Maria Zotou

Fostering Enterprise Architecture Education and Training with the Enterprise Architecture Competence Framework

Enterprise architecture (EA) implementation refers to a set of activities ultimately aiming to align business objectives with information technology infrastructure in an organization. EA implementation is a multidisciplinary, complicated and endless process, hence, calls for adequate education and training programs that will build highly skilled personnel (called enterprise architects) with diverse competencies. This development of domain‐specific competencies is also supported by European policies on education and vocational training. To this end, the authors present training uses of the Enterprise Architecture Competence Framework (EA‐CF). EA‐CF is a proposed conceptual model that describes EA competencies in compliance to the European e‐Competence Framework (e‐CF). The authors argue that EA stakeholders can consult the framework regarding competencies they want to underpin and thus identify the corresponding skills, knowledge and attitudes that result as learning outcomes in EA courses and training programs.

Towards designing cognitively-enriched project-oriented courses within a blended problem-based learning context

Traditional education seems to gradually and moderately make way for self-directed and student-centred learning strategies that will efficiently enable students to reach their full potentials and will sufficiently prepare them for their upcoming professional careers. Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is such a strategy, since it enables active participation by shifting the focus from the delivery of knowledge to its creation by the students, in their endeavour to implement problem-based projects. PBL is more commonly used in project-oriented courses, where students have to not only build but also apply new knowledge in real world contexts and therefore familiarize themselves with work conditions. Online technologies, such as cognitive tools, are able to harmonize this shift by visualizing some of the more demanding steps of PBL as well as facilitating collaboration and knowledge building. The aim of this paper is to investigate the incorporation of cognitive technologies in project-oriented courses, using a Blended PBL strategy. To this end, we implement our findings in a Project Management postgraduate course. Based on the gathered results, we propose a framework that can guide the design of project-oriented courses and we argue that its adaptation can exploit the identified strengths and avoid the weaknesses and lead to successful and immersive learning processes.

Learning from eParticipation initiatives of regional and local level authorities in Greece and Spain

In this paper, we examine the eParticipation progress of public authorities in two EU Member States, Greece and Spain. We do this in two steps: At the regional level (Regions and Provinces/Prefectures) we employ a published evaluation framework for evaluating the eParticipation sophistication of regional authorities‟ websites. At the local level we examine one good practice case from each country analysing the lessons learnt from them. Overall, although eParticipation is a political priority at the EU level, the results indicate that it is not yet adequately advanced in the two countries under examination. Spain scores good in information provision and average in consultation, while Greece scores average in both; however, active participation measures are really low in both countries.

The enterprise architecture competence framework

Enterprise architecture (EA) is essential for both public and private organisations as it provides a holistic approach to align information technology with business objectives. EA implementation is a multidisciplinary, complicated, and endless process. Therefore, successful EA implementation calls for highly-skilled personnel possessing diverse competencies. During the last years a few attempts have been made to identify these competencies. Current works however, provide heterogeneous and fragmented views of the domain, do not distinguish between private and public sector employees and are not interoperable with other generic competence frameworks. This paper aims at proposing an EA competence framework (EA-CF) that provides a holistic view of EA competencies and overcomes existing limitations. We anticipate that EA-CF will assist in obtaining an in depth understanding of EA competencies, will assist in the efficient training of future enterprise architects, and will facilitate the incorporation of EA competencies in more generic competence frameworks.

A review on Facebook as a user-generated content environment in tertiary education

In tertiary education, new learning processes, technologies and tools are increasingly applied to encourage and underpin students’ involvement. Lately, these include the use of Facebook where users are participators instead of observers. The main aim of this paper is to investigate Facebook’s usage for content generation in tertiary education. For this purpose, we review 19 relevant published cases to investigate the tools used and activities realised, the instructors’ role as well as benefits and problems encountered. The paper concludes that students use tools like the Wall and multimedia uploading to ask questions, discuss and share resources. The role of instructors remains essential but is conversed to a facilitator initiating discussions and providing course-specific material. Finally, there is evidence that students’ participation increases and they learn better. However, Facebook does not provide appropriate tools for educational purposes while privacy remains a main obstacle to its wider adoption.

Using problem-based learning and learning analytics in open data education

Open Data initiatives worldwide are boosting with an aim to increase transparency and contribute to economic growth. With a global annual economic potential value estimated to

Exploiting linked data cubes with opencube toolkit

3 trillion, this boost seems justified. Current progress however is not satisfactory. We believe a main reason is the lack of relevant skills and competencies. Current education and training activities are scarce and do not exploit practice-oriented learning methods such as Problem Based Learning (PBL) or novel assessment opportunities such as Learning Analytics (LA). As a result, stakeholders are missing skills related to publishing and reusing Open Data. The aim of this tutorial is to introduce to the audience Open Data education and training based on the PBL strategy and by exploiting LA for performance assessment. We will present a curriculum structure and learning content on Open Data for academia, business and the public sector that can be reused by all interested stakeholders. We will also demonstrate a university and a VET course model that have been designed in order to facilitate innovative and data-driven Open Data education and training. Finally, we will share lessons learnt from the practical application of the above in universities and businesses across multiple European countries.