Teachers online or facilitators? Does it really make a difference? Which competences are needed?

Abstract

PROF XXI Global Symposium MOOC Lx23 There is a clear consensus among the research community that the pandemic crisis with its disruptive impact in the educational system, particularly in Higher Education, has accelerated significantly the dissemination of online education, leading to the digital transformation of institutions. Digital education understood as a part of digital citizenship is now at the centre of higher education instituitional development globally. It has became also a key goal in the European policy agenda. The flexibility offered by the new digital technological-enriched educational formats allows to personalise learning experiences and how they are certified, adapting them better to each person's real needs. At the same time, it has also facilitated the combination of formal, non-formal and informal education. Open educational practices, particularly MOOCs, have been playing a decisive role in this context. The demand of MOOCs is growing exponentially. According to Class Central, around 25-30% of the total users registered on the main MOOC platforms (edX, Coursera and FutureLearn) did so after the pandemic. This is also the case for other platforms, notably NAU, in Portugal. The aim of this symposium is to reflect on the new and complex challenges that the expansion of open and online education in the framework of digital transformation is posing to higher education institutions, as well as to the different actors involved in the educational process. The implications of the datification of educational processes, the potential and risks of introducing intelligent agents and other non-human elements, the new role and competence profile of teachers and students, among other relevant topics, will be discussed. For this purpose, many different ideas and experiences, both institutional and personal, will be presented and shared. The event is organized by the Laboratory of Distance Education and eLearning (LE@D), a Foundation of Science and Technology (FCT) unit based at Universidade Aberta, in association with the PROF XXI consortium and with the support of the Foundation for National Scientific Computing (FCCN). The initiative is co-financed by the EU's Erasmus+ Programme. This symposium counts with the participation of more than twenty national and foreign speakers, selected among the world renowned experts in the field of research and practices of open education and digital transformation, representing three different continents. PROF XXI Global Symposium - MOOC Lx 23 resumes the pioneering and successful initiative that took place in Lisbon in 2018, under the chairmanship of the Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Prof. Dr. Fernanda Rollo: the MOOC-Maker Global Symposium - MOOC Lx18. We hope that this new edition, which will take place in a hybrid format and with a more compact agenda, will have the same impact. We invite you to join this group of experts to discuss the new emerging trends in educational innovation and open education supported by intelligent digital technologies.