Events and publications

This paper sets out QAA’s advice to universities and colleges (hereafter, providers) on how to manage the rapidly increasing use of Generative Artificial Intelligence tools in higher education - and the principles are also applicable in further education. Our focus here is the use of these tools by students and learners. It builds on our initial briefing paper for providers - The rise of artificial intelligence software and potential risks for academic integrity - published in January 2023. This earlier document was concerned with the immediate challenge for academic integrity if students chose to present the output of Generative Artificial Intelligence tools as their own work. It focused on the immediate actions providers could take to support the academic integrity of existing assessments, protect academic standards and inform future practice.

This publication by EADTU's Task Force on Green Campus explores the efforts of distance and open Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to foster sustainability through green campus initiatives. The report examines how HEIs are reducing their carbon footprint, enhancing energy efficiency, and encouraging sustainable behaviours in education, research, and campus management.

In this 8th edition on new modes of teaching and learning we cover initiatives related to: Applying AI and Learning Analytics, Enhancing Engagement and Support, Optimizing cross-institutional Studies and Innovating Skills and Competencies.

The Artificial Intelligence revolution is transforming education at an unprecedented pace, offering innovative opportunities to personalize learning experiences, support teachers and students in their daily tasks, and optimize educational management.

This report covers the achievements and milestones of EADTU in 2023.

Overview of papers as presented during the Innovating Higher Education Conference, 04 - 06 October 2023 in Istanbul.

A report on policies and practices to assure the quality of micro-credentials in the European Higher Education Area, published by ENQA.

This report is set up by the expert pools of the EMPOWER programme established by EADTU to cover the latest trends and developments in new modes of teaching.

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are ushering in a large and rapid technological transformation. Understanding how AI capabilities relate to human skills and how they develop over time is crucial for understanding this process. In 2016, the OECD assessed AI capabilities with the OECD’s Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). The present report follows up the earlier study, collecting expert judgements in 2021 on whether computers can solve the PIAAC literacy and numeracy tests. It is part of a comprehensive ongoing project on assessing AI. This study shows that AI could potentially outperform large shares of the population on PIAAC – 90% of adults in literacy and 57-88% of adults in numeracy. AI’s literacy capabilities had improved considerably since the 2016 assessment. According to experts, AI will solve the entire literacy and numeracy tests by 2026. These findings have important implications for employment and education. Large shares of the workforce use literacy and numeracy skills daily at work with a proficiency comparable or below that of computers. AI could affect the literacy- and numeracy-related tasks of these workers. In this context, education systems should strengthen the foundation skills of students and workers and teach them to work together with AI.

This document sets out the position of the Department for Education on the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI), including large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT or Google Bard, in the education sector. This statement is informed by Government's White Paper on a pro-innovation approach to AI regulation, and follows Government's recent announcement to create a Foundation Model Taskforce which will consider UK domestic capability in this important technology. Generative AI refers to technology that can be used to create new content based on large volumes of data that models have been trained on. This can include audio, code, images, text, simulations, and videos.

The higher education sector is undergoing a technological revolution, with AI tools like ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and Midjourney leading the charge. These tools are transforming the way students learn and the way universities and workplaces operate.

We are seeing the first guidance to students on the use of ChatGPT and AI tools in assessment starting to emerge. Getting terminology correct on this is a little challenging, so we are going to explore this.

We look back at a very eventful year, in which EADTU celebrated its 35th anniversary and shared knowledge and skills by numerous events, publications, services and projects. This report captures the highlights.

These ethical guidelines on AI and data usage in teaching and learning are designed to help educators understand the potential that the applications of AI and data usage can have in education and to raise awareness of the possible risks so that they are able to engage positively, critically and ethically with AI systems and exploit their full potential.

This Quick Start Guide introduces ChatGPT, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool that has taken the world by storm, reaching 100 million users just two months after being launched. The Quick Start Guide provides an overview of how ChatGPT works and explains how it can be used in higher education. The Quick Start Guide raises some of the main challenges and ethical implications of AI in higher education and offers practical steps that higher education institutions can take.

