This document discusses open education practices at the University "Ioan Slavici" of Timisoara in Romania. It defines open education and describes some key open education practices at the university, including: [1] ongoing innovation of blended courses through the integration of open educational resources (OERs) and massive open online courses (MOOCs); [2] continuing teacher training through participation in MOOCs and communities of practice; and [3] participation in open education initiatives in Romania. The benefits and challenges of integrating MOOCs into blended courses and flipped classrooms are also outlined.

1. MOOC-related practices for an Open Educator
Carmen Holotescu
Professor PhD, Dean
Director Center for Open Education
„Ioan Slavici” University of Timisoara, Romania
Grassroots open educators at work: challenges and ideas
March 7, 2018 - #openeducationwk

2. Contents
Open Education Definition
Open Education practices in university
MOOC-related practices
Open Education Initiatives in Romania

3. Open Education Definition
Core and Transversal Dimensions
Open education is a mode of realising
education, enabled by digital technologies
aiming to widen access and participation to
everyone.
It offers multiple ways of teaching and learning,
building and sharing knowledge, as well as a
variety of access routes to formal and non-
formal education, bridging them.
Open education means access to content,
courses, support, assessment and certification
in ways that are flexible, and accommodate
diverse needs. Barriers, as regards for example
entry or cost, are reduced or eliminated.
Source: OpenEdu JRC IPTS Report “Opening up
Education: a support framework for HE
institutions”, 2016
ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/open-education

4. 1. Ongoing innovation of the blended courses,
integration of OERs and MOOCs:
• course / practical activity recognition for participating in
MOOCs
• integrating MOOCs in university courses.
2. Continuing training of teachers:
• participation in MOOCs related to open education, but
also to topics of courses and research directions
• community of practice for teachers to exchange good
practice, peer-mentoring.
3. Active participation in the Coalition for
Open Educational Resources.
4. Co-organizing conferences and workshops related
to open education:
OEE Tour 2015, OEW Tm, eLSE Workshop, SMART
Conference.
5. Issue certificates on Blockchain
Open Education Practices at University “Ioan Slavici” of
Timisoara

5. 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
education to really reinvent and reimagine the classroom.”
We need to go from lectures on the blackboard to online exercises, online
videos. We have to go to interactive virtual laboratories and
gamification. To go to completely online grading and peer
interaction and discussion boards.
Everything really has to change.”
Anant Agarwal, 2013. Why massive open online courses (still) matter.
A TED presentation,
ted.com/talks/anant_agarwal_why_massively_open_online_courses_still_matter.html

6. Variants of blending MOOCs in university courses

7. Courses:
Multimedia, Object Oriented Programming, Blockchain Development
The first university course on Blockchain in Romania

8. Mobile learning features
• Allow students to become familiar (aware) with the MOOC phenomenon and
trends:
•the most important players/platforms/offers, types of learning,
interaction and specific pedagogies
•to be able to search and evaluate useful and quality MOOCs;
• To enlarge knowledge/topics of the course: to obtain an auxiliary support for
students’ group project development; for personal/professional development
• Allow students to have concrete views, opinions and proposals on MOOCs
and to critically evaluate their usefulness for personal development and for
different ways of integration in formal higher education courses.
Aims of integrating MOOCs

9. Steps for MOOCs Integration
• 1.MOOCs discovery and selection - #mooc:
•openeducationeuropa.eu
•mooc-list.com
•futurelearn.com
•class-central.com
• 2.Participation in MOOCs –requirement: at least 30%/50% of the activities
• 3.Learning Experience as Digital Story
• 4.MOOCs participation evaluation

10. A Model for MOOCs Integration

11. - For teachers:
- new skills and tasks:
- complex course design/management
- OERs and MOOCs curation
- evaluation of distributed/collaborative
activities of students,
- facilitation of the local learning
community and nurture of its
integration in the global communities of
MOOCs
- improving knowledge in their own area
of expertise
- improving their competencies/skills for
adopting new models of OEP
- For students:
- autonomy in assessing their own
learning needs for choosing the
MOOCs in which to participate
- exposing to:
- high quality materials created with
top educational technologies
- collaboration in global learning
communities
- a broader range of experiences
Benefits/Challenges of MOOCs integration in blended
courses/flipped classrooms
make xMOOCs more close to cMOOCs

12. Open Education Initiatives in Romania
educatiedeschisa.ro
poerup.referata.com/wiki/Romania
researchgate.net/publication/260987116_Integrating_MOOCs_in_Blended_Courses
https://www.slideshare.net/cami13/mooc-initiatives-in-romania

13. Thank you!
Carmen Holotescu
Twitter: @cami13
tinyurl.com/cholotescu