News
[16/03/2009]
UOC visiting professor, Brian Lamb, UOC collaborating lecturer, David Gómez, and UOC graduate, Oscar Martínez, are to take part in a symposium on 24 and 26 March at the 11th Zemos98 audiovisual creation festival. This year’s festival is devoted to enhanced education, under the motto “education can take place any time, anywhere”. The conference is to be held in Seville from 22 to 29 March.
[16/03/2009]
Agreement with Hassan II University Mohammedia Casablanca for mobility of capital and knowledge
The agreement involves training of trainers in e-learning, an increased range of masters degrees, credit validation and collaboration in Arabic language courses and the masters degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies to be offered at the UOC
[09/03/2009]
The UOC presents its new MyUOC Virtual Campus at the MIT
The new Virtual Campus that the UOC is introducing over this year is to be the centre of attention at one of the world's leading research centres on technology. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge (Massachusetts, USA) has invited a delegation from the UOC to present its new campus project, MyUOC, on 9 March. It has also been shortlisted for an international award for education. The project is a finalist for the IMS Global Consortium's Learning Impact awards.
[09/03/2009]
Two Humanities lecturers to take part in a cultural industry fair in Seville
The Director of the Humanities department, Glòria Munilla, and the department's Academic Director of Postgraduate Studies, Laura Solanilla, are to take part in the second Feria de Industrias Culturales Andaluzas (Andalusian Cultural Industry Fair, FICA 09). They are to give their talk on 6 March at 5pm at Seville's Exhibition and Conference Centre.
[04/03/2009]
Former UOC students from the Madrid area meet to promote a graduate network
UOC graduates living in the Madrid region and surrounding area (Àvila, Conca, Guadalajara, Segòvia and Toledo) are to meet up on Thursday 5 March at Madrid’s Hotel Vincci Soho for the first meeting of UOC Alumni, an initiative from the University to provide a meeting point for former students. Over 1,200 people have studied at the University in the area. The UOC Alumni graduate network was created in 2008 to act as a forum for the development and growth of the UOC’s more than 17,500 graduates.
[03/03/2009]
Schooling and immigration under debate
The Professor of Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid Julio Carabaña is to speak about “Schools and immigration: ideas and realities” in a new talk in the Debates on Education series, an initiative supported by the UOC and Jaume Bofill Foundation. The session is to take place on Wednesday 4 March at 7.30pm in the MACBA Auditorium. Attendance is open to anyone interested.
[02/03/2009]
Interaction in blended learning environments, the focus of analysis in a UOC PhD thesis
The aim of the PhD thesis to be defended in Barcelona on Thursday, 26 February by the PhD candidate on the UOC’s Information and Knowledge Society Programme Luz Adriana Osorio is to identify the conditions needed for student interaction in blended learning. The thesis is entitled Interacció en ambients híbrids d'aprenentatge: metàfora del contínuum (Interaction in Blended Learning Environments: The Metaphor of the Continuum) and has been supervised by the lecturer from the Psychology and Educational Sciences Department and Vice President of Postgraduate Studies and Lifelong Learning, Josep Maria Duart.
[27/02/2009]
The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) is to open its eLearn Center this Friday – Spain’s first innovation and research centre, and one of the few in Europe. The centre will specialise in analysing the use of teaching and learning technologies, with particular emphasis on higher education and lifelong learning. The aim is to turn the UOC into an international authority in e-learning innovation and research thanks to the University’s own experience, and to contribute to innovation, research, specialised training and dissemination in the field.
[27/02/2009]
The UOC starts the semester with 500 subjects that can be adapted to a range of mobile devices
Today, 26 February, marks the start of a new semester at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC). It also sees the introduction of the TRIA! initiative. This is the UOC’s scheme to offer flexible, mobile teaching materials that can be adapted to the specific needs of each student in each situation. Using this technology, the UOC can offer teaching resources for over 500 subjects in three different formats: e-book, audiobook and videobook. Nonetheless, the teaching materials for these subjects will still be available on paper.
