About four years ago, Jacqueline Gasser-Beck, Head of the Teaching Innovation Lab at University of St. Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland, was discussing trends in education and technology with university faculty. The topic of gamification sparked interest, especially from Professor Martin Eling in the Institute of Insurance Economics. In his experience, students often find insurance topics to be dry and boring; he thought introducing elements of gaming into the learning could be beneficial.

In November 2017, Learn STEM launched with the goal of strengthening the capacity of secondary school students to develop skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) through innovative and interactive pedagogical methods and approaches. A multi-national, multi-disciplinary team set up Learn STEM, the European Alliance for Innovative STEM Learning in Schools, as their response to the need for innovative school education in STEM as key for better lives, work and society. The key focus of Learn STEM is the Pedagogical Model for Innovative STEM Learning and Teaching.

FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany is a public distance education university using quality-assured distance teaching to offer bachelor, master’s and doctoral degree programs, as well as numerous certificates and open access studies. Five faculties offer a wide range of subjects, from humanities and social sciences, psychology, business administration and economics, mathematics and computer science, and legal studies. More than 20 German-language degree programs lead to internationally recognized degrees.

In 2016, Dutch public broadcaster VPRO invited representatives from Erasmus University Rotterdam, Leiden University, Delft University of Technology, UNESCO and newspapers in The Netherlands to attend the launch of a unique television production. The series, The Mind of the Universe, features extensive interviews with 30 leading scientists, including biologists, archeologists, geneticists, and psychologists, working at the edge of knowledge and exploration. In the documentary series, each scientist has limited air time; the challenge VPRO presented to the universities was to use the far more extensive inventory of complete interviews to create accessible and challenging learning experiences.

As described by Alan Cadwallader, Executive Director of Learning Delivery at Open Polytechnic New Zealand (OPNZ), it was essential for the Open Polytechnic to transition to the digital age as a natural extension of its extensive experience with correspondence education. OPNZ provides vocational education and training to more than 30,000 annual registrants who are mostly employed, over 25 years of age, and with multiple responsibilities. Providing 120 programs and qualifications from certificates to bachelor’s degrees, OPNZ offers open, distance flexible learning, with an emphasis on ‘flexible’.

Many educational institutions in Europe develop and offer open education and, in particular, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as strategies for extending their reach, enticing students to enrol in the university, offering learning opportunities in their national languages to international participants, providing specific training opportunities, and as components of degree as well as open courses.

A group of academics and researchers from institutions across Europe, including Greece, Portugal, and France, with coordination by the Welten Institute of the Open University of the Netherlands (OUNL), formed MOOQ, the European Alliance for the Quality of Massive Open Online Courses to build a tool to support quality improvement in MOOCs. Their investigation found most MOOCs have similar and limited designs and structures, lacking in opportunities for online coaching, collaboration, personalization and feedback.

To support the development of a guide supporting quality in MOOCs, a proposal was submitted to the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission for funding to construct a MOOC Quality Reference Framework (QRF). Funding was received for a three-year research project which was recently completed.