Abstract:

The OLMEdu (Open Lab for the up skilling of higher educational staff in on-line Management Education) project addresses the challenge of digital transformation in Higher Education (HE), which has been imposed in the last years and especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
This transformation has stressed the need to offer support and training to higher education staff (HES) in acquiring the appropriate ICT knowledge and skills to successfully support e-learning. In Management Education (ME) this process is even more demanding as a set of social and economic studies which is associated with solving problems and decision-making situations.
This paper presents the design, development, and implementation of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to upskill higher education staff in online Management Education. As can be seen in the following, the MOOC includes material for eight learning modules and a series of tools for developing interactive and/or virtual reality education-driven scenarios/simulations to replicate the experience in the best way possible, giving the feeling of real presence.

Module 1: Distance learning and pedagogies in online management education
Module 2: Design thinking approaches
Module 3: Design and delivery of online training
Module 4: Distance learning educational technologies, digital tools, and mobile applications
Module 5: Web conferencing tools and online classroom management
Module 6: Digital content creation and data protection issues
Module 7: Online feedback, assessment, and monitoring
Module 8: Digital reality in management education

In addition, a toolbox was developed, that supports the acquisition of skills needed to HES, and provides them the capability to define and develop simulation-based interactive ME scenarios. It provides them the necessary ICT knowledge and skills to use such advanced digital tools in order to enhance the learning experience of their students, by applying experienced-based learning scenarios that enable the students to cultivate problem solving and analytical skills. The combination of the training and the toolbox enable HES in ME to shift from the traditional learning model to one that builds learning communities within the digital world, thus enhancing at the same time their students’ learning experience.

Keywords:

ΜΟΟC, HEs, competence development, professional development, virtual tool.