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Prof. Achilles Kameas
School of Science and Technology
Hellenic Open University
HOU openly supports diversity
and facilitates inclusion
Hellenic Open University
• HOU is the sole State University that offers formal
and non-formal lifelong education to adult students
from distance
• HOU comprises four Schools (Social Sciences,
Applied Arts, Science and Technology and
Humanities)
• The University accepted its first students in 1998
• Currently, over 45.000 undergraduate and
postgraduate students are registered in the courses
offered; each year 5.000 new students are admitted
• HOU offers more than 50 study programmes (8 of
them undergraduate) and a number of VET courses
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Mission and vision
 The DAISSy (Dynamic Ambient Intelligent Sociotechnical
Systems) research group was founded in 2001. Since its
establishment, DAISSy has coordinated and participated in
more than 70 national and European projects
 The vision of the researchers of DAISSy group is to
contribute to the realization of an advanced society by
inventing technology that adapts and supports human
needs and not the other way round!
 Today the group employs more than 60 persons, including
University professors, PostDoc researchers, PhD and MSc
holders, researchers in computer science, artificial
intelligence and social sciences, experienced ICT
engineers, programmers and administrative personnel
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Expertise
 DAISSy has accumulated expertise in:
– Social Computing Systems,
– MOOCs, Online Learning Platforms,
– Serious Games, Digital Content,
– STE(A)M Education, Inclusive Education,
– IoT and Mobile Systems, Middleware, Services,
– Knowledge Extraction and Representation, Ontologies,
– Smart Environments, Smart Cities,
– Quality Assurance, Standards,
– User Profiling, User Experience,
– Digital Skills and Competences,
– Lifelong learning, UpSkilling, Skills Certification,
– Job Profiling, Learning Pathways
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Map of
projects
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Digital
Competences
• ProInternet
• eCultSkills
• CompAAL
• EngAGEnt
• eVirtue
• (SEM@Schools)
• LinguaCuisine
• V4T
• MuSA
• DCDS
• Smart DevOps
• Social Hackademy
• BIBLIO
• ESSA
• GoodDeeds
Competence
Development
• VAB
• LPMnage
• i-Care
• Take Care
• EPOQUE
• DigiPlace
• TOY+
• EcosLIGHT
• InTour
• WATT-Else
• Instruction
• GCTE
Ambient
Intelligence
• eGadgets
• Plants
• ASTRA
• Hearts
• ATRACO
• ELTab
• ADVENT
Multi-culturalism
and Inclusion
• TIPS
• Fragmex
• SONETOR
• SONET-Bull
• TIME
• DIVINA-Edu
• (LinguaCuisine)
• (BRIGHTS)
• Tackle
• WEMIN
• MILE
• MiCreate
• Xenia
• REMIDA
• PICAET
• REInSER
Education / Quality
• CRITON
• P4LLL-Tec
• MOOQ
• KUTEL
• Ind4.0
• DELTA
• (PICELS)
• FAVILLE
• (STEAMEducation)
• ANGEL
• TS4VEN
Culture
• (MuSA)
• EuHerit
• SILVHER
• CrowdDreaming
• (NICHE)
Entrepreneurship
• YouBrand
• Entrepreneurhsip4Women
• (MILE)
• (NICHE)
• OLMEdu
STE(A)M education
• SEM@Schools
• UMI-Sci-Ed
• STEAMonEdu
• (STEAMEducation)
• SparkDigiGirls
Tourism
• (InTour)
• Roman routes
Media Literacy
• (BRIGHTS)
• CrAL
• AMELIE
Scope
• Open Universities are able and entitled to
play a key role in facilitating an inclusive
education not only by supporting but also
by encouraging diversity
• The role of Open Universities cannot be
confined within the boundaries of their
campus and community
• In Hellenic Open University, we take
initiatives and implement projects that
support diversity and facilitate inclusion at
citizen and society levels
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Main Discrimination-Exclusion
factors
• In our research we have identified 5+1 factors that apply
to academia and beyond:
– Ethnicity
– Gender
– Sexual orientation
– Age
– Disability / Accessibility
– Basic (Digital) competences
• Intersectionality between the factors can lead to Multiple
discrimination & exclusion
• Ref: European Project TACKLE: Book «Tackling multiple
discrimination in Greece: Delivering equality by active
exploration and enabling policy interventions»
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Dimensions of inclusion
related to education
• Institutional
– Educator (teacher, tutor etc.)
