In January 2014, CARNet launched its first massive open online course for the professional development of teachers – Moodle MOOC, which were attended by more than 400 participants from Croatia and the wider region. Learn how the CARNet team transformed an online course for a group of 15 participants into a massive course for over 400 participants, and how the course has been received by the participants, more than 70% of whom had never participated in a MOOC before. (Presentation in Croatian language.)

Gordana Jugo (CARNet) is the Head of Service for Educational Technologies in CARNet and is responsible for training and support in technology supported teaching for educators at all educational levels. Her work in the development and implementation of educational programmes is enriched with the use of innovative pedagogical and technological possibilities. Gordana is an advocate of open educational resources (OER) and the open source movement. She holds a Master of Educational Technology degree from the University of British Columbia, Canada. Gordana is a project manager on the Comenius project AMORES with the motto “discovering a love for literature through digital collaboration and creativity”.

MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses) have gained incredible popularity, and their effects have been felt by hundreds of institutions and millions of users all around the world. New learning approaches bring new technological challenges. A modern MOOC platform is not just a set of standard CMS blocks like embedded videos, discussion forums and wiki pages. It requires brand new features and technologies, like reliable peer review algorithms, adaptive learning and remote proctored exams. Many of these features are still in the experimental phase and will evolve in unpredictable directions.

Dmitry Filatov (iversity) is the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) at iversity.org, Europe’s leading online platform for higher education courses (MOOCs). After earning a degree in IT and Computer Science at Saint-Petersburg State University in Russia, Dmitry went on to become the CTO and founder of BusinessMedia Software from 2003-2011, the CEO of his own start-up, DrinCash Ltd., from 2011-2012, and the Product and Project Manager for IZITEQ B.V. Dmitry joined iversity in 2013. Owing to his years of experience in product development management and backend and frontend coding, he is a results-oriented expert in complex web-based systems. His fields of interest include effective technology management, big data, NLP, mobile apps(iOS) and HA infrastructure.

ARNES’ vox.arnes.si videoconferencing service can be integrated into regular teaching and collaboration processes, especially distance teaching implementations, remote meetings, guest lectures, distance student thesis examinations or for extending target audiences to those who cannot attend in person. The vox.arnes.si service is very robust and provides an acceptable and intelligible connection even in borderline conditions. It is, however, especially useful because of the content distribution possibilities and additional communications channels that it provides to videoconference participants in addition to video and audio. Various examples of best practice for using the vox.arnes.si services will be shown along with practical demonstrations as well as participant and/or student responses to using videoconferencing in education.

Benjamin Lesjak (IPRID) is a senior lecturer at the University of Primorska Faculty of Management. In his work, teaching, research and various projects he combines knowledge from the fields of law, information technology and management. He educates parents, teachers and children at the Centre for a Safer Internet – Safe.si, heads his own institute for legal solutions at the information society in Maribor and collaborates with larger higher education institutions on subjects involving law, ICT and the information society. His special focus is on e-commerce, privacy protection, public data, e-communications and e-education.

Today’s assessment practices in higher education in Norway are a far cry from the digital advancements that are being developed and embraced in other areas of society. The digital “natives” who attend higher education institutions in Norway today study and learn with their laptops/mobiles but when they turn up for their long-awaited examination, they are required to reproduce their knowledge with pen and paper. Academics eagerly wait for the students’ papers to arrive by snail mail, and spend their time interpreting the illegible hand writing while administrators spend their days counting, copying, double-checking, packing, and sending examination papers from student to examiner. This talk looks at the projects that have been initiated at a national and a local level which focus on the transformation of the traditional paper-based assessment process in place today to an end-to-end digital process. By establishing a National Project for Digital Assessment in Higher Education and inviting all state owned universities to participate in a joint collaboration, the project’s goal is to share challenges and results and establish cooperation between the universities. The response to this invitation has been overwhelming, and 76 named resources representing 27 different higher education institutions are now participating in this national project. The technological perspective of the project has been a high priority from day one, and the project has taken a leading role in work related to the technological aspects of the digital assessment process. The presentation will focus particularly on these areas, and the perspective of succeeding in with a national project and joint collaboration in a broad scale.

• A joint collaboration including most Norwegian Universities
• The use of an innovative public procurement process – in collaboration with vendor market
• How digital solutions might influence new ways of learning and assessment
• Solving legal issues
• Establishing a national service platform for integration

Freddy Barstad (National Coordinator for Digital Assessment, eCampus – UNINETT AS) is an experienced manager and ICT-strategist, with 20 years of experience working with ICT in government, the public sector and as a consultant; he has spent the last 11 years in higher education.