Generative AI tools (such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL.E2, Stable Diffusion, Google’s Bard and Generative AI assisted search engines) are systems that have been trained on massive data sets and use algorithms to quickly respond to user prompts, by answering questions, summarising text, or producing images in a variety of formats, tones, and styles. The use of Generative AI in higher education is evolving rapidly and it is important we provide you with guidance on the use of Generative AI in the context of Learning, Teaching and Assessment (LTA) while we consider the medium and long-term impact of the technology. We are currently working on detailed guidance for students and staff, but in the meantime, here is some interim guidance on how to use Generative AI appropriately. This guidance takes cognisance of the UK Higher Education Quality Assurance Agency’s Generative AI guidance and was drafted with input from OU academics, professional services colleagues, and students.

This publication contains the proceedings of the I-HE2022 conference held in Athens. It contains 67 papers on a large variety of topics including diversity and inclusion, microcredentials, OER, 21st century skills and online assessment.

Diversity and Inclusion generate great attention and even more so for EADTU members as they have a dedicated task in organising education also for disadvantaged groups of students by offering them easily accessible learning paths made fit for a great diversity of students.

This report is set up by the expert pools of the EMPOWER programme established by EADTU to cover the latest trends and developments in new modes of teaching.

The report is the outcome of a Special Interest Group (SIG) on Online Assessment, representing 17 EADTU member institutions. The mission of the group is to share members’ local expertise in how to design and plan institutional online assessment strategies and the experiences from delivering under the conditions of the Covid19 pandemic and in a post pandemic world.

This paper revisits the current flexibilization of the education landscape (modular learning and stacking of learning units) and what the implications are for current good practice in recognition as promoted by the LRC.

The 2021 report summarises the ICDE Quality Network’s analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic 2020-2021 in accelerating the inclusion of online elements in so many Higher Education institutions in all parts of the world, together with the need for revised understandings of Quality Assurance to support this transition.

We look back at a very eventful year, in which EADTU shared its expertise in online, open & distance higher education by numerous events, publications, services and projects. This report captures the highlights.

Overview of papers as presented during the Innovating Higher Education Conference 2021 3 - 5 November in Bari (IT)

This paper offers new empirical evidence on the current offer of micro-credentials across OECD jurisdictions, and provides an account of what is known about the costs and benefits of short learning programmes offered by higher education institutions.

This paper offers new empirical evidence on the current offer of micro-credentials across OECD jurisdictions, and provides an account of what is known about the costs and benefits of short learning programmes offered by higher education institutions.

This paper introduces the Common Microcredentials Framework, whose final aim is, from one side of facilitating the development of these types of programmes among traditional institutions and MOOC providers, and, from the other side, their recognition among European higher education institutions.

The fifth edition of the Envisioning report for Empowering Universities, by the expert pools of the Empower programme.

An overview of perceived issues of quality and assessment related to the shift to online and distance learning modalities that educators had to undertake when the pandemic hit.

Adopting smaller forms of credentialed learning, when embedded in a coherent framework, may deliver more flexible, stackable and transformative learning experiences.

This report engages ministries and stakeholders involved in the Bologna Follow-up Group to explore how EHEA tools can be used and/or need to be adapted to micro-credentials.

A primary challenge, also recognised by the European Commission, is that of ensuring that micro-credentials are broadly recognised.

The fourth edition of the Envisioning report for Empowering Universities, by the expert pools of the Empower programme.

This declaration is one of the final results of the MOONLITE project that has focused on a range of topics relating to the ways in which MOOCs can support vulnerable groups

This survey is part of a series of surveys conducted annually by EADTU since 2014, with specific emphasis on the topics of recognition and accreditation of MOOCs.

