Christian M. Stracke Libros

The need for Change in Education: Openness as Default? The global changes in societies require a change in education, too. Learning innovations are needed to improve the quality of learning and training opportunities fitting to the current and future challenges for individuals, organizations and societies. However, the economic crisis is leading to a decrease of investment in learning and training instead of an increase. Open Education is offering an alternative for both objectives: higher learning quality and better return on investment through freely available solutions. Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Education Practices (OEP) are becoming a global movement due to the efforts by many international organizations including UNESCO with the Paris OER Declaration approved in the year 2012. This book contributes to the current debate about openness as the new paradigm and default solution for future education to improve the quality for learners, educational providers and systems as well as for citizens, the world of work and societies worldwide.

Changing the Trajectory - Quality for Opening up Education Digital technologies are radically changing the landscape of education and training. Open educational resources (OER), 'Massive Open Online Courses' (MOOCs), and the question of how to recognize open learning in formal education are challenging traditional models and practices. These global changes are having an increasing impact on learning, education and training. With the introduction of MOOCs in recent years and the uptake of open education resources, open education at large and its quality have become an issue of major importance for education and training institutions, policies, publishers and professionals: All stakeholders are discovering the benefits of opening up learning opportunities. However, quality evaluation and development models have not yet matured enough in order to provide guidance for open learning models to all stakeholders. Uncertainty is growing whether the new open learning environments are fit to lead the European learning revolution needed for the 21st century: How can open education processes contribute to excellent learning and high quality education provision? This book contributes to the new debate on Quality for Opening Up Education changing the trajectory and modernizing education, training & lifelong learning in our society.

Due to water scarcity and climate change, numerous European policies have been established for the protection and sustainable use of water, creating a significant demand for vocational training. Economic factors, such as privatization and rising cost pressures in water management, intensify the need for specific Vocational Education and Training (VET) opportunities that are short and tailored. The AGRICOM project aims to strengthen connections to working life, ensuring VET is responsive to the agricultural sector's labor market needs. It enhances the identification and anticipation of skills and competencies required, integrating learning with work. AGRICOM also supports the "New Skills for New Jobs" strategy, addressing challenges like environmental and demographic changes that affect job needs in agriculture. The articles presented are the result of an Open Call for Papers by the AGRICOM Consortium, aimed at raising awareness among agricultural stakeholders about competence modeling, particularly in hydroponics and irrigation. The scientific articles included are selected papers from applicants across six countries, reviewed through a double-blind process by the AGRICOM 2013 Programme Committee. Authors presented their work at the AGRICOM conference, contributing to the ongoing discourse on competence modeling in agriculture and horticulture, showcasing new techniques, diverse perspectives, and future improvement suggestions

Learning Innovations and Learning Quality: The two main objectives to foster improvements in learning, education and training and the two core ingredients for learning success and impact. They are focused by many different theories and diverse practices. And they are more and more required due the increasing speed of globalization and changes in communities, economies, technologies and societies worldwide. This book demonstrates the need for combining learning innovations and learning quality from various perspectives: The scientific articles address the different ways of formal, non-formal and informal learning and all the educational sectors from kindergarten, school, university to lifelong learning. Particular emphasis is put on the current opportunities provided by digital resources: How can we benefit from their potential and increase their (open) access and re-usage in learning, education and training? Thus, the book contributes to the current debate on opening up education towards new and innovative learning practices and online communities: To integrate learning innovations and learning quality into a holistic and sustainable vision and approach for modernizing learning, education and training in our society.

Learning innovations and learning quality are crucial for the success in learning, education and training: Both objectives are current challenges in the changing times of globalisation and increasing internet usage and mobility leading to worldwide communication, exchanges and markets. People, enterprises and societies are coming and growing together, also demonstrated by the success of social communities and media. However, learning innovations and learning quality are often discussed solely and separately without any references and relations to each other. In particular there is a tendency for a too narrow focus on new technologies and enabled functionalities today forgetting the benefits and traditions in learning design from the past. This handbook presents scientific articles addressing the needs for a combined approach and opening the debate on the question: How do learning innovations and learning quality fit together for successful education and training in the future?

Competence modeling is gaining more and more importance in the human resources sector. Global competition, the increasing speed of markets and new technologies give a special meaning to the description of competences and their measurement. Considering only official qualifications and certificates does not include competences and skills gained by working experience: Thus, it is not sufficient to face the recent challenges in human resources and vocational education and training. This global development towards the recognition of competences is supported by competence modeling: It is the key to shift from learning inputs to learning outcomes. Therefore competence modeling is most important for the management of human resources and for the design of vocational education and training. This book contributes to the development in the human resources sector by offering different views and solutions on competence modeling and by giving suggestions for the future implementation of competence models.