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Started in 2008, the new Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) paradigm has brought challenges and innovation at all levels of education, aiming to respond to the most pressing learning needs, generated by the new development policies and the rapid evolution of technology. This paper reports on a project proposed by a group of universities and organizations specialized in training, research and consultancy, with a view to develop and implement an innovative learning system in entrepreneurship. The project is built on a package of MOOCs targeting the learning needs of young entrepreneurs in the context of "Smart cities" policies. The article presents the project concepts, and the development and implementation steps, from MOOCs design, pilot phase, consultancy activities, impact study to proposals for national policies and accreditation. This work could be a starting point for developing new programmes and customized training courses on specific learning needs to support the "Smart cities" interventions.

This paper describes the implementation and results of a cross-cultural pairing between college students in the United States and Romania who worked together over the period of one month to create a multimedia presentation that shared their learning about topics of multimedia and culture. Students could use any web-based collaboration tools of their choice, including email, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing to complete the project, and documented their results on a collaborative wiki. The project gave students an opportunity to use Web based collaboration tools to create tangible work products with international partners. This paper presents an analysis of the technologies they used and how they used them to complete the project, and examines their learning based a survey and their own qualitative remarks. Results show that students gained proficiency at selecting and using appropriate web based collaboration tools. They also overcame issues related to language, time zones and technology.

Augmented and virtual reality applications bring new insights to real world objects and scenarios. This paper shares research results of the TalkTech project, an ongoing study investigating the impact of learning about new technologies as members of global communities. This study shares results of a collaborative learning project about augmented and virtual reality and their applications in a variety of businesses and industries. In the TalkTech project, students from universities in the United States and Romania collaboratively work together to research the use of augmented and virtual reality in an assigned industry, create original augmented reality artifacts, and communicate and share their findings with their international partners. The authors evaluate the TalkTech project through the lens of the SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition) framework as a pedagogy to enhance student learning about augmented reality and improve students' digital skills. The paper also discusses the SAMR framework as implemented in the TalkTech project and its application to creating learning projects to transform Information Systems education.

The evolution of the energy market in Europe was influenced by the unprecedented development of the economy in 2007 and by the evolution of oil prices. From the analyses carried out in the energy field, we found that although American economy slowed down after September 11, 2001, the war in Iraq and then the other local conflicts in the Middle East forced an increase in oil consumption which led to an increase in the barrel price, which reached a level USD 145/barrel with the outbreak of the financial crisis. Against the background of the banking crisis and the sovereign debt crisis, the growth rate of the world economy has slowed down and the oil price has stabilized today at a level of 45-55 USD/barrel. Present in Romania through Petrom, OMV Austria is a multinational company whose main activity are exploration, production and marketing of oil and gas, petroleum refining and electricity generation. In this paper, we will assess the financial situation of the company on the European energy market into three periods: before, during and post-financial crisis, taking into account assets, liabilities, equity, performance indicators and market indicators.

The development in the energy market has shown that a large number of companies in this area are often confronted with the issue of investment, the issue of the purchase price of energy raw materials (oil, coal and gas), with problems related to the distribution of electricity to consumers, but especially with the problem related to the collection of energy bills. The global financial crisis has also affected the energy sector and the banking sector and, with the outbreak of the sovereign debt crisis, the crisis has also affected the budget sector. Against the background of the exit of the economy from the crisis, the energy industry has revived, although the problems related to the operational activity and the investment activity remained almost unchanged. The main concern of big companies in the energy industry is to permanently secure electricity consumers on the backdrop of companies’ stability and equilibrium. That is why our analysis will focus on comparing the results of the financial equilibrium indicators between two major energy companies in Europe, namely Transelectrica SA and Enel SpA during the pre-crisis, crisis and post crisis periods. As component of the entity analysis, the financial position is a constant concern of managers and aimes to ensure the necessary funds for the operational activity. In the industry in general and in energy industry in particular, the cycle of recovery is slowed down by the specific activity of these companies. That is why in the paper we analyze the equilibrium of two energy companies from Romania and Italy.

