InWeDig - Intermediation von Weiterbildung und Digitale Transformation als Herausforderungen für Bildungs-Ökosysteme am Beispiel des Weiterbildungsraums it’s OWL

Objective

Two sub-goals arise:

• User-oriented design of digital learning and competence development: Through the development of didactic descriptors and solution approaches, the foundations are to be created that can be used, for example, to evaluate further education offers from different providers or to design new learning arrangements. The results are quality criteria that providers and users can use to develop high-quality and user- and demand-oriented offers or to recognize and select suitable offers. In addition, it will be examined how these criteria can be implemented in the sense of tool-supported quality management on the corresponding continuing education platforms.
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• Technical and economic design of the platform-based training space: The interaction of the stakeholder groups at a technical and economic level is to be examined here. Based on an interface analysis, standardized and secure interfaces between the continuing education platforms will be designed and implemented as prototypes. In the project, the interfaces between the UNITY learning platform, the IND.Academy marketplace platform and the Phoenix Contact human resource management platform will be examined as examples. In addition to examining technical issues (e.g. the exchange of person-specific certificates and digital educational offers), economic questions also arise, e.g. regarding the revenue model for training courses that are offered both via a company's own platform and via a marketplace platform. Another part of the project is therefore to develop new business models for the economically sustainable development of the continuing education platforms.
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The approach to achieving the formulated sub-goals encompasses four fields of action:

• Integrative consideration of all actors in the further training area for a stakeholder-oriented needs analysis: Through an integrative consideration of all actor groups in the it's OWL ecosystem, the needs of all stakeholders are to be recorded and transferred into requirements for the instruments. In parallel to the definition of requirements, success criteria are also to be defined that can be used to verify the successful implementation of the requirements.
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• Development of platform-related tools to improve the intermediation of further training offers: Based on the sub-goals, platform-related tools for marketplace and learning platforms are to be developed. The aim is to improve the quality and user orientation of the platforms. For example, a tool-supported quality management system is to be developed that enables direct feedback after training courses, public evaluations and a (partially) automated quality check of training courses. In addition, the developed interface specifications and security mechanisms are to be implemented in a test environment of the platforms directly involved in the project and made available to third parties in a targeted manner.
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• Iterative review of the developed results through pilot projects: The success and usability of the results will be verified by testing the developed concepts and tools in parallel in pilot projects with selected companies and institutions in the ecosystem. The quality of the results will be iteratively improved through the regularly scheduled exchange of all ecosystem stakeholders.
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• Evaluation of continuing education platforms: Marketplace and learning platforms play an important role as intermediaries of educational offers and content between different groups of actors. Through the targeted evaluation of this role, recommendations for action are to be derived in order to further develop the quality of their intermediation and to improve their usability from the user's perspective.
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The objective and approach of the project particularly address the development areas

I “Networking of further education platforms” and

II “Development and testing of platform-related innovations” of the INVITE innovation competition.

It improves the quality of further education offers by developing demand-centered, didactically sound and software-supported platform-related tools. In addition, the networking of continuing education and human resource management platforms will make it easier for HR departments and employees to access continuing education programs. In addition to the funding objectives described, the instrument set also addresses the two objectives of the “National Continuing Education Strategy”: 1 (“Support the transparency of continuing education opportunities and programs”) and 5 (“Review and strengthen the quality and quality assessment of continuing education programs”).