My experience at eMOOCs (Anas Ahachad)


The story begins with me being a person who is really obsessed with technology and education areas. This is clear in the field in which I am involved and for which I am going to obtain a PhD degree soon; Machine Learning. Knowing that MOOCs involve a lot of technicalities that are so close to my area of specialty encouraged me to seek volunteering in this event. It was such great time to be part of this wonderful team and this important event; A real summit that involved leaders of e-Learning from all over the globe in which I got to meet and talk to the leaders and founders of the most important MOOCs such as Anant Agarwal of edX and Rick Levin of Coursera, Simon Nelson of Futurelearn and researchers of the most important Arabic platform “edraak”. A few years back, particularly in 2013, I registered in one of Coursera's first courses, Andrew Ng's course on Machine Learning. Hence, it was of such great joy to see researchers like him presenting their last methods and strategies.

During the first day of event, I was in charge of reception of guests and guiding them to the registration table for which I had to start my volunteer work one hour before the opening of the summit. I had the honor to accompany very important professionals and researchers such as Anant Agarwal and brought them to the building where the event was held!

After the start of the event, I got to meet other researchers and professors from my area of study who were participants in different sessions and workshops whether as auditors or as presenters. I was so lucky, as I had the opportunity to learn more about the topic of MOOCs and what people do in this umbrella. It was clear that this event had the best of the best talents from prestigious universities like MIT, Harvard, UC Berkeley, etc. For example, when one of the presenters was describing a system that he developed, he mentioned that in order to solve a specific problem, he used a specific algorithm. One of the participants raised his hand and said that he was the developer of that algorithm! Another example was seeing someone program while he followed the presentation that was held. Also, I got to make new contacts for developing my skills in these areas and for building research collaborations through talking to some of the experts during the summit. As part of the volunteering work, I got the chance to register for a workshop of my choice. During the atelier that I attended “Learning Analytics to Overcome Language Barriers”, it was very interesting; on the one hand, I met a wonderful team of researchers from the University of Southampton in UK that we planned work side by side in a future project, and on the other hand, I tried to apply my background in Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP) for resolving a practice case: “the assessment of students” which we can use the algorithms of Question Answering, Word Sense Disambiguation and also Speech Recognition to automate the task of evaluation.

Furthermore, I made friends with a researcher from MIT who told me about his line of work and his research interests. I talked to him about my work as well and even invited him to my lab to show him some of my work. I was excited by the new ideas that we developed together. Moreover, the cream of all this event was meeting new friends from my university; we got to talk about the differences and similarities between our fields of study, It was fun to know of all these colleagues. I had great time working with you guys!


Summary of the experience (by Karolina Kedeva)