– Student
– Institute
• Management
• Staff
• Courses
• Material
• Societal (environment)
– Policies
– Sectors
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Ethnicity & Culture
• Train teachers and staff in
intercultural competences
– Employ Intercultural Mediators
• Provide education / training / re-
skilling opportunities
– Recognition of prior learning / skills
• Make society aware of cultural
differences
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MSc course in Language
Education for Migrants
• https://www.eap.gr/education/postgraduate/biannual/language-
education-for-refugees-and-immigrants/ (in Greek)
• The Postgraduate Course "Language Education for refugees and immigrants"
is designed for teachers and graduates who wish to supplement or deepen
their knowledge and skills in teaching a language course in various languages,
as well as to develop new resources that they can later use in specific
contexts and levels. The course offers a strong background in theoretical
literature, as well as a suitable methodology for educational practice, course
planning and introduction to the most important research tools.
• The Course aims to provide specialized pedagogical knowledge to teachers of
both levels of compulsory education (primary and secondary) and to higher
education graduates who wish to teach, as well as to teachers involved in
adult education, in refugee or migrant environments. The Course trains
students from Greece or other countries to ask and answer key questions in
applied linguistics and the acquisition of a second language in the
innumerable, diverse, multilingual environments they encounter and will
encounter in the future.
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Intercultural Mediators
• National profile of Intercultural Mediator
(officially approved by State)
• National registry of Intercultural Mediators
(commissioned by Ministry)
• Online platform to support the Community
of Intercultural Mediators (project
SONETOR)
• Training outline for (project TIME)
– Intercultural Mediator
– Trainer of Intercultural Mediators
• Course outline on diversity management in
adult education (project Divina-Edu)
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MILE
• https://projectmile.eu/
• Project MILE (Migrants Integration in the Labour market in
Europe) aims to develop, implement and mainstream an
effective model of integrated services for the integration
of Third-Country Nationals into the labour market, based
on multi-sectorial competences, mobilisation of actors
and migrants’ cultural, social and economic needs.
• Main instruments:
– Multistakeholder Working Groups (3 International in Milan,
Viladecans, Athens, and National approximately every six months in
each country)
– Study Visits (in Innsbruck, Austria and Athens, Greece)
– Capacity Building sessions in Austria, Greece, Spain, Italy for
Employers and Stakeholders
– In process: soft skills and technical skills training and job placement
activities
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Report: Voices of European Employers.
Challenges and benefits of the inclusion of
migrants in the labour market
• Desk Research of the labour market trends and requirements
• Qualitative Research: 40 interviews
• Quantitative Research: 131 questionnaires
Main Results:
• Use of non-formal hiring channels
• Employers have generally low awareness of how to use
internship and/or apprenticeship programmes for hiring non-
EU citizens.
• Employers have generally low or very low awareness of hiring
policies that encourage diversity.
• Language is affirmed as a major barrier for hiring third
country nationals in all countries.
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Handbook for employers: Diversity in the
workplace. Challenges and benefits of the
inclusion of third-country nationals
• From diversity to inclusion: how to manage diversity by
promoting inclusion
• Immigrant people as a resource for companies-
Opportunities, obstacles, starting points
• Legal issues concerning migrant hiring and employment
• The profile of the migrant worker
• From diversity to inclusion: benefits and challenges
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REInSER
• https://keep.eu/projects/25271/Refugees-Economic-Integrati-EN/
• The aim of REInSER is to improve the refugees’ economic integration
using approaches of social innovation and in particular social
entrepreneurship.
• The long-term objective is to enhance possibilities for refugees to
become active economic actors and agents of their own integration in
given host society on one hand and to contribute to the local and
regional sustainable economic development by generating employment
and supporting the creation of new social responsible businesses on the
other hand.
