New UOC affiliation with MIT

Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab (J-WEL Week) seeks to promote excellence and transformation in education worldwide. In the words of its organizers, "an incubator for change in education at MIT and around the world, J-WEL provides a platform that engages educators, technologists, policymakers, and societal leaders in addressing global opportunities for education through online and in-person collaborations, workshops, and information sharing events."

For the delegation from the UOC, taking part in J-WEL Week was an opportunity to engage in "rich and lively discussions" with key figures about the challenges that lie ahead in education. Àngels Fitó explained that being part of this community, and specifically the part of it focusing on lifelong learning (its Workforce Learning Collaborative), "allows us to exchange knowledge with other members, universities, companies and all kinds of organization, while also opening the door to new initiatives tackling the great challenge of maintaining high levels of employability in the workforce, in a market where competency profiles are constantly evolving".

Marta Aymerich added "the mission for this MIT J-WEL Collaborative is to provide ideas and tools based on research in order to help both people and organizations develop the skills they need to thrive in society. On this occasion discussions were focused on digital technologies' current and future impact on the job market, and the resultant needs in training and education. In direct relation to this, Àngels Fitó was presenting the Key Work project, which she is at the head of, and which she is inviting MIT to participate in. She told us "the new aspect within this landscape is that the ways these technologies can change learning processes are changing". She went on to explain that these processes should take us towards "education that is scalable – ergo digital –, more flexible, immersive, collaborative, and can be customized".

Ignasi Buyreu explained how the affiliation with MIT and its ecosystem will help us "transform our training portfolio, offer people and companies better career guidance and counselling, and highlight the value of competencies gained through a trusted system of professional certificates and credentials". He rounded off by pointing out that one of the biggest current challenges is "introducing this change in a sustainable fashion, in terms of our current capacities and maturity".

Six months ago it was the UOC President, Josep A. Planell, who went to MIT for this gathering of experts, where he spoke about how we can improve education to make students real learners. His talk, From Distance Universities To Universities Without Distances, focused on the central aim of the event, to promote excellence and transformation in education. MIT is a cutting-edge institution that works to redesign teaching and learning systems, and empower students to solve problems. The UOC was invited to take part in this event as a world leader in online education and in research into the field, which it develops at its eLearn Center.