In this summary I would like to briefly state my experience of participating in the capacity of a volunteer at this years EMOOC’s Conference held at the Carlos III University Madrid.  Although I am a PhD in Law student, and do not deal on a daily basis in my studies and research with more advanced IT mechanisms and media designs and techniques, I have found this experience very colorful and stimulating.
Namely, not very far ago teaching, learning, gaining access to journals, live lectures, setting correspondence with top expertise in a field, had been extremely limited by the notions of space, time, available recourses (costs) and dedicated only to certain circles of the academic community. Proof of this would be the lengthy and challenging application procedures for teachers and academics in certain fields, and in certain countries for that matter, complex accreditation processes for students up taking courses and degrees abroad far away from their jurisdiction, expensive seminar and congress fees for participation, etc.  Thus one can undoubtedly claim that with the invention of an open online course, with the opportunity of free registration, easily accessible and publically shared resources, texts, videos, materials curriculums, and the option of integrating and corresponding with leading experts and practitioners in many fields of knowledge, life for the academic community has become much easier by and large.
Therefore, from my brief experience on the EMOOC’s conference, I can say that such an invention as the MOOC is a truly innovative tool aimed to assist all students who wish to freely organize or improve their knowledge and skills, but at the same time to assist the exchange of know-how among professors, assistants, and stimulate the interaction between the academic community and the students. It is also considered a great milestone in the development and progress of distance learning.
 I would like to give an example of one very practical and interesting WorkShop that I was actively engaged in during the conference: “Framing the ‘Talking Head’’ by Jeanine Reutemann (University of Applied Sciences and Arts Basel, FHNW, Switzerland). The main objective of this workshop had been to demonstrate how variations in media design can help the educator to communicate his message with the audience.  Although the title and some of the context had been technical to people in the media design industry, a lot was said about the various teaching methods, delivery and speech in front of the camera and overall delivery of presentation too. Being a lawyer and PhD in Law student these particularities relating to visualization of presentation techniques seemed very intriguing to me.
 Thus for instance when watching live examples of lectures on the MOOC’s we identified and debated about the various speeches, the lecturers’ delivery, tone of voice, gestures, distance, etc. In that sense, the lecture was very important for professors and us as future lecturers our fields, to assist with the details that can have a great impact on our delivery to the target audience. We analyzed the importance of rehearsal prior to recording the lecture, the importance of the so called “social distance” that is individual but should be evaluated whether too close/ or too far depending on the setting, and finally the importance of gestures which usually assist to fulfill the unsaid in a certain lecture. Hence this practical workshop had been designed to demonstrate not only awareness from behind the camera, but also was very educative for educators presenting and preparing for lectures in front of the camera.
The workshop was designed in a manner to actively include all participants, and thus part was left for the technical producers practical exercises, but also all participants were divided into small groups and had the chance to bring up thoughts, questions and answers to certain problems, and case studies that we worked with on the course. Primarily some of the greatest challenges to producers in media design were discussed, such as lightening, positioning, angles, sound, setting the focus on the speaker (the eyes), the closed innovative model, and other technological aspects of the usage of the 4D camera. However, also a great part had been divided into the speech itself such as the importance of the ‘story telling’, pre-scripting, the abovementioned use of appropriate gestures and social distance through specific examples and identifying the target audience. Finally the outcome of the MOOC design was presented as depended on both produces and educators, and the key aspects for success were revealed to both parties. One interesting example and point was that not every lecturer is the same in the sense that some are more introvert or extrovert than others, and dependent on that adaptations should be made in the video formatting but also on the part of the speaker with increased or decreased gestures, tone of voice, etc. Being a film director herself the lecturer perfectly delivered all key aspects of creating the perfect MOOC, through the prism of applied film studies.
All in all my experience on this EMOOC’s conference and the respective Work Shops had been very educational and would recommend it without doubt to all students and lecturers with the urge to achieve more in their academic career. 

Karolina Kedeva
PhD in Law student. Carlos III University Madrid

An experience for life! (by Carlos Fujita)

As a novice doctoral student in UC3M, I was presented the opportunity to offer myself as a volunteer in helping to organize EMOOCS 2017.

The idea seemed interesting: I had been interested in MOOCs before, even have completed a few, and participating in the event would grant me a few credits, that I needed to complete my doctoral studies. There was nothing to lose, it seemed.

Nonetheless, I must confess that I did not have high expectations as to what I would live in terms of personal experience. I hoped that I would be able to have a glance at some of the speeches, debates and workshops, but it seemed that, primarily, it would be work.

Boy, was I mistaken!

Let me try to summarize the great experience that participating in EMOOCS 2017 was. I hope not to leave anything out:

One of the first things that I realized, even before the event started, is how passionate the UC3M staff was about the organization of the event itself. Eva, Rosa and Raul, to name just the ones more in the “front line” seemed very excited about the event, and – to me, at least – the excitement was such as to be contagious. It was clear that something big was taking place.

Then came the event itself. How surprised was I to find out that there were so many great people heavily involved in studying MOOCs and striving to continuously improving the experience not only of the students, but also of those who are somehow involved in their design and production. How all those people were not intimated in the least by the huge challenges posed by the current limitations of MOOCs, and how enthusiastic were all of them with the future of this educational instrument! It was a joy to be there and to share their experiences, and know their expectations for the future of MOOCs.

All of this was coupled with the perception that everyone involved from the UC3M side was clearly determined in offering the participants the best possible experience. How impressed I was with the commitment of everyone involved, both from the staff and from the volunteer team!

And at the end of each day, everyone realized that everything (well, almost everything, for nothing can be perfect) had gone well, despite of all the unforeseeable things that always take place in an event of this magnitude. It is really hard to describe the feeling of seeing the joy of the staff when all the hard work progressively resulted in the success of the event – and the feeling of being a part, albeit small, of this success. It is rewarding beyond any academic credit that one can get by taking part in such an endeavor!

