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by Carmen Holotescu (2012-13 report and 2014 update) from a country stub by James Kay

For entities in Romania see Category:Romania


Overview

>>> For PDF version of the report click here


Romania (archaic: Rumania, Roumania; Romanian: România) is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, north of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory. It shares a border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova to the northeast, and Bulgaria to the south.

The territory's recorded history includes periods of rule by Dacians, the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire. As a nation-state, the country was formed by the merging of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1859 and it gained recognition of its independence in 1878. Later, in 1918, they were joined by Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia. At the end of World War II, parts of its territories (roughly the present day Moldova) were occupied by the USSR and Romania became a member of the Warsaw Pact. With the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Romania started a series of political and economic reforms.

Since December 1989, Romania has pursued a policy of strengthening relations with the West in general, more specifically with the United States and the European Union. It joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) on 29 March 2004, the European Union (EU) on 1 January 2007, while it had joined the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in 1972, and is a founding member of the World Trade Organization.

Romania has the 9th largest territory and the 7th largest population (with 21.5 million people) among the European Union member states.

Its capital and largest city is Bucharest (Romanian: Bucureşti), the 6th largest city in the EU with 1.9 million people.

Romania is a semi-presidential unitary state.

Further information

For further general information see Romania in figures (2012) from National Institute of Statistics and Wikipedia:Romania/OER.

Education in Romania/OER

According to the Law on National Education (http://www.edu.ro/index.php/legaldocs/14847) adopted in 2011, the education system is regulated by the Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sport, and it consists of: 

  • The preuniversity system that contains the following levels:

a) early childhood (0-6 years), consisting of the ante-preschool (0-3 years) and preschool (3-6 years);

b) primary education, including the preparatory class and grades I-IV;

c) secondary education, including:

(i) lower secondary education or secondary education, which includes classes V to IX;

(ii) secondary education or secondary education, which includes X-XII/XIII classes with the following channels: general, vocational and technological

d) vocational education lasting 6 months to 2 years;

e) nonuniversitar tertiary education, including post-secondary education.

The pre-university education system also includes related units: "Houses of the Teaching Staff" (teacher training centres), County Centres for Pedagogical and Psychological Assistance, logopedic centres, School Inspectorates.

  • The Romanian higher education system is in line with the Bologna Agreement. As a result, most Bachelor’s programs take 3 years to complete. However, some programs last longer – for example, some technical fields, medicine and architecture. Master’s programs take 2 years beyond the Bachelor’s degree. Master’s programs are a prerequisite for admission to Ph.D. programs. Ph.D. programs usually take 3 years to complete. Under special circumstances, the duration of study may be extended by 1 or 2 years. Romania has a large higher education sector with 54 public universities and approximately 40 accredited private universities. The new Law on National Education seeks to bring about the following changes to HE institutions:

- increased autonomy and increased public accountability;

- university classification (see below);

- concentration of resources;

- entrepreneurship;

- human resources policy reform;

- student-centred universities.

A new university classification is being introduced in 2011 that distinguishes three types of institutions:

- Education-centred (bachelor)

- Education- and research-centred (bachelor and master)

- Advanced research and education-centred (plus doctoral). The evalution project was supported by the European University Association http://www.eua.be/News/11-03-25/EUA_to_support_development_of_higher_education_reforms_in_Romania.aspx.

A university can move from one category to another. Further flexibility is provided to the extent that, e.g., a university classified as education-centred can offer master or doctoral studies in certain fields, provided that the specific programme has been evaluated to be of high quality. Funding will be dependent on the type of university and the results of a ranking of study programmes.

Among the educational priorities of the government program of 2012 there are http://gov.ro/programul-de-guvernare-2012__l1a117011.html:

  • a performant continuing education program for teachers co-financed with European funds
  • "The school of the second chance": reintegration in schools of children who abandoned the studies
  • "The school after the school": pupils may remain in the school building after the end of the lessons for tutoring sessions or as participants of organized sport, interest and recreation activities
  • adapting learning programs to meet individual and society needs
  • creating community centers for lifelong learning - http://www.edu.ro/index.php/articles/18341
  • the development of the RoEduNet network for gaining fast internet access in a large number of areas.

For a detailed overview of the Romanian pre-university system, access Popescu, Ana‐Cristina. "The decentralisation of the school system in post‐communist Romania." Journal of Educational Administration and History 42.3 (2010): 315-336.http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220620.2010.492964, and for an overview of the higher education system, access the Monograph on Higher Education in Romania http://www.fulbright.ro/media/pdf/Monograph%20on%20Higher%20Education%20in%20Romania.pdf .

There are also an authoritative recent reports at http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTROMANIA/Resources/EducationPolicyNote.pdf (2007), http://www.see-educoop.net/education_in/pdf/workshop/tesee/dokumenti/book/Romania.pdf (2006, other reportshttp://www.see-educoop.net/portal/id_rom.htm) and http://www.ibe.unesco.org/National_Reports/ICE_2008/romania_NR08.pdf (2008).

