Press room
[08/06/2009]
The UOC to train up to 30,000 unemployed people via monthly e-learning courses
The Catalan Department of Employment and the Fundació per a la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Foundation for the Open University of Catalonia, FUOC) have set up an innovative, free e-learning programme for 30,000 unemployed people in Catalonia. The aim of this e-learning programme is to improve the skills and employability of those out of work in Catalonia.
[02/06/2009]
Manuel Castells receives the Catalunya Award for Sociology
UOC Research Professor and Director of the IN3, Manuel Castells, has received the Catalunya Award for Sociology. The Catalan Sociology Association, which forms part of the Institute of Catalan Studies, has presented this award at a ceremony the Saló Daurat of Barcelona’s Casa Llotja de Barcelona (Passeig d'Isabel II, 1-7).
[28/05/2009]
On 27 May, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) President, Imma Tubella, and the African Virtual University (AVU) Rector, Bakary Diallo, signed a framework collaboration agreement in Dakar. The object of this agreement is the production of educational materials, and the promotion and development of a virtual campus to disseminate virtual programmes, via AVU partner institutions, focusing on peaceful conflict resolution and the eradication of poverty.
[26/05/2009]
Professor Manuel Castells gives a seminar on politics and the internet in the Obama era
Research professor and Director of the UOC’s IN3, Manuel Castells, is to give a seminar today on politics and the internet in the Obama era. This session is aimed at UOC faculty and PhD candidates, as well as the university’s research institute staff, and is to take place in the IN3 building in Castelldefels, from 10am to noon.
[25/05/2009]
The report The integration of internet in Spanish school education. Current situation and future perspectives carried out by researchers from the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) Carles Sigalés and Josep Maria Mominó (co-directors), Julio Meneses and Antoni Badia commissioned by Telefónica Foundation, but carried out with complete independence, reveals that the presence and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Spanish schools is still not a widespread reality, although some significant advances have been seen.
[21/05/2009]
The expert David Marsh presents an innovative language learning system, CLIL, in Barcelona
David Marsh, lecturer at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, is to offer a lecture entitled CICL as a catalyst for change in languages education this Thursday, 21 May, on Content and Language Integrated Learning, a method in which he is an expert. The event takes place as part of a series of Linguamón-UOC Chair in Multilingualism lectures. An English-Catalan interpretation service will be available.
[20/05/2009]
Ten years of Catalan Language and Literature at the UOC
Friday May 22 will mark the tenth anniversary of the Catalan Language and Literature programme’s first being taught at the UOC. To commemorate this date, a conference entitled El Camí de la Recerca (The road to research) has been organised. It is open to everyone and looks to present the activities and interests of the community linked to the Catalan language and literature studies at the University.
[20/05/2009]
Professor Rachel K. Gibson to offer a research seminar on 2.0 electoral campaigns
The Professor of Political Science at the University of Manchester’s Institute for Social Change, Rachel K. Gibson, is to give a research seminar on Thursday 21 May entitled “2.0 electoral campaigns: how do the new web tools reconfigure local electoral campaigns?” The session is to take place at the UOC’s research institute, IN3, in Castelldefels from 10am to noon.
[18/05/2009]
The UOC’s new Virtual Campus singled out as the best educational portal by the IMS Global Consortium
MyUOC, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya’s (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) new Virtual Campus, has won the Learning Impact award for the best educational portal from the IMS Global Consortium. This is the second consecutive year that the UOC has won one of these internationally renowned prizes.
[14/05/2009]
The UOC produces online courses based on 2.0 tools as part of a European project
The UOC was involved in the design of 3 virtual courses that look to use social and collaborative Web 2.0 applications as part of the eJump 2.0 (Implementing e-learning 2.0 in everyday learning processes in higher and vocational education) project. This project is part of the EC’s DG Education and Culture Lifelong Learning programme, which aims to promote the use of Web 2.0 tools among faculty in both higher and vocational education.