Last, but not least, there is the content itself. I was unexpectedly able to participate in most of the events that interested me the most. I could even take part in a workshop where people from all over the world were debating the best practices of design when conceiving a MOOC. As someone who has some experience as a Professor, and who wants to develop a solid career in the academy, I cannot possibly start to measure the value of this experience in a personal and professional perspective.


In the end, the academic credits seemed almost unimportant compared to the other tangible effects of participating: I made new friends; I felt a deep sense of belonging; my appreciation for UC3M as a fantastic institution grew even bigger than it already was; I developed a better sense of what is going on in the University apart from the regular classes; and last, but not least, I left with the strong conviction that I will not rest until I get involved in the production of a MOOC. Not bad for a 25-hour volunteer experience!

A week around/inside EMOOCs (by Ana Mora)

From my perspective as an empirical scientist, I could never imagine the scope of online learning platforms. Although I have participated as a learner in some language and transversal skills courses, I had never stopped to think about its importance in an increasingly technological world. The idea to offer quality knowledge with the advantages of online learning could seem simple, but I have learnt this week how many problems must be face up: starting from social differences to avoid misunderstandings at language MOOCs, until making easier the access to the courses without internet connection.  These are only two examples of many others that have been discussed by experts during this intense week.

One of the sessions that I have enjoyed the most (maybe because it has been the most revealing for me) was about MOOCs aimed at immigrants and refugees. When we think about what these people need, I am sure that basic necessities come firstly to our mind. Nowadays, in a world that runs fast, integration, multiculturalism, and solidarity are daily words. The massive amount of people that run away from their houses looking for a better life and wellbeing, are needy of language and cultural training to achieve a quick adaptation and return to normality as soon as possible. In this session, the speakers talked about the possibilities and the advances that have been developed during the last years in order to help refugee to feel comfortable at the place they arrive. I can imagine how much easier would be to know the foreign language only to explain how you feel, and MOOCs seem to be a suitable possibility for this purpose. In my opinion, this could be a good way through which western world can support them and fight for integration. However, as one of the speaker said, it has to be real and reach everybody in this situation, which means that it has to be facilitated to people without internet or computer. The way? It has to be find, but where there is a will there is a way.

In addition, the UC3M volunteers had the opportunity to attend to one of the workshops of the congress. In my case, I enjoyed the two sessions of the workshop “Learning Analytics to Overcome Language Barriers”. During this time, we firstly discussed about the challenges that face a student of a language course in a MOOC. After an intense brainstorm, we concluded that the most common problems are cultural misunderstandings in forums or due to typical expressions and idioms of the language, the necessity of a glossary for technical terms, and also the difficulty to learn a language in a another language. Although some of these problems could be solve through the data that the MOOC can provide, in the majority of the cases these massive data are difficult to manage. For this reason, the workshop conclude with another idea storm about what we think could be the best question to the data the MOOC offers. From my little experience in the MOOC-world, I realized at this moment that research about data we can obtain from the platforms and how to manage them is essential.

I would like to end this post by thanking the organizing committee for giving me the opportunity of being part of the organization of the conference. For me, the EMOOCs 2017 Summit has been a very enriching experience, not only professionally but personally. 

My experience at EMOOCs 2017 (by Muriell Mundaca)



Anyone who is interested in education is encouraged to learn more about new technologies. In particular, massive open online courses (MOOCs) are considered a very good alternative and/or complement to traditional education, which is why I was interested in getting involved with this event.

It is relatively easy to understand what MOOCs are, but it is not that obvious all the work that has to be done to fine-tune them. When I applied to be a volunteer, I was expecting to get to know more about these courses, and what I obtained in the end was not just a broad idea of what they are, but I had the opportunity to understand all the hidden work related to them, and I could also grasp its potential.

My role as a volunteer was to give support mostly with manual work. While doing different simple tasks with other volunteers and speakers, I got to know very interesting people, who I could not have known in other circumstances, and I could see how everyone could imagine many ways to integrate MOOCs into their careers, even when they had different professions.

Apart from the sessions, there were workshops, and as volunteers we could attend at least one of them. The workshop I attended  was “Green Keen?”, moderated by Gabi Hurlen, Aslak Ormestad and Emma Vestli, who are advisors at Oslo and Akershus University College. They explained us how convenient was to use a green background for layering two images –or video streams– together. It was not just a workshop on how to use this technology, but we also had an exciting discussion on the differences between traditional classroom and online learning… Should teachers read in front of the camera or not? There was no consensus, but everyone learned more about the benefits and disadvantages of choosing one way or the other. In any case, what the moderators made clear is that efficiency is not an irrelevant issue when you are producing a MOOC. 

