Join the community

OpenupEd is open to any institution as long as it will meet the (quality) criteria and conditions satisfactorily. This also includes possible private institutes (referring to funding mechanisms) and goes beyond the European borders to other parts of the world. 

Institutions that would like to join OpenupEd can contact EADTU  and do a short short self-assessment, to check compliance with some quality standards. Herewith the institute declares to obtain the OpenupEd Quality label within three years after entry. 

Below a few basic conditions for joining the community:

  • Only those HE-institutions can become partner of OpenupEd which are part of the formal HE structure of the country of origin, fulfilling all national requirements of quality assurance and accreditation.
  • The MOOCs offered on the OpenupEd portal should be approved by their host institution and evidence must be provided that a QA system is in operation for the MOOCs offering.
  • The institution should endorse the eight common features (framework) of OpenupEd provision and give evidence of how those eight features are applied in its MOOCs. 
  • The institution must evaluate and monitor its MOOCs offering at least in terms of participation, appreciation, and completion, as well as regarding equity, quality, and diversity. The data and results must be made available to OpenupEd on request in order to facilitate their cumulation and overall presentation and publication.

OpenupEd is a service of EADTU and a founding partner of the European MOOC Consortium

About the community

The OpenupEd community exists of higher education institutes with long-standing expertise and experience in life-long, open and flexible learning (such as the open universities). We apply innovative didactics and pedagogies that are geared to self-study and so-called independent learning. We recognize the importance of sharing our models reflecting this learner-centred tradition. We see MOOCs and more in general OER as important drivers for modernizing the higher education system to become more open and online. The research by OpenupEd members focusses on how MOOCs can adequately contribute to the global ambition of 'Opening up quality (higher) Education for All'.

Although there's a clear diversity of institutional approaches, OpenupEd has agreed on a framework of common features for its MOOCs in order to open up education to a maximum level. All institutes part of OpenupEd distinguish themselves from other MOOC-providers on the basis of these common features.

The community is based in many European countries and even outside Europe. An increasing number of universities in other countries, also in other parts of the world, will enlarge and broaden the community.

Benefits

The OpenupEd community benefits from: 

  1. Being part of a community involved in the definition and development of microcredentials, as OpenupEd is a co-founder partner of EMC and the CMF; 
  2. Contributing to the openness of quality online education; 
  3. Sharing MOOCs on a portal linked with the biggest European MOOC platforms, multiplying exposure and visibility; 
  4. Providing MOOCs approved by the OpenupEd quality label; 
  5. Benefiting from joint research and development projects; 
  6. Contributing to empowering university services via EADTU’s EMPOWER 
  7. Contributing to the ambition of supporting diversity, inclusion and internationalization via multilingual and highly visible MOOCs 
  8. Having the chance to engage with the broad expertise and experience available within the community in the development of MOOCs or events (such as the annual I-HE conference) 

Community members

University of Jyväskylä (JYU)

FI

Anadolu University

TR

Athabasca University

CA

FernUniversität Hagen

DE

Hellenic Open University (HOU)

GR

Open University of Cyprus

CY

Open University of The Netherlands (OUNL)

NL

Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)

ES

Universidade Aberta (UAb)

PT

Università Telematica Internazionale (UNINETTUNO)

IT

University of Derby

UK

The Open University (OUUK)

UK

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)

SP

Aarhus University

DK

Kaunas University of Technology

LT

Associate member

National Open University of Nigeria

NG

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OpenupEd is carried out with the support of the European Commission, DG EAC, under the Erasmus+ Programme, however, sole responsibility for this website lies with the EADTU and the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.