On 17 May 2024, our workshop ‘Governance of digital education infrastructures: findings and discussions from the BIRD project’ took place at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Berlin. The workshop brought together both researchers and practitioners from the field of digital education. After a welcome address, Prof Dr Ulrike Lucke, project manager of the BIRD project, gave an overview of the current status of the funding initiative.

Konrad Degen (Technische Universität Berlin) opened the first part of the workshop with a keynote speech on the various dimensions of governance. This emphasised that there is not just one governance perspective and that it is precisely the diversity of stakeholders that makes a uniform understanding difficult.

In the second part, there was an insight into the as yet unpublished work of Paul Beschorner (University of Potsdam), who conducted a quantitative survey on the governance of a national education platform in spring 2023. In the subsequent discussion round, the participants were divided into four themed tables to take a closer look at the aspects of (1) data protection (2) institutional & individual use (3) access and (4) platform management. The groups were first asked to reflect on the plausibility of the data collected from the survey and then discuss what conclusions could be drawn for the design of the governance of a networked educational infrastructure.

In the last two parts of the workshop, the three ecosystem visions (1) Public-Private Marketplace, (2) Networking Infrastructure and (3) Open Education Space were used to discuss which corresponding governance models could be applied. With the expert guidance of Prof Dr Detlef Sack (Institute for Democracy and Participation Research, University of Wuppertal) and the RACI matrix developed by Rick Lutzens (University of Potsdam), the content input of the workshop ended with a look at possible committee structures and participation formats. Finally, the participants had another opportunity to work in groups to discuss whether all key stakeholder groups were involved in the decision-making processes and whether all relevant problem areas, resources and responsibilities had been identified.

You can find the documentation of the event (in German) here.

The Outreach Workshop ‘Hands-On Metadata - Interoperable Metadata for Networked Educational Infrastructures’ took place in Berlin on 7 and 8 May 2024. Researchers, practitioners and experts at the interface between education and technology came together to discuss the Kompendium: Didaktische Metadaten with Manuel Oellers and Steffen Rörtgen. Current issues relating to metadata in the education sector and practical questions on the creation of controlled vocabularies and the open and connectable provision of data in a networked educational space were addressed.

To begin, Dr Klaus Wannemacher, HIS Institute for Higher Education Development, gave a keynote speech entitled ‘From the premise of pedagogical neutrality to the strengthening of open teaching practice’. On the topic of didactic metadata in OER and teaching portals, he presented a desk research on the international and German-language discourse as well as qualitative expert interviews. This provided a good introduction to the topic and directly stimulated the first discussions.

In a second keynote speech, Manuel Oellers, University of Münster, and Steffen Rörtgen, University Library Centre of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia & freelance consultant for metadata infrastructures, presented the "Kompendium: Didaktische Metadaten". This reference work is intended to provide an overview of the subject area of didactic metadata and serves as a starting point for future developments.

After the introductions, we moved on to the hands-on part, where the participants were able to pitch their own topics in a BarCamp. The work then continued in three small groups dedicated to an OER collection, metadata for media and services and the localisation of educational materials.

The second day of the workshop began with a presentation by Annett Zobel, edu-sharing.net e.V., on the topic of ‘Shared collections and didactic patterns?’. She introduced WirLernenOnline and discussed how educational offers, service providers, data, content and tools can be networked for contemporary teaching and lifelong learning and what the influence of AI might be.

Work then continued in the three groups from the previous day and at the end the results were presented and discussed in plenary. It was repeatedly emphasised how important such an exchange is for the transfer of knowledge, in which the involvement of all educational sectors and commercial stakeholders is key. The aim should be to secure long-term funding for metadata and community management, define a common vocabulary and also take into account standardisation at European level.

On 14 December 2023 we organised a panel discussion on "Data Trustees in Education: Caught between Open Data and Data Protection" at the German Architecture Center DAZ in Berlin. The event took place as part of a series of outreach workshops for the project "BIRD - Bildungsraum Digital" following the outreach workshop "Building Trusted Digital Infrastuctures for Education".

These were the panellists:

Prof Dr Stefan Stürmer is a German social psychologist and university professor. Stürmer was the founding dean of the Faculty of Psychology from 2018 to 2021. Since 2022, he has been Vice-Rector for Teaching and Studies at the FernUniversität and heads the FernUniversität's Center for Learning and Innovation. He is also a member of the FernUniversität's Center of Advanced Technology for Assisted Learning and Predictive Analytics (CATALPA), where he leads a research group on diversity and adaptive collaborative learning.

