Abstract:

Recognition of prior Learning is a key issue of the Bologna Process driving forward significant higher education reforms throughout Europe and beyond. Kiron Open Higher Education (Kiron) has developed an innovative academic model that uses good practices in this field to implement measures for outcome-oriented approaches to the recognition and assessment of MOOC-based digital learning. This paper will summarize learnings from pilot projects implemented by Kiron and its university partners that potentially have an impact on the overall higher education system and inclusive approaches to the recognition of prior learning acquired in digital settings.

Improving recognition of online learning and developing suitable examination formats is a key pillar of the pilot research & development project INTEGRAL² – which in German is short for “Integration and Participation of Refugees in the Context of Digital Teaching and Learning Scenarios” – funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. In this project, Kiron collaborates with two prototypical German higher education institutions, RWTH Aachen University and Lübeck University of Applied Sciences who have gained significant experience in the digitalization of higher education and online assessment and recognition in recent years.

Within the INTEGRAL² project, Kiron tests two major approaches to the recognition of MOOC-based prior learning. Overall, the approach is to either achieve the recognition of MOOCs on a course level through offline examinations covering a specific MOOC and the equivalent offline course at the same time or through module based assessments covering the learning outcomes of a MOOC-based Kiron module as prior learning.

With RWTH Aachen University we therefore implemented two MOOCs in our curriculum that at the same time were offered offline at the partner university. Comparing the participation and success rates of traditional course and MOOC participants, who have to take the same examination, we test whether MOOC-based learning results in comparable offline examination results.

With Lübeck University of Applied Sciences we examine on a module level whether taking MOOCs of external providers results in competencies comparable to those achieved through corresponding modules taken at a university. In a first round, 14 Kiron students coming from Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Gambia, and Egypt took offline oral as well as written exams in two Computer Science modules. With 13 out of 19 successfully taken exams, these first examinations indicate that taking MOOCs of external providers might indeed result in achievements equivalent to those attained in university courses and modules.

Guiding questions raised during our sessions will include:
- What approaches to the recognition of prior learning are applicable to MOOC-based learning?
- Which assessment types are most suitable for the recognition of MOOC-based prior learning?
- How do traditional course participants and MOOC participants perform in the same offline examination?

Keywords:

Higher Education, Recognition of prior learning, MOOCs, Digital learning, Refugees, Digitalization, Internationalization, Openness.