Another workshop that I enjoyed a lot, although I attended as a volunteer and not as an attendee, was “Speaking on Camera”. This workshop, taught by Laura Penn, was ideal for people interested in improving their oral presentations. It is very well known how important it is to present information in a clear and effective way, but you don’t know the relevance of your voice and body language until you have the opportunity to hear someone like Laura Penn explaining how to connect with your hypothetical audience using precisely your voice and your body.

To conclude, I must say that this experience was extremely helpful and gave me the opportunity to understand more about online learning and non-conventional education and how I could integrate it into my professional life in the future. And, as I said before, it was also a good ocassion to meet different and inspiring people.



EMOOCs 2017 (by Estefanía Crespo)


My opinion about EMOOCs
As the saying goes, “El saber no ocupa lugar” (the Spanish version) or “You can never know too much” (the English version). Although in the particular case of the EMOOCs, maybe the knowledge may take a few hundred megabytes on a server, but that is not relevant 😉 .
More seriously, in my opinion, the important thing here is that the knowledge acquired through an EMOOC can be later transferred to the classroom. Moreover, the best EMOOCs are backed by prestigious institutions and professors that transmit their knowledge so that anyone can learn from them.
On the other hand, thanks to the pill format (videos that are 4 to 12 minutes long) lessons are concentrated within a short time and come straight to the point. This allows teachers to change the approach of their classes, applying the EMOOCs and spending the rest of the time discussing or carrying out any other participatory activity that may help to the assimilation of the theoretical concepts.
Finally, I wish to emphasise that during the congress I have realized that as a future professor (if I am lucky), I must keep in mind that students should be educated to think about the future and not about the present. And in this case, I really believe that MOOCs are the future. Hence, this does not mean that they will replace "traditional" education, but they will complement it. I am convinced that transferring this idea to students will be key for their future.
 
Workshop number 4: Green Keen?
The main topic of the workshop revolved around the "Green Screen" technique (also known as chroma key) very well known by all of us in the cinema area. This is a technique in which a video is shot with a single colored background (usually green as it is not a very common clothing color) that can be made transparent and replaced with a still image. Thanks to a special software presented during the workshop, it was not necessary to wait until the editing process to see the results. In fact, two monitors situated on the right and left side of the person showed in real time a composite of the person on background slide.
Green screen made it simple to superimpose a person onto any chosen background. In the following figure you can see me trying this amazing technique.
In this case I was superimposed onto a PowerPoint presentation. At the same time, I could manually advance the slides of the presentation. Of course, all this process was recorded. Additionally, one important thing I could learn in this workshop is that the way in which you look at the camera it is very important to reach the person situated behind it.
To sum up, I conclude this section encouraging teachers to test this technique.
 
What did I expect from my experience as a volunteer?
Previously to my participation as a volunteer in "EMOOCs 2017", I thought that it would be a great opportunity being part of a conference's organization, "being in the backstage" and thus completing my previous experience attending to conferences where I have showed my research progress as an oral presenter.
Finally, what has been my experience as a volunteer?
At professional level
As the days went by, I learnt that attending a conference, even though it is not directly related with my research line, it is far from sitting in a classroom and listening to an unalterable speech over time. In fact, the main characteristic of this conference was that it was linked to a current issue which will have a great impact on our society in the short term.
At personal level
It has been a unique experience of teamwork, in a completely new way for me, with a flexible structure where all volunteers not only have had time to participate in the organization of the conference, but also they have attended as listeners to the different sessions, always with the clear aim of enjoying the moment.
Finally, I can only say thank you for letting me join EMOOCs 2017.
 Estefanía Crespo Bardera
 

My Experience at EMOOCs 2017

My Experience at EMOOCs 2017 by Eva Espinosa Cano

From the 22nd to the 25th of May, the international EMOOCs 2017 Conference took place at my University (University Carlos III de Madrid). It was the first time the EMOOC conference was hosted by a Spanish university and I was lucky to be part of the organization team as a volunteer. In this post I want to share with you my experience and some opinions about MOOCs that I have built during this week.
The Organization Experience
The EMOOC conference was a great experience at all levels. First of all, I have to thank the organization team for making this experience unforgettable. I thought about being part of the organization of EMOOC 2017 as a challenge that I should face to build my future as a researcher and as a professor and I was not disappointed. I already had experience organizing small sport events but they cannot be compared to such a big research conference. We were responsible for guiding attendants and for making them feel like at home and I think we all did the work and everything went even better than expected. From my point of view, it was a highly enriching experience.

