Transcript RS3G: European Standards Initiative Supporting the Bologna Process Washington D.C. April 6, 2009 11:00 – 12:00

RS3G: European Standards Initiative
Supporting the Bologna Process
Washington D.C. April 6, 2009
11:00 – 12:00
1
Manuel Dietz
2
unisolution
3
Bologna
4
European Initatives
5
RS3G
6
Use Cases
7
Questions and Answers
Page 2
1
Manuel Dietz
2
unisolution
3
Bologna
4
European Initatives
5
RS3G
6
Use Cases
7
Questions and Answers
Page 3
Background Manuel Dietz
Studied architecture at
TU Darmstadt…
… spent one year with Erasmus
in Madrid, Spain …
… and worked in the International
Office at TU Darmstadt
Page 4
Working in an International Office
Page 5
1
Manuel Dietz
2
unisolution
3
Bologna
4
European Initatives
5
RS3G
6
Use Cases
7
Questions and Answers
Page 6
QS unisolution
QS unisolution GmbH
 Founded in 2001 in the Technical University Darmstadt by Manuel Dietz
and Stéphane Velay
 Team of 11 colleagues based in Stuttgart
 300 institutions in 15 countries using moveon, more than 1,200 members
of the moveonnet web portal
 From April 1st 2009 part of QS group based in London
Our mission:
To provide institutions of higher education with software, portals and services
essential for their development in the international field
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QS and QS unisolution - Portfolio
Supporting International Education
Software
Portals
International Relations
Management
Higher Education Worldwide
Services and Events
Fairs
Rankings
Application- and
Admissions Management
Higher Education Worldwide
Trainings and Workshops
Page 8
The unisolution user community
300 institutions in 15 countires using our software
1,500 colleagues working with moveon everyday
100,000 students yearly managed in moveon
Instituions using moveon
South Africa
1
Germany
132
Belgium
9
Denmark
2
Spain
8
France
93
Ireland
4
Italy
1
Netherlands
4
Portugal
2
UK
7
Sweden
11
Switzerland
7
Turkey
3
Taiwan
1
Page 9
1
Manuel Dietz
2
unisolution
3
Bologna
4
European Initatives
5
RS3G
6
Use Cases
7
Questions and Answers
Page 10
Europe before Bologna
27 countries in todays EU-europe
- Diversity of educational systems and degrees
- Difficulties in transferring academic achievements
- Incompatibility between countries
- Many inhibitors to mobility
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Europe with Bologna
European Higher Education Area
 academic degree standards
 introduction of comparable degrees (Bachelor / Master)
 introduction of Credit Point System (ECTS)
 recognition of degrees
 increase attractiveness of European higher education
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Europe with Bologna
European Higher Education Area
 Bologna started with 29 member states
 Today EHEA has 46 members
Students in tertiary education
- 16.5 Mio. Students in EU 27
- 17.2 Mio students in USA
Students in mobility per year
- 360,000 in EU 27
- 200,000 in Euro Area
Page 13
One focus of Bologna is Mobility
There are three types of mobility
Exchange Mobility = Students studying parts of one learning period in
another institution
Dual / Mulitple Degree Mobility = Students studying in more than one
institution and receiving more than one degree
Transfer Mobility = Students transfering within or after a learning period (e.g.
Bachelor Degree) completely from one institution to another
Page 14
Successes of Bologna until today
One of the successes of Bologna was the introduction of Bachelor / Masters
Degrees throughout europe and of ECTS
… shorter study cycles within the two levels
… comparable degrees across europe
… easier transfer from one institution to another
… continous growth in exchange mobility
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The next challenges
Still to be resolved are processes to …
… transfer credits outside of exchange mobility
… transfer data between universities in general
… make data transfer and recognition more transparent
… define standards between different IT systems
Page 16
1
Manuel Dietz
2
unisolution
3
Bologna
4
European Initatives
5
RS3G
6
Use Cases
7
Questions and Answers
Page 17
Major european projects on standards for courses / student data
UK/Ireland: digitary
full electronic
graduation
documents
Norway: CDM (courses)
UK: XCRI (courses)
Sweden: LadokPing (students)
Sweden: Emil (courses)
EU: PLOTEUS (courses)
EU: CEDEFOP- Europass
France: CDM-FR (courses)
Italy: Anagrafe nazionale (students)
CEN Technical Committee 353
(European Committee for Standardization)
Italy: Alma Laurea (graduates)
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1
Manuel Dietz
2
unisolution
3
Bologna
4
European Initatives
5
RS3G
6
Use Cases
7
Questions and Answers
Page 19
The roots of RS3G
RS3G was initiated by unisolution in collaboration with Digitary and KION
Exchange ideas and experience around student and curriculum data transfer
between institutions of Higher Education
Supporting the Bologna Process by developing new technological approaches
and standards to implement them
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“all roads lead start from Rome”
European workshop, 9th November 2007 in Rome
Defining standards and procedures for the exchange
of student curriculum data between
Higher Education Institutions

40 participants from 13 countries incl. PESC

Rome Student Systems and Standards Group (R3SG)

