Insights from the design thinking workshop on higher education interoperability
The workshop brought together members of the higher education interoperability core expert group. The main topic of discussion was “prototyping an architecture for a European interoperability backbone”.
The working group's mission is the development of a practical framework to facilitate learning, studying, and working across Europe.
The workshop took place on 18-19 January 2024 at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany, and was organised by the European Digital Education Hub.
Key perspectives and challenges of the workshop
By applying design thinking methods, the experts investigated how learners, educators, and administrative persons navigate through different interoperability use cases. In this context, they addressed challenges like:
- How can learners easily move between higher education institutions and get their credits seamlessly recognised?
- How can we improve the way learners and educators can interact and collaborate in virtual campuses?
- How can higher education institutions share educational, physical, and virtual resources with each other?
- How can users best discover, access, and compare learning and exchange opportunities offered by different institutions?
- How can the credibility of a higher education institutions and its services be verified?
Key takeaways
Although the workshop highlighted the considerable gap between the current state and the envisioned ideal, it served as a promising starting point. The outcomes of this collaborative effort are set to play a crucial role in shaping the development of a European higher education interoperability framework. This framework aims to provide European higher education institutions with a practical toolkit to ensure interoperable virtual learning environments.
The core expert group
The core expert group consists of 20 selected professionals with expertise covering all interoperability dimensions (technical, semantic, organisational, legal and governance). During several online meetings and the design thinking workshop, the experts identified use cases and user journeys to design a reference architecture for the framework. Based on this preparatory work, the prototypes for the architecture will be reviewed, enhanced, and endorsed by the wider workgroup of over 110 experts within the Hub.
Join the workgroup on higher education interoperability
Are you a professional interested in achieving interoperability in higher education? You can join the workgroup and contribute to the framework development.
You need to first become a member of the European Digital Education Hub before applying to become part of the workgroup.