Dr Velislava Hillman is a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics, founder of Education Data Digital Safeguards (EDDS) which provides evaluation and assessment of educational technologies. As a researcher Hillman’s work broadly lies in education, policy, and governance with focus on the impact of advancing data-intensive systems on children’s learning and fundamental human rights. She additionally occupies the role of governor in a public secondary school in England and is partner at Etoile Partners where she leads research on education data with the EU-Horizon consortium TRUSTEE.

Dr Jan Sürmeli has been researching topics relating to trust, sovereignty and privacy in the networked world since 2017. His current focus is on secure digital identities and data trust models in his role of Senior Expert Digital Identity and Trust. After completing his doctorate in computer science at the Humboldt University of Berlin in the field of modelling and analysis of distributed systems and post-doctoral work, he began working as a research associate at the FZI Forschungszentrum Informatik in 2019 and headed the Strategic and Interdisciplinary Projects department from 2021-2023.

The discussion explored the questions of what lessons we can learn from previous experiences with research data for the governance of educational infrastructures and which successful practical examples and models can offer guidance to data trustees in the education sector. We had an open debate on the question of how universities can maintain a practical balance between the open use of data for scientific purposes and data protection.

On 13 and 14 December 2023, our outreach workshop "Building Trusted Digital Infrastructures for Education" took place in Berlin as part of the BIRD project.

The workshop examined the creation of trusted infrastructures for the education sector with a spotlight on digital identity. How can national, regional and European infrastructure projects work together and coordinate to enable interoperability along the learner’s journey?
We connected actors from both the German and European Higher Education sector, governance and policy actors as well as service providers. The aim was to document recommendations on interoperability for the further development of a networked learning infrastructure with various high-quality educational programmes from an international perspective.

A public event on “Data Trustees in Education: Caught between Open Data and Data Protection“ took place following the workshop on 14 December at 4pm at the German Architecture Center DAZ.

You can find the event documentation here:

• "BIRD - Bildungsraum Digital" by Kathleen Clancy and Julia Dinier (DAAD - German Academic Exchange Service): Presentation
• "Mein Bildungsraum" by Dr Stephan Pfisterer and Vera Kerber (On behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research): Presentation
• "Viewpoint - Trust context as viewpoint for EA" by Patrik Maltusch (Aalto University): Presentation
• "From Learner’s Journeys to Trust Journeys - Challenges and Concepts for Building a European Trust Infrastructure in Education" by Dr Jan Sürmeli (FZI Research Center for Information Technology): Presentation
• "Updates on the European Digital Credentials for Learning and the European Learning Model" by Céline Jambon (European Commission DG EMPL Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Unit B.2 Skills Agenda): Presentation
• Visual workshop documentation by Christian Ridder: Documentation

On 15 and 16 November 2023, a workshop on "Content - requirements and recommendations for a cross-sector education infrastructure" was held in Bonn as part of the BIRD project.

The division of responsibility for educational content and infrastructure between the German federal states “Länder” and the federal government brings new challenges. Against this backdrop, the workshop discussed how educational programmes could be linked via federated infrastructures in the future. Actors from various educational sectors as well as civil society, politics and science were invited to take part.

Firstly, there was an introduction and presentation on the current status of Mein Bildungsraum and BIRD, followed by a keynote speech by Prof Dr Dan Verständig, Professor of Educational Science with a focus on general media education at Bielefeld University.
In an informal atmosphere, the aim was to discuss specific requirements for future governance structures (whether decentralised, federated, collaborative or other) from the perspective of the various educational sectors with regard to learning and the provision and networking of high-quality offerings on public platforms.

Here you can find the documentation of the workshop:

• Presentation "Mein Bildungsraum" by Dr Stephan Pfisterer, Federal Ministry of Education and Research
• Presentation "BIRD – Bildungsraum Digital" by Prof Dr Ulrike Lucke, University of Potsdam
• Presentation "Digitale Transformation und Bildung: 10 Thesen für eine sektorenübergreifende Bildungsinfrastruktur" by Prof Dr Dan Verständig, Bielefeld University
• Documentation by the visual facilitator Christian Ridder

12 September 2024. We’re excited to get things rolling again after a summer hiatus - especially as we are welcoming Ladok’s CEO Mauritz Danielsson as our guest. The Swedish Student Information System has come a long way since its beginnings in 1989 and now caters for most aspects of the educational cycle within Higher Education. The focus on ensuring interoperability, not only among exchange students but also between systems nationwide, remains pivotal. Additionally, continuous efforts are being made to introduce new features, such as a curriculum planning module. Ladok's collaborative development for all forty universities in Sweden, where each university maintains ownership and responsibility for its registry content, necessitates a specific governance structure, which we will also touch upon.

