Open Education during the pandemic
Thousands of participants in the UPT international workshop
Over 1,100 participants from dozens of localities in Romania, Europe and the USA, 16 international speakers, dozens of topics of interest, information and results of cutting-edge research, hundreds of questions and messages, in an interactive live session, simultaneously on 3 platforms, for more than 6 hours - the eighth edition of the international workshop Open Education during the pandemic.
16 international speakers presented, on Wednesday, March 3, 2021, the latest updates related to open education in Romania and the EU in the workshop organized under the auspices of Open Education Week 2021. The event was organized by Politehnica University Timisoara, through the ID/IFR and e-Learning Center with the support of the EDEN and IEEE Romania associations, being part of the UPT Together Online webinars.
For the first time, the 2021 edition of the international workshop took place exclusively online, being dedicated to open education during the pandemic and the impact it had on education, as well as initiatives and projects that can shape the education of the future. Over 1,100 participants were online for more than six hours, in an interactive session, with dozens of questions addressed to the speakers and hundreds of messages and thoughts sent to the organizers.
Participants from Romania, Europe and the USA
The session was broadcast live, simultaneously, on the Zoom platform, 6 Facebook pages and the YouTube channel of CeL and among the participants were both teachers and students, stakeholders in culture and creative fields from countries such as Romania, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, France, USA, Greece, Holland, the Republic of Moldova and others.
Participation was free, the presentations were given in Romanian and English, online, and participants received OEW - UPT Open Badges (Open Digital Certificates).
The recording of the event can be watched at: https://elearning.upt.ro/ro/comunitate/workshop-oeweek-educatia-deschisa-in-timpul-pandemiei/
The host of the event was Dr. Eng. Diana Andone, Ph.D., director of the UPT e-Learning Center, the session being opened by UPT vice-rector, prof. eng. Daniel Dan, PH.D. Among the guests who attended the opening of the event were Edmundo Tovar, president of the IEEE Education Society and prof. eng. Cristian-Gyozo Haba, Ph.D. - president of IEEE Romania Education Chapter.
Top speakers and hot topics
The 2021 edition had an extremely diverse cast of speakers, with a very good gender balance, with young researchers full of enthusiasm but also professors with years of experience, with perspectives of students but also the perspective of decision makers, with guests from other universities from Timișoara but also from the country, with many international guests presenting both the didactic and the organizational perspective, with various engineering fields, all accompanied by the obvious passion for open education.
Among the presenters were: Dr. Eng. Diana Andone, Ph.D., director of CeL-UPt, with a presentation on Open Education and the impact on the digital education ecosystem, collaboration between universities, schools, non-governmental organizations and professional associations, involvement of EDEN and IEEE, but also on virtual mobility and micro-credits developed in projects such as Open Virtual Mobility, TalkTech and Digital Certificates awarded within them; Prof. Dr. Ulf-Daniel Ehlers, Ph.D., Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University, who captured the audience with a snapshot of future competencies and how higher education will evolve in the future, Dr. Sandra Kučina Softić, Ph.D., President of EDEN, who pointed out the contributions of EDEN to Open Education, Michael Gaebel, director of the Higher Education Policy Unit and Alison Morrisroe, head of policies and projects at the Higher Education Policy Unit, European University Association (EUA), who offered the audience a series of reflections on strategic approaches for digitally enhanced learning and teaching, prof. eng. Radu Vasiu, Ph.D., president of the Senate of Poitehnica University Timișoara, who presented the revolutionary initiatives of the European Universities and the E³UDRES² - digital project; Prof. Eng. Adrian A. Adascăliței, Ph.D., „Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University in Iași, who presented a series of mixed and hybrid teaching and learning methods in the education programs for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM); Assoc. Prof. Gabriela Grosseck, Ph.D., West University of Timisoara showed how creativity can be promoted through the use of RED; lecturer eng. Silviu Vert, Ph.D., UPT, who led the audience through a series of simulations and virtual labs run with UPT students; Professor Cengiz Hakan AYDIN, Ph.D., Anadolu University of Turkey and lecturer eng. Vlad Mihăescu, Ph.D., UPT, presented the MODE - IT project and MOOC instructional technologies for university education; prof. eng. Carmen Holotescu, Ph.D., Ioan Slavici University in Timişoara, listed and explained the series of initiatives in Romania related to Blockchain in education, lecturer eng. Andrei Ternauciuc, UPT, presented the UPT Virtual Campus - the digital educational tool that made digitalization possible in UPT; Alexandru Luca, the president of the Student organization from the Faculty of Automation and Computers (Liga AC) - UPT, explained to the audience how we can take education outside the university benches; Andrea Medrea, president of the students organization from ETCTI - UPT, reported the effect of the online environment on volunteer activities and associate professor Roland Szabo, Ph.D., IEEE & RAS member, EPS Advisor IEEE Student Chapter at UPT, spoke to the participants about the Robotics and Automation Society - IEEE, the Electronic Packaging Society - IEEE and the IEEE Student Chapter at UPT.
The workshop was followed by a partner event - organized within EDEN OEW: the EDEN NAP webinar Online educational courses on cultural topics - helping the creative industries sector to reinvent itself during a crisis, moderated by lecturer eng Vlad Mihaescu, Ph.D., where dr. eng. Diana Andone, Ph.D., UPT, presented the project Digiculture - Improving digital skills and improving the social inclusion of adults in creative industries - Digital Culture, coordinated by UPT, and the 13 courses developed with partner universities and digital certificates following their graduation. Details about the project on: https://digiculture.eu/en/
Record number of participants, from a record number of countries in 2021
“We joined the OEW global movement and started the first edition of the international workshop dedicated to open education in 2013, with the support of EDEN and IEEE, out of the desire to continue working to promote open education. UPT through CeL has continuously promoted open education and open source systems, including the UPT Virtual Campus, developed in 2006 based on Moodle, an open source platform. We have thus connected the stakeholders in education and we have also promoted the possibilities that free access to knowledge and education offers. Over the last few years, each edition has gathered physically and online dozens and hundreds of participants, the OEW International Workshop being a hybrid event since 2014, benefiting from world-class speakers, many attending virtually. All previous editions are online, in the form of open educational resources in the UniCampus online platform, which will also host this edition. This year, for the first time, we organized the 8th edition entirely online, an edition that saw a record number of participants, from a record number of countries”, said Dr. Diana Andone, Ph.D., the event organizer.
Context - Open Education Week (March 1-5, 2021)
Open Education Week is an annual event, promoted by the world association Open Education Consortium, with the aim of presenting the opportunities offered by open education, the results of its integration in all forms of education, whether it is the development of skills or knowledge in the workplace, as a support for university or pre-university education or simply to learn something new, related to a personal interest of each individual.