[13/05/2009]
The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) International Graduate Institute (IGI) is to offer Spain’s first virtual master’s degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies as of the next academic year, 2009-2010. It aims to provide students with basic knowledge on the Islamic world so that they have the elements and criteria needed to understand, interpret and assess these realities on a political, social and economic level. The launch of this new training offer, one of a handful in Europe, has been publicised as part of the roundtable entitled The Muslim world, between the past and the future, which involved the University’s President, Imma Tubella, and Mustapha Chérif, Academic Director of the master’s degree, among others. The event took place in Madrid and focused on fundamental aspects of the Muslim world and its relations with Europe, as well as its cultural influence, the future of Euro-Arab relations and the political, economic and cultural challenges.
[11/05/2009]
The Learning Impact international learning technology conference held for the first time in Europe
From 11 to 14 May, Barcelona will be staging the annual IMS Global Learning Consortium’s annual conference, Learning Impact 2009. This international event, considered a benchmark for new learning technologies, will be held for the first time in Europe and hosted by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC).
[08/05/2009]
Professor Emeritus David Hopkins of the Institute of Education, University of London, will be giving the lecture entitled Leadership in innovative education organisations as part of the Debates on Education, organised jointly by the Jaume Bofill Foundation and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC). The talk is part of a series to analyse and reflect on teaching and will take place on Tuesday 12 May at 7:30pm at the FAD auditorium (Plaça dels Àngels, 5-6).
[07/05/2009]
A number of world food and society experts meet in Barcelona
To coincide with the opening of the UOC Food Systems, Culture and Society department, Barcelona will be hosting a meeting of a number of experts in food and society on 7 and 8 May to discuss leading issues, such as world food policies, nutrition level indicators and agricultural policies. These experts are members of the department’s academic committee. The department plans to offer courses for the coming year as part of the UOC’s International Graduate Institute.
[07/05/2009]
Jürgen Habermas reviews his work at the UOC
The German thinker and philosopher Jürgen Habermas (Düsseldorf, 1929) gave a seminar, and a lecture at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (Barcelona’s Contemporary Culture Centre, CCCB), as a guest of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) and the University’s Vice President for Academic Organisation, Pere Fabra. Fabra is an expert in his work – his doctoral thesis was based on Habermas’s thinking and he spent five years under his tutelage at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany.
[07/05/2009]
The role of ICTs in the development of poor and marginalised communities under debate
The coordinator of the Support Programme for Women’s Networks of the Association for Progress in Communications in Manila, Philippines, Chat Garcia Ramilo will be giving a research seminar on 12 May entitled "Gender evaluation for social change". The event will be held at the University’s research institute (IN3) in Castelldefels from noon to 2pm.
[06/05/2009]
The Síndic de Greuges (Ombudsman) of the UOC, Josep Coll, and the Síndic de Greuges (Ombudsman) of Catalonia, Rafael Ribó, have signed a collaboration agreement that will help strengthen the ties between the two institutions in order to exchange information, so offering a better defence of the rights and freedoms of the University community. The agreement includes informing people who file a complaint relating to the UOC with the Síndic of the possibility of doing so with the UOC Síndic, and the referral by the UOC Síndic to the Síndic of all issues referring to other administrations.
[06/05/2009]
David Laitin, Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, USA, is to give a talk entitled Multilingualism and the wealth of states: empirical research, organised by the Linguamón-UOC Chair in Multilingualism. The lecture is to take place on Wednesday, 6 May, at 7pm, in the UOC Barcelonès Support Centre (Rambla de Catalunya, 6, Barcelona).
[05/05/2009]
Study to analyse the links between language skills and competitiveness in Catalan companies
A report on multilingualism in Catalan companies and the opportunity this represents for international competitiveness is the object of study that the Linguamón-UOC Chair in Multilingualism is preparing for the summer. It is an adaptation for Catalonia of the ELAN report produced by the European Commission, research which analysed the language skills at European companies and the language needs and demands of the European economy in the worldwide context.
[05/05/2009]
The UOC to offer new degrees in the upcoming academic year
In the academic year 2009-2010, the UOC is to offer new qualifications adapted to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), which will join those EHEA-adapted qualifications that the University started up last year, bachelor’s (Law, Humanities and Psychology) and master’s degrees (Education and ICT, Health and Safety, Free Software, and the Information and Knowledge Society). The new degrees are in Social Education, Communication, Information and Documentation, Catalan Language and Literature, and Tourism.
