Digital learning (RP2024)

(A.) Policy and legislation

(A.1)   Policy objectives

The development of digital education is currently a political priority for the European Commission and for Member States. In her political guidelines, President von der Leyen highlighted the need to unlock the potential of digital technologies for learning and teaching and to develop digital skills for all. Digital is one of the 6 Commission priorities for 2019-2024 with a dedicated digital strategy to empower people with a new generation of technologies, named "A Europe Fit for the Digital Age". The policy objective is to support education and training in their digital transition. President von der Leyen announced in her 2021 State of the Union address that digital education and skills “need leaders’ attention and a structured dialogue at top-level”. As a result, the Commission announced the kick-off of the Structured Dialogue with Member States on digital education and skills. The objective of the dialogue is to increase the political visibility and commitments on digital education on skills. The dialogue aims to bring together the different strands of policy into a strong integrated, coherent and more ambitious approach and make the most of the synergies between the different policy fields – education, digitalization, labour, finances. The dialogue encompasses different branches and institutions of government, as well as the private sector, social partners and civil society.

The Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027) is a renewed European Union (EU) policy initiative adopted in September 2020 to support the sustainable and effective adaptation of the education and training systems of EU Member States to the digital age. It offers a long-term strategic vision for high-quality, inclusive and accessible European digital education and supports the development of digital skills for all in a lifelong learning perspective. The Action Plan seeks stronger cooperation at the EU level on digital education and underscores the importance of working together across sectors.  

(A.2) EC perspective and progress report

Efficient, accessible, affordable and interoperable digital learning solutions are necessary to promote the development of a large digital learning and technology-enhanced learning market in Europe. It is vital to ensure everyone’s right to access education and lifelong learning.

The forced closure of schools and campus buildings in spring 2020 due to the Covid-crisis has pushed educators and students into teaching and learning with digital technology at a scale never seen before. Experience from the Covid-Crisis resulted in lasting innovations in education, particularly in the acceptance of hybrid/blended forms of education.

The shift to remote teaching and learning resulted in a surprising continuity in education but also revealed flaws and weaknesses regarding digital skills and competences levels in the population, access to infrastructure and the availability and usability of quality digital resources and platforms. Many teachers lacked experience and training - technical and pedagogical – for teaching with digital technologies, including in remote settings. Students too faced new challenges learning at home, including being able to use digital tools and resources independently, efficiently and safely.

Lessons should be learned from this and digital learning should be made understandable, pedagogically sound, usable and accessible for all learners, including those with additional needs. Digital learning also provides an opportunity to foster skills regarding accessibility using a design for all approach.

Standardisation can also contribute to safer and more open, understandable and adaptable technological support for teachers. However, standardisation must not reduce the professional autonomy of teachers, as this undermines the pluriformity of the education system.

ICT standardisation can help to ensure that teachers understand technology and have the competences to apply and embed it appropriately in their teaching. This concerns specifically teachers' awareness of the opportunities and risks with data analytics and algorithms. Teachers must be able to understand how data are gathered and  processed, and judge whether this contributes to more personalised and effective teaching and learning.

Exchange of best practices in the pedagogical, ethical, organisation, logistical and standardization aspects of education should not only take place between national governments and experts, but also between executive organisations and consultancies that implement digital education in the EU Member States. These are the organisations that can bring experiences of education institutions and professionals to practice. The governance for realizing the European Education Area linked to the EU Action Plan Digital Education should be fully exploited, especially the Working Group for Digital Learning and Training (DELTA) as well as the new Digital Education Hub.

Within this frame of reference the European Edtech Alliance (EEA), a consortium of national trade associations and clusters working with founders and providers of education technology, aims to support the growth of the European Edtech sector, and to connect and strengthen the pan-European Edtech ecosystem: https://www.edtecheurope.org

(A.3) References

• COM(2020) 624 Communication “Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027 — resetting education and training for the digital age” outlining the European Commission’s vision for high quality, inclusive and accessible digital education in Europe. It is a call to action for stronger cooperation at EU level to learn from the COVID-19 crisis and make education and training systems fit for the digital age.
• COM(2020) 274 Communication “The European Skills Agenda — for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience” which is a five-year plan to help individuals and businesses develop more and better skills, by strengthening sustainable competitiveness; ensuring social fairness; and building resilience to react to crises, based on the lessons learnt during the COVID-19 pandemic
• COM (2018) 22 On 17 January 2018 the Commission published the “Digital Education Action Plan” to support technology-use and digital competence development in education. A new Action Plan is foreseen for adoption in September 2020. 
• Council Recommendation (2018/C 189/01) on key competences for lifelong learning
• COM(2016) 381 On 10 June 2016 the European Commission published "A new skills agenda for Europe — Working together to strengthen human capital, employability and competitiveness". It presents a number of actions and initiatives aiming to tackle the digital skills deficit in Europe. One of these actions is the launch in December 2016 of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition to develop a large digital talent pool and ensure that individuals and the labour force in Europe are equipped with adequate digital skills. This new coalition builds on the work already done under the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs and the EU e-skills strategy, and will bring together a broader set of stakeholders beyond ICT-sector, including ICT-using sectors, training organisations, academia, social partners and Member States.
• COM(2016) 180 On 18 April 2016 the European Commission published the Communication Digitising European industry, which introduced a set of coherent policy measures as part of a digital single market technologies and public service modernisation package. Part of the communication is devoted to digital skills. In particular, it calls for human capital ready for the digital transformation with the necessary skills.
• COM(2013)654  Communication Open up education: innovative teaching and learning for all through new technologies and open educational resources".
• IP/13/182 Grand coalition for digital jobs

