University of Foggia

Since its foundation, the University of Foggia (UNIFG) has represented – in terms of education and research – one of the most innovative and dynamic realities in the South of Italy. Ranked among the 12 top universities in Italy in the last VQR – eValuation of the Quality of Research; the First university in Italy to receive the “HR Excellence in Research” Award from the European Commission in 2010.

The six Departments (“Sciences of Agriculture, Food and Environment”, “Economics”, “Law”, “Humanities, Literature, Cultural Heritage, Education Sciences”, “Clinical and Experimental Medicine”, “Medical and Surgical Sciences”), with 16 first-level degree courses, 15 second-level degrees, 18 Master’s degree courses (I and II levels), 6 PhD courses, and the 11 medical specialist colleges have contributed to turning the University of Foggia into a cultural centre in which young people can acquire professional training that meets the needs expressed by society at large.

During last year – and in line with the actions undertaken in previous years – the University di Foggia has expanded and consolidated all the initiatives and activities aimed at improving and qualifying the teaching methodology, research, international relations (by participating in a large number of international cooperation projects promoting students’ and teachers’ exchange), services to students, as well as the development of the university buildings, the information system and the library system.
The University of Foggia counts on 365 Teaching Staff Members (85 Full Professors, 96 Associate Professors, 178 Researchers) and 354 administrative staff. More than 35% of the academic staff is below 40 years old (Italian average 17,5%). The student population is 10.469 graduate and master students, 130 PhD students, 70 Post-Doc.

• Institution Website: www.unifg.it
• Elearning platform www.elearning.unifg.it
• Mooc platform: www.eduopen.org

UNIFG is the lead partner in EDUOPEN network, the main Italian MOOCs platform, funded by the Ministry of Education, with a large partnership of 18 public universities.

The University of Foggia is involved in two major MOOC consortia on the local and international levels. The university is, in fact in fact, a Lead Partner of the Italian National MOOC consortium EDUOPEN. At the same time, being a part of this Network, it is also a part of EMC (European MOOC consortium). Therefore, it has great expertise and experience in this field. The University, as a part of EDUOPEN the network will contribute to the project success by offering their support on:

• Awareness building of where Europe is standing now towards the use of MOOCs in teacher education, business models used and determines what is needed to increase the opportunities.
• Awareness on the State of the art analysis on the role of MOOCs in teacher education
• Design of the MOOCs for teacher training

Also, the University has received regional funding for the project UNITUTOR that aimed at the development of 6 university distance degree courses. Thus, The University of Foggia has both, expertise in the field of Technology-enhanced learning, specifically MOOCs, as well as expertise in neurosciences: the key persons involved in the project are well balanced. The researchers involved in the project are experts both in the design of lifelong learning programs and on ICT in education, but also in neurosciences. Therefore they will concretely contribute to the development of approaches to the co-creation of MOOCs as well as the revision of the content of the MOOCs. The key persons include:

Pierpaolo Limone (M):

Full Professor in Experimental Pedagogy. His relevant expertise is in the educational media, e-learning and quality assurance processes in education systems. he is the Rector of the University of Foggia and the head of the eLearning Centre of the University. At the same time, he acts as a Vice President of Italian society in the Research in Media education.

Maka Eradze:

PhD in Technology-Enhanced Learning (Tallinn University). Currently she is an assistant professor (ricercatore) of education sciences at the University of Foggia. Her research interests included technology-enhanced learning, use of tools in education in higher education and school contexts, learning analytics, learning design, blended learning, multimodal classroom observations, MOOCs, design-based research, design of educational innovation, and educational research methodologies and methods. She is an author of numerous publications in technology-enhanced learning, co-editor and reviewer for numerous international journals, programme and organising board of number of international conferences.

Anna Dipace:

PhD, is a full Professor in Experimental Pedagogy at the Department of Education and Human Sciences -University of Foggia. At University of Foggia, she is the Scientific coordinator of the E-learning Centre and Coordinator of the BA degree in

Sport and Exercise Science.  Currently is the Rector of IUL online university.

She is General Secretary of Italian Association of Media Education (SIREM). Her specific skills and research interests are Teaching in new learning environments, digital education, methodology of educational research, e-learning and MOOC platforms, game-based learning research. She is an author of numerous publications in technology-enhanced learning and didactic methodologies, co-editor and reviewer for numerous national and international journals.