eMOOCS Summit attracts new and experienced practitioners interested in the MOOC phenomenon

EMMA was one of 5 projects who jointly sponsored the eMOOC summit held this year in Mons, Belgium. Notably more academic in nature than last year, it was clear from the agenda of this event and the open discussions that took place that many more people taking part had now their own experience to share of setting up and running MOOCs.
While most of the 200 participants came from Higher Education, it was interesting to see a growing awareness of MOOCs amongst people involved in compulsory level education as well as those involved in providing learning opportunities for the unemployed.

A lot of attention both in the parallel sessions and the plenaries was paid to identifying what if anything is unique about the MOOC phenomenon in Europe. Darco Jansen from EADTU, speaking on behalf of the 5 projects sponsoring the event, highlighted the fact that interest in MOOCs continues to grow in Europe while it is starting to wane in the US. You can see Darco’s presentation comparing the US and European context here. In his later keynote (see slides below), Darco put forward a number of ways in which these differences may have an effect on how the European MOOC phenomenon develops in the future, driven as it is by factors such as language and culture.

For EMMA, the eMOOCs Summit provided a useful opportunity to connect with people developing MOOCS who are interested in launching their MOOC on EMMA. It was also a time to share and highlight some of the experience gained by the team thus far and to promote project activities like the Summer School in Ischia in July. The eMOOC2016 Summit will take place in Graz, Austria on 22-24 February 2016.