Join the discussion at our next Regulars, on Thursday, September 12th at 3 p.m. CEST, we look forward to seeing you and discussing how we can strengthen collaboration and support educational transitions through digital infrastructures.

Mauritz is CEO of the Swedish Student Information System, Ladok, which is used by all the institutions within Sweden’s higher education. The system has integrations with other government agencies in Sweden and with local systems at each university. Roughly 600 000 students and 30 000 administrators use Ladok every year handling around 2 million registrations, 6 million results and 80 000 diplomas per year.

If you are interested in attending, please register via this link.

23 May 2024. Finland is currently developing a national digital service platform for all its 38 Higher Education Institutions. How does one implement such a platform with diverse actors through equal and open decision-making and what governance dimensions need to be considered? What challenges are faced and can these be overcome by supporting change management within each institution? Find out at our next Digital Education Regulars on Thursday, May 23rd at 3 p.m. CEST when we will be chatting with Hanna Nordlund about her work as a Programme Director for Digivisio. The programme's aim is to enable flexible learning journeys across the boundaries of higher education institutions and strengthen collaboration by developing new services to support the transition to the future of learning. By 2030 Digivisio aims to produce 1) a national digital service platform, 2) guidance based on digital pedagogy, the learner’s path and shared data and 3) support for change management at HEIs.

Hanna Nordlund has a diverse background in program and project management, research, and business development and currently works as a Programme Director for Digivisio. She is responsible for ensuring that the project progresses towards the objectives jointly defined by the higher education institutions and manages the project office. Previously Hanna worked on the digital transformation within the health and social services sector and carried out various change and project management tasks. She has also worked as a researcher, which is why higher education, learning and evidence-based knowledge are close to her heart. Hanna's expertise spans across multiple organizations including the CSC - IT Center for Science, SoteDigi Oy, Espoon kaupunki, and Helsinki University of Technology.

If you are interested in attending, please register via this link.

18 April 2024. The creation of an open digital education ecosystem is an often stated objective, but how does one go about actually doing it? On this month’s double bill, we’ll be talking to both Dr Gill Ferrell and Xavi Aracil about their work at 1EdTech in the field of open standards. Join us on Thursday, April 18th at 3 p.m. CEST, when we will be discussing what data relevant open standards, such as Open Badges and Comprehensive Learner Record hold and how these map to different European instruments, such as the European Learning Model. Find out how these global open standards fit into the European digital credential ecosystem and what steps can be taken to adopt these, thus allowing learners to collect and share their credentials in a machine readable, privacy respecting and tamper evident way.

Dr Gill Ferrell supports two interrelated edtech communities in Europe, fostering knowledge exchange and developing communities of practice. She is Program Director Europe for 1EdTech, a community that develops and maintains open standards (such as learning tools interoperability LTI) to deliver a flexible learning ecosystem. She is also Partnership Manager for EUNIS, a professional association for all stakeholders delivering the digital infrastructure for higher education. She previously directed a support service for Jisc providing advice, guidance and training to further and higher education providers across the UK. She has led research and edtech projects in areas such as assessment and feedback, curriculum design, course management, learner records, learning spaces and learning analytics.

Xavi Aracil is a technical standards architect with 1EdTech focused on Open Badges and Comprehensive Learner Record. After graduating with a degree in computer science (and later a master's in mobile application development) from the Technical University of Catalonia, he worked in edtech for more than ten years at the Open University of Catalonia, holding various roles from developer to software engineer. While there, Xavi was introduced to 1EdTech standards, which solved how the institution designed and developed applications, and became involved in the 1EdTech community, including being co-chair of the European LTI Group in 2021. He lives and works in Barcelona, Spain.

The 1EdTech consortium is a unique collaboration between over 1,000 government and public bodies, education providers and suppliers developing an open digital ecosystem for learning. Since 2017 1EdTech has been the custodian of Open Badges, assuming responsibility to lead the evolution of the Open Badges specification and to ensure the sustainability of the future Open Badges ecosystem.