[26/02/2009]
The new semester begins with nearly 34,000 students
The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) starts a new semester today, 26 February, with 33,950 enrolled students. These students have chosen to study one of the twenty qualifications, new degrees and official masters adapted to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) or University @thenaeum subjects offered by the UOC.
[24/02/2009]
Oral history, intangible heritage and their links to the internet are the focus for a UOC PhD thesis
The links between autobiographical oral history, intangible heritage and their presence and dynamics on the internet are the three focal points for the PhD thesis to be defended on 24 February by Laura Solanilla, lecturer in the UOC’s Humanities Department. En primera persona: memòria oral, patrimoni immaterial i internet (In first person: Oral history, intangible heritage and the internet) is an analysis by Solanilla of the links established between these three seemingly diverse areas.
[23/02/2009]
Thesis by UOC lecturer wins UCEIF Foundation’s PhD Thesis Award
The lecturer in the UOC Economics and Business Studies Department, Helena Chuliá Soler, has won the PhD Thesis Award for 2008 from the UCEIF Foundation, the University of Cantabria foundation for financial sector research and study. The UCEIF Foundation, created within the University of Cantabria and backed by the university itself and Banco Santander, offers this award so as to promote and reward the generation of knowledge in PhD activities that develop and drive research and study in the financial sector.
[19/02/2009]
The UOC to assess faculty to accredit the quality of their work
Around one thousand three hundred UOC teaching collaborators met with the Governing Council at the Catalonia Conference Hall to discuss the University’s strategic lines for the coming years. These include a pioneering initiative: assessment of faculty by the Catalan University Quality Agency to recognise the work they undertake.
[19/02/2009]
Francis Pisani and Dominique Piotet are the authors of the work entitled La alquimia de las multitudes. Cómo la web está cambiando el mundo (The Alchemy of Crowds. How the Web Is Changing the World), which looks at the evolution of the internet and the web of the future. The book is to be presented on 19 February by one of the authors, Francis Pisani, UOC IN3 researcher Mireia Fernández, and Tomàs Delclós, Deputy Editor of El País, manager of Ciberp@ís and author of the book’s prologue. The event, which is open to anyone, is to be held at the UOC Barcelonès Support Centre (Rambla de Catalunya, 6) from 7.30pm.
[18/02/2009]
How to make a successful virtual community
[Watch the video]
The writer and critic specializing in the economic and socio-cultural implications of the information and communication technologies, Howard Rheingold, taked part in a roundtable organitzed by UNESCO Chair in E-learning.
[13/02/2009]
The Social Action and Citizenship Department presents the DIXIT.cat portal designed by the UOC
The Social Action and Citizenship Department is to present, this coming Monday, the Social Services Documentation Centre portal, DIXIT.cat, designed by the UOC. The University has worked on the presentation of design projects for the former portal (PortalSocial.net), management of the Department’s electronic newsletters and a pilot test for semi-distance education training programmes using the UOC’s blended learning model.
[13/02/2009]
The expert in communication Derrick de Kerckhove to offer a seminar on digital natives
Derrick de Kerckhove, considered the 21st century’s leading communication theoretician and visiting professor at the UOC, is to offer a seminar on 16 February entitled “Digital Natives (and immigrants) and the potential pathologies”. The event is to take place at the University’s research institute, the IN3, in Castelldefels, between 10am and 1pm.
[12/02/2009]
The UOC brings together over a thousand ‘virtual’ teachers
The UOC is to organise a meeting of its teaching collaborators in Barcelona this Saturday.
[10/02/2009]
The UOC’s OLIBA research group creates a virtual museum of genetics
A mysterious elf, a deadly factor, strange genetic monsters and a curse are just some of the things we can find in the eight exhibition rooms of the interactive virtual museum of genetics and DNA called Leyendo el libro de la vida (Reading the Book of Life). The creators of this website come from the UOC’s OLIBA virtual museology research group.
[06/02/2009]
Over 42,000 results sent to mobile phones
The UOC has sent a total of 42,377 final results for subjects taken during the second semester by SMS to the mobile phones of those students who requested the service. This initiative began nine years ago and lets students find out about the results of their assessments.
