European credits for MOOCs
In mid-October 2013, Prof. Marc Opresnik, from Lübeck University of Applied Sciences (FH Lübeck), will launch his course “Fundamentals of Marketing”. Prof. Oliver Vornberger, an e-learning and computer science expert at the University of Osnabrück, will be giving a lecture on “Algorithms and Data Structures” in the summer term 2014. When student pass the exam at the end of the course, the professors will issue a certificate that will be recognized by every university in Europe.
MOOCs soon fully accepted?
The breakthrough in the process of maturing MOOCs is good news after the same development for online courses at the San Jose State University were put on hold. “What we are seeing now is only the beginning of a revolution that offers previously unimagined possibilities to improve university education online,” said Professor Oliver Vornberger following this latest step.
MOOCs being fully accepted in the academic system is a development which was a key objective for Iversity, the European MOOC-platform. This summer CEO Marcus Riecke told ScienceGuide about his efforts to gain European recognition for the courses offered by Iversity.
“There are politicians who are reluctant, but also ones who are very smart. They see the potential. In Europe you have the ECTS-system. It’s an academic currency which actually isn’t being traded at all. I think MOOC’s will be a facilitator of that process.”