(B.) Requested actions

General recommendation: Standardisation proposals must be based on clear and well-defined market needs and be developed in full coherence with multi-stakeholder initiatives and public policies in this area. These include relevant European Commission’s Communications: “e-Skills for the 21st Century” (2007); “Digitising European Industry” (2016);“European Skills Agenda” (2020) as well as the on-going Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition and a Blueprint for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills; and “Digital Education Action Plan” (2020). The aim is to reduce skills shortages, gaps and mismatches; foster ICT professionalism and digital competence; and further mature the ICT profession, building on the European e-competence framework for ICT professionals and the digital competency framework for citizens.

Relevant stakeholders from the education sector, EdTech industry and policy makers are encouraged to join and engage into standardisation activities to ensure that the European EdTech standards developed support how schools would like to use technology to reach their educational and pedagogical goals. At the same time we need to ensure that requirements are implementable by the EdTech industry, where EdTech products developed, based on developed standards supports the goal of the Commission.

Action 1: European digital learning standards to facilitate large scale adoption of best practices and solutions on a voluntary basis. The focus should be on specifications and guidelines for digital learning opportunities designed for all kinds of users, learning outcomes, credit points, assessment, micro-credentials and e-portfolios. 

Action 2: Standardisation potential around digital learning services and tools: SDO to investigate digital learning courses and resources, content repositories and exchange mechanisms with a focus on data privacy including metadata, learning design and structure, technical and semantic interoperability supported by agreed protocols, exchange formats and vocabularies and data governance. Interoperability should include context-aware, adaptable and mobile/ambient e-learning systems and cross-domain aspects. This may include the learning trajectory or learning route including, e.g. the didactic approach, aimed learning & learner's profiles and the availability of additional tools that support digital learning. End users (learners and educators) should be involved in the design, testing and development of digital learning solutions and digital pedagogical services to ensure adoption in the different educational practices. Recent developments regarding the use of AI in education (e.g. for assessment and personalised learning) and related regulatory and ethical requirements from the European AI Act should be taken into account.

Action 3: Standardisation potential around interoperability and transfer of learners' data: SDOs to investigate the possible standardisation of the exchange of learning & learners activity data which may be generated in the different learning spaces. This should take into account European initiatives on e-Identity and e-Wallets, as well as experience with the European Student Card Initiative for students in Higher Education like the Erasmus+ Mobility programme. Alliances of European universities under the European Universities Initiative could be involved in this standardisation action.

Action 4: European guidelines on ensuring accessible and inclusive digital learning: These guidelines should be based on a design-for-all approach to facilitate learning for diverse range of users, including learners with disabilities ensuring everyone has equal access to equivalent digital learning tools and services.

Action 5: SDOs to review and update available standards like the eCompetence Framework in order to address a situation like confinement and to better equip citizens with needed digital skills and technologies for use cases like remote working, e-learning and distance learning including in particular online teaching of schools, universities, online exams, training - and in general use cases around the digital transformation including the topic of security and privacy. This action is also relevant to the 3.2.6. Pandemic Preparedness chapter.

(C.) Activities and additional information 

(C.1) Related standardisation activities

CEN

CEN/TC 353 - “Information and Communication Technology for Learning, Education and Training” has the following published standards of relevance:

CEN/TC 353 is responsible for the development of standards in the field of information and communication technologies supporting all aspects of learning, education and training. The European Standards (EN),
Technical Specifications (TS) and Technical Reports (TR) developed will support European policies with regard to all levels, modes and types of learning. The goal of this committee is to develop, support and facilitate a more harmonized European EdTech ecosystem that gives value to all stakeholders, users and beneficiaries of all aspects of learning technologies.’

CEN/TC 353 has the following published standards of relevance:

• EN 15981: European Learner mobility - Achievement information (EuroLMAI)
• EN 16425: Simple Publishing Interface
• EN 15982: Metadata for Learning Opportunities (MLO) - Advertising
• EN 15943: Curriculum Exchange Format (CEF) – Datamodel

See CEN/TC 353 Published Standards.

CEN/CT 353 wishes to create a clear picture of how news technology could be used. This approach will support the emerging of new ways of training and proposes a state of the art assessment not only related to the EdTech experience of European Universities and training institutions but studies the really training potential of modern ICT and emerging technology such as virtual and augmented reality, gamification, simulation, etc. as well.

