OERs and MOOCs – the Romanian experience paper, authors Radu Vasiu, Diana Andone, presented at International Conference on Web & Open Access to Learning, 24-27 November 2014, Dubai, UEA. Using Open Educational Resources (OER) provides opportunities for collaboration both in the classroom and beyond. Started in 2008 and gathering momentum over the past two years, now an online phenomenon, MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) reunite different perspectives over a globalized online learning. The paper analyses the use of OER and MOOCs in different study cases in Romanian universities. Several OER initiatives resulted from the over 1000 academia involved in the DidaTec lifelong learning and training for higher education teachers in the technical sciences and engineering field as a training course for university professors in 12 universities, within the aim of improving the use of ICT in higher education. Four universities from Romania started a Romanian MOOC environment, the UniCampus, which provides free access to valuable education in Romanian language, presented by well-known professors. The evaluation and quality assurance challenges of the Unicampus are mainly due to the restrictive educational setting in Romania. Two study cases on blending MOOCs in traditional higher education courses at undergraduate and Master level are also analysed from the impact on students’ motivation. Integrating MOOCs in blended learning empower students with new abilities and requires a new and open teacher model.

1. OERs
and
MOOCs
the
Romanian
experience
Prof. Radu Vasiu
Dr. Diana Andone
Politehnica University of Timisoara,
Romania
ICWOAL,
Dubai
2014

2. Communication & Technology Renaissance
Sharing & creating
knowledge,
education,
information,
life experiences,
using (free) technology

3. Digital
students
Take tehnology for granted

4. Digital students
enjoy enhanced interactivity and connections
perceive their learning environment as boundless
no single approach
leave the power of choice of the ‘right one’ to the
student

5. OPEN
SCHOLAR
Open
Scholar
is
someone
who
makes
their
intellectual
projects
and
processes
digitally
visible
and
who
invites
and
encourages
ongoing
criEcism
of
their
work
and
secondary
uses
of
any
or
all
parts
of
it
-­‐
at
any
stage
of
its
development”.
– Gideon Burton Academic Evolution Blog

6. Open
IniEaEves
-­‐
IniEal
MOOCs
• Open
University
UK
(1969
-­‐
)
• AllLearn
(Oxford,
Yale
and
Stanford
collaboraEon)
2000-­‐2006
• Fathom
(University
of
Columbia)
2000-­‐2003
• MIT
OCW
(2001
-­‐)
• OpenCourseWare
ConsorEum
(1999
-­‐

7. OCW
Ankabut,
The
UAE
Advanced
Network
for
Research
&
EducaEon

8. OCW
in
Timisoara

9. h[p://www.oerpla^orm.org/
h[p://openeducaEoneuropa.eu/
h[p://www.unesco.org/new/en/communicaEon-­‐and-­‐informaEon/
access-­‐to-­‐knowledge/open-­‐educaEonal-­‐resources/

10. poerup.referata.com
POERUP:
Policies
for
OER
Uptake
Inventory
of
133
notable
OER
iniEaEves
worldwide
h[p://poerup.referata.com/w/images/
POERUP_D2.3_ComparaEve_Analysis_of_Transversal_OER_IniEaEves_v1.0.pdf

11. h[p://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Main_Page#Map_of_Open_EducaEon_IniEaEves.2C_OER_.28blue.29_and_MOOCs_.28green.29_-­‐_clustering_switched_on

12. OER
Ini<a<ves
in
Romania
CreaEve
Commons
Romania
since
2008
APTI
-­‐
Romanian
AssociaEon
for
Technologies
and
Internet
Open
Data
CoalliEon
OpenDATA

13. OER
IniEaEves
in
Romania
Schools,
teachers
and
projects
iniEaEves

14. LMS
in
UniversiEes
in
Romania
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Open
source
-­‐
Moodle
Open
source
-­‐
other
Commercial
-­‐
Blackboard
Commercial
-­‐
SharePoint
Commercial
-­‐
other

15. Strengths
in
Romanian
OER
ini<a<ves
Romania
is
ac<ve
in
the
OER
movement:
• trainings/courses
related
to
OER
and
OEP
organized
for
both
pre-­‐
university
and
university
sectors
• proposals
at
a
governamental
level
related
to
OER
and
Web2.0,
more
for
pre-­‐university
–
but
not
yet
in
formal
policies
• na<onal
events
related
to
open
resources
produced
by
pre-­‐
university
teachers;
naEonal
guides
were
published
too
• directories
with
open
resources
(more
numerous
for
pre-­‐university
level)
• projects
in
development
for
MOOCs
at
university
level
and
for
conEnuing
educaEon
• strong
communi<es/events
for
open
source,
open
access,
open
data,
open
licences.