[04/05/2009]
The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) and the New Media Consortium (NMC) publish for the third time the translation into Spanish and Catalan of the renowned Horizon Report. Every year, it analyses the impact of new technologies in higher education. In this sixth edition the highlighted technologies are mobiles and cloud computing, geo-everything and the personal web, as well as semantic-aware applications and smart objects.
[30/04/2009]
The UOC creates the area for National and Identity Studies, directed by historian Agustí Colomines
The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) International Graduate Institute (IGI) has started up the National and Identity Studies area under the academic direction of historian Agustí Colomines i Companys, tenured professor of Contemporary History at the University of Barcelona. This is a pioneering higher education offer in Spain given that, despite the fact that national and identity studies are on offer at many universities around the world, there was no such official offer in Spain until now. The tutors are Josep Termes, Patrícia Gabancho, Toni Aira, Ivan Serrano-Balaguer, Àlex Seglers, Júlia Canosa, Josep-Lluís Alay, Marc Guerrero, David Alvarado, Tamara Djermanovich, Ferran Archilés, Eduard Vinyamata, Jaume Urgell and Klaus-Jürgen Nagel.
[28/04/2009]
The founder of Twitter looks at the educational uses of this 2.0 tool
[Video]
The founder and CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, discussed the possibilities that could be offered by the microblogging social network in a conversation with the UOC UNESCO Chair in E-Learning. In this video interview, Dorsey looks at these aspects in response to the questions proposed to the Chair by Twitter users.
[24/04/2009]
The UOC and “la Caixa” sell GEC to two investment funds
Vector Capital, Caixa Penedès’s capital risk company, and Suma Capital have bought out GEC (Gestión del Conocimiento, S. A.), the e-learning consultancy firm which the UOC held 65% in.
[21/04/2009]
The festivities coincide with the unveiling of the OffLletra site which offers increased interactivity for readers who want to contribute information and multimedia material. This new site on the UOC’s Catalan literature portal is to be launched with a series of presentations in different parts of Catalonia and Madrid entitled Amb veu pròpia [In My Own Words].
[17/04/2009]
Forty Bolivian women train in ICTs with the UOC
The Migration and Network Society (MNS) of the UOC’s Research Institute (IN3) has begun a research and training programme called “Bolivian women in Catalonia. Training citizens of the Information Society”. The result is that some forty women from Bolivia are receiving training in information and communication technologies thanks to funding from the Catalan Institute for Women and in collaboration with Hospitalet Town Council.
[16/04/2009]
Declaration from the European University Association
The European University Association (EUA), of which the UOC is a full member, has published the Prague Declaration, with ten proposals for the 46 education ministers who are to attend the Bologna process summit at the end of April.
[15/04/2009]
Lletra consolidates its position as one of the leading internet sites on Catalan literature
Highlights from the last four years of collaboration between the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC), the Institute of Catalan Letters and the Ramon Llull Institute include the site’s revamping and adaptation to 2.0 technology or the hundred pages that have been added to the English and Spanish versions. These three institutions signed an extension to the collaboration agreement for the Lletra website, the UOC’s Catalan literature portal coinciding with the inauguration of a more interactive, collaborative and mobile site.
[07/04/2009]
Creative practices in education, central theme of the new edition of RUSC
Digital culture and creative practices in education are the monographic core of the latest edition of the Revista de Universidad y Sociedad del Conocimiento (RUSC), a specialist and free UOC e-publication that has used the OJS (Open Journal Systems) science e-journal management system for the first time.
[07/04/2009]
A new 2.0 tool to follow the routes taken by the exiles interactively
The aim of a new project started up by the UOC, via Lletra, the University’s Catalan literature portal, is to combine a number of collaborative web 2.0 tools and allow people to find out more about the Catalan exile interactively. TopobioGraphies of the Catalan Exile lets users trace the lives and literary trajectories of the Catalans exiled in 1939. It also allows for contributions from users themselves and mashups involving web applications such as Google Maps or YouTube.