• Specific objectives:
– Enhancement of the competencies/skills of the stakeholders and involved
parties
– Mobilisation of stakeholders in the fields of social research, social innovation
and socio-economic inclusion of refugees in order to increase knowledge
transfer between business, users, academia and administration
– Better coordinated innovation policies and strategies in the field of economic
inclusion of refugees using social entrepreneurship and social innovation
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Gender & Sexual orientation
• Women
– In Science & technology
– As Entrepreneurs
– As key actors of society
• Social genders
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The situation in HOU
• Student ombudsman
• Gender Equality Committee (under
establishment)
• Use of gender-inclusive language (in
process)
• MSc course on enhancing the role of
women in science & technology (in
planning)
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E4W
• http://www.e4w.eu/
• E4W aimed at improving digital and entrepreneurial skills of
disadvantaged women and help them to find an educational pathway to
better employment opportunities.
• The project produced:
– The training programme MAKING IDEAS HAPPEN!
– Online Training Course in Moodle Platform in 5 languages
– An e-Guidebook for adult non-formal education organizations to
facilitate the use and adoption of the training materials in diverse
contexts of non-formal learning settings
– Empowerment of 40 educators from adult non-formal education
institutions as supporters of disadvantaged women to pursue their
career paths, via synchronous online training
– Improved competitiveness for 200 disadvantaged women through
enhancing their entrepreneurial skills, via Face to Face Training
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• Aims
– to enable women to combine effectively the understanding
of technology, project management and entrepreneurship
– to choose a project-based approach for the promotion of
skills relevant to the labor market in a cross-disciplinary way
irrespectively of the type of project (technological or other)
– to improve the awareness for women’s educational needs in
todays labor markets
• Structure
– 25 Face to Face Training Sessions
– Online course: each module contains the corresponding
content of three key topics: project management, digital
education and entrepreneurship
• Initiating a Project
• Planning a Project
• Presenting and closing a Project
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Project n°: 2018-1-LT01-KA204-047019
Making Ideas Happen: the
training programme
6/10/2021
The e-Guidebook
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SparkDigiGirls
• Project SDG (Empower Girls’ Creativity Through Use of Digital Technologies) aims at
encouraging girls aged from 15 years old to explore digital technologies such as AR,
VR, AI, IoT and come up with new and exciting ideas by utilizing their newly
acquired digital knowledge to chart the waters of the male dominated STEM
industry with fresh, different and creative viewpoints
Target audience
• 200 secondary school girls 15+y who wish to develop their creativity by using
digital technologies (including girls with lower opportunities like living in remote
areas, migrant girls, from families at risk, etc.).
• 40 youth workers from formal and non - formal youth education institutions.
Innovative characteristics
• innovative in terms of curriculum and online training materials
• practical experiential learning model and real life tasks for promoting creativity
and improving digital skills
• innovative in terms of choosing new and interesting digital applications and tools
for youth, specifically for girls
• explore technologies in a way to allow girls to come up with new and exciting
ideas and solutions for given problems and demystify stereotypes about ICT field
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WEMIN
• http://www.wemin-project.eu
• The WEMIN project (Migrant Women
Empowerment and Integration)
implemented a comprehensive integration
model for migrant/refugee women (MRW).
Through direct interventions in women
populations and through experience-
sharing among partners social, cultural,
educational and professional aspects of
inclusion were addressed and active
participation was achieved.
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Project results
• Detailed description of 10 good practices in
the field of social integration of migrant and
refugee women (Guide)
• The Social Integration of Migrant and Refugee
Women – A Guide for Policy Makers
• Peer learning methodology and training
materials used during the interventions
• Methodology and content guide of
empowerment and mentoring
• Online peer learning platform
• Digital training material
• Workshop plan for cultural workshops and
workshop scrapbooks
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Booklet “MRW stories of
change”
• The booklet gathers the testimonies
of MRW who have participated in
WEMIN activities in the partner
countries
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XENIA
• http://www.xeniaindex.eu/
• The key objective of XENIA is to turn Higher Education
Institutions (HEIs) into “inclusive places” that promote social
dialogue and to tackle the challenges of discrimination on
the basis of gender & sexual orientation biases.