The Volunteers

At the personal level, I met really interesting people. There were other fifteen PhD students from the same university working as volunteers and each of them had different research fields. These research fields were, in most cases, very different from mine giving us the opportunity to learn from each other.

 

The workshop

In workshop 5 "Framing the talking head" (Jeanine Reutemann) I found experts in MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) production and post-production and they help me to get familiar with all challenges I will face in the future when I would prepare or participate in a MOOC. They also gave me ideas on how to solve those problems in such a way that now I feel more confident with the idea of facing a MOOC.

 

How to apply MOOCs in my current work?
However, I think for me it was even more important that the conference open my mind at the professional level. The first day I already had an idea of a MOOC that I should implement in my workplace. I talked to my supervisor and we both found it a great idea. The MOOCs open us a window to the world, it could be for us as researchers a way to let everyone know who we are and what we do. Moreover, we can teach students the basics they need to know to be part of our team, those things that are not taught at the university. For instance, we can teach the basics of cell biology to chemists or the basics of chemistry to a biologist.
What have I learned about MOOCs?
As well as for researchers, I understood that MOOCs are essential in future learning, in companies and in many other aspects. I consider that MOOCs are part of the future of superior education. They will be one of the tools that will make possible an educational revolution that will translate into a new way of teaching at universities. They are also the best way to get people from undeveloped countries closer to superior education and an opportunity for everyone to learn from experts from all over the world. However, I realized that they are not of common knowledge and I feel that I should talk about them at work, but also to my friends and family.
MOOCs in my future
Regarding my future, I do not know if as a professor (if I ever become one) I will be able to use MOOCs or not. Nonetheless, I am sure that, at least, I will have them on mind and I will try to find the way to make them part of my education plan. 

To conclude, I would like to say thanks again to everyone that make this experience possible. I hope we can see each other soon!

A though on MOOCs (by Fernando Veiga)

Education should never be kept behind bars waiting for a golden key to be released. I see knowledge sharing, leading to the common objective of global society progress. I imagine no borders nor limitations for any individual’s education, regardless of their personal background. I think of Massive Open Online Courses as the beginning of a new era of learning.

Utopia. Probably the first thought to rise from any of your brains while reading these lines. I cannot blame you. But I consider open learning as a small but mandatory step towards a worldwide free major education. There still a long way off. MOOCs might be the beginning, and I have to thank this congress to make me cross the door of open knowledge sharing for the first time.

We, humans, are progressing at our historically fastest rate. A constant update of our personal skills seems to be necessary during our future professional or academic careers. This makes MOOCs an essential tool for continuous education in a person’s lifetime.

As a future professor, I think that introducing new technologies for teaching activities improves the connection with the pupils. It makes classes more interactive, alive, enhancing the link with the audience. But updating the lecture rooms does not depend on the lecturers. Resources from the universities and governments are required.

MOOCs look like one of the best available teaching tools when thinking of technology. Been able to record your classes will make it possible for even more people to follow them without being present. Personally speaking, I would begin my own Massive Open Online Course. However, I cannot do it by myself. I require help and support from my department and colleagues. I would like to see more people interested in my research area.

When I received the email from the doctorate school, I thought of this activity as one of the best ways to obtain transversal skills and experience. I had never been a volunteer nor assisted to a congress before. The perfect chance to do it.

One of the best parts of the congress was the possibility of assisting a workshop. I was lucky enough to meet Laura Penn. The best speaker I ever met. She introduced me to the secrets of public speaking and how to behave in front of a camera. I even had the opportunity to know what strangers think of my voice, obtaining a priceless feedback. A perfect experience at the EMOOCs congress! I would like to have this opportunity again.

I do not regret at all of the experience as a volunteer at the EMOOCs conference. I met amazing people from a lot of different backgrounds. I became part of the organization of the congress, part of a big team. I learnt from my colleagues and all the speeches of the online learning experts. I actually enjoyed the experience and would repeat it without hesitation. 

