Organic Agriculture (OA) as a rural development strategy addresses the need for sustainable growth while meeting consumer demand for increased food quality and safety. EC policy encourages the development of OA with the European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming, which is applied nationally through efforts to increase land area in OA. The European Council of Young Farmers found training to be a ‘very important instrument’ to adopting the European Model of agriculture. Many EU countries have OA training initiatives, but of unknown quality and effectiveness.

The overall aim of CerOrganic is to develop and test a quality assurance procedure for the vocational education/training of agricultural advisors/trainers, based on the European Quality Assurance Reference Framework (EQARF). By incorporating existing OA trainings for young and unemployed agricultural experts into an innovative quality-certified training program and developing a quality certification system (for application to other OA training programs), CerOrganic aims to enhance the quality and attractiveness of all OA training systems.

Objectives in brief

• determine required qualifications for teaching OA
• study EQARF requirements to incorporate them into CerOrganic Training of Trainers Program (CerOrganic ToT);
• design CerOrganic ToT as an exemplary program providing quality-certified training;
• pilot, evaluate, and revise CerOrganic ToT using a blended learning approach combining theory and farm practice with online training resources (Web portal);
• evaluate and valorise the CerOrganic quality certification procedure (through trials conducted by CerOrganic ToT trainers in their home countries);
• develop template CerOrganic Quality Assurance process;
• promote CerOrganic results and create policy recommendations.

CerOrganic expects to increase the number of internationally qualified OA trainers and provide quality trainings and training certification systems that will ease farmers’ transition to OA.

Target Groups

The target groups of CerOrganic are directly young/unemployed agricultural professionals and farmers and the project results aim to adequately cover their needs. However, since the CerOrganic ToT aims to be adopted by ministries and organizations conducting training and technical assistance in OA the indirect impacts on this target group and as a part of increasing land area in OA can be significant even after the end of the two year project as described here. The expected contribution and impact on the target groups is expected to help achieve the objectives of the LdV sectoral programme, of the LLP programme in general, as well as of other complementary Community policies.

Partners

The CerOrganic consortium involves a variety of organizations, with diverse profiles, that possess the skills and competences required. Tasks are appropriately distributed according to the expertise of each organisation, and the cooperation among partners is balanced in such a way that complementary competences are combined in order to achieve desired results. A main aspect is the establishment of the cooperation between one methodological partner and one user partner in each region (MAICh and DIO/MoA, CUB and MOGERT, BM:UKK and BMLFUW), so that users are facilitated and supported throughout the implementation of the project. Additionally the introduction of ministries and SMEs involved in training and certification for OA plays an important role in the direct applicability/useably of the developed products.

http://www.cerorganic.eu 

Open ECBCheck is a new accreditation and quality improvement scheme for E-Learning programmes and institutions in international Capacity Building. It supports capacity building organisations to measure how successful their e-learning programmes are and allows for continuous improvement though peer collaboration and benchlearning.

During the last month we had the opportunity to collect feedback from pilot trials in which the ECB toolset has been tested under real conditions from international organisations, amongst them UNITAR, FAO, Open University Philipines, African Virtual University and others. It is a great achievement which has already been recognised by organisations and conferences around the world from which we receive expressions of interest.

http://www.efquel.org/openecbcheck/

SEVAQ+ is aimed precisely at disseminating and exploiting the results of a previous Leonardo da Vinci pilot project (2005-2007) by key existing networks (the partners EDEN and EFQUEL together with the associate Higher Education and VET networks mobilised in each country and at European level) and by relevant organisations (the institutional partners themselves, Ministry of Education departments and the CEDEFOP).

The partner networks will organise specific SEVAQ+ events at their own conferences and will contribute to the wide dissemination of SEVAQ+ alongside the associate partner networks , all of whom will relay key information on their websites, via their news bulletins and other relevant publications, will publish links to the SEVAQ  website to increase its visibility and improve its referencing in search engines and will connect up with the SEVAQ+ groups in social networks.

The partner and associate networks will also be closely involved  in the exploitation and evaluation of SEVAQ+, mobilising their members to ensure the project reaches it target of 5000 users across Europe. The direct benefit to these networks and their members will be the free use of the SEVAQ+ tool and concept for the project duration, and the opportunity to contribute to its improvement by providing user feedback to ensure it meets their needs. SEVAQ+ addresses both multiplication, by supporting extensive take-up, and mainstreaming, by producing a white paper which will be presented to EU officials and decision makers with a view to feeding into policy.