IEEE

IEEE/LTSC - “Learning Technology Standards Committee”

• IEEE P1484.1, Conceptual Model for Learning Technology Systems (CM4LTS)
• IEEE P1484.2, Interoperable Learner Records (ILR) Recommended Practices
• IEEE P1484.20, Competency Data Standards
  • IEEE 1484.20.2, Recommended Practices for Defining Competencies
  • IEEE 1484.20.3, Standard for Reusable Competency Definitions
• IEEE 1589, Augmented Reality Learning Experience Model
• IEEE P2247.1, Adaptive Instructional Systems (AIS)
  • IEEE P2247.1, AIS Conceptual Modeling Subgroup
  • IEEE P2247.2, AIS Interoperability Subgroup
  • IEEE P2247.3, AIS Recommended Practices for AIS Evaluation Subgroup
  • IEEE P2247.4, Ethical Considerations Subgroup
• IEEE P2384, Secure and Trusted Learning Systems
• IEEE P2881, Standard for Learning Metadata
• IEEE P2997, Enterprise Learner Record
• IEEE P7004, Child and Student Data Governance (CSDG)
• IEEE P7004.1, Virtual Classroom
• IEEE P7015, Standard for Data and AI Literacy (co-standards committee)
• IEEE P7919, Standards for Mobile Learning Technology
• IEEE P9274, Experience API (xAPI)
  • IEEE 9274.1.1, JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data Model Format and Representational Stat Transfer (RESTful) Web Service for Learner Experience Data Tracking and Acces
  • IEEE P9274.4.2, xAPI Cybersecurity

There also are relevant IEEE pre-standards activities, including:

• Industry Consortium on Learning Engineering (ICICLE) 
• Digital Resilience—Tools and Methods to Support Response and Recovery from Crises, and specifically its sub-committee on eResilience in Education Systems 
• Digital Intelligence

For more information, see: https://ieee-sa.imeetcentral.com/eurollingplan/.

ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 36

 Subcommittee (SC) 36 on Information Technology for Learning, Education and Training (ITLET) has the following work programme underway:

 http://www.iec.ch/dyn/www/f?p=103:22:0::::FSP_ORG_ID:3410

Standards to ensure interoperability between information technology systems used in ITLET;

The identification of generic LET requirements for information technology systems and services used in ITLET situations (example:  types of digital content)

Standards projects being addressed:

The description of metadata for learning resources

• ITLET vocabularies
• the personalization of the IT-enabled educational environment (individualized accessibility)
• models for describing competency
• the creation of an ITLET quality framework
• -  the advancement of e-Assessments, e-textbooks and related learning services, virtual experiments

Future work planned

• learning analytics
• massive open online course (MOOC) standardisation
• how existing standards and specifications may work together to better the LET environment
• -   ISO TR 20514: EHR Definition scope and context

http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards_development/

list_of_iso_technical_committees/iso_technical_committee.htm?commid=45392

ITU-T

ITU-T SG16 on multimedia has produced a series of standards that enable remote collaboration, e.g. Recommendation ITU-T F.742 on service description and requirements for distance learning services.

http://itu.int/ITU-T/go/tsg16

The Recommendation ITU-T Y.2241 “Service framework to support web objects based ubiquitous self-directed learning” was approved by ITU-T SG13 in 2017.

ITU-T SG13 has developed the Recommendation on application of a u-learning environment to the smart farming (Y.2246 ). Additionally, SG13 is also working on the Recommendation on QoS requirements for smart education supported by IMT-2020 (Y.IMT2020-qos-req-se).

http://itu.int/ITU-T/go/tsg13

The ITU also published a technology watch report on technology-based learning.

http://itu.int/en/ITU-T/techwatch/Pages/learning-standards.aspx

ITU-T Study Group 20 approved Recommendation ITU-T Y.4485 “Requirements and Reference Architecture of Smart Education” and is currently working on draft Recommendation ITU-T Y.RemoteEd “Requirements, capabilities and architectural frameworks for e-learning in remote classrooms”.

More info: https://itu.int/go/tsg20

(C.2) additional information

European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education/DAISY Consortium/European Schoolnet/Global Initiative of Inclusive ICTs/International Association of Universities/UNESCO

The ICT4IAL project is a multi-disciplinary network of European and international partners that represent both learning and ICT communities. This network was co-funded by the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Transversal Programme, Key Activity 3: Information and Communication Technologies. The project aims to:

1. Raise awareness and increase the visibility of the issue of accessible information provision and its relevance for equitable lifelong learning opportunities;
2. Support accessible information provision within organisations through the development, trialling and evaluation of guidelines that build upon already existing work in the field.

https://www.ict4ial.eu/project-aims

Trust Framework for EdTech in Education

The Collaborative Trust  Framework for EdTech (https://trustframework.io) is a relevant European initiative to drive standardisation in EdTech. The Trust Framework is a set of trust components worked out into deployable principles. It’s designed for EdTech Founders, that want to build a long-lasting, trustworthy business with a perpetual positive effect on (public) education.