[06/04/2009]
The UOC takes part in the creation of a European free software centre
The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) is to collaborate in a European project to create the Free Technology Academy (FTA), an e-learning centre for free software, where contents are to be made freely available over the internet. This initiative is led by the Free Knowledge Institute (FKI), which involves, as well as the UOC, the Netherlands’ Open Universiteit and Portugal’s Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa.
[03/04/2009]
Turkish managers to receive in-company training thanks to a multilateral agreement
A dozen Turkish managers are to take part in a blended learning programme. This initiative has been made possible by an agreement between “la Caixa”, the UOC, the Spanish Foreign Trade Institute (ICEX) and the Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey (ISPAT) signed on Sunday 5 April in Istanbul.
[01/04/2009]
The UOC Library works to improve the RECOLECTA open science portal
RECOLECTA is an open science portal that promotes open-access publication of research work developed at the different academic institutions in Spain. The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) Library has formed part of this initiative from the start, alongside the Red de Bibliotecas Universitarias (Network of Spanish University Libraries, REBIUN) and the Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología (Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology, FECyT).
[31/03/2009]
Master’s degrees will be key to the future of universities
“Master’s degrees will be key to the future of universities in the new European Higher Education Area,” said Guy Haug during the seminar on the EHEA which took place on Friday 27 March at the headquarters of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC). Perla Cohen also took part in the session. These two experts in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) analysed the role to be played by master’s degrees in this new education system.
[27/03/2009]
Pasqual Maragall, at the Tribuna Oberta Vilafranca
Pasqual Maragall, President of the Catalan government between 2003 and 2006, is to take part in a Tribuna Oberta Vilafranca lunch and talk on Monday, 30 March. This event is to take place at 1pm at Vilafranca del Penedès’s Hotel Domo.
[27/03/2009]
A series of talks and virtual debates, a field trip and an urban safari in Barcelona’s Parc de la Ciutadella are some of the UOC’s proposals to commemorate the bicentenary of the birth of the scientist Charles Robert Darwin and the one hundred and fifty years since the publication of his pioneering work on the origin of the species. The UOC thus joins forces with the initiatives taking place around the world to celebrate International Darwin Year.
[25/03/2009]
The UOC starts up the first a la carte university television channel
The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) has started up the first a la carte university television channel. The service, called Media UOC, is available to anyone with a TV with an internet connection and the Microsoft Media Center platform.
[25/03/2009]
Professor Paul Kirschner to give a seminar on urban legends in modern education
The Visiting Professor at the UOC’s research institute, the IN3, and Director of Research on Lifelong Learning in Professions at the Open University of the Netherlands, Paul Kirschner, is to give a research seminar entitled “Urban Legends in Modern Education: Educational Innovation is Not a Question of Belief, I Believe!” on Thursday 26 March. The session is to be held in the IN3 building in Castelldefels, from 10.00am to noon.
[24/03/2009]
EHEA experts Guy Haug and Perla Cohen analyse the new master’s degrees
European Higher Education Area (EHEA) experts Guy Haug and Perla Cohen are to analyse the Bologna-adapted master’s degrees in a seminar organised by the UOC on Friday 27 March. The aim is for Haug, deemed one of the founding fathers of the EHEA, and Cohen to detail their experiences, while also highlighting the challenges and opportunities represented by the roll-out of master’s programmes in the context of the EHEA so as to encourage debate and the exchange of ideas at the UOC on postgraduate education in Europe.
[23/03/2009]
Open-source cinema to arrive in Barcelona in an initiative involving the UOC and two of its students
Two students on the UOC’s Audiovisual Communication degree course are to provide the contents for one of the most important parts of Stray Cinema 2009, a pioneering initiative in open-source cinema. The two students have provided the audiovisual images that those entering the competition have to use to put together a video. The five best remixes and the winning entry will be shown at the competition’s closing gala, which for this third holding of the event is to take place in Barcelona this autumn.
[19/03/2009]
The UOC, co-organiser of WebSci’09
The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) is co-organising WebSci’09, a conference from 18 to 20 March that is to bring together computing and social science experts from around the world in Athens to debate and analyse the development of the internet.