This declaration is one of the final results of the MOONLITE project that has focused on a range of topics relating to the ways in which MOOCs can support vulnerable groups

This report is based on new developments in higher education and international collaboration as collected by EADTU’s Task Force and Peer Learning Activity on Virtual Mobility.

The third edition of the Envisioning report for Empowering Universities, by the expert pools of the Empower programme.

This second edition of the OpenupEd trend report discusses the latest general trends and developments in MOOCs from a European perspective

Report presenting the results of a MOOC survey amongst European Higher Education Institutions conducted end 2017 - early 2018.Get publication

This OpenupEd trend report discusses the latest general trends and developments in MOOCs from a European perspective. Get publication

This is the envisioning report by the expert pools of the EMPOWER programme established by EADTU to cover the latest trends and developments in new modes of teaching. Get publication of the second edition, 2018Get publication of the first edition, 2017

Report presenting the results of a MOOC survey amongst European Higher Education Institutions conducted end 2016 - early 2017. It also discusses some initial trends in European MOOC strategies based on similar surveys in 2014 and 2015. Given the large response of HEI's in Lithuania a dedicated (second) country report is published.Get publication

Support Centres for Open education and MOOCS in different Regions of Europe 2020 (SCORE2020, 2014-2016) builds a European consortium of regional expertise centres on open education and MOOCs with the support of the European platform of OpenupEd experts.Get results

2018 Summit Conclusions: EMC-EADTU position paper & EHEA-EADTU position paper “Innovations in blended and online education and virtual mobility’’2017 Summit Conclusions2016 Summit Conclusions 2015 Summit Conclusions

Quality Assessment for E-learning: a Benchmarking Approach, third edition. EADTU, 2016Get the manual

Springer in their Book Series ‘Lecture Notes in Educational Technology’, published Open Education: from OERs to MOOCs edited by M. Jemni, Kinshuk & M.K. Khribi (Eds.). EADTU contributed on three chapters.Pre-print version of the chapters New Models of Open and Distance Learning by Stephen Downes and Quality Frameworks for MOOCs (pdf – doc) by Jansen et. al. are available.

A Guide for Policy-Makers in Developing Countries.Will this publication inspire policy decisions and innovations that will also reach the last person in the queue?Get publication

A report presenting the results of a MOOC survey amongst higher education institutions (HEIs) with a strong focus on Europe and Canada.Get full reportGet national reports Czech Republic, Finland, French Canada, Ireland, Israel, Turkey, Lithuania.In the January–March 2017 Open Praxis issue the Results of the Turkish report, in context of overall results are published in this article

Overview of papers representing a European Policy response on MOOC opportunities as presented during the HOME policy forum in Brussels, June 2016. Get publication

Europe must seize this moment to grab the opportunities offered by MOOC'. The Porto declaration is facilitated by the HOME project, initiated and coordinated by EADTU. Get publication

New ways of teaching and learning and their implications for higher education policy.Get publication

MOOCs are re-operationalising traditional concepts in education. While they draw on elements of existing educational and learning models, they represent a new approach to instruction and learning. The challenges MOOCs present to traditional education models have important implications for approaching and assessing quality. This paper foregrounds some of the tensions surrounding notions of quality, as well as the need for new ways of thinking about and approaching quality in MOOCs.Get publication

MOOCs and Open Educational Resources: A Handbook for Educators is being made available for university faculty, educators, and educational producers involved in producing online courses. The guide is a step-by-step manual to how to produce and distribute educational video content under the freest of licenses, with an emphasis on Creative Commons. The Handbook situates educational video production in the context of more than 100 years of moving-image work at universities and beyond.Get publication

This article of Patrizia Ghisland in Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society explores the different quality aspects related to MOOCs. This paper concludes, "the relevant literature about MOOC’s evaluation is still uncertain between the need to adopt one of the few quality enhancement frameworks specifically created for MOOC or reuse the e-learning quality models available...”. E-xcellence and OpenupEd quality labels are referenced as well. Note that OpenupEd published a recent article on Quality Frameworks for MOOCs as well.