Developing a Massive Open Online Course in Social Pedagogy across Europe
We are leading on a 3-year project to develop a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) in social pedagogy. Co-funded by Erasmus+, the project brings together the collective expertise of an international partnership with the University of Central Lancashire (UK), UCC Copenhagen (Denmark), Common View (Denmark), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain), Ghent University (Belgium), Masaryk University (Czech Republic) and KJSH Verbund für Kinder-, Jugend- und Soziale Hilfen (Germany), who are all providing many amazing insights into practice innovations and the role of social pedagogy in their respective countries. The project’s cornerstone will be the MOOC, which will be accessible free of charge (optional certification will incur a small fee). The MOOC will be divided into 8 sessions running over 8 weeks, with each session requiring around 3 to 4 hours of learning time through a combination of videos, reading materials, reflective questions, quizzes and suggested practice activities. The structure will look as follows:
- Session 1: Introduction to Social Pedagogy across Europe
- Session 2: Social Pedagogy in the UK – creativity and social pedagogy applied to practice
- Session 3: Social Pedagogy in Germany – Haltung and resource-orientated case management
- Session 4: Social Pedagogy in Denmark – applying the SMTTE model in outdoor activities
- Session 5: Social Pedagogy in the Czech Republic – preventative practice
- Session 6: Social Pedagogy in Spain – community education
- Session 7: Social Pedagogy in Belgium – social pedagogy and social justice
- Session 8: Social Pedagogy beyond Europe – new avenues for learning
We hope that the course will reach many people around the globe and contribute to social pedagogy developments internationally, particularly in countries where interest in social pedagogy is still relatively new. As we want these ideas to travel far and wide, we will also put together a research report to strategically support policy-makers in implementing social pedagogy innovations across cultural barriers.
We’re very keen to start building a network of critical friends and interested allies who want to help us make this a unique learning resource that inspires students, practitioners and policy-makers alike. We’ve piloted the MOOC with over 200 international learners between November 2017 and January 2018, and are planning to launch the official MOOC in early 2019. If you would like to find out more, please click here.
The project is funded under the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme Key Action 2: Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices. More details about the project can be found here.