Open Education Recognition and Credentials

For flexible, open and online education to become reality, it is vital to increase trust in recognition and credentials through robust and reliable solutions. In Europe, we already have standards and tools that can be used to transparently describe qualifications. The European Qualifications Framework gives an indication of the level of various qualifications; the European Diploma Supplement provides a standardised template to give additional information about a degree; the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) allows for individual learning units to be described in terms of knowledge, skills, responsibility and autonomy; the European Skill, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations (ESCO) database provides a standard terminology. However, while theoretically these same tools could be used to describe virtual mobility and open education, there is a long way to go until open education modules are treated the same way as their traditional counterparts.

This webinar will provide a deeper analysis of this challenge and introduce a few European initiatives, such as the new Europass, MicroHE, ECCOE and more, that aim to facilitate the recognition of open, online and flexible higher education and increase trust in technology-enabled credentials among students, higher education institutions (HEIs) and employers.