Why is SEVAQ+ so innovative?

State of the art research has confirmed that there are no comparable solutions available to date. Self-evaluation tools such as Sphinx exist but are 'empty boxes' into which users can integrate whatever questions they wish. The results of the evaluation are thus specific to the questions and context in which they are put and cannot be used for  benchmarking or certification.
SEVAQ+ proposes a core of validated questions based on an innovative combination of a recognised evaluation model (Kirkpatrick) and quality framework (EFQM).

The innovative character of SEVAQ+ also comes from:

• Developing a tool and approach to be implemented in both HE and VET, two sectors which too often operate in isolation.
• Extending the concept to new stakeholder groups, taking into account higher levels of the Kirkpatrick model and extending to new areas of EFQM.
• Fully integrating intercultural issues such as the understanding of questions from a linguistic, cultural and sectoral point of view.
• Carrying the results through to certification. Background research has confirmed that there exists no certification body in a position to deliver a quality label to such a product as SEVAQ. The UNIQUE project uses similar approaches but focusses on the certification of organisations, not tools. SEVAQ+ will thus implement a dual cyle of evaluation, involving extensive feedback from a critical mass of users in year 1 and an online Delphi consensus method (already used successfully in the eLene-TLC eLearning programme project 2007-2008) in year 2. The dual cycle of evaluation is based on original work by John Elliott (1991) adapted by Brian Hudson, Umea University.[Elliott, J. (1991) Action Research for Educational Change. Milton Keynes (OUP).  Hudson, B. (2008) An overview of the nature, approach, activities and techniques of action research in the context of ICT use.
• The SEVAQ+ model for certification will be formalised in a white paper, detailing the process and  formulating policy recommendations.

User generated content (UGC) poses a number of challenges to the current understanding of education and its institutions, very much due to its success. The concept of “authority” should be rethought. The “ivory tower” of higher education should be opened to the wider world. Knowledge management becomes even more fundamental than in the past. Moreover, the rapidly growing number of learning resources generated by users makes the issue of quality a pressing one. The CONCEDE-CONtent Creation Excellence through Dialogue in Education project intends to address such issues.

The overall aim of CONCEDE is to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning by enhancing the quantity and quality of user generated content that can be incorporated into higher education learning provision.

The specific objectives are:

• to investigate the state of the art of actors, projects and practices in relation to quality of user generated content, with specific regards to higher education
• Developing a holistic multi-layered quality framework of user generated content to be introduced effectively into higher education. Such framework is based on three layers: users’ comments, reviews and ratings, institutional quality procedures, as well as dialogue and negotiations among the representatives of these two levels in order to reach a consensus
• Test the acceptance and the effectiveness of this mechanism into higher education pilot experiences involving primarily teachers and learners and foster cross-fertilisation of experiences
• Create a platform for dialogue for all those aiming at promoting UGC in education through national policy panels as well as dissemination and valorisation activities, aiming to facilitate networking and collaboration among existing initiatives into universities, European and international projects along with a significant effort to involve international agencies, as well as organisations dealing with quality assurance.

Although open educational resources (OER) are high on the agenda of social and inclusion policies and supported by many stakeholders of the educational sphere, their use in HE and adult education (AE) has not yet reached the critical threshold which is posing an obstacle to a seamless provision of high quality learning resources and practices for citizens’ lifelong learning biography. This has to do with the fact that the current focus in OER is mainly put on building more access to digital content. There is little consideration of whether this will support educational practices, promote quality and innovation in teaching and learning.

The project OPAL therefore extends the focus beyond access to innovative open educational practices (OEP). OEP are defined as practices which support the (re)use and production of high quality OER through institutional policies, promote innovative pedagogical models, and respect and empower learners as co-producers on their lifelong learning path. OEP address the whole OER governance community, policy makers, managers/ administrators of organisations, educational professionals and learners.

