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In this paper we present a model for designing professional courses in a blended learning context as a tool to help the interaction between students, teachers and learning resources. This model aims to promote new concepts, new approaches and new strategies that have been changing the paradigm of teaching and learning. To develop a course based on these objectives, a systematic process, driven by a series of well-defined phases and activities, is required to help us to effectively develop high-quality applications. The research presented here focuses on an improved design model in a blended learning context and consists of four main phases: requirements definition, planning, design of learning activities, implementation, and evaluation. The whole process begins with an analysis of the students and the characteristics of the environment. Content analysis is conducted to explore the structure of the course. The identification of learning events, learning units, and instructional methods are included in the design of learning activities. As evaluation is a critical factor, this model incorporates a questionnaire, whose purpose is to ensure a well-designed blended learning course. This questionnaire tries to answer the key points that determine the structure of the course and to check the satisfaction of the learners with the context taught. One of the main contributions of this research is allowing the requalification of professionals who meet the needs of professional staff in Information and communications technology (ICT). [For the full proceedings, see ED621892.]

Producing quality digital educational content is the goal of any teaching/learning system, including the teaching/learning technologies contexts. This paper introduces how the Quantitative Evaluation Framework may be used to accurately evaluate the digital content produced throughout the development process of an inclusive and integrative MOOC in Educational Technologies, based on a Postgraduate Degree from Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (School of Engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of Porto). The model is sustained in the SCORM standards, adopting the ISO 9126 standard as a reference, and it proposes a quantitative representation in an orthogonal three-dimensional environment: pedagogical, ergonomics, and management. Each of these domains comprises a set of factors for which it is quite relevant to determine the degree of the system's performance. The factor is a component that represents the performance degree of the digital content in the system, following a predetermined quality criterion. The measurement of the quality of the educational digital contents is assured by quantitative methods, similar to the evaluation techniques commonly used in the education system, which makes its application simpler. [For the complete proceedings, see ED590269.]

Promoted by the significant increase of large scale internet access, many audiences have turned to the web and to its resources for learning and inspiration, with diverse sets of skills and intents. In this context, Multimedia Online Open Courses (MOOC) consist in learning models supported on user-friendly web tools that allow anyone with minimum computer literacy to get involved. Although this model is popular abroad, it is not commonly used in the Portuguese Higher Education scenario. Therefore, this paper presents a proposal for structuring in a MOOC an already validated set of post-graduation courses in the field of Information and Communication Technologies applied to education in Portuguese. This paper also aims to establish a threshold for perfect MOOC framing in higher education contexts. The Quantitative Evaluation Framework (QEF) approach was selected for this evaluation to highlight the strengths and limitations of the Post-graduations in Technologies and Computing Applied to Education. With this project we intend to contribute for promoting education professionals' personal training at distance, in a stimulating, interactive and flexible environment, giving access to knowledge to innumerable amount of professionals who might not have access to these courses with adjustable schedules, and real life validation (and accreditation). [For the complete proceedings, see ED579335.]

The aim of this paper is to present a Postgraduate Specialization with a different concept of the traditional ones. Instead of having to follow a curriculum previously established, hard and sequential, time-limited, you can choose the frequency of any course units according to their availability and current needs. It is not a proposal it is already a work in operation, working in Blended Learning. In the chapter of the education in Portugal teachers in primary and secondary education have their activity of teaching is developed in accordance with the fundamental principles enshrined in the Portuguese Constitution and within the framework of the general and specific principles under the Ministry of education. Considering the teachers' training needs to perform in-service training that are intended to ensure the updating, improvement, retraining and support for the profession of teaching staff, aiming at further development objectives in career and mobility under this Statute. [For full proceedings, see ED571430.]

The results of several studies conducted to analyze the quantitative and qualitative use of learning technologies in Higher Education in Portugal showed that, in general, these technologies are not used systematically and effectively and e-learning platforms tend to be relegated to repositories of contents rather than as full-fledged tools actively enabling and promoting learning. Several gaps were also identified at the management, pedagogical and technical levels. Following best-practice in this domain, a holistic intervention including these three levels is crucial to achieve positive results. Therefore, following these studies, a set of guidelines and recommendations was created to raise the level of technology adoption in higher education and improve the educational performance of each institution by raising teaching/learning levels so that they are in accordance with the Bologna paradigm. This way it is possible to have a systematic approach, expanding the intervention to the entire institutional campus and resulting in an effective learning platform usage by teachers and students. [For the full proceedings, see ED562095.]