Recommendations
o
Permanent Observatory
o
Delegation of Experts to CEN
o
Promote technical subgroups
Page 21
RS3G member institutions
Most important members are
Digitary
EAIE
EUNIS
Gartner
JISC / CETIS
HIS
KION
LADOK
Oracle
PESC
Sungard
unisolution
Page 22
RS3G steering committee
Steering committee members
Gunnar Backelin, LADOK (SE)
Jonathan Dempsey, Digitary (IE)
Jean Francois Desnos, EUNIS (FR)
Manuel Dietz, unisolution (DE)
Herrmann de Leeuw, EAIE (NL)
Simone Ravaioli, KION (IT)
Advisors to steering committee
Jan Martin Lowendahl, Gartner Research (SE)
David Moldoff, PESC and Academy One (USA)
Mark Stubbs, Manchester Metropolitan University (GB)
Page 23
Bringing standards together with “real life”
Standardization authorities
i.e. CEN
Implementers groups
i.e. R3SG
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The opportunities for standards
Course
Description
Academic Offer
Validation
Curriculum
Description
Exchange Mobility
Student
Observatory
Course Advertising
Transfer Mobility
Mediated Application
Graduation
Documents
Course Unit
Employment
STUDY
PROGRAMMES
& COURSE
UNITS
CATALOGUE
STUDY
PROGRAMME
..............................
DETAILS
..............................
............................................
COURSE
............................
UNIT
............................
DETAILS
...
.......................
.......................
................
LEARNING
AGREEMENT
TRANSCRIPT.......................
OF RECORDS.......................
.......................
DIPLOMA ..........................
.......................
SUPPLEMENT
..........................
......................
..........................
CURRICULUM
..........................
..........................
VITAE
..........................
.................
..........................
..........................
..........................
..........................
.................
..........................
..........................
.................
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Business Cases Flow
Page 26
Focus areas

European Learner Mobility

Security / authentication (identity and tamper-evidence)

Description of course units / unit catalogue

Curriculum versioning (snapshot)

Curriculum rules / Degree Structure / Pathway

Academic history of individual

Graduation documents (European Diploma Supplement and other)

Course equivalency/matching

Grading Scheme (how the grading scales and distribution are built
Page 27
Principles agreed by the group
1. Manage diversity
2. Integrate and acknowledge existing activities by always checking
other work first, i.e. don't reinvent where there has been work done
elsewhere such as by PESC, CEN, ISO, HR-XML, IMS
3. Use pilot implementations and feedback from users to advance
standards activity
4. Publicise the work of the group as possible with keynotes at major
conferences
5. Generally use of pointers is better than transfer of data, where
appropriate
Page 28
Future Roadmap for RS3G

Liaise with other groups such as EAIE, EUNIS, CEN
 Build formal structures with two meetings per year + steering
committee
 Work on pilot projects between Institutions, Suppliers and National /
European Institutions

Influence the standards in Higher Education

Promote new technologies in the HE sector across borders
Page 29
1
Manuel Dietz
2
unisolution
3
Bologna
4
European Initatives
5
RS3G
6
Use cases
7
Questions and Answers
Page 30
The unisolution approach on Bologna with e-mobility
One of unisolutions main focuses is on supporting international exchange,
erasmus and study abroad with IT managed processes and software
This includes

Preparing exchange frameworks (Bilateral exchange Agreements)

Providing accessible course offer (Learning Agreements, LA)

Transferring data related to mobility (Nomination)

Transferring academic achievements (Transcripts of Records, ToR)
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Definition e-mobility
The e-mobility process includes the following electronic procedures:
standard electronic procedure for exchange agreements
(before mobility)
standard electronic procedure for nomination of exchange students
(before mobility)
standard electronic procedure for exchange of curriculum data of
exchange students (consisting of e-Learning Agreement and the
e-Transcript of Records)
(before, during and after mobility)
Page 32
The ways to use the e-procedures
e-procedures
service provider
Web services
moveon
Own system
moveonnet
Page 33
Advantages of e-mobility
• Transparent information flow between all parties involved (partner institutions &
student)
• Automated data transfer prevents repeated data entry and mistakes (e.g. online
course catalogue  LA  ToR  Home Institutions Student Management)
• One standard system usable by all institutions worldwide for incoming and
outgoing students with moveon, moveonnet or own system
• Reduces unnecessary paperwork
Page 34
Current use of e-mobility
• e-nomination was first used in 2007/08 as pilot phase
• in 2008/09 e-nomination was actively used by around 50 european institutions to
nominate 10.000 students
• e-nomination was also used by some US institutions
• in 2009/10 our aim is to increase that number by 100% or more
• e-transcripts are piloted until June 2009 and will be opened to public in July at
the yearly moveon users conference in Stockholm, Sweden
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Challenges for e-mobility
• Too many different data formats (courses, grades, persons)
• Already existing standards (CDM, CDM-FR) only implemented in very few
institutions
• Diversity of existing processes … or even no processes at all in place
• Authentication methods when transferring sensitive data
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How RS3G can help
• Standardizing the many different formats of course catalogues
• Bringing the implementors together
• Promote new business models for the universities
• Piloting between different countries
Page 37
1
Manuel Dietz
2
unisolution
3
Bologna
4
European Initatives
5
RS3G
6
Use Cases
7
Questions and Answers
Page 38
Contacts
Your questions
…
?
Manuel Dietz
Managing Director QS unisolution GmbH
[email protected]
+49 711 25359160
www.unisolution.eu
Contacts
Manuel Dietz
Managing Director QS unisolution GmbH
[email protected]
+49 711 25359160
www.unisolution.eu