[02/02/2009]
Fighting the digital divide through education
[WATCH THE VIDEO]
Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University, UK, shows how to combat the digital divide through education in his lecture entitled "Hole in the Wall". This talk formed part of the Fifth International Seminar organised by the UOC UNESCO Chair in E-Learning.
[30/01/2009]
Two more masters and eleven degree specifications pending ANECA approval
The Agencia Nacional de Evaluación de la Calidad y Acreditación (Spanish National Quality and Accreditation Assessment Agency, ANECA) has now received eleven new degree and two masters degree specifications from the UOC that the University wants to offer for the academic year 2009-2010. The eleven degrees designed to meet the Bologna guidelines are: Business Administration and Management; Marketing and Market Research; Tourism; Communication; Information and Documentation; Catalan Language and Literature; Multimedia; Computer Engineering; Social Education; Labour Sciences, and Telecommunications Engineering. The masters degrees are Cultural Management and Political Analysis. The University thus wants to continue, alongside other university institutions, leading the process to adapt to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) set for 2010 and meet the deadlines and milestones established.
[27/01/2009]
Artnodes, the UOC’s academic e-journal on art, science and technology, is to publish issue number 8 this January with a node focusing on locative media and artistic practice. Pau Alsina, lecturer in the UOC’s Humanities Department and Director of Artnodes, explains that “we now work in a network culture that cooperates on a local, metropolitan, national and international level, in which ICTs play an important role in emphasising this connectivity”.
[23/01/2009]
Professor Cecilia Castaño, Director of the Gender and ICT research programme at the UOC’s IN3 research institute, is to offer a seminar entitled “Women in research: Presence, position and equality policies” today in the IN3 building (av. del Canal Olímpic, s/n, Castelldefels), from 2pm to 4pm.
[23/01/2009]
Analysis of the uses of internet related to health in Catalonia
The lecturer in the UOC’s Information and Communication Sciences department Francisco Lupiáñez is to defend his PhD thesis Internet, health and society. Analysis of the uses of internet related to health in Catalonia on Friday. The thesis has been supervised by the IN3’s Director and UOC Research Professor Manuel Castells.
[22/01/2009]
Walk In, the UOC’s new institutional magazine, is born
While the founders of the web strive to impose order on the great swathes of information unleashed just fifteen years ago, paper needs to take down for history the reflection required to analyse this never-ending source of information. Paper and the web are compatible and still need each other, in the same way that we need to sit down and have a coffee with that friend we have just found on the web. This is the context in which Walk In, the UOC’s new institutional magazine, is born. The magazine comes from the redesigning and reconceptualising of the University’s original institutional magazine, Món UOC, and aims to accompany us on our journey as we move towards the knowledge society.
[21/01/2009]
The worldwide food crisis under analysis at the UOC
Both the millions who die of hunger and the scarcity of food continue to increase. With the aim of gaining insight into the current situation in Catalonia and around the world, the UOC has organised a session entitled “Understanding the Silent Tsunami. Perspectives on the Food Crisis at Home and Abroad”, in collaboration with the Catalan government’s Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Action, Intermón Oxfam and the non-profit association Slow Food. The event is to take place on Thursday 22 January at 6pm at the University’s Barcelonès Support Centre (Rambla de Catalunya, 6).
[16/01/2009]
Derrick de Kerckhove, considered the 21st century's leading communication theoretician and Director of the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto, Canada, has already started working on a number of projects at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC).
[22/12/2008]
A collection of travel experiences, the new imprint of Editorial UOC
Travel tales told in the first person and essays on current affairs are the subjects with which Niberta is being launched, the new imprint of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. The first line, Cuadernos Livingstone, is a collection in which the author talks of their travels and how it has influenced them. The second, Serie Major, offers a series of thoughts on the everyday life of their authors aimed at making the reader think.
[19/12/2008]
A new way to browse the UOC’s contents
The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) has set up a new website that lets users interact with information and browse a semantic web of online content linked to the University. This new virtual resource is called UOC - networked knowledge.
