12.3 Empowering Educators with Digital Skills in a Distance Learning University

The new digital era and new learning trends are overtaking the traditional model of education and training. Educators need to acquire and harness new digital skills to cultivate a more open and transparent research lifecycle. The Open University of Cyprus (OUC) is the only public higher education institution in Cyprus that offers recognized academic programmes at higher levels of education, using the open and distance learning methodology. The academic programmes offered by the OUC are international, career-oriented and fit the needs of a continuously evolving economy for the development of new skills and new career paths. These programmes include undergraduate, postgraduate, PhDs and vocational training courses, which are delivered online, through a state of the art eLearning platform that supports virtual classrooms, coursework submissions, content delivery and a suite of collaboration tools.

In this talk, we present the methodology and infrastructure used to train and empower the educators of the Open University of Cyprus (OUC) in using the information tools, the library resources and knowledge content available, while delivering online courses to students.

Furthermore, we place emphasis on the infrastructure that supports the educational methodology, which includes the eLearning Platform and the Library services. This infrastructure is also used to support the creation of educational content suitable for distance learning. Moreover, a detailed analysis of training needs is presented, followed by the steps taken to design and deliver a training course appropriate for OUC educators. This training course is delivered during the academic year, and includes various formats of training material, such as electronic resources, digital objects and webinars.

In this technological environment, the OUC Library Service aims to provide a wide range of electronic as well as conventional sources such as international databases, e-journals, e-books, digital collections and resources, offering comprehensive knowledge to its members and to the whole academic community.

Training programmes are provided on how to use the electronic library through the eClass eLearning platform, with the aim of familiarising its users with searching and retrieving data from electronic information sources, repositories and archives to which the Library Service offers them access.

In addition, distance seminars are provided to educators on how to use the ‘Kypseli’ digital repository, search and upload theses and dissertations published throughout the academic year. In parallel, training on how to prepare their digital collections for hosting them on the digital repository is also delivered to interested parties. Another focus is informing educators and researchers about publishing their work using Open Access. The results of the training process are supported by analytics gathered over the years of training. These analytics include metrics of educational material usage, watch times for on-demand videos and participation in the online seminars.

In concluding the talk, we aim to share our experience of training and supporting the OUC academic community with other information specialist communities with a common interest in this cause.