[Designing a mooc course for promoting the active participation of european citizenship] - Patricia Herrero de la EscosuraAna Isabel González González

1. Designing a MOOC course for promoting
the active participation of European
citizenship
Patricia Herrero de la Escosura
Ana Isabel González González

2. Contextualization
• To promote the active participation of citizenship in the
EU democratic life, The European Commission has
created the Europe for the Citizen program.
• Gijón (Spain), have designed the project CITIZEU.
• The development of this Project include two MOOC
courses in collaboration with the University of Oviedo.
• Final MOOC’s goals:
• To promote a better understanding of the European
Union, to increase tolerance and knowledge of the
different European countries.
• To create a European identity through the intervention
of all the participants in the project.

3. The Europe for Citizens Program
• The Europe for Citizens Program is a European Program
managed by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture
Executive Agency of the European Union (EACEA).
• It is part of the Europe 2020 Global Strategy.
• It is directed:
• To contribute the citizens' understanding about the EU
functioning, especially how EU policies are shaped
today.
• To encourage the democratic participation at EU level.

4. The Spanish project
• The city of Gijón:
• Has formulated the project “The Impact of
Euroscepticism in the construction of Europe”.
• Has created a consortium for the execution of the
project, with:
• The city of Nuremberg (Germany),
• The city of Genoa (Italy),
• The city of Alba Iulia (Romania),
• The NGO AEKS (Finland),
• The Think Tank CEPS (Belgium), and
• The University of Oviedo (Spain).

5. Objectives
• General objectives:
• To link citizens of six European cities to understand the
European Union.
• To get a common cooperation for building a better Europe.
• Concrete objectives:
• To provide knowledge about European Union basic
concepts.
• To promote a proactive understanding towards the
Euroscepticism, and the effects that this may have on the
European project.
• To focus from the local perspective on problems of the
Union.
• To be aware of the effects that different national issues can
bring for all.
• To contribute to the understanding of the EU and the
different European States.

6. Project actions
• National events:
• Round tables.
• Celebration of five citizens dialogues in different
European cities (project partners):
• To improve global knowledge about Europe.
• To promote public debate between citizens, cities
and states.
• To promote intercultural dialgue.
• To encourage the participation of citizens with
disadvantaged circumstances.
• Platform online participa.gijon.es: "Participates
CITIZEU”.
• Free platform educational content online access to all
citizens through which two MOOC courses.

7. The first MOOC course
• Title: Europe is YOU: basic course about the EU.
• Objectives:
• To provide a basic knowledge about the history, institutions,
achievements and multilevel government of the EU.
• To purvey the participants with the necessary tools to build a well-
founded idea about Europe today.
• Contents:
• Lesson 1. Past, Present and Future of the European Union.
• Lesson 2. Citizenship of the European Union.
• Lesson 3. Knowing the European Union.
• Lesson 4. The decision making at the European sphere.
• Lesson 5. How the European Union's action on justice affects.
• Lesson 6. The day to day of the European Union.
• Implementation:
• University of Oviedo.
• European and International Affairs of the Gijon City Council.

8. The second MOOC course
• Title: The European Union as agent of change.
• Objectives:
• To deep in some of the European problems and policies.
• To promote a discussion of the reasons behind the current raise
of Eurosceptic.
• Implementation:
• The University of Oviedo.
• The other five partners of the consortium for the execution of the
project.
• Contents:
• Lesson 1. Globalization and EU-skepticism.
• Lesson 2. The European Pillar of Social Rights.
• Lesson 3. Immigration.
• Lesson 4. Equality, non-discrimination and no violence.
• Lesson 5: EU growth and cohesion.
• Lesson 6: EU elections and EU future.

9. Implementation of MOOCs
• Technical support: the Innovation Centre of the
University of Oviedo.
• Platforms:
• Uniovix (platform specifically developed by the
University of Oviedo Innovation Centre for the
realization of MOOC courses).
• Moodle (general platform of the University of Oviedo
for online teaching).
• Languages:
• English.
• Spanish.

10. Design of MOOCs
• We created two separate packages of knowledge structured
in a closed manner:
• We produced original material:
• Written.
• Audiovisual, available in the YouTube account of Citizeu
project.
• We collected complementary information, documents and
audio-visual sources.
• This packages was proposed in independent units, so that the
student could choose only those that were most useful to him.
• Its content was structured for multiple accesses.

11. Dynamic of the course
• The course is organized by weeks and each week the
materials of a new lesson are made available to the students.
• All the lessons have a similar structure:
• Didactic guide, or objectives. In it, we briefly present the
objectives we propose, to help to understand and deepen
into the contents of the lesson.
• Contents, or key ideas. They are:
• A video lesson.
• A PDF with the basic concepts.
• Different Additional Contents, as videos, documents o
web sites.
• Activities, or weekly challenge:
• Activities designed to promote online learning through the
interaction of the participants.
• Activities for evaluate the level of understanding of the
contents.

12. Development of MOOCs
• The six scheduled lessons of each course were developed
during six consecutive weeks.
• We offered to the students constant support and feedback:
• On the scheduled dates.
• Wen it was requested.
• We interact with the students trough different social networks:
• The web Participa Gijón CITIZEU: Stop Euroscepticism!
• FACEBOOK. We created the Facebook Group “CITIZEU
Mooc Course”.
• TWITTER. We created different labels, one for each activity
that we make through, and a generic one
@asuntoseuropeos #CITIZEUMooc.
• INSTAGRAM. We created a specific Instagram of the course:
@gijoneuropaig, with different hashtags for each of the
activities.
• The Technical Consultations and other course Forums.

13. Methodology
• We combine:
• Self-learning:
• Basic ideas simple and attractive.
• Activities formulated for exciting curiosity.
• Additional content for deepening.
• Guided learning:
• Didactic.
• Technical.
• We mix materials:
• Provided by teachers. That is the more important in the first
MOOC course.
• Built through the interaction of the participants. That is the
more important in the second MOOC course.

14. Students evaluation
• There are a self-assessment questionnaire in each
lesson:
• In the first course it is just for the student to check for
himself the degree of assimilation and learning.
• In the second course, they represents the 30% of the
evaluation.
• In both, they are formed by multiple choice questions.
• The final test is different in each of the courses:
• The first MOOC course had a final questionnaire.
• The second MOOC course has a Peer to Peer
evaluation system.
• The students who pass the test can obtain:
• A certificate.
• A badge to keep in a digital backpack.

15. Results
• Students:
• Edition in the MODLE platform of the University of Oviedo:
large majority of students of this University.
• Editions in UNIOVIX: students much more heterogeneous.
• Discussion:
• Less than expected.
• Mostly trough the Forums.
• Achievements:
• We produced abundant learning materials. They will be
offered as a closed downloadable course on the website of
the Jean Monnet working group of the University of Oviedo.
• The students evaluate the course with a score of 9.3/10.
• The results will be analysed in the meetings with citizens in
several European countries.

16. Conclusion
• Project:
• Represents a new form of knowledge transfer in our University.
• It involves the integration of a university project with a
European call, with the participation of different entities and
international organizations.
• It implies a new channel of dissemination of the research
activity.
• Direction and design:
• It is perfectly possibly for a traditional professor to implement a
MOOC course at the University.
• The necessary effort may be too serious for an inexpert equip.
• May be necessary some technical support.
• Students:
• Most of students are young people.
• Students have a low tendency to participate.

17. THANK YOU VERY MUCH
Patricia Herrero de la Escosura
Ana Isabel González González