F. Veiga

My Emoocs 2017 (by Marvin Dertliu)

Participating as a volunteer in EMOOCS 2017 has been an amazing experience. It was for me the first time to get involved as member of the organization staff in a congress of that importance, the more developed by the university I belong. And most importantly it gave me the opportunity to meet some new friends, my fellow volunteers colleagues which as me, are performing their PhD in the UC3M.

Congress focused on Moocs, massive open online courses enabled on web platforms and provided by universities and leading educational institution. Despite its freshness, Moocs have widespread all over the world as a revolutionary learning facility. Through the internet teachers of whatever branch can submit their contents and make knowledge available anywhere, at any time, and mostly free.

The Congress was participated by academics, developers, facilitators and Governments from all over the world. Best international recognized universities and internet companies were involved, and speakers talked about their experience with Moocs, their potential and perspectives.
In words of panelists, Moocs definitely are going to change the current way of teaching, even if not replacing it. Especially upcoming Professors shall take Moocs very seriously. In fact if by one hand Moocs are a very effective way to widespread education, they are also a facilitator of courses to be added in official curricula. 
Some trends are quite evident at the moment: top universities are pushing Moocs in order to lead such new ways of learning also and consolidate their fame; at the same time Moocs potential is being exploited to reach a larger number of users, and some academic courses are mandatory to be taken online. Such implies that young academics shall be ready to manage in depth that technology as a part of their job skills, in addition to their purely academic abilities.

As volunteers of UC3M our duty was to collaborate in different ways. We had to attend visitors, register, check conference rooms to be ready, and provide for all kind of facilities as needed to the speakers in order to ease their job as much as possible. Coordination with team directors and other volunteers was a must at any time and permitted to overcome urgencies or extraordinary needs unpredictable in advance.

Apart from that a precise commitment of the event was to make us part of the congress, as users and not only as staff. In particular we had to take part in Workshops which happened in the last part of the Congress.
The one I chose: “The Art of Disruption”, dealt with the issue of disruption as a means to approach Moocs and the use of disruptive schemes to understand the dynamics of Moocs and investigate their evolution.
We were organized in teams and had to work on specific exercises which were related to creative approach to teaching, hosting, and planification of online courses. But it was not only that. The workshop went further, forcing each of us to think about the future of education, technology and the role of human and artificial intelligence within a 20 years horizon. Me I had to cope with people engaged actively in Moocs as recognized professionals, which shared their impressions with me along the course. The interchange of experiences and human contact was thus the core part of the workshop, and let us, the volunteers, to benefit from an inside view of Moocs and their operative environment.

In my opinion Moocs represent now, and still more in the future, a huge part of the education. Independently if we talk about academic education, long life learning or professional training, the internet targets a demand which is actual and consistent: getting contents of high quality at lower costs, smashing down geographical barriers.

Actually the greatest part of Moocs focuses on specific courses – opened in most cases – the only economic valuable performance raising out from the release of a validate certificate of passing exams. A following step is now being pursued by American universities which use Moocs both, as a pre-selection course to the admittance of undergraduate or LLM students, or as part of academic curricula, validating credits obtained on online subjects, within official programs. It won’t be difficult to think about full on-line undergraduate or postgraduate programs, especially useful, for those who cannot displace abroad in order to receive education of same quality, due to economic costs of stay abroad, visa requirements and other similar barriers.

Nonetheless Moocs cannot do everything. Moocs for example cannot provide for research. It is elementary that Moocs are a means to disclose contents but those contents need to be investigated and set up by researchers who perform their activity within an academic institution, whose costs of attendance are not compensated by Moocs revenues. Another example of what Moocs cannot provide for is empathy, interactions among students. Studies have demonstrated that education, especially academic education, is not restricted only to the passive acceptance of data concepts, but is inherently linked to the experience of learning, which involves a far bigger amount of perceptions, coming out from personal interchange, communication and merging through different cultures. This kind of experience is definitely impossible to achieve through the internet.

The correct way to approach Moocs passes then through an equilibrate understanding of what can be achieved through Moocs and what escapes to the goals and opportunities such technology can provide for.

What I wish to do with this technology will be to consolidate and get recognized as an expert of my field of research worldwide. After the defense of my PhD thesis and its publication, I am willing to wait to get also published some 4 core papers on top rated international reviews, before inaugurating my first online massive open course. If experience leaves to a positive outcome my second step will be to open a full or almost full online LLM degree for target audiences on demanded topics, with an international academic staff and coordinated within the academic department I will belong to.