16. From
POERUP
elevator
pitch:
26
countries
in
26
minutes,
slide
11
h[p://www.slideshare.net/wi[haus/poerup-­‐elevator-­‐pitch

17. Romanian
legislaEon
ContradicEons
&
Challenges
• EvaluaEon
&
AccreditaEon
of
educaEon
programmes
• difficult
to
get
recogniEon
for
skills
that
are
obtained
online
or
not
within
a
university
• declaraEve
open
recognizing
skills,
but
in
pracEce
make
it
almost
impossible
to
be
implemented,
under
the
very
inflexible
quality
assurance
rules.
Image:
h[p://www.spafuturethinking.com/blog/

18. DidaTec
Project
!

19. DidaTec
Project
“DidaTec
–
Lifelong
learning
and
training
for
higher
educa<on
teachers
in
the
technical
sciences
and
engineering
fields”
• POSDRU/87/1.3/S/60891
project,
co-­‐financed
by
the
partner
universiEes
and
by
the
European
Social
Fund
through
the
Sectoral
OperaEonal
Programme
for
Human
Resources
2007-­‐2013
• DuraEon
36
months
(September
1,
2010
–
December
31,
2013)
• 12
University
Partners
across
Romania
• 3
implementaEons:
TRAINING
module,
COURSE
module,
MENTORING
module

20. DidaTec Training project
Laptop/ Laptop compact ultra compacte Tablet PC
LMS/LCMS
Calculatoare
M-­‐Learning
Media playere
(podcast +/-
video)
WEB-­‐CONFERENCE
PDA
Smart phones Dispozitive
Telefoane hibride
mobile
WEB
2.0
Impact in Romanian universities: ~800
university
academic
staff
(training
1
&
2),
240
in
mentoring
~1000
courses
with
ICT
&
OER
features

21. DidaTec
parEcipants
in
UPT
Total
participants
10
3
5
10
20
3
36
9
20
5
5
Computer
science
Physics
Civil
Engineering
Chemistry
Electronics
and
Telecommunications
Electrotechinics
Engineering
Management
Mechanics
Mathematics
Communication
studies

22. DidaTec
professors
use
of
ICT
1. Blended
learning
(online
support
for
day
Eme
educaEon-­‐related
acEviEes)
2. blog
3. Forum
4. notes
5. Chat
/
instant
messaging
(synchronous
communica<on)
6. Wiki
7. Online
knowledge
tesEng
8. Online
evaluaEon
quesEonnaires
9. Online
submission
of
student
assignments
(projects,
assignments,
etc)
10. Calendar/
online
<metable
11. OER
12. AnimaEon
13. Online
annotaEon
(of
the
type
del.icio.us,
citeULike,
etc)
14. Social
network
(of
the
type
Facebook)
15. Podcast
and/or
audio
or
video
recording
of
the
didacEc
acEvity
16. Video
clips
(including
of
the
type
Youtube)
17. Virtual
environments
(of
the
type
Second
Life)
18. Video
conference
19. Audio
conference
(including
Skype)
20. Online
educaEonal
games
21. Virtual
laboratories
22. Smart
Board
23. Mobile
telephone
24. SMS
via
mobile
phones
25. Mobile
phone-­‐dedicated
applicaEons

23. DidaTec
courses
development
in
Romania
(Politehnica
University
results)

24. MOOC
(Massive
Open
Online
Courses)

25. MOOCs

26. Campus Virtual UPT
Campus Virtual UPT
www.cv.upt.ro
Web
2.0
technologies,
blended
learning
UPT
–
CID
Campus
Virtual
www.cv.upt.ro

27. Romanian
MOOCs
(April
2014
to
launch
in
January
2015)

28. MOOC
in
Romania
• Politehnica
University
of
Timisoara
• Politehnica
University
of
BucuresE
• Technical
University
of
Cluj
• Technical
University
Gh.
Asachi
Iasi
• Civil
Engineering
University
of
BucuresE
• Technical
Military
Academy