[16/03/2009]
UOC visiting professor, Brian Lamb, UOC collaborating lecturer, David Gómez, and UOC graduate, Oscar Martínez, are to take part in a symposium on 24 and 26 March at the 11th Zemos98 audiovisual creation festival. This year’s festival is devoted to enhanced education, under the motto “education can take place any time, anywhere”. The conference is to be held in Seville from 22 to 29 March.
[16/03/2009]
Agreement with Hassan II University Mohammedia Casablanca for mobility of capital and knowledge
The agreement involves training of trainers in e-learning, an increased range of masters degrees, credit validation and collaboration in Arabic language courses and the masters degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies to be offered at the UOC
[09/03/2009]
The UOC presents its new MyUOC Virtual Campus at the MIT
The new Virtual Campus that the UOC is introducing over this year is to be the centre of attention at one of the world's leading research centres on technology. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge (Massachusetts, USA) has invited a delegation from the UOC to present its new campus project, MyUOC, on 9 March. It has also been shortlisted for an international award for education. The project is a finalist for the IMS Global Consortium's Learning Impact awards.
[09/03/2009]
Two Humanities lecturers to take part in a cultural industry fair in Seville
The Director of the Humanities department, Glòria Munilla, and the department's Academic Director of Postgraduate Studies, Laura Solanilla, are to take part in the second Feria de Industrias Culturales Andaluzas (Andalusian Cultural Industry Fair, FICA 09). They are to give their talk on 6 March at 5pm at Seville's Exhibition and Conference Centre.
[04/03/2009]
Former UOC students from the Madrid area meet to promote a graduate network
UOC graduates living in the Madrid region and surrounding area (Àvila, Conca, Guadalajara, Segòvia and Toledo) are to meet up on Thursday 5 March at Madrid’s Hotel Vincci Soho for the first meeting of UOC Alumni, an initiative from the University to provide a meeting point for former students. Over 1,200 people have studied at the University in the area. The UOC Alumni graduate network was created in 2008 to act as a forum for the development and growth of the UOC’s more than 17,500 graduates.
[03/03/2009]
Schooling and immigration under debate
The Professor of Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid Julio Carabaña is to speak about “Schools and immigration: ideas and realities” in a new talk in the Debates on Education series, an initiative supported by the UOC and Jaume Bofill Foundation. The session is to take place on Wednesday 4 March at 7.30pm in the MACBA Auditorium. Attendance is open to anyone interested.
[02/03/2009]
Interaction in blended learning environments, the focus of analysis in a UOC PhD thesis
The aim of the PhD thesis to be defended in Barcelona on Thursday, 26 February by the PhD candidate on the UOC’s Information and Knowledge Society Programme Luz Adriana Osorio is to identify the conditions needed for student interaction in blended learning. The thesis is entitled Interacció en ambients híbrids d'aprenentatge: metàfora del contínuum (Interaction in Blended Learning Environments: The Metaphor of the Continuum) and has been supervised by the lecturer from the Psychology and Educational Sciences Department and Vice President of Postgraduate Studies and Lifelong Learning, Josep Maria Duart.
[27/02/2009]
The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) is to open its eLearn Center this Friday – Spain’s first innovation and research centre, and one of the few in Europe. The centre will specialise in analysing the use of teaching and learning technologies, with particular emphasis on higher education and lifelong learning. The aim is to turn the UOC into an international authority in e-learning innovation and research thanks to the University’s own experience, and to contribute to innovation, research, specialised training and dissemination in the field.
[27/02/2009]
The UOC starts the semester with 500 subjects that can be adapted to a range of mobile devices
Today, 26 February, marks the start of a new semester at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC). It also sees the introduction of the TRIA! initiative. This is the UOC’s scheme to offer flexible, mobile teaching materials that can be adapted to the specific needs of each student in each situation. Using this technology, the UOC can offer teaching resources for over 500 subjects in three different formats: e-book, audiobook and videobook. Nonetheless, the teaching materials for these subjects will still be available on paper.
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