Overview of papers on enhancement of European Higher Education as presented during the Online, Open and Flexible Higher Education Conference in Rome, October 2016

This article is about a project funded by the Dutch Government titled ‘Flexible Learning Paths in Responsible Innovation’ (implemented by the TU Delft) . The project focuses on the development of open and online education in Responsible Innovation for both on-campus students and professionals (in order to become a Chartered Engineer).

Responsible Innovation (RI) comprises two key notions: Ethical acceptability and orientation towards societal needs and grand challenges. RI implies a different mind-set on the part of engineers: one of societal engagement and social responsibility. In other words we have to rethink innovation. Engineers need professional competences and abilities to improve societal outcomes and to develop appropriate innovative solutions which accommodate core values such as sustainability, privacy, safety and security. For this purpose, the project will develop open and online educational resources and courses for both oncampus students (master and bachelor) and professionals. In this paper we will focus on the key results of the above mentioned project:
• An open platform for OER (Open educational Resources) as well as student’s research (minors).
• Six online courses for professionals which we develop for – and in consultation with- KIVI (the Royal Netherlands Society of Engineers). Since this year KIVI-members can become a chartered engineer if they meet certain conditions (competences). Our online courses will help engineers to meet the requirements.
• A number of didactical experiments.
• International activities.

Keywords

credit for MOOCs · online education for professionals · open research and education platform · responsible innovation · reuse of OER