The success of the initiative, would lead to the third step, consisting in the creation of an international network of students and researchers, taking advantage of all the possibilities offered by the internet, but never setting aside the social dimension of education which was, and always will be, just one, of other much ways, in which persons get in touch with others.

EMOOCS 2017 (by Víctor Sánchez del Olmo).


Having participated in this Congress, EMOOCs 2017, apart from has been a great experience has helped me to understand MOOCs from another perspective. Until now I had only seen them as an only one direction educational resource from different Universities to me as a learner but, thanks to the Congress, from now on I will see them as a double via: as a learner but also as a resource in which all of us can participate in order to transmit knowledge to other learners; in other words: stop being only the receiver but also being the creator.

I have also realized the amount of work involved in preparing and conducting a MOOC. I do not want even imagine those MOOC which have a extremely large number of learners. For sure, that is a challenge for creators. I cannot guess how much work there is behind these courses: videos, materials, quizzes, proctoring, etc,…

In this sense, the Workshop I attended, Speaking on camera, has also been very useful and inspirational. It was an authentic luxury Workshop in which we were given essential notions about performance, how to speak, how to pause, how to act and how to introduce ourselves to a MOOC. Simply wonderful. I was conscious that there are many things to take care about ourselves when you want to design a MOOC.

Moreover, this Congress made me think about how this new educative system can develop itself and also how MOOC can collaborate with the traditional and conventional educational presence system we already have and know nowadays at universities.

During these days, we have been discussing about many things: the certifications, the requirements, the rate of dropping out from these courses by learners. Every songle point was deeply analysed. Among other conclusions I would mention the fact that many learners are interested only in a few points, some lessons or some weeks. This point should make us think about modelling some courses in order to obtain a certificate or fewer numbers of credits if learners complete some points contained within courses. An intense analysis of this question is essential in order to find solutions to these challenges.

Concretely, the EMOOCs 2017 made me think about my discipline: Law. Law is a classic discipline and, apart from some fields, Law is very a different subject from one Country to another. These differences could be a big trouble further than the language barriers which is already one of the biggest obstacles in MOOCs. Anyway It supposes to think about proper solutions and find a way to create a MOOC, in which I am really interested.

Last but not least, I discovered a very great people at MOOCs, I really enjoyed with the speakers´ talks, with the organization and with the volunteers: PhD colleagues from all other subjects who I have shared many nice experiences and knowledge with.

My final conclusions from all these days of Congress is that MOOCs and traditional or conventional education (presence at Universities, for instance) should continue to coexist:

·         I want to think that none of each will ever terminally finish the other.

·        We have to see MOOCs as a brilliant education able to provide a very high quality content to a huge number of learners who have particular needs or who wish to control their own

·         Also, at University, in some degrees, MOOCs are the perfect complement for students.

The EMOOCS 2017 Conference at UC3M (by Ariel Díaz)

                                       
I'll admit it, until a few days ago I didn't think much of MOOCS (Masive Online Open Courses) as a whole. Yes I knew what they were, and yes I was aware they were getting some focus from the academic and reasearch comunity but that was the end of it from where I stood: they were simply an extra to a teacher's efforts or a way to make his/her lessons available to a wider audience. You may have already guessed it but I was wrong.

Volunteering at the 2017 EMOOCS Conference that took place between the 22nd and 26th of May of 2017 in Leganés at the Carlos III de Madrid University proved to be not only an oportunity  to look closer at the topic but in many ways, for me ar least, was also an eye opener. MOOCS are, in many cases, becoming the teacher's complete focus, as reaching a larger number of students, with little or no previous experience in the subject, presents them with new challenges and forces them to reinvent the way in which they transmit the knowledge. They have to learn to speak in front of a camera, to make their content fit in a 5 minutes video and the energy and the enthusiasm shown in learning and improving by most atendees to the conference speaks for itself, there is no better enterprise than that taken with joy and the desire to do. It made me feel as if this was the new great thing, the next big change, the coming revolution to education all around the world. And it appears others have felt the same as several companies, also present at the event, are heavily investing in MOOCS and digital platforms (such as edX) to host them; these companies are also changing the way they train workers or even the selection process, by using online courses. 

