A panel discussion titled "How Open Is Education in Croatia?" featuring representatives from the Academic and Research Network of Croatia – CARNet, was held on March 9th at the University Computing Centre in Zagreb. CARNet representative Gordana Jugo presented the content and services CARNet offers in the sphere of open education, as well as their acceptance among users and the general public.
The panel discussion explored how the idea of open education is approached within the academic community, particularly in higher education, as well as in primary and secondary education, and in the context of lifelong learning in Croatia. The discussion also covered the availability of open educational resources, the extent and manner in which open educational resources are used in Croatia, and whether teachers in Croatia use the open educational resources of others. A review was also provided on how much and in what ways we are prepared to invest in the development of open educational resources, repositories of open resources, and enable open access to digital scientific information.
Gordana Jugo, head of the Educational Technologies Service at CARNet, presented the possibilities of creating and publishing numerous open educational resources available on the Portal for Schools, through Open Courses@Loomen and Meduza, and other CARNet platforms.
Photo: University Computing Center
CARNet conducts numerous training sessions on the creation and sharing of educational content, intellectual property on the Internet, and other relevant topics. CARNet's Massive Open Online Courses, Moodle MOOC and ISE MOOC, have so far had over 2,000 participants from Croatia and the region. CARNet will continue to promote the importance and benefits of open education in the future, educate teachers in this area, and provide infrastructure for schools as a prerequisite for creating and using open educational content. One of the elements of this infrastructure is the development of a national repository of digital teaching materials within the "e-Schools: Establishing a System for Developing Digitally Mature Schools (pilot project)" project.