The Cátedra Telefónica-UPF Social Innovation in Education has organized in conjunction with the Cátedra Telefónica-UPC, the workshop " MOOC: an occasional phenomenon or a revolution in the world of education?" in order to reflect on the phenomenon of the MOOC, the massive online open courses.

> Video published in YouTube Channel Cátedra Telefónica-UPF

The event took place today June 11th, from 9:30 to 13:30 in the auditorium of the Poblenou campus, with the notable presence of Michael Gaebel, Head of the Unit for Higher Education Policy of the European University Association (EUA) and author of " MOOCs: Massive Open Online Courses", which has made a general presentation.

The event, open to all, has been attended by representatives of companies, institutions, organizations and MOOC platforms to analyze this phenomenon from different perspectives.

A depth reflection on the phenomenon of MOOC

The overture has gone by Jaume Casals, rector of UPF; Joan Majó, vicerrector de Formació Permanent from UPC; Mariano Yagüez, Key Account Manager from Telefónica, and Lluís Jofre, Director General d'Universitats de Catalunya.

Then started the presentation by Michael Gaebel, who has treated about where first appear MOOCs, what are their objectives, what is their natural scope or target audience and what universities are developing MOOCs.

Next, two expert panels have established, formed respectively by human resources managers and representatives of online courses platforms.

The first one has talked about the MOOCs as a formative instrument of the company, with the vision that organizations have of this phenomenon and the opinion of their human resources departments, while the second panel focused on global platforms and its expansion in Latin America.

The closing of the session has gone by Miquel Oliver and Jordi Romeu, directors of the Cátedra Telefónica-UPF and the Cátedra Telefónica-UPC, respectively, and Fabián García-Pastor, Public Affairs Manager of Telefónica.

The Cátedra Telefónica-UPF 2013, "Social Innovation in Education"

The Cátedra Telefónica-UPF, led by Professor Miquel Oliver, has been relaunched this 2013 with the theme of social innovation in education, delving into the analysis of the social impact of the massive open online courses known as MOOC.

In the area of this Cátedra, transversal activities are agglutinate from research groups as the Networking Technologies and Strategies, which coordinates Miquel Oliver, the Human-Machine Interaction, Graphics and Educational Technology by professor Davinia Hernández-Leo, and in collaboration with the Polytechnic School (ESUP) through  professor Vanesa Daza, coordinator of MOOC " Descodificando Álgebra" from UPF.