In this paper, we conducted a research on the equilibrium of cash operating cycle phases, between two moments: cash inflow and cash outflow. The research methodology is based on system financial ratios of 20 companies listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange in the energy industry. In this research paper it’s demonstrate how the cash conversion cash ratios system conducts to the short term company’s equilibrium.

Ratios represent useful analysis instruments that synthetize a large volume of data in an easier to understand, interpret and compare form. At the same time, they show certain limits that have to be analyzed for each case. When comparing ratios from different periods, one has to take into account the circumstances in which the company performs its activity, as well as the effect of certain changes in the financial reporting, such as : change in the economic circumstances, the productive process, the different production lines or the geographical target markets.

In this paper the authors analyze the financial structure on two levels, namely time for charging and funding sources. For each tier financial structure is analyzed with a correlated indicators including overall indebtedness and financial autonomy.

In the paper the authors present a model aggregate rating based on credit-scoring models, banking models and their rating model. Multi-criteria approach and an aggregate model better capture business risk of the company.

Public space art, usually placed outside and accessible to all, is a proper target for the exploitation of transformative and immersive technologies such as augmented and virtual reality. In the recent years, artists and technology developers have collaborated to make physical art more expressivein the digital world, taking advantage of the democratisation of mixed reality devices and software.In this paper, we report on such development of the ArtTM application, an Android app for the publicspace art in Timisoara, Romania. We show the current state of the application and the innovative features that are currently in development. We present the envisioned roadmap to an augmented and virtual reality-enhanced experience and some initial thoughts on the actual implementation of them.

Virtual reality technologies have been demonstrated to produce encouraging results in the educational process. However, adoption of virtual reality-based instruction among educators has yet to see significant numbers. One of the reasons is the technical difficulty in authoring custom-made VR experiences for students. In this paper, we propose criteria for choosing VR authoring tools that are appropriate for usage in education and apply them to such current platforms. We also present a case study of learning collaboration project that revolved around the usage of VR authoring tools. We conclude with some recommendations regarding additional features that would enhance the exploitation of current VR authoring tools in education.

While most existing online learning environments cater for needs identified during the 1990s, a new generation of digital students has emerged in the developed world. Digital students are young adults who have grown up with digital technologies integrated as an everyday feature of their lives. Digital students use technology differently, fluidly (and often simultaneously) using instant messengers, mobile phones, the web, MP3 players, online games and more. If their use of technology is different, the kind of learning environment they will require is likely to be equally different. To identify these differences we ran an online survey in universities from the UK, Romania, Finland and Hungary, followed by focus groups, interviews and observations of students in traditional and online learning environments. As a result we have refined our initial definition of digital students, we identified the digitally-minded students, most notably to include recognition of such students' need for control over their digital environment. From this analysis we have more clearly identified how a learning environment for these students should be constructed and used; an environment that contains a blend of Internet and mobile technologies which enhance student-tutor and student-student communication through multiple media channels, providing responsiveness, customizability and flexibility to adapt and be adapted to the students' needs. (Contains 5 figures.)

During the last years, the worldwide education has been challenged and innovated by the online and blended learning approaches, and the openness towards Social Media (SM), Open Educational Resources (OERs) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). University Politehnica of Timisoara, Romania is one of the pioneering higher education institution in the country, adopting an open education strategy with an important impact on the quality of education. The changing engine is represented by the Center of eLearning, which implemented the Virtual Campus for supporting the academic programs, and also the Unicampus MOOC platform. The aim of the paper is twofold. Firstly, to present and evaluate the Virtual Campus mobile application comparing it with mobile applications accompanying MOOC platforms. Then, to produce the requirements for an enhanced version of this application and the principles for the development of a mobile application for Unicampus. We hope that the paper conclusions regarding quality applications for mobile learning will be useful for teachers and developers designing open and mobile learning environments and applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Present paper presents the results of an activity that took place in the frame of FSE POSDRU/87/1.3/S/60891 - DidaTec-project named "University school for initial and continuous training of didactical staff and trainers working in the field of technical and engineering specializations". The main objective of this project is the development of a training system in order to implement learning methods based on modern information technology and communication techniques. The aim of research was to evaluate the training needs of the academic staff involved in engineering field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]