We were given the opportunity of participating in one of the several Workshops that took place during the event. The one I attended, "Green Keen", focused on a hands-on experience with video recording and the challenges posed to both the presenter and the crew behind the camera. We had the chance of recording our own mini class, which was awesome if I may add, and what struck me the most was that the exchange of ideas and experiences convinced the talkers to try new ways of recording they had previously discarded as not so convenient.

In a personal level, I am excited for MOOCS, their future seems bright and it makes sense: the Internet has such a presence in every aspect of our lives that is only natural it finds its way into the classroom (by getting rid of the classroom that is). I'm really looking forward to when I have to design a course and I can make it available to all. No need to understand it all on the first try, you can just go back and hear it again, no more "I'm sitting too far and I can't hear", just turn up the volume. All in all, if you've read this far I'm guessing you are at least a bit interested. Don't take my word, go and try them out, pick a subject you've been itching to learn about and give it a try. Let me know what you think afterwards.

#EMOOCs2017 - Lessons learned (by Alexandra Pana)



 It was a challenge for me to do it!
So, I decided to leave my job for 5 days (it wasn’t easy to obtain this!) and to try to participate in the Volunteer’s EMOOCS2017 Program. I needed the 4 transversal ECTS but also I needed to learn something new and to interact with new people.
Following all my needs, I participated as a volunteer at the 5th European MOOCS Stakeholder's Summit, held in Madrid, at UC3M from 22 to 26 May 2017…..and it was a great experience!
In the start, I knew nothing about MOOCS. I am the typical/classical student in Law, addicted to manuals and traditional teaching classes, so I never thought that it might be possible for me to study and graduate an on-line Law course, but this experience in EMOOCS2017 changed my way of seeing things.
This Summit gathered specialists in pedagogy, informatics and public policies from all over the world and their main objective was to find the perfect match between people’s educations needs, technical possibilities and teaching methods in order to rise up the level of education in the world and to facilitate the access to information for all the social categories. It isn’t easy to find the best solution for this, especially when you work with "living" concepts, that evolve from a day to another. But in these 5 days I saw a lot of struggle and a positive approach from all the participants. This brand new domain (the first MOOCs were born in 2011!) promises a lot of potential for young and talented teachers but also for the big players in the digital market/world (Coursera, Edx, SAP, Microsoft, Google, MiriadaX etc.). This is the field where business and social interests meet harmoniously. Maybe for this reason the Summit was a perfect fruitful brainstorming place.
I chose (helped by EvaJ) a workshop that met all my expectations: how to deal with the cultural diversity in MOOCS? And I discovered two wonderful and dedicated ladies: Rosanna de Rosa and Ruth Kerr. These two ladies, teachers of the University of Naples Frederico II, are coordinating the EMMA Project which is a European Multiple MOOC Aggregator, launched in April 14, 2014.
The project, led by 12 universities and companies in 8 European countries, provides access to MOOCs in different languages using automatic transcription. EMMA is a 30-month pilot project supported by the European Union. Its goal is to allow learners to access MOOCs in different languages with the help of automatic transcription. The pilot offers a total of 16 MOOCs, aiming to involve over 60 000 participants.  The website aggregates and hosts courses provided by European universities who wish to provide their courses in multiple languages. Secondly, the platform allows users to create their own learning paths by bringing together various units from different MOOCs. 

 Imagini pentru emma project rosanna de rosa
The importance of this workshops wasn’t just to discover this new possibility to study in different languages, but also to find out that a lot of people are using volunteer their time and energy to find solutions in order to preserve the cultural diversity of Europe, pushing, in the same time, the students to interact one with each other, to exchange ideas and to mix traditions. At the end of the workshop we reached the idea to create en Erasmus Exchange Platform as a transposition of the classical and successful ERASMUS Program in the new Digital Education World. Maybe someday, someone will write down this project and implement it!
As a conclusion, participating in this Volunteer’s EMOOCS2017 Program was the best choice I made this spring! I found new possibilities for my future carrier as a Law teacher, I met wonderful people, I learned brand new things, I escaped work and I had a lot of fun….
So, I am looking forward for the next volunteering program (I also need 2 more ECTS!), I got enrolled in a MOOC and I hope to meet again the volunteers team and the coordinators.

Best regards from Romania!
Alexandra Pana

My experience at eMOOCs (Anas Ahachad)

The story begins with me being a person who is really obsessed with technology and education areas. This is clear in the field in whic...