Leadership schools

The goal of D-TRANSFORM is to implement a training program for leaders of European universities (presidents, vice-presidents) focusing on the major role played by digital technologies (MOOCS, etc.) and Open Educational Resources (OER) in the necessary transformation of their institutions.

D-TRANSFORM will propose to university governances a compact training program that takes into account their time constraints. The D-TRANSFORM “trainers” (representatives of partner institutions) and external experts will provide a global, multifaceted view of the question, largely based on case studies. During leadership school sessions, discussions between representatives of universities, “trainers” and external experts will provide the higher education governances a forum for discussing about e-education as a leverage for transforming universities in Europe.

Leadership schools will focus on the following issues:

  1. How to use digital technologies as a leverage for transforming pedagogy and training within higher education institutions? On the one hand, MOOCS will be analyzed as a key feature in the strategies aiming at enhancing competitiveness, international attractiveness and resource sharing capacity. On the other hand, disruptions that they may cause in the educational process and the educational body, must be also carefully managed by the institutions. Recommendations made in the former Life Learning Program-funded projects, and current experiences will be taken into account to analyze this question.
  2. What will be the economic model for universities? How to rationalize the costs of higher education through the use of digital teaching, in particular by relying on the use of OER and the establishment of consortia of universities? What are the funding opportunities (in the public and in the private sector) for universities in order to ensure the implementation of digital teaching? In general, most European countries now have very little funding for policy involvement in ICT for Higher Education, so there is a great need to discuss on this issue.
  3. How to conciliate the development of MOOCS – and more generally e-learning – and the need to have a more flexible and personalized teaching? How to conciliate the need for “sharing” (consortia of universities sharing OER) and the need for “contextualization” (by providing a “private space” within the MOOC “public space”, i.e. Small Private Online Course, etc.)