Further information at EURYPEDIA Romania  https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/eurydice/index.php/Romania:Overview, Analysis of the implementation of the strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (ET2020) - Country analysishttp://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc/joint11/wp2_en.pdf, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_educational_system.


e-learning

A clear and comprehensive overview of projects and initiatives aimed at integrating ICT and e-learning at all levels of education is provided by the paper Istrate, Olimpius (2007). "eLearning in Romania: the State of the Art". eLearning Papers, no. 5. ISSN 1887-1542.http://www.elearningeuropa.info/files/media/media13566.pdf, which however dates back to 2007, thus referring mostly to closed projects. See also:

The Romanian education institutions began to include new technologies in their development agenda in the 1990s - see Marga, Andrei. "Reform of Education in Romania in the 1990s: A Retrospective." Higher Education in Europe 27.1-2 (2002): 123-135. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0379772022000003279.

In recent years it has been noticed a general trend shifting from the access to technology (equipping schools with ICT tools) to the access to quality eContent and to virtual learning spaces.

The eLearning Romania programme is an initiative of different Romanian civil society institution to support e-learning development and innovation in Romania. Decisionmakers, academics, researchers, practitioners, opinion leaders and educational software developers are involved since 2006 within a community meant to share resources. Other institutions from private sector supports this initiative. The eLearning Romania programme aims to raise the quality and the efficiency of the computer-assisted education area, through offering theoretical support; disseminating best practices and significant local e-learning experiences; providing continuous informing regarding events and relevant announcements; promoting available solutions and systems and services for e-learning.


2.1.1 In pre-university system


a. SEI Project

SEI programme (Sistem Educational Informatizat - Education IT-Based System) represents the implementation of the Romanian Government Strategy in the field of information and computer-aided education, being initiated by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports in 2001, and being developed with the main partners Siveco http://siveco.ro, a company specialized in eLearning, HP Romania, and IBM Romania. SEI has as main objective to support the pre-university system with the latest technology. The introduction of information technology in the Romanian educational system has two main components: ICT based learning, and management efficiency and transparency in education at all levels, using IT tools support. See SEI Presentation http://portal.edu.ro/index.php/articles/c11, also Evaluation ICT-Based Education System: S.E.I. Programme in Romania. Evaluation Research Report 2008 http://www.elearning.ro/resources/EvalSEI_report_2008.pdf at http://www.tehne.ro/activitati/.

Currently, all schools in Romania have computer laboratories equipped with the latest technology: 13,181 Romanian schools now have a complete eLearning solution. 192,000 computers were installed with the latest software, including AeL eContent (over 3,500 lessons).

SEI covers all major activities in the education sector:

  • Education - AeL (from Advanced eLearning) is the core of the SEI programme, offering support for teaching and learning, testing and evaluation, content management, and training programs for 141,750 teachers; the program is meant to integrate the use of ICT in daily school practice, improving the teaching/learning process; 
  • School management and educational resources management;
  • IT support for national exams - admission to colleges and professional schools (ADLIC), Baccalaureate, tenure;
  • Creating National Education Database http://www.harta.edu.ro;
  • Communication and collaboration - national education portal http://www.portal.edu.ro - forums, newsletters, training sessions, educational initiatives.

Users and beneficiaries (4 million) are situated at all levels of the education system: local, regional and national level, being teachers, students, parents, managers, operators, policy makers and the general public.

The project, implemented by the Ministry of Education in partnership with the private sector, was carried out in three phases:

  • SEI-1 (2001-2002): pilot period including the design and experimentation (and adjustement) of the main components
  • SEI-2 and SEI-3 (2003-2004): transition period with communication lines and technical support established; general methodology for implementation developed and favourable area covered at high school level;
  • SEI-4 (2005-2008) period of construction and generalization of ICT in the pre-university system.

During the first 3 stages of the SEI Programme (high-school computerisation), the dynamics of the computerisation initiative was more pronounced than the European growth rate. 

The 4th SEI stage brought the Romanian schools closer to the European level of  computerisation in primary and lower secondary education. (Evaluation ICT-Based Education System: S.E.I. Programme in Romania. Evaluation Research Report 2008 http://www.elearning.ro/resources/EvalSEI_report_2008.pdf, page 10).

The projects developed with SEI can be found at http://portal.edu.ro/index.php/articles/c147/en.


b. Knowledge Economy Project

Another important strategic national project is the Knowledge based Economy Project (KEP) http://www.ecomunitate.ro/en/proiect, presentation  http://www.cegd.eu/renaissance_for_eGovernance_2012/materials/ppt/1_Tuesday/Romania-presentation.pdf, implemented by the Ministry of Communication and Informational Society between 2005-2013, and founded by the World Bank. The Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sport is a partner in this program, that has three componentshttp://www.ecomunitate.ro/Raport_CPI_%2817549%29.html:

  • Expanded access to Information & Communication Technologies and improved digital literacy
  • Development and promotion of government e-services
  • Promotion of e-commerce and innovation support for SMEs.

