A new stage for the eLearn Center

Key engines of activity

To respond to this challenge, the eLearn Center’s strategy focuses on areas that are different yet complementary, as they will be worked on jointly and with constant feedback:

- The UOC educational model: has the job of applying the educational model and assessing its implementation and results. It is also responsible for the model’s continuous updating and development, defining the tools, environments and methodologies that make it up. This is why it will make use of the results of applied research and educational innovation carried out at the university, as well as incorporating innovations marking new educational and technological trends.

- Innovation: this has the mission of fostering an innovative university, and not just a university that creates innovations. To this end, this Center area will be working to promote a culture of innovation and obtaining results from both “bottom up” projects, while adhering to “open innovation” dynamics, as well as transversal and strategic projects.

 - Applied Research: has the goal of helping academic staff and researchers to take advantage of the excellent laboratory represented by the UOC as a source of data on ICT-based teaching and learning processes. This is why this area will be providing the resources needed to carry out applied research into e-learning, particularly to obtain both quantitative and qualitative results. Additionally, it will foster research into e-learning applied to the areas of knowledge covered by the UOC departments.

The model gears'

The Center incorporates two further working areas, which act as the foundations for Applied Research, Innovation and the Educational Model, with the goal of encouraging new lines of action:

- The Education and ICT Programme brings together the UOC’s e-learning know-how in the shape of formal education options under the aegis of its Psychology and Educational Sciences Department, to be able to transfer this knowledge both internally and externally while adding value and helping to improve and enhance educational activities based on e-learning models. The Programme has become a permanent test bed, as it is aimed at students looking to experiment with the latest innovations in education technology and must, therefore, be a nursery for good practices and excellence in the UOC’s educational model.

- The recently created Experimentation Laboratory is a virtual space that provides the infrastructure and tools required to be able to design, perform and analyse experiments in the field of e-learning. With a design based on the cloud computing concept, this networked laboratory will allow for the carrying out of pilot tests and teaching innovation projects with real students and subjects in a flexible but controlled environment, while offering guarantees over observation and data gathering.

With this model, the eLearn Center aims to work with the right balance of teaching and technology to consolidate the UOC’s position as a leading e-learning institution. At the UOC, e-learning is both a means and a goal and is thus our natural purview. In this regard, the centre aims to become an online learning think tank, leveraging the UOC’s own know-how, identifying needs and proposing solutions, while raising the profile of this knowledge in an increasingly interconnected society with ever more complex educational demands.