams of revenue. In Borderless Report (15). http://www.obhe.ac.uk/newsletters/borderless_report_june_2013/impact_moocs_on_smaller_universities.

[14] Fischer, H. et al. (2014). Revenue vs. Costs of MOOC Platforms. Discussion of Business Models for xMOOC Providers, Based on Empirical Findings and Experiences During Implementation of the Project iMOOX (pp. 2991-3000), ICERI2014 Proceedings, 7th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation, Seville (Spain) 17-19 November, 2014: IATED.

[15] Pomerol, J.C., Epelboin, Y. & Thoury, C. (2015). MOOCs: Design, Use and Business Models. Wiley-ISTE.

[16] Grosseck, G., Holotescu, C., Bran, R., Ivanova, M. (2015). A Checklist For A Mooc Activist. The 11th International Scientific Conference eLearning and software for Education Bucharest, April 23-24, 2015 0.12753/2066-026X-15-173.