[18/12/2008]
Digithum, the UOC's e-journal on the humanities in the digital age, completes its tenth issue with a special dossier on academic cyberplagiarism: detection systems, the state of affairs, the regulations and the bibliography.
[16/12/2008]
The study by the UOC shows that gender discrimination in ICT employment continues to exist
A study by the UOC shows that gender discrimination in ICT employment continues to exist due to the existence of cultural and institutional barriers that discourage women from science and professional careers in the ICT sector. The most important of these are the gender prejudices and stereotypes that affect the entrance, continuance and promotion of women; working conditions and time uses; and the criteria of scientific, innovative or professional excellence, sustained more by quantitative factors than by those related to talent. However, the research also concludes that the participation of women in the sector contributes to improvements in research results, innovation and competitiveness.
[15/12/2008]
The UOC jointly organizes a workshop on the quality of teaching in higher education
In the context of sustained and continued growth and diversification of higher education systems, it is important to maintain and improve the quality of programmes. With this in mind, the UOC and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have organized the Review of Quality and Relevance of Teaching in Higher Education workshop to debate and analyse the issues involved. The workshop is to take place on Monday December 15 at the University's headquarters.
[11/12/2008]
The UOC to debate the new concept of global art alongside France and Italy
The UOC's Auditorium, the Herculaneum Virtual Museum of Archaeology (Naples, Italy), and the Villa Arson College of Art (Nice, France) are to be interconnected on December 12, thus becoming a platform for debating and sharing the new form of global art.
[09/12/2008]
The UOC and Orange unite to develop content for e-ink readers for their use as educational tools
The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) and Orange have signed an agreement to jointly develop applications to promote the use of e-ink readers as tools for education.
[05/12/2008]
The UOC awards certificates to around eighty Mexican postgraduate students
Mexico City is to be the setting for the awarding of certificates to the seventy-nine Mexican students who completed their postgraduate studies at the UOC last year, 2007-2008. UOC Vice President, Postgraduate Studies and Lifelong Learning, Josep Maria Duart, is to award the certificates at a ceremony on Saturday December 6 at the Museo del Templo Mayor Ciudad de México Auditorium.
[02/12/2008]
A delegation from the UOC to take part in the Online Educa Berlin conference
A number of experts from the UOC are to take part in the Online Educa conference to be held in Berlin from December 3 to 5. The Vice President, Innovation, Begoña Gros, is to talk about the “Case of the UOC” at this international conference on technology-based education and training. This year's event is to involve two thousand experts in e-learning from around the world.
[28/11/2008]
ICT in minority languages, a new Linguamón-UOC Chair in Multilingualism lecture
“Information technologies in minority languages: how can we increase their use?” is the title of the lecture to be given by Jeremy Evas, head of research and language technologies at the Welsh Language Board, on December 1. The lecture is open to anyone interested. It is organised by the Linguamón-UOC Chair in Multilingualism and is to be held in the Residència d’Investigadors, carrer Hospital, 64, Barcelona, at 7pm.
[27/11/2008]
The UOC present at the meeting to constitute the Euro-Mediterranean University
The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) took part in the inaugural meeting of the Euro-Mediterranean University, which took place in Barcelona on November 25 and 26. The Vice President, Academic Organization, Pere Fabra, attended on behalf of the UOC, which is one of the founding members of this new international institution designed to spread – principally though postgraduate and lifelong learning courses – scientific and academic knowledge in the Mediterranean region.
[27/11/2008]
The UOC holds its graduation ceremony in Madrid
This Saturday, November 29, Madrid’s National Music Auditorium (Príncipe de Vergara, 146) is to host the latest UOC graduation ceremony. Nearly 4,600 students from around the world completed UOC undergraduate, masters, postgraduate or PhD studies last year, 2007-2008. The President, Imma Tubella, is to officiate the ceremony, which will also be attended by members of the University’s Governing Council. The patron will be Alberto Durán, chairman of the Fundosa Group and Deputy CEO of the ONCE Foundation. The graduates will be represented by Guillermo María Sanz Junoy, a graduate in Management IT.
