OE Global 2018

Lifelong learning (LLL) is high on the political agenda of many governments. It is seen as a requirement to remain competitive, as a way to respond to fast technological changes, and as an instrument for enhancing social inclusion.

Institutes for higher education are expected to play an important role in this respect. However, the main focus of most traditional institutes for Higher Education is still on providing traditional forms of education (lectures, workshop, seminars) to students enrolled in Bachelor or Master programmes.

A specific approach might be to integrate on-campus and LLL by means of virtual classrooms. This might even lead to a win-win situation: students learn from professionals and vice-versa.

In this panel discussion, we will share the experiences (including stumble blocks) in this respect from a number of Dutch innovation projects that all use virtual classroom practices. These projects all form part of the Dutch subsidy scheme ‘Open and online education’ from the Dutch ministry of education and SURF but use different approaches like:
- a MOOC for cooperation between students and professionals;
- Web-lectures which are also promoted for professionals (like legal experts and doctors);
- Open Research /joint assignments;
- Offering on-campus courses also simultaneously in an online format
- Knowledge clips and bites which will be made available to the public at large via YouTube and other online channels.

The 4 presentations from the panel will each last a few minutes, each describing lessons learned (2-3 slides). After that, the participants will discuss in various groups specific approaches, challenges and opportunities when it comes to integrating on-campus education and professionals from an institutional and employers’ perspective.
Participants will use sticky notes. These will be shortly summarized by the chair.