EuroPACE ivzw

EuroPACE ivzw is co-ordinator and partner 2 of the Re.ViCa project, based in Belgium. Its short name is EuroPACE.

EuroPACE ivzw is a European non-profit association of universities, educational institutions and their networks. Its main interests are innovation in education, new educational technologies, quality in e-learning and e-learning competences and skills. Its target groups are higher education institutions, private companies and policy-making bodies.

Its web site is http://www.europace.org/.

The mission of EuroPACE

The main objective of EuroPACE is to foster networked e-learning,

• for virtual mobility,
• for internationalization of higher education,
• for knowledge creation and sharing, and
• for lifelong learning.

Activities of EuroPACE

Activities of EuroPACE include:

• R&D projects: EuroPACE has built up a long history in research, development and demonstration in technology enhanced teaching and learning, mainly through its active participation in regional, national and international projects.

• Expert advice: Education providers and corporate organisations are gradually making the transition towards a technology enhanced learning and training context. As they often lack experience in this, EuroPACE provides them with expert advise on how to integrate effectively ICT in daily teaching or training practices. EuroPACE provides them with support in the design, development and/or delivery of eLearning courses and develops long term strategies, concepts and models for ODL in university environments and virtual mobility programmes.

• Networking: EuroPACE is a member network of Higher Education institutions & associations. The main objectives of EuroPACE are to facilitate networking for eLearning, ICT-based cooperation and knowledge sharing in an international environment. Therefore, EuroPACE actively participates in other national and international initiatives where it represents the activities and needs of its members. Vice versa, the knowledge gained in these initiatives is fed back into the members so they are kept up-to-date of all educational, technological, organisational, and didactical developments.

• Training and learning: Collaboration in e-learning is only possible when education providers and students have developed the right e-learning skills and competencies. EuroPACE stresses the importance of training activities and regularly organises training workshops and seminars.

• Events & publications: EuroPACE regulary organises events, workshops and seminars, participates in and presents at major e-learning conferences and publishes articles in (online) journals, reports and manuals/handbooks.

History of EuroPACE

• 1986: Initiative to establish PACE (European Programme of Advanced Continuing Education) by a consortium of European higher education and research institutions and industrial companies. PACE was a satellite education delivery system, with terrestrial computer conferencing feedback to provide advanced education from European Centres of Expertise, usually based in universities, to engineers in industry at their own workplace.

• 1988: The preparatory phase of the establishment of the PACE programme was used to establish EuroPACE as a non-profit organisation with headquarters in Paris, France. In spring of 1988 the first satellite transmission took place and the first seminar transmitted was connected with the opening ceremonies of EuroPACE in Finland. Activities of EuroPACE could be divided into three categories:

- a delivery system that established the technical infrastructure for course supply (on demand) through satellite and terrestrial networks.

- an educational centre that selected advanced educational topics, identifies European centres of excellence and distributes (or commissions) courses from those centres.

- a financial and promotional organisation that negotiated with industry, universities and governments for resources, redistributed payment from course receivers to course suppliers, and promoted own activities.

• 1993-1994: Re-launch of EuroPACE 2000, conceived as a Pan-European university network, involving the industrial and corporate partners of these universities as well , move of secretariat to the University of Leuven, Belgium.

• 1996: Articles of association establishing EuroPACE 2000 as an international association according to Belgian law. EuroPACE stands for "Professional and Academic Channel for Europe 2000"

• 2005: Change of articles of association re-naming the organisation as "EuroPACE ivzw". EuroPACE now stands for "European Professional Association for Collaboration in E-Learning".

The EuroPACE Office

The EuroPACE headquarters are located in Heverlee, Belgium, colocated with AVNet-Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

Members

Universities

• Katholieke Hogeschool Leuven - Belgium
• Lessius Hogeschool - Belgium
• Katholieke Universiteit Leuven - K.U.Leuven Belgium
• Universiteit Gent - Belgium
• University of Brussels (VUB) - Belgium
• University of Zagreb - University Computing Centre - Croatia
• Helsinki University of Technology Finland
• Laurea University of Applied Sciences - Finland
• Vidéoscop - Université Nancy 2 - France
• FernUniversität in Hagen Germany
• University of West-Hungary Hungary
• Consorzio NETTUNO Italy
• Warsaw University of Technology - Poland
• West Pomeranian Business School - Poland
• Technical University of Kosice - Slovakia
• Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Spain

Regional, National and International Organisations

• European Academy for Sciences and Arts - Austria
• SPACE - Belgium
• SEFI - Belgium
• European Lifelong Learning Initiative - UK
• EDEN - UK

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