[24/11/2008]
A delegation from the UOC to take part in the international ICDE conference on distance education
The President, Imma Tubella, the Vice President, Research, Eduard Aibar, and the Director of International Development, John Zvereff, are to take part in the International Council for Open and Distance Education’s (ICDE) annual international conference. It is to take place from today onwards in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
[21/11/2008]
The new Service Science is the focus of a course involving UOC experts
Research, design and application of systems that develop and improve the service sector have, over recent years, seen the rise of a new academic discipline known as SSME (Service Science, Management and Engineering). A course coordinated and led by experts from the UOC and UPC aims to outline this new approach and identify its key elements.
[18/11/2008]
The Polish sociologist and thinker Zygmunt Bauman analyses “education in the world of the diasporas”
The sociologist and Emeritus Professor at the University of Leeds, Zygmunt Bauman, is to give a lecture entitled “Education in the world of the diasporas” as part of the Debates on Education organised jointly by the Jaume Bofill Foundation and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC). The talk forms part of a series of debates to analyse and reflect on education and is to take place on Thursday, November 20 at 7pm in the FAD Auditorium (Plaça dels Àngels, 5-6). This lecture is to close a seminar organised by the Objectiu Inclusió Association on the same day which focuses on the fight against social exclusion.
[17/11/2008]
The UOC UNESCO Chair in E-Learning joins the fight to overcome the digital divide
The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) has closed the Fifth International Seminar “Fighting the digital divide through education” organised by the UNESCO Chair in E-Learning. Some of the conclusions reached by the international experts included the fact that technology should not look to take the place of the educator and that there is also the need to train educators in the use of ICTs.
[17/11/2008]
The UOC sets the foundations for an EcoUniversity
A seminar on ecology is to take place on November 19, 20 and 21 to look at climate change, ecological problems and the unsustainability of industrial societies. It is to assess the importance and urgent need to find scientific and technical solutions – an area in which universities have a vital role and responsibility.
[12/11/2008]
The UOC organises a get-together for more than 2,600 postgraduate students
The get-together for the start of the semester is to take place on Saturday November 15, with more than 2,600 UOC postgraduate students coming together at the University of Barcelona’s Faculty of Geography and History, c/ Montalegre, 6. Throughout the morning, students on masters, postgraduate and specialisation courses and their lecturers and tutors will be able to take part in the different talks and activities scheduled. A new development this year are the lectures that will be open to anyone interested in attending.
[06/11/2008]
Experts from several countries will analyse how to fight the digital divide through education on November 12, 13 and 14 in Barcelona, Av. Drassanes, 3-5. The discussions and talks have been organised as part of the UOC UNESCO Chair in E-Learning’s Fifth International Seminar.
[06/11/2008]
[05/11/2008]
Nearly 4,600 UOC students graduate in Barcelona and Madrid
Barcelona’s Auditorium and Madrid’s National Music Auditorium are to host the graduation ceremonies for nearly 4,600 Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) students who completed undergraduate, masters, postgraduate or PhD studies offered by the UOC in Catalan and Spanish last year, 2007-2008. The President, Imma Tubella, is to officiate the ceremonies and the journalist Miquel Calçada is to offer a speech. These ceremonies are to be held on November 8 in Barcelona and November 29 in Madrid.
[30/10/2008]
The former general of the Bosnian army, Jovan Divjak, now Executive Director of Sarajevo’s Education Builds Bosnia and Herzegovina Association, stated at the UOC that “you can’t export peace, because if you export it, you impose it and if you impose it, it’s not peace”. These words formed part of the speech that closed the second conference on Conflict, Conflict Resolution and Peace organised by the UOC’s Campus for Peace. This event brought together professionals from the fields of conflict resolution, human security, mediation and conflict management over three days (October 27, 28 and 29) at the University’s headquarters. The aim of the meeting, chaired by Eduard Vinyamata, Director of the Campus for Peace, was to set objectives to contribute to the professional development and social implantation of initiatives to establish non-violent and effective ways of handling conflicts.
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