The Chairman of Telefónica, Cesar Alierta, and the Chairman of Banco Santander, Emilio Botín, met this morning in Rio de Janeiro for the global launch of MiríadaX, the e-learning platform which both companies are developing together and which is now the most important in the Hispanic world.

1. Cesar Alierta and Emilio Botín present the
MiríadaX e-learning platform, the most important in
the world in Spanish and Portuguese
> MiríadaX provides free open higher education to a potential audience of
over 600 million Spanish and Portuguese speakers.
> The platform boasts over 750.000 enrolled students, 100,000 of which
have already concluded their courses.
> This is the first Mooc platform in Spanish in the world.
Rio de Janeiro, 27 July 2014 - The Chairman of Telefónica, Cesar Alierta, and the
Chairman of Banco Santander, Emilio Botín, met this morning in Rio de Janeiro for the
global launch of MiríadaX, the e-learning platform which both companies are
developing together and which is now the most important in the Hispanic world.
The event took place within the scope of the 3rd
International Meeting of Universia
Chancellors in Rio de Janeiro, attended by over 1,103 honorable presidents from 33
countries.
The MiríadaX project is an initiative created by Telefónica, via Telefónica Learning
Services (TLS), the first e-learning enterprise in Spain and one of the first in the world,
and Banco Santander via Universia, the biggest network of Spanish and Portuguese
speaking universities. MiríadaX is the second Mooc (Massive Open Online Courses)
platform in the world and the first in Spanish.
The Chairman of Telefónica, Cesar Alierta, spoke of the key importance of new
connectivity technologies to help share knowledge. “Latin America has a growing need
for education and a generation which is clearly placing faith in technology. This,
together with high levels of penetration and availability of connectivity services,
provides a solid base for the success of MiriadaX”, stated Alierta.
From an economic point of view, Alierta emphasized the role of training and knowledge
in a country´s competitiveness. “And in this sense, technology and digitization are
fundamental”, he declared.
In turn, Banco Santander Chairman, Emilio Botín, recalled, places its experience in
university training and its commitment to higher education throughout Ibero-America at
the availability of MiríadaX. “We have been given an historic opportunity for the Ibero-
American system of higher education”, declared Botín, who added that “MiríadaX

2. possesses all the tools required to become the benchmark open course platform on the
Internet in Spanish and Portuguese throughout the world”.
“The printing press was a great innovation, and, beyond doubt, the knowledge capable
of being transferred via the Internet is possibly the second great educational innovation
we have been given the enormous privilege of experiencing”, Botín stressed.
The event was also attended by the CEO of Universia, Jaume Pagés, the Chancellor of
the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), José Narro, the Chancellor of
the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Joaquim Clotet,
and the president of the Association of Chancellors of Spanish Universities (CRUE)
and the Chancellor of the University of Zaragoza, Manuel J. Lopez Pérez.
The MiríadaX platform
MiríadaX is based on collective learning and the free use of both educational resources
and innovative technologies. The platform commenced activities 18 months ago and
now boasts 750,000 enrolled students, 100,000 of which have concluded their courses.
There are already 33 Ibero-American universities connected via MiríadaX. In 18
months, 153 courses have been published and the platform has a community of 990
member professors.
MiríadaX courses are open to all audiences, regardless of whether the participant is a
university student or not, or belongs to a specific university. MiriadaX offers the
opportunity to enroll in its courses in a simple manner, open to anyone interested in
widening their knowledge.
Telefónica Learning Services (TLS)
A company belonging to the Telefónica group, specialized in the provision of integral
solutions in training and education, boasting expertise gathered over 15 years of
experience. TLS, the most important Spanish e-learning enterprise and one of the
biggest in the world, operates on an international scale with offices in Spain, Peru,
Chile, Colombia and Brazil. The company is geared to providing and creating formulas
of teaching and learning using the latest technology tools, reducing the digital gap,
thereby enhancing an individual´s skills in order to promote personal and professional
development.
TLS is an EdTech company which develops highly innovative projects within different
markets; end-to-end solutions for schools, technology developments for universities, in
addition to solutions for corporate training and projects for public administrations in
several different countries.

3. Universia
The biggest university cooperation network, sponsored by Banco Santander. Universia
was created in the year 2000 with the aim of bringing together Ibero-American
universities on a single site on the Internet. The company established itself as a
university network in 2005, promoting projects and services with universities and for
business enterprises. Universia is the most important university network in Ibero-
America, comprising 1,290 universities from 23 countries, representing 16.8 million
students and professors.
What are Moocs?
Mooc stands for Massive Open Online Course. This term was coined in the year 2008,
when online courses began to appear on the Internet, with over 2,000 participants
enrolled.
This type of course belongs to a mode of open education where courses are offered on
the Internet and administered via different platforms with the aim of sharing knowledge
on a massive scale and reaching all types of audience.
The main characteristics a Mooc needs to have are:
• A course structure geared to learning and the simple evaluation and accreditation of a
student´s progress.
• An extremely high number of students per course. This number being far greater than
the number of students a highly sought after classroom course may have.
• The courses need to be created and delivered online.
• The material needs to be easily accessible and free of charge on the Internet.
• Access needs to be open to anyone interested in the course content.
For further information:
MiriadaX
www.miriadax.net