Recent Projects.

Open Discovery Space: A socially-powered and multilingual open learning infrastructure to boost the adoption of eLearning resources

Summary: The project aims at creating support mechanisms for open knowledge exchange in science education in particular for schools. JYU is responsible for the support of distributed workgroups as well as for developing and validating recommender systems to assure software and knowledge exchange quality.
Project type: EU FP7
Partners: University of Piraeus, CERTH, University of Twente, University of Bayreuth, Aalto University, and 45 other partners
Duration: 04.2012 - 03.2015

CEN: Standardization of Social and Context Metadata

Summary: The goal oft he project ist o derive a specification for interoperable data formats for social interactions and description of contexts. These are used for the creation of adaptable and personalized learning systems as well as the exchange between social networks and related systems.
Project type: EU, DG Enterprise
Partners: KU Leuven, Fraunhofer FIT und 12 further partners
Duration: 04.2013 - 03.2015

HOTEL: Working Out a Holistic Approach for Technology Enhanced Learning

Summary: The goal of the project is the analysis of innovation cycles in E-Learning projects and organizations. The project aims at solutions to shorten these innovation cycles to develop new implementation and adoption strategies in organizations.
Project type: EU, FP7
Partners: European Learning Industry Group, EFQUEL, MENON Network und 4 weitere Partner
Duration: 11.2012 - 10.2014

TEL-Map: Future Gazing TEL: The Roadmap for the Unknown Learning Landscape

Summary: The project analyzes current trends and developments in the European context for learning and educational technologies. We will apply different forecasting and prognosis methods to analyze trends and support the implementation process. The focus of JYU is the support regarding international organizations and aspects.
Project type: EU FP7
Partners: Brunel University, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, RWTH Aachen, Open University UK, L3S, IMC AG, Learn eXact Solutions, and other partners
Duration: 10.2010 - 09.2013

OpenScout: Skill based scouting of open user-generated and community-improved content for management education and training

Summary: OpenScout aims at providing an education service in the internet that enables users to easily find, access, use and exchange open content for management education and training.
To reduce the usage barriers for OER, OpenScout offers easy-to-use skill-based federated search and retrieval web services, provides an openly accessible tool library for improvement and re-publishing of open contents and establishes an open user community that opens up their content and adopts OpenScout web services in real contexts of use.OpenScout can be used by learners directly but also by training and education institutions that search for learning content to be integrated into their learning offerings.

Project Type: EU, e-content plus programme
Project Partners: L3S Hannover, Fraunhofer FIT, Open University Netherlands, INSEAD, PLATO Network, UNESCO, and 12 other partners
Duration: 09.2009 - 08.2012

iCOPER: Interoperable Content for Performance in a Competency-driven Society

Summary: Driven by a consortium of key players in the European arena iCOPER will access to a critical mass of more than 15,000 hours of integrated educational content. Based on this beneficial infrastructure the project will systematically analyze the implementation of existing specifications such as IMS RCDEO, IMS LD, SQI, and QTI. iCOPER's underlying pedagogical framework will guide a consensus building approach to developing Best Practices, addressing issues such as (1) exchange of competency models in a cross-cultural educational context, (2) collaboration around learning designs, (3) integration of content via federated search and harvesting, (4) reuse of instructional models and content in learning deliver environments, (5) interoperability of item banks for assessment and evaluation.
The main output from JYU will be a reference model containing of processes, specifications and use cases.

Project Type: EU, e-content plus programme
Project Partners: WU Wien, Open University UK, University of Cyprus and 19 other partners
Duration: 09.2008 - 01.2011


ASPECT: Adopting Standards and Specifications for Educational Content

Summary: ASPECT is a Best Practice Network for educational content that involves 23 partners from 16 countries, including 10 Ministries of Education (MoE), four commercial content developers and leading technology providers who are all actively contributing to the standardisation process. Initially, 13 content providers add additional content (both professionally produced and user-generated by teachers/pupils) to a critical mass of educational resources in an existing Learning Resource Exchange (LRE) for schools. This is a federated network of 20 learning content repositories that has been developed by European Schoolnet and its supporting MoEs together with other partners that include the ARIADNE Foundation.

