As of today, Thursday 18 November, you can register for the first five nanoMOOCs, a new, flexible and rigorous short-duration audiovisual format that promotes the opportunity for lifelong learning. The themes of the training pills are aligned with 10 of the 17 Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In addition, a sixth course, starting on 1 December will be available soon.

The nanoMOOCs project is led by Miquel Oliver, a full professor at the UPF Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC), and brings together a consortium including research staff from UPF, the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), the University of Barcelona (UB), and the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (IIIA/CSIC), as well as experts from the companies Lavinia, Edebé and Grupo Ormo. The initiative is linked to the RIS3CAT Media community.

Courses are available via the nanomoocs.cat platform and deal with a variety of subjects with the aim of reaching the widest possible audience. The concept of nanoMOOCs goes way beyond traditional online courses and represents a new educational and training challenge that uses technological solutions to incorporate new functionalities that help improve the learning experience.

Six nanoMOOCs: six training experiences

From advertisements to the table: health and happiness as a strategy in food advertising

The nanoMOOC is piloted by Mònika Jiménez-Morales, a UPF professor, and Mireia Montaña and Xavier Medina, professors at the UOC. The training will serve to analyse and understand the tools used in advertising to reach consumers. This training especially targets nutritionists, students of nutrition, high school teachers and students of advertising. It aligns with SDG 3 – Health and wellness, to ensure healthy living and promote wellness for all ages.

What can we do with plastics dumped at sea?

This is the question that Roser Sánchez, Pepe Mola and Natàlia Putge, from Edebé, ask teenagers to make them reflect on their actions regarding climate (SDG 13 –  Climate action) and become aware of the state of the underwater world (SDG 14 – Life below water) and of responsible consumption (SDG 12 – Responsible consumption and production).

Please, come in!

This is the title with which Joe Hopkins, a professor at the UOC, seeks to help employees in small shops, bars and restaurants to gain a basic knowledge of English, the language of global exchange. It thus contributes to SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth, and SDG 10 – Reduced inequalities.

Visual motifs in the public sphere: production and circulation of images of power

This is the nanoMOOC that Carolina Sourdis, Ivan Pintor and Jordi Balló, members of the MOVEP research group at UPF, provide to trainers in communication, audiovisual media and journalism, as well as to students doing similar studies, to recognize the visual motifs that circulate in the public sphere, and analyse the underlying ideology in the presence, circulation, and recurrence of these images. It contributes to SDG 16 – Peace, justice and strong Institutions.   

From your idea to Canvas

This initiative, linked to UPF’s Start-UPFlama programme, is taught by Albert Domingo, targeting entrepreneurs who have business ideas but need to establish them in a general use, visual tool as a business model canvas. It contributes to SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth.

Blockchain Basics (to start on 1 December 2021)

This course, taught in English, is an EIT Urban Mobility course given by Miquel Oliver and Fabio della Valle, linked to UPF, offering an introduction to the basic concepts of blockchain applied to urban mobility. This issue is key to achieving SDG 11 – Sustainable cities and communities, and at the same time is one of the milestones set out in SDG 9 – Industry, innovation and infrastructure.

An innovative format that includes advanced technology modules for enhanced learning

Data help to improve processes and at the same time make decisions. For this reason, the nanoMOOCs are part of a learning analytics module that collects evidence of student activity, specifically in relation to their interaction with the training contents and the use they make of the various functionalities at their fingertips. Thus, it includes advanced technology modules like the detector of emotions, using computer vision techniques. It also envisages blockchain certification, the application of artificial intelligence or advanced gaming, in addition to high quality content.

What do students’ emotions tell us?

Being highly motivated, interested, bored, confused or distracted helps both to validate course contents and to activate systems to capture interest via gamification or personalization.

How are the nanoMOOCs personalized?

Itineraries are defined for each participant within each course based on different student profiles and their progress. In this way, the experience of each participant can be said to be unique.

When does gaming come into learning?

Gamification mechanics, adapted to each participant, are also incorporated to help either as a learning resource or to keep the participant's interest and to make their progress more enjoyable.

Why can one participant evaluate another?

Incorporating peer evaluation encourages participants to learn from the work of others, ensuring high quality indices and introducing an innovative peer co-assessment model.

Can the course be certified?

The nanoMOOCs incorporate blockchain technology to issue a lifetime certificate of the course taken, verifiable on their CV on social media.

Another success of nanoMOOCs is their capacity for transfer to any sector, since training is key for the competitiveness of companies and institutions. In fact, three of the four current nanoMOOCs are already fulfilling requests from the world of entrepreneurship (UPF Ventures), the audiovisual sector (MOVEP Research Group) and from urban mobility (EIT Urban Mobility). In addition, other organizations in the small and medium-sized enterprise sector or in the technological and entrepreneurial innovation sector, from online banking to the world of publishing, have shown an interest in making specific proposals for nanoMOOCs both to train their employees and their customers.