• Outcomes
– XENIA will develop and implement an innovative “HEI
Inclusiveness Index” that allow HEIs to:
 A. Map and assess how HEIs are inclusive, scoring them against a
set of objective indicators
 B. Gauge the perception of students and staff of how inclusive are
HEIs, through questionnaire based surveys among HEI staff (admin,
teaching, support) and students to determine the “perceived”
degree of inclusiveness at HEI
 C. Identify key areas for intervention, allowing HEIs to prioritise
their social inclusion policies, programmes and initiatives
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HEI Inclusiveness Index
• XENIA HEI Thematic Area Literature Review ->
130 pieces of literature were studied
• HEI inclusiveness index has
– five Thematic Areas
– 65 Indicators
– 136 Sub-indicators
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Tools
Glossary in 5 Languages (EN, IT, GR,
ES, Sl)
 Best Practice tool in 5 Languages (EN,
IT, GR, ES, Sl)
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Disability & Accessibility
• Accessibility
• Disadvantaged
• Elderly
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The situation in HOU
• All educational process (registration,
teaching, studying, meetings,
assessment, exams) takes place
online
• Digital reader for HOU eBooks
• Accessible main HOU website
• Accessibility support by the HOU
Library
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IN-TOUR
• www.in-tour.eu
• The IN-TOUR project aims to fill the gap in the training on
Accessible Tourism. It will equip managers and frontline
staff working in the tourism sector with skills and
competences to provide adequate services to customers
with specific access requirements.
• The main project outcomes are:
– Specification of gaps in skills and competences;
– Two occupational profiles:
1. Inclusive Tourism Manager (ITM)
2. Inclusive Tourism Frontline Staff (ITFS)
– Two European curricula on the accessible tourism sector,
EQF 6 & 7 for ITM and EQF 5 for ITFS;
– Modular blended course for both curricula (incl. on-line
training, face-to-face and work-based learning sessions);
– Local pilots of the courses in Italy, Greece and Germany.
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Report on Occupational Profiles in the Inclusive Tourism Sector
- Identification of ESCO Tourism Manager & FLS “generic” skills profiles
Report on Skills Needs in the Inclusive Tourism Sector
- Identification of 27 IT Management occupations
- Identification of 37 IT Frontline Staff occupations
- Identification of 18 Key Activities, Competencies and Skills
in Inclusive Tourism as requirements for Vocational Training
#hackAD
• https://socialhackademy.eu/
• Social Hackademy aims to to upskill young people in the
verge of exclusion and give them the opportunity to work
with representatives of civil society organisations to
develop digital solutions to societal challenges linked to
one or more of the 17 UN Goals for Sustainable
Development
• Methodology
• Upscale the Social Hackathon Umbria methodology
• Train the trainers sessions (in 4 countries)
• Training sessions for young people (total: 100 h per
country)
• National Hackathons for young people (1 per country)
• Developing a platform for supporting the training and
the national Hackathons (#HackAd platform)
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The platform
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Hackathons and community
support
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REMIDA
• https://remidaproject.eu/
• Project “REMIDA – Renewed Models for the
Inclusion of Disadvantaged Adults” was
created with the aim of supporting the social
and working inclusion of adults 45+ at risk of
exclusion (low qualifications and skills,
obsolete skills, immigrants…) by defining and
testing an innovative model of intervention,
aimed at achieving personal empowerment
and enhancing the informal and non-formal
skills / abilities of this target group.
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Methodology
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Lego Serious
Best Practices on
Adults guidance
and counselling
Adult Education
methodologies
Re.M.I.D.A.
Innovative model for the empowerment andcareer
counseling of disadvantaged adults
Operators/trainers training + Pilot(s)
Valorization of
informal skills
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• https://romanroutes.eu/
• All Routes Lead to Rome offers training, tools and
logistical support to young people who want to take
advantage of the economical potential of the ancient
Roman roads in terms of employability, self-
entrepreneurship, and local development
• The project outcomes are:
– E-platform to make freely available all the training contents,
sources, resources, results generated during the
implementation of the project, to the target group, the
beneficiaries, the relevant stakeholders and the general
public
– Mapping of the Roman roads entrepreneurial potential.