Project Type: EU, e-content plus programme
Project Partners: European Schoolnet, KU Leuven, Open University NL, and 20 other partners
Duration: 09.2008 - 01.2011

NORDLET: The Nordic and Baltic Open Community for Learning, Education, and Training

Summary: The main goal of the NORDLET project is to build a Nordic-Baltic network and Community of Practice set to develop and harness a region-specific perspective on the use of technology in Learning, Education and Training. The common ground for the NORDLET Open Educational Community is to provide a single cross-sector, cross-country access point to educational resources within a dynamic network. Our focus is to promote sharing, re-use and enhancement of learning scenarios and learning resources (Open Educational Resources, OER) across all levels of the educational systems of the Nordplus countries.
The NORDLET community will follow the Nordic tradition of creating open dynamic educational opportunities for all - providing networking and technology tools to enhance cooperation and communication across countries and sector boundaries to improve the exchange of educational materials, pedagogical and technological expertise.


NORDLET will support every phase of the OER Lifecycle, in particular we will facilitate experience exchange and collaboration using easy-to-use tools. Project Type: NORDPLUS Horizontal
Project Partners: 10 partners across the Nordic and Baltic countries
Duration: 01.2009 - 12.2011

COSMOS: An Advanced Scientific Repository for Science Teaching and Learning

Summary: The main purpose of the COSMOS project is to create an experimental laboratory for students and teachers in order to improve science instruction by expanding the resources for teaching and learning in schools and universities and by providing more challenging and authentic learning experiences for students. The project will build upon the state of the art developments as regards the interoperability architectures and metadata standards and the latest evolutions in learning technologies to perform an extended validation on the effectiveness and the efficiency of the proposed approach in the science teaching and learning.
Project Type: EU, e-content plus programme
Project Partners: Liverpool John Moores University, Växjö University, Foundation for research and Technology Hellas, and 9 other partners
Duration: 10.2007 - 09.2009

Past Projects (Selection).

Q.E.D. - Quality Initiative E-Learning in Germany

Summary: The "Quality Initiative E-Learning in Germany (Q.E.D.)" develops new standards and reveals new markets and business models. Reference models are built up for the innovative use cases Mobile Learning and Rich Media Content as well as congruous tools for immediate conversion and application are developed. This ensures national competitiveness especially for SME (small and medium enterprises). Q.E.D. provides new standards within E-Learning. Funded by the "Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Innovation" (BMWI) [Federal Ministry of Economy and Innovation, Germany] the aim of Q.E.D. is the development and establishment of innovative learning scenarios and international quality standards in E-Learning. In order to reach this goal, Q.E.D. promotes the quality trade mark "E-Learning Made in Germany" and the development of corresponding tools. The six main objectives of Q.E.D. are:
  • Development of international accredited quality standards for E-Learning
  • Wide dissemination of standards through application guidelines and easy-to-use tools
  • Implementation support and increase of usage of E-Learning in SME
  • Easy use and automation of standards for complex multimedia applications
  • Enhancements of the future topic mobile learning
  • Bundling of interests of providers and users of E-Learning and representation in international standardization committees
Project Type: Federal Ministry of Economy and Innovation (BMWI)
Project Partners: DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V., FBD-Bildungspark, Fraunhofer Institut IAO, IBM Deutschland, T-Systems MMS
Duration: 04.2004 - 03.2007

Virtual Education for Business Information Systems (VAWI)

Summary: Within this project, we have established the most successful online degree (M.Sc.) in Business Information Systems. More than 300 students currently study in a Blended learning environment. Courses and modules have been cooperatively developed. The program is structured in a modular way. 90 ECTS must be reached following the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). The following table shows distribution of credits for mandatory and optional modules, projects, and master theses.
Besides this, research has been performed in various fields like quality assurance and new didactical concepts. Currently, we are working on an international version of the degree.
Project Type: Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Project Partners: University of Bamberg, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg
Duration: 04.2001 - 03.2004 (ongoing self-sustained)

Korean German Institute of Technology: Establishing a German-Korean University in Seoul (KGIT)

Summary: The University of Duisburg-Essen is involved in a cooperation establishing a Korean-German university in Seoul, Korea. We are building a department on Wirtschaftsinformatik (BIS) and develop concepts for a Korean-German E-Learning research centre.