29. MOOC
in
Romania
• Courses
in
Romanian,
online,
free
access,
cerEfied
at
2
levels
(badge
and
postgraduate
diploma)
• First
courses
launch
January
2015
• Based
on
a
cMOOCs
• The
postgraduate
diploma
courses
as
xMOOCs
• Postgraduate
level
• Training
for
companies
• Integrated
in
university
educaEon

30. UniCampus

32. MOOC
in
Romania
• Subjects
from
STEM
• Course
length
5-­‐7
weeks
• Interac<ve
annotated
Video,
text,
exercise,
acEviEes,
quiz,
forum,
blog,
wiki,
OER
• Calendar,
course
chapters/weeks,
discussion
forum
on
topics,
assessments,
bibliography,
(links)
•
Meet-­‐up
area
(for
f-­‐f
meeEngs)

33. UniCampus
Video
annotaEon

34. UniCampus
Video
annotaEon

35. MOOC
in
Romania
Challenges
• Course
subject
and
QA
• Trained
tutors
• Training
materials
• Copyright
–
OER
(CC)
• Students
Enrolment
and
retenEon
• CerEficaEon
• Online
environment
developed
by
UPT
team
• Sustainability

36. h[p://www.educause.edu/blogs/mcaulfield/xmooc-­‐communiEes-­‐should-­‐learn-­‐cmoocs
h[p://mikecaulfield.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/xmooc-­‐is-­‐a-­‐chewy-­‐center.png

37. Blending
MOOCs
in
university
courses
„We
are
taking
what
we
are
learning
and
the
technologies
we
are
developing
in
the
large
and
applying
them
in
the
small
to
create
a
blended
model
of
educaEon
to
really
reinvent
and
reimagine
what
we
do
in
the
classroom.”
„.
We
really
have
to
completely
reimagine
educaEon,
micromanaging
it.
Even
the
infrastructure
has
to
change.
Everything
has
to
change.
We
need
to
go
from
lectures
on
the
blackboard
to
online
exercises,
online
videos.
We
have
to
go
to
interac<ve
virtual
laboratories
and
gamifica<on.
We
have
to
go
to
completely
online
grading
and
peer
interac<on
and
discussion
boards.
Everything
really
has
to
change.”
Agarwal,
A.,
2013.
Why
massive
open
online
courses
(s3ll)
ma5er.
A
TED
presentaEon,
ted.com/talks/
anant_agarwal_why_massively_open_online_courses_sEll_ma[er.html

38. MOOC
in
UPT

39. Variants
of
blending
MOOCs
in
university
courses
Holotescu,
C.,
Grosseck,
G.,
Cretu,
V.,
Naaji,
A.
(2014).
Integra3ng
MOOCs
in
Blended
Courses.
Conference
Proceedings
of
"eLearning
and
Socware
for
Educa<on"
(eLSE),
Bucharest,
April
2014.

40. Web
Programming
Blended
Course
announcements
modules
collabora<ve
exercises
learning
from
the
stream
mul<media
messages
opennes
to
(small)
OER
polls/quiz/
comments
via
SMS
(f2f)
valida<ons
-­‐
interac<ons
with
users/
experts/
groups
Cirip:
msLMS
Holotescu,
2014

41. Instruc<onal
Technologies
course
• 27
students
-­‐
Master
in
MulEmedia
Technologies
• MOOCs:
Course
external
resources
• 16
courses
(
45%
edX,
34%
Courses,
Udacity)
• 19
students
finalised
the
MOOCs
• Online
discussion
in
course
blog,
wiki
and
face-­‐to-­‐face
• EvaluaEon,
Course
report
• Need
for
qualitaEve
feedback
• as
a
personalizaEon
of
learning,
possibility
to
choose
which
of
the
learning
pedagogies
• New
experience,
will
follow
new
courses,
learned
new
things

42. Master the technology!

43. ENGAGE

44. CONTACT
Prof.Dr.
Radu
Vasiu
President
of
the
Research
Commi[ee
of
the
Politehnica
University
of
Timisoara,
Romania
Dr.eng.
Diana
Andone
Director
e-­‐Learning
Center
Email:
diana.andone@upt.ro
Web:
Elearning.upt.ro
Director,
MulEmedia
Research
Center
UPT
–
CeL
Campus
Virtual
www.cv.upt.ro
@diando70
h[p://www.slideshare.net/diando70/
Tel:
+40.256
403300
Email:
radu.vasiu@upt.ro