The Horizon Europe e-diploma project on e-learning, coordinated by Inmaculada Remolar, director of the Institute of New Imaging Technologies (INIT) of the Universitat Jaume I of Castelló through the research group "Interactive Visualisation", has started its activity with the first meeting of the international consortium, formed by nine international entities that have met at the UJI during this week.

The Vice-Rector for Research, Jesús Lancis, who welcomed the attendees to the meeting, highlighted the great research work carried out by the INIT in the international field: "The INIT has played a very important role in the last two years, in which the public university of Castelló has achieved 11 European projects funded with 4.5 million euros by the European Commission, including e-diploma".

For her part, the project coordinator, Inmaculada Remolar, thanked the partners for their involvement in the project. As she explained, "e-diploma was born as an idea in the confinement a few years ago and has matured into a real project thanks to the work, support and collaboration of all the partners and participants".  

The e-diploma project, endowed with 3 million euros for the next three years, is divided into four phases. In the first phase, e-diploma will examine the current e-learning ecosystem at European level. After identifying strengths and weaknesses, it will consider which innovative technologies can support this e-learning system, both at the pre-university practical training (VET) and higher education levels.

The second phase of the project is characterised by the co-creation of the most suitable technologies for the different types of educational methodologies, while the third phase will develop the e-diploma platform, which will have three educational modules comprising the themes Artificial Intelligence, Virtual and Augmented Reality, Interactive Technologies and Gamification Techniques. This platform and its training content will be tested through pilot tests in the different partner countries of the project.

Finally, in the fourth phase of the project, the e-learning platform will be redesigned and redefined based on the results obtained in the pilot tests. Inclusion, accessibility and sustainability are key in the e-diploma project, which will create an e-learning environment always taking into account the potential, opportunities, barriers, accessibility and risks of using emerging technologies for learning. In this way, a safe and inclusive space will be created for the educational community.

The European Commission also participated in the project launch meeting through Ángel M. Fuentes Mateos, research programme officer, who will be in charge of the technical monitoring of the project. The other participants in the meeting were the members of the consortium: the University of Tallinn (Estonia), the Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands), the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Hungary), the Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain), INNOGROWTH- European Association for Innovation and Growth (Bulgaria), the CSI centre for social innovation (Cyprus), the training and research cooperative ARIS (Italy) and the company Brainstorm Multimedia (Spain). The Universitat Jaume I-Empresa Foundation also participates in the project as a partner entity of the UJI, to support the dissemination and communication activities of the project.

The international expert committee has also been present virtually, composed of Vladislav Slavov, Vice-Dean of the Sofia University of Technology (Bulgaria); Marini Catiuscia, Head of the European Office of the Department of Policy, Training, Employment and International at Legacoop Umbria (Italy); Ülle Must, Director of Development at the Estonian Board of Education and Youth; Tobias Ley, lecturer at the Danube University Krems and Tallinn University; and Frédéric Mertens de Wilmars, expert and lecturer in European and Gender Issues with extensive experience in higher education.

Finally, partners such as Diputación Provincial de Castelló (Spain), CECAP Valencia-Asociación Empresarial de Centros de Formación de Valencia (Spain), Finnovaregio (Belgium), RESET-Research and Education for Empowerment and Social Transformation (Cyprus), Florida Centre de Formació (Spain), Estonian Board of Education and Youth, IES Álvaro Falomir (Spain), Regional League of Cooperatives and Mutuals of Umbria (Italy), Satori Labs (France), János Neumann Computer Science Society (Hungary), Sofia University of Technology (Bulgaria), Professor Doctor Asen Zlatarov University (Bulgaria), Bulgarian-German Vocational Training Centre (Bulgaria) and the company Senseglove (The Netherlands) were also able to convey their full support to e-diploma at this first consortium meeting.