MISTEL- System Convergence in Education, Research and Science

Summary: The project focuses on developing interoperable solutions to develop new services for education, research, and science. It integrates several classes of IS, specifically CSCW, learning management, authoring systems and digital libraries. Those mostly isolated systems are merged by interfaces. New services are derived for the participating partners: As an example, the library will provide new services for researchers to organize, discuss, and improve their knowledge. The reference implementation is performed with open source products. An evaluation will be performed determining the impact and success of the project.
Project Type: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Project Partners: University Library Duisburg-Essen, University of Paderborn
Duration: 04.2005 - 03.2008

CEN/ISSS Project on E-Learning Quality

Summary: The main goal of the CEN/ISSS Quality Project Team is to provide a European perspective in the international standardization work on quality management, assurance, and assessment in e-Learning. The activity will provide a guide for Europeans to use the forthcoming international quality description format by providing best practice approaches. The result will be a European proposal to global standardization and strengthen the European position in this community. The following items are discussed: A first work package relates to the international quality standard to be developed in ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36. This quality standard should be strongly influenced by existing and forthcoming European developments. The work package will produce adaptation guidelines which will provide support for European users to implement quality assurance based on this forth-coming ISO standard. The second work package aims to significantly improve the decision process for potential learners but also for the communication between business partners in the e-Learning industry. By the provision, in a Learning Experience Transparency (LET) profile, of compact, in-depth information about learning experiences, these decisions are not based on mere assumptions but on valid, reliable information. Based on this information, potential learners will be able to choose adequate courses, materials, and products. The Profile will enable knowledge exchange and improve decision processes. The third work package will develop a consensus on a conceptual model which is a prerequisite to adequately identify and disseminate quality approaches or quality related projects. It helps to provide best-practice and dissemination activities on a European and Global Scale.
Project Type: European Commission
Project Partners: SCIENTER (Italy), Le Preau (France), E-Learning Industry Group, plus more than 50 voluntary experts
Duration: 01.2005 - 01.2007

European Quality Observatory (EQO) / TRIANGLE

Summary: The main objective is to provide a comprehensive platform and an internet-based repository for quality management, quality assurance and quality assessment approaches. The repository aims at developers, managers, administrators, decision makers and end-users to find a suitable quality approach that fits their needs. Based on a decision support system, recommendations are provided, concerning the use of quality management, quality assurance and quality assessment approaches for various target groups (e.g. end users, HE administrators, developers) and for specific purposes (e.g. process improvement, product transparency, domain-specific purposes, national / regional / local needs). Moreover, within the project we have developed a conceptual framework for the description and harmonization of quality approaches. This has been submitted as a reference framework for a European quality standard within the CEN/ISSS Workshop Learning Technologies in order to transfer results from standard committees to the users and vice versa. Finally, services have been developed to support the implementation of quality approaches in organizations. Users will be able to use internet-based applications that help them to implement quality approaches (such as process models, quality criteria) adapted to their context, objectives and experiences. In the successor project TRIANGLE, those services are extended and promoted within a European Quality Foundation. Again, it is the main goal to provide ICT support for actors in the field of quality.
Project Type: European Commission
Project Partners: European Schoolnet (Belgium), CERTH-ITI/University of Piraeus (Greece), European Institute for E-Learning (France), MENON Network (Belgium), University of Reading (UK)
Duration: 04.2003 - 03-2005 / 04.2005 - 03.2007

Quality Mark E-Learning

Summary: The Quality Mark E-Learning (QSeL) is a tool for quality development for learning, education and training. It focuses on quality development for organisations, platforms, and courses.
Project Type: Industry Funding
Project Partners: MMB Institut für Medien- und Kompetenzforschung, Centrum für E-Competence, Hagen, RAG Aktiengesellschaft
Duration: 09.2004 - 06.2005

Developing Web Content Supporting Learning and Training of Disadvantaged User Communities (e-ACCESS)

Summary: Aim of this project is the development of methods to provide E-Learning content in a way that it is both, accessible to users with special needs and flexible regarding the pedagogical methodology. Our institute is responsible mainly for evaluation activities and impact analysis, but also for the creation of accessibility guidelines.
Project Type: European Commission
Project Partners: CERTH-ITI (Greece), BASER (Bulgaria), ELEPAP (Greece), TEMPO-Training Center (Czech Republic), AVENCE Digital (Finland)
Duration: 10.2003 - 09.2006