If you are interested in attending, please register via this link.

14 March 2024. How does the International Baccalaureate (IB) support learner mobility and digital education efforts? Find out at our upcoming Regulars, on Thursday, March 14th at 3 p.m. CET when we will be talking to Vedrana Pavletić about the International Baccalaureate’s role for learner mobility and her work on the development and recognition of IB programmes in the Africa, Europe and Middle East region. The IB recognised the importance of learner mobility from its very beginnings in 1968 and has continued to contribute to the expansion of the global digital learner data ecosystem. How has the IB adapted to the changing needs of learners and educators in the digital age and how is equitable access to learning resources provided? 

Vedrana Pavletić is the Senior Development and Recognition Manager at the International Baccalaureate (IB), based in the Netherlands, responsible for IB developments in a number of countries across Europe, Middle East and Eurasia. She is a versed international educator whose professional background and experience spans the education, non-for-profit and business. Over the past decade she has been working with schools, universities, associations, governments and global organizations to raise awareness of the continuum of IB education and to develop the implementation and recognition of the IB programmes. Vedrana’s main professional motivation is a perpetual endeavor of providing children and youth with an unrestricted access to the best possible education, and in that way making the world a better and more peaceful place.

About the IB 

The International Baccalaureate (IB) is a global leader in international education—developing inquiring, knowledgeable, confident, and caring young people. IB programmes of international education empower school-aged students to take ownership in their own learning and help them develop future-ready skills to make a difference and thrive in a world that changes fast.

If you are interested in attending, please register via this link.

14 February 2024. How can universities be supported during crises? Kateryna Suprun, an Education Consultant for World Bank projects in Ukraine and formerly a civil servant for the the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science, will be sharing her insights into the deployment of digital tools for universities during emergencies. The recognition of qualifications is an important building block in this context and Kateryna’s work on the digital credentialing initiative Diia underscores her dedication to supporting students and universities through digital transformation. The mobile and web application has been launched to provide secure services for Ukrainian citizens to store and share their credentials. Join us, Kateryna, and the Digital Education Regulars at our virtual pub on February 14th at 4 p.m. CET for an overview on Diia and a discussion on how to support credential portability.

Kateryna Suprun is an Education Consultant for the World Bank projects in Ukraine, and a Doctoral Researcher in Administrative Studies, Higher Education Group, at Tampere University.

Prior to this, Kateryna has acquired a progressively responsible experience as a civil servant at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and represented Ukraine in the Bologna Follow-Up Group and several European Commission Working Groups. Following her work at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine on higher education and digital transformation, she coordinates the launch of digital educational credentials in Ukraine.

She is involved in managing the portfolio of national projects on digitalization of higher education services, deploying digital tools for universities in times of emergency, and facilitating digital tools for recognition of qualifications. Kateryna has a solid track record of project and product management at various levels of education, public policy, higher education funding and governance, and managing education in emergency in developing countries.

If you are interested in attending, please let us know at bird at daad.de.

25 January 2024. We start the new year with the exciting speaker Reem Mansour from the Jordanian office of Kiron Open Higher Education. On Thursday 25 January at 3pm CET, she will speak at the Digital Education Regulars about the use of EdTech solutions dedicated to serving underserved communities and specifically the tools developed by Kiron tailored for online learning. Reem will share her experience on how EdTech has been used to support refugee mobility and on their advocacy efforts for the recognition of non-formal online learning.

Reem Mansour is the country manager for Kiron, Open Higher Education Jordan office. Talented trainer, facilitator, and motivator who brings years of added value, infusing professionals with the tools and capabilities they need to succeed. She applies adult learning theory and instructional design methodologies to develop innovative training programs that revitalise engagement and impact to empower others to realise their full potentials, broaden knowledge and improve efficiency. Her great passion is to bring outstanding and equal educational programs to communities experiencing marginalisation.
Her educational background includes an MA in translation and international certification in training trainers with intensive knowledge in working directly with students in the field to enhance the quality of their education and life.

If you are interested in attending, please let us know at bird at daad.de.

22 November 2023. The digital experience of international students is under-researched. With growing numbers of international students coming to study at UK Higher Education institutions, Jisc decided to conduct a bespoke piece of research to address questions such as: What challenges do international students face when using digital learning technologies? Can digital services improve international students' experiences before and during their study programme? How can Higher Education institutions ensure they provide all students with an equitable digital experience? Join the discussion with Elizabeth Newall at our Digital Education Regulars on Wednesday, November 22nd at 4 p.m. CET.