The project will support the mainstreaming of OEP, and will

1. study and map quality approaches and methods for quality and link them to OEP in order to provide validated European Guidelines for Quality and Innovation through OEP in HE and AE,
2. launch the European Consultative Group for Quality and Innovation through OEP in order to concert existing initiatives, form a multistakeholder validation environment, and liaise with existing international networks in order to contribute a chapter on quality and innovation to them,
3. set up the European Clearinghouse for Quality of OEP in which peer-reviewed OER and OEP will be linked and which will serve as a register for organisations which want to join the European Charter for Quality and Innovation through OEP, and
4. develop a European Award for Innovation and Quality through OER in HE and AE.

http://open-quality.org/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Open-Educational-Resources-OER/162508387117?ref=nf

The clear advantage of having a specific quality assurance model (a system and certification), rather than models intended for other contexts, is that it will be designed with the needs of the ALCs and their learners in mind. It will build on the extensive work carried out at European level on vocational education and training. A strong feature of the QUALC approach will be its recognition of the organic links between individual, organisational and community learning.

ALC staff , learners and the communities in which they live and learn will benefit from: A bespoke quality label for ALCs representing formal recognition of centres' commitment to the use of quality systems and providing a tool to ensure continual quality improvement

The establishment of the QUALC network, which will:

• provide staff development to embed Quality Assurance mechanisms in ALCs across Europe
• support ALCs in the integration of learningcentered quality processes into their servicesusing accessible tools;
• create a learning community dedicated to the development of quality methodology and tools for ALC staff across Europe
• ALCs that offer a rich learning environment, enabling learners to develop and achieve their potential, with particular emphasis on the bridging of formal, non-formal and informal learning in a structured learning experience.

It is also anticipated that the outcomes of QUAL-C will be of relevance to a broad set of adult learning stakeholders including research centres, lifelong
learning organisations; vocational training and educational practitioners, policy makers, employers and all those with an interest in the recognition and recording of learners achievement undertaken through non-formal and informal learning provision.

http://www.efquel.org/qualc/

Peer production of e-learning content is a growing trend, which will play an elementary role in creating, validating, enriching, editing, and updating of digital learning content. The contemporary trend in digital content is that ordinary users will enter the nucleus of digital content production.

There are already today a variety of important success actions in peer production and collaborative work: the peer production mechanism has been central e.g. in the development of Linux software and the Wikipedia movement. Although peer production has been recognized as an important factor in e-learning content creation especially in regard with the new Web 2.0 tools (such as Wikipedia, social bookmarking, Slashdot.org etc.), the conceptualisation how to manage and organise peer production has not been widely discussed.

The particular interest of QMPP (Quality Management of Peer Production) project is to concentrate on the quality management of peer production of e-learning content. Thus the basic understanding is that peer production can be assisted (and also managed) by utilising the various options of peer production potential as well as by providing efficient enabling structures and services. The importance of peer production of e-learning content will grow especially in the sector of vocational education and training as well as in professional continuing education. Many organizations face challenges of shortening life-cycle of learning content as well as operational challenges in providing required learning content with short lead times and lower costs. However, it is also understood that the learning content produced by peers (based on professional experience) can be more accurate and attracting than “clinically produced” learning content by external e-learning experts. Today peer production already is important by different elements in e-learning content, e.g. shared team work results, shared learner-created reports etc. are an integral part of learning content. Peer production has great potential in the area of vocational education and training.

Peer production is not only a novel method to produce e-learning content, but it is also an approach to empower a wide variety of professionals to the learning content production. Thus it has also an important democratic element in bringing the work-related learning content production to the actual level of users, tutors and learning supporters.

Download the Handbook of QMPP (PDF | 1,14 MB)

Download the Learning 2.0_Quality Considerations (extract of the QMPP Handbook) (PDF | 0,15 MB)

Further information available at http://www.efquel.org/peer-production/

HEXTLEARN stands for Higher Education exploring ICT use for Lifelong Learning. The HEXTLEARN network aims to increase the level of attention of the Higher Education Community on ICT strategic integration, by generating awareness, commitment and networking on quality assurance aspects and strategic integration of ICT in teaching, learning and innovative in Higher Education.

The use of ICT in Higher Education institution is spreading steadily in spite of the many doubts surrounding the quality of first generation eLearning approaches and applications, but the quality assurance of higher education only marginally addresses eLearning, while the strategic integration of ICT in teaching and learning is still more highlighted in the policy documents than on the daily practice of European Universities.

While the universities are moving from a traditional profile to a new one, covering all the areas of Lifelong Learning (from school teachers’ education, to adult education and training, maintaining of course their “traditional” students), the capability to fit the different visions of these sub-systems in the use of ICT in teaching and learning, and so to provide a quality-driven offer, is limited.  It is detected that the lack of synergies between these sub-systems represents a main constraint toward the quality enhancement in the HEI. The need identified is to promote sharing and understanding between different paradigms expressed by the different roles played by HEI into the LLL policy, by involving directly the decision makers of the innovation processes in a common strategy toward the enhancement of the quality assurance aspects and to the strategic integration of ICT in teaching and learning.

