Apostolos Koutropoulos, a University of Massachusetts Boston PhD student, is launching a Call for Chapters & Illustrators for “The Great Big MOOC Book”, which he aims to publish in Open Access by December 2014.
The book will explore the various aspects of Massive Open Online Courses (cMOOCs and xMOOCs) and it will serve as a primer into the MOOCs field for professors, instructional designers, educational technologists, project managers and educational administrators, among others.
The chapters will revolve around the issues associated with MOOCs in Higher Education, K-12, corporate learning, and other formal and informal learning environments.
Chapter contributors are invited to submit their proposals by 1 October, 2013. The proposal, a 2-3 page manuscript, should include the chapter summary, table of contents, and authors’ contact information.
All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for the project.
For more information and contact details visit the project’s webpage.
New IEF research project explores the link between Meta skills in trainers and learning increases for participants
The IEF are collaborating with The University of Edinburgh to launch a new research project on the correlation between Meta skills in Experiential and Outdoor Education (EE/OE) facilitators and the success of EE programs (EEPs) as measured by participants and sponsors.
The overall goal of the project is to obtain more tangible information on which skills and personality attributes in educators most ideally support the development of key competencies in participants.
One noteworthy and innovative feature of this project is that it is the first to investigate the impact of the 'human' factor on the learning outcome and it is expected to yield valuable insights into how to increase effectiveness and efficiency of EEPs.
The project also aims to raise further awareness of the socio-economic value in the EE/OE approach to the commercial sector.
More information about this project can be found here.
On the Correlation between Meta skills in Trainers and the Learning Increase in Participants of short-term Experiential Education Programmes
Resources to educate students with disabilities
aEduscol, the website of the Directorate-general for Schools of the French Ministry for National Education, offers a series of modules designed to help teachers in charge of educating students with disabilities.
The modules include tips and recommendations for teachers so they can quickly be aware of the main conditions of students with certain disabilities and the pedagogical adaptations available to facilitate their integration in the classroom.
URL: Ressources pour scolariser les élèves handicapés.
Testeando
Testeando (Testing) is a free online educational resource designed for teachers and students of Spanish and Latin American schools. It consists of an increasing collection of online multiple choice tests grouped by subjects and courses which can be taken in the classroom or at home.
The tool offers several game types (Classic, Triplex, infinitum ...) with different rules (number of questions, time, use of wildcards ...), and students or teachers can decide at any time which is most suitable, depending on the time available, the difficulty of the subject, etc.
Call for Chapters & Illustrators: The Great Big MOOC Book
Game-based learning: Latest evidence and future directions
“Game-based learning: Latest evidence and future directions” is a research report published in April 2013 by the National Foundation for Educational Research in England and Wales (NFER). The paper aims to bridge academic and non academic domains, to provide insights that will be of interest to educators, educational researchers, industry and others seeking to engage in a more thoughtful debate about the types of educational values that can be attached to gaming.
Interest around the use of video games in education is high, and following the emergence of new trends like ‘gamification’ the review carried out by Futurelab@NFER aims to provide educators, industry and researchers with an up-to-date analysis of the literature available around the topic. More...
Startup leaders launch manifesto to boost internet-driven economic growth across Europe
A group of Europe’s most successful internet entrepreneurs launched on 2 September a manifesto to harness the growth of the tech sector and increase the number of successful startups across Europe. "Now is the time for action. For collective action", said Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, during the presentation of the Manifesto for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in London.
The 22 point plan has been produced by The Startup Europe Leaders Club – an independent group of founders in the fields of tech entrepreneurship – which was tasked by Mrs Kroes in March 2013 to develop a series of recommendations to support entrepreneurship and drive the growth of the internet economy across Europe. More...
Efforts to implement new learning spaces in higher education. The case of Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences
The article addresses the strategic planning and implementation of various physical and virtual learning spaces at Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences (KTUAS). Most universities employ virtual environments and social media as a component of their internal and external study and research processes and services. The shift towards the application of more varied flexible learning spaces has taken place as a consequence of the development of a networked, digital society and with the admission of a new type of student, i.e. the digital native. URL: Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences. More...
You can now prepare for the upcoming WEB2LLP session
Do you know how to promote a contest using Social Media networks? How to give further visibility to your event?
Take a look at these short multiple choice preparatory exercises and prepare for the upcoming Web2LLP training session.
This session is open for everyone to join and will focus on Selecting and choosing social media tools for Life Long Learning projects.
If you would like to find out more about the Web2LLP online training sessions please take a look here.
EQ-arts Experts Training 2013, Birmingham, UK (7-9 November 2013)
ELIA, the European League of Institutes of the Arts, and its EQ-arts initiative for enhancing quality in the arts, are organising the “fourth international institutional and subject review training workshop for experts” at Birmingham City University, School of Art.
The workshop aims to prepare participants to become reviewers in international review panels of EQ-arts and consequently experts that can serve on national agencies accreditation panels, and to provide insights in international standards and developments in the area of quality assurance and enhancement.
Participants are expected to have “knowledge and experience of internal quality assurance and enhancement (QA&E) processes within their own and/or national institutions and work within the European Higher Arts Education sector”.
To find out more or to apply for this workshop by 10 October 2013, please visit the event website.
Interuniversity Symposium ‘Families in Science’
Interuniversity Symposium ‘Families in Science’, Brussels, Belgium (13 September 2013)
The Interuniversity Symposium ‘Families in Science’, jointly organised by a number of universities, will take place in Brussels on 13 September.
The aim is to present “good practices in academic institutions and companies, to support staff members to combine a healthy family life and a successful career in science”. Personal testimonies of researchers with successful dual careers will be complemented by results from research projects on families in the scientific world.
To find out more or to register, please visit the event website.