Jisc is the UK digital, data and technology agency focused on tertiary education, research and innovation and provides the UK’s National Research and Education Network (NREN). 

Elizabeth Newall contributes to Jisc’s research, thought leadership and consultancy relating to the digital transformation of learning, teaching and assessment in higher education.  In doing this, she works closely with Jisc members and experts from the UK HE sector to gather requirements that inform how Jisc can support the sector in the challenges they are facing in relation to digital transformation.  Areas of current focus include research exploring the digital experience of international students studying in the UK and rethinking learning and curriculum design.  Her background is in skills development across public and HE sectors.  She brings expertise in evidence-based educational enhancement in HE, with a specific focus on developing digital capabilities. In her previous role as an associate director of teaching and learning at a UK university, she was responsible for the delivery of learning development services and contributed to institution-wide programmes of work including curriculum transformation, access and participation, and the education and student experience strategic delivery plan.

If you are interested in attending, please let us know at bird at daad.de.

26 October 2023. How can the ENIC-NARIC network further support smooth and consistent recognition procedures? Join us and Evelien Willems on Wednesday, October 26th, 4-5 p.m. CEST, as she reports on her work in lowering administrative burdens to make the verification and exchange of learner data from all over the world easier. The ENIC-NARIC network plays a pivotal role in developing cross-border trust and setting up infrastructures that can handle different data formats while reaping the potentials of digital credentials for recognition. Which basic principles need to be in place to shift to learner-centric models and improve trust?

With a background in international relations and public policy, Evelien Willems currently works as a Senior Policy Officer at Nuffic, the Dutch ENIC-NARIC national information centre. At Nuffic she coordinates international multi-stakeholder projects focused on the digitalisation of credential evaluation and recognition workflows. She is also involved in the (further) development of the Nuffic’s own digital applications for credential assessment. Before joining Nuffic in 2021, Evelien worked in Germany in the field of professional recognition and skilled migration. From 2016 to 2021 she headed the IQ Knowledge Centre for Professional Recognition and Bridge Training and consulted for the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

If you are interested in attending, please let us know at bird at daad.de.

13 September 2023. After a short summer hiatus, we are excited to welcome you back to our cosy pub for a digital sundowner. This time Nadža Milanović will be sharing insights from her work building a register of students, teachers and diplomas in Croatia. It is her hope that this register will enable accurate and easy reporting and data analysis with knock-on effects on evidence-based policy-making. Join us in discussing the system design and primary data sources for a central registry. 

Nadža Milanović is a deputy head of the Software Infrastructure Department of the University of Zagreb, University Computing Centre. She has over 20 years of experience in the implementation and management of software projects from various fields of application and various roles. She is also the leader of the ISeVO project – Information System for the Higher Education Register in Croatia. Her main interests and areas of expertise are project management, business analysis, user experience design, information systems, software architecture and software engineering.

If you are interested in attending, please let us know at bird at daad.de.

12 April 2023. How can we link digital education services across educational sectors? Find out at our next Regulars, on Wednesday, April 12 at 3 p.m. CEST when we will be chatting with Geir Vangen about his work as head IT Architect for Norway’s nationwide education system. Geir has worked on the integration of varying services - ranging from student information and admission, LMS, digital exams and a diploma portal for HE. How has the range of services been expanded to school and vocational education in Norway? What role does a self-governed overarching ID play and what effect will the EU’s plans for a European infrastructure have? 

Geir Vangen has more than 25 years’ experience in developing nationwide systems within higher education. He works at Sikt – the Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research, as head IT Architect in the Division for Education and Administrative Services. The current portfolio comprises around 30 services, where student information and national admission systems are the most extensive services. He participates in national and international standardisation work and international projects for digitalization. He has been member of national committees and lead projects on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Research. Geir Vangen graduated from University of Oslo, Institute of Informatics in 1989.

About Sikt
Sikt – Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research was established on 1 January 2022 through a merger between NSD (Norwegian Centre for Research Data AS), Uninett AS and Unit – the Directorate for ICT and Joint Services in Higher Education & Research. The organisation is a public administrative body under the Ministry of Education and Research. Our mission is to help Education and Research achieve its goals by providing shared, value-adding services you can trust. Sikt has approximately 400 employees across its head office in Trondheim and additional offices in Bergen and Oslo.

If you are interested in attending, please let us know at bird at daad.de.