HEXTLEARN network aims at increasing the level of attention of the Higher Education Community on ICT strategic integration, by generating awareness, commitment and networking on quality assurance aspects and strategic integration of ICT in teaching, learning and innovative in Higher Education; promoting mutual understanding and common purposes toward quality assurance and common innovation strategies among the groups active in ICT teaching and training in HEI and addressing the different LLL subsystems; disseminating replicable solutions to help set up communities at EU Level establishing a community of decision makers in the context of a LLL strategy and to support the modernisation agenda for European organisations of Higher Education from a community of expert peer reviewers able to serve the quality development of ICT use for teaching and learning in HEI.

The core target group addressed thus will be Higher Education policy makers, those who are involved in decision making at all levels in Higher Education (governance of institutions, associations, evaluation agencies, etc.), reviewers, practitioners in the field of innovation.  To reach the proposed objectives, the project plans to carry out an extensive research of good practices, to analyse the straightness of the different approaches in ICT/eLearning processes in implementing the LLL strategy in the HEI, and to promote the transferability of the best practices identified; to carry out peer review exercises, based on collaboration between participants (decision makers) and experts of the ICT approaches and applications in the participating HEI in the transversal dimensions taken into consideration; to carry out all the activities of the established network, such as exchange of information and practices, promotion of the network to new learning communities of the HE world, to foster the communication and the interaction between transversal learning communities in the field of ICT integration of teaching and learning, organise events supporting transnational exchange and cooperation and supporting networking.

All these activities will be supported by implementing the dissemination plan, which will include the exploitation of results plan, the quality and evaluation plan to ensure the quality of processes and outcomes, while the project management will ensure the achievement of project results and the accuracy of procedures. The main outcomes of the networking action will be the peer review method implemented and exploited, and the networking itself as well, and the main outputs will be a report on “Good practices and methodologies for HEI using ICT in the different fields of LLL” and a “Living toolkit” as a web-based service continuously update and improved, to be used as a reference to identify criteria to enhance quality among the university teams which are active in the different roles of LLL. The short term impact envisaged is the increased awareness, commitment and networking on quality assurance aspects and strategic integration of ICT in teaching, learning and innovative in Higher Education, while the long term impact is envisaged in the network contribution to the improvement of Education system in Europe. 

The contractor of the HEXTLEARN project is the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

http://elearning.ugr.es/hextlearn_v2/ 

EFQUEL is a member in the consortium (lead by FH Joanneum from Austria), which was accepted in the LLP2008 call to start the ENGAGE project.

The experiences in previous and on-going European projects show that there is

• a high potential in the application of games for learning
• a strong interest amongst an increasing group of practitioners in the introduction of new game-based approaches
• a lack of awareness amongst other stakeholders of the potentials of games for learning and for curricular contents
• a lack of information about where to obtain resources and good practice relevant for curricular contents; and a lack of awareness regarding quality issues in the context of games used for learning.

Therefore the objectives of ENGAGE project are:

1. The creation of a European Games-Based Learning (GBL) Portal: a central information resource for people interested in games for learning and using games for curricular contents. Using a combination of Web 2.0 technologies (forums, wikis, blogs, podcasts,webspaces) the portal will provide:

• Documented methodologies for developing and implementing game-based learning for practitioners, developers, and other stakeholders of the learning community.
• A basis for a Europe-wide dialogue on the role of games and game-based approaches in Education and training and their acceptance by and effects on society, focusing on localisation and cultural issues as well as safety and rating agendas.
• For the dissemination for existing eLearning and Minerva project outcomes), as well as for ongoing projects related to the application of games for learning and the valorisation of these.

2. Targeted workshops creating the future by:

• supporting practitioners/teachers/tutors in developing a predictive and proactive capacity to select games,
• assisting stakeholders in the adaptation and adoption of learning games in their teaching and learning processes, thus increasing the pleasure of learning,
• collaborating with game designers/producers in the development of new educational products.

3. Increasing the monitoring capacity of policy makers on the development of Game-based learning (GBL) in Europe and on the promotion of quality approaches to education and learning supporting the motivation to learn thus also the pleasure of learning.

further information: http://www.engagelearning.eu