– Set of online mini-courses about entrepreneurship, business
planning, legal aspects of setting up a company and hiring
employees, etc, designed for university students
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RomanRoutes
Digital competences
• Education and Material
• Services
• Digital skills
– Educators
– Citizens
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Education and Material
• The entire education process is
supported by online platforms
• Tutoring meetings (students-tutor
or tutor-tutor) take place via WebEx
• The learning material that has been
produced by HOU is available online
via a tailor-made reading app
• Exams take place online via a tailor-
made platform
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Services
• Online (different platforms)
– Student enrollment
– Certificates of attendance / participation
– Grading
– Exams
– Institutional communication
– Submission of applications and selection of
tutors
• Guides on how to use the platforms / 24-7
support
• HOU web site and gazette
• Online events
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MOOCs
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OLMEdu
• OLMedu project aims at the creation of an open lab for the up-
skilling of HES staff in online management education.
• Its main objectives are:
– a) To provide higher educational staff with the proper knowledge, skills
and competences required to facilitate distance learning using
technologies and tools of online training
– b) To cultivate their ability to embed the appropriate pedagogies, into
the online environment, form their teaching-learning process using
online methodologies, adjusted to the training context of management
education
– c) To create training activities and learning material to be studied and
followed by HEI educational staff in order them to effectively create
positive learning environments for their students, train them to
collaborate, make decisions, solve problems and integrate them into
strategic scenarios
– d) To create the capacity of HEI training staff to develop online
simulations and integrate them in their training offering practice using a
newly developed user-friendly tool
– e) To create an open access learning repository and online community of
practice for the development of online training delivery skills and
competences for HEI educational staff
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RE-EDUCO
• http://re-educo.eu/
• The project aims at encouraging the production,
experimentation and sharing of new approaches and training
methods in the field of digital culture.
• Running for 9 months
• Expected Outcomes
– A training scheme for active citizenship for digital society
– An international Community of Practice for the digital transformation
challenges
– A training course for teachers for education in the digital era
– An online environment to host the training course and CoP
– A school contest for digital innovation
– Personalized active learning on digital skills for students
– Methodologies and Guidelines for non formal learning methods
– Re-Educo Youtube channel
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Training scheme for active
citizenship for digital society
 Informative seminars
 Digital ethics, cyberbullying, social media and internet, risks
and opportunities of new technologies
 Orientation seminars
 New skills and labour perspective, digital technologies and
Society 5.0
 Training courses
 New digital identity, data privacy
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DCDS
• http://www.dcds-project.eu/
• Project DCDS developed an innovative multilingual Digital
Competences Development System (DCDS) and used it to
provide non-formal training to low-skilled adults in
different European countries
• Outcomes
– A methodology for the development of digital
competences and related transversal competences of adults
– An online environment that implements the methodology
– Flexible and modular blended course with face-to-face
support sessions by trainers (e-facilitators) in using the
online environment
– Reports and policy recommendations based on data
analysis
• DCDS is completely aligned with DIGCOMP 2.1
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Online tools
• Self-Assessment Tool for digital competences
– Digital Academy for Greek Citizens
– MyDigiSkills
• MOOCs for the development of digital
competence in various sectors:
– Museum professionals (project Mu.SA)
– Culture professionals and students (and citizens
in general) (projects DELTA, NICHE, EuHerit etc.)
– Smart city employees (project Smart DevOps)
– Library employees (project BIBLIO)
– Caregivers (project I-CARE)
• MOOC for intergenerational learning (project
TOY+)
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Summary
• HOU makes efforts to open doors
and build corridors, so that
everyone can become member of
modern society and move freely
between its domains
• HOU is not only inwards but also
outwards inclusive, in that it
supports the society to become
inclusive at all levels
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• Our target groups include
– Teachers, professors, educators
– Policy makers and mediators
– Employers and employees
– Migrants
– Disadvantaged groups and groups at
the risk of exclusion
– Students, young people and elders
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• Our main instrument is education
and training
• Other instruments we use:
– Online platforms
– Freely available material
– Awareness raising campaigns
– Events and workshops
– Publications
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DAISSy training platforms
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Contacts
• Web
– http://daissy.eap.gr
– http://sdy.eap.gr
– http://daisy.cti.gr
• MOOCs & elearning
– https://mooc.cti.gr
– https://elearning.daissy.eu
• YouTube
– DAISSy Research Group
• Contact us
– info@daissy.eap.gr
• LinkedIn
– daissyresearchgroup
• FaceBook
– DAISSyResearchGroup
• Twitter
– daissy_research
• Instagram
– @daissy_researchgroup
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