During the KEP implementation, the access to knowledge was enabled for 255 rural/disadvantaged communities from 38 counties, addressing to over 1,8 million people (8% of Romania's population). The schools of these communities are the beneficiars of (http://www.ecomunitate.ro/Implementarea_tehnologiei_informatiei_si_comunicatiilor_in_scoli%2817527%29.html):

  • ICT infrastructure
  • training of teachers
  • inclusion of new technologies in education.


c. INSAM

The INSAM System http://insam.softwin.ro/insam provides digital tools to improve quality assessment in pre-university system, being a project implemented by Ministry of Education and its partner Softwin http://softwin.ro, a company specialized in eLearning.

The system is based on specific digital resources (assessment items, standards and performance descriptors) needed to improve evaluative processes and self-assessment of high school students, providing an Evaluation Guide for specific curricular area, progress reports and statistics, discussions forum.

The system is used by:

  • 767,439 students
  • 11,270 teachers in secondary education.


2.1.2 In universities

A report published in 2010 found that over 58% of the Romanian higher education institutions use eLearning solutions for online/blended courses or for courses enhancement.  http://advancedelearning.com/index.php/articles/pressrel/1082. The Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education ARACIS published the standards for eLearning platforms used in  distance learning programs offered by universities (http://www.aracis.ro/fileadmin/ARACIS/Legislatie_-_Proceduri/Partea_a_V-a_-_Ghid_evaluare-ID.pdf). 

Open source platforms (Moodle, Caroline, ILIAS) or proprietary solutions (AeL of Softwin, University Management System, Microsoft Learning Gateway, Blackboard) are used for LMSs (Dima, Lucian Lupu, Eduard Edelhauser, and Andreea Ionică. "E-Learning Platforms In Romanian Higher Education." Annals of the University of Petrosani, Economics 10.1 (2010): 137-148. http://upet.ro/annals/pdf/20100115.pdf,  resources at http://www.timsoft.ro/index.php?pagina=resurse2 and http://www.elearning.ro/elearning-universitar). During the last years a high percentage of the academic teachers took part in online/blended trainings related to eLearning developed in programs co-financed with European funds.

300,000 students and teachers in 25 universities use the University Management System (UMS) http://ums.ro, a solution Red Point http://theredpoint.ro:, that consists in an integrated system for virtual communities, admission, fees, scholarships, awards, accommodation, transport and management reports (http://theredpoint.ro/produse-software-proprii/ums-university-management-system http://theredpoint.ro/produse-software-proprii/ums-university-management-system):

  • University of Bucharest
  • University "Spiru Haret" Bucharest
  • University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Bucharest
  • National School of Political and Administrative Studies, Bucharest
  • Ecological University of Bucharest
  • University “Bioterra” Bucharest
  • CODECS Bucharest
  • University “Valahia” of Târgoviste
  • University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Iasi
  • University of the Arts "G. Enescu" Iasi
  • University "Petre Andrei" of Ias i
  • University "Mihail Kogălniceanu" of Iasi
  • University "Vasile Alecsandri" of Bacău
  • University "George Bacovia" of Bacău
  • University "Dunarea de Jos" of Galați
  • University "Danubius" of Galați
  • University "1 decembrie" of Alba Iulia
  • University "Lucian Blaga" of Sibiu
  • University of Petros ani
  • University "Constantin Brancusi" of Târgu Jiu
  • University "Ovidius" of Constanța
  • University "Andrei Saguna" of Constanța
  • Maritime University of Constanța
  • University "Vasile Goldis" of Arad
  • West University of Timisoara.

Other universities use OS or other proprietary solutions for their LMSs:

  • eLearning Center of Politehnica University of Timisoara
  • Department of Continuing and Distance Education of the West University of Timisoara
  • Credis Department of University of Bucharest
  • Faculty of Communication and Public Relations - Online Master Programs
  • Virtual Campus of University of Economic Sciences
  • ADL Partnership Lab - "Carol I" National Defence University
  • University "Babes Bolyai" Cluj-Napoca - Distance Education Portal
  • Blackboard Learn at University "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" Iasi
  • Online Psychology Cluj-Napoca
  • Online Courses at University "Vasile Goldis" Arad
  • University "Lucian Blaga" din Sibiu
  • University of Bucharest - Distance Learning
  • Virtual Campus of Faculty of Electrotehnics Iasi
  • UCEBS - Faculty of Economic Sciences Drobeta Turnu Severin
  • University "Dimitrie Cantemir" Cluj-Napoca
  • Cisco Networking Academy - Romania
  • eLearning Portal of University Transilvania Brasov.

Social Media are used by Romanian educational actors for information, knowledge sharing, collaborative spaces, for courses enhancement or to enlarge the "walled garden" LMSs, even if only a few universities have specific policies related to SM (see "Academic research in 140 characters" (2011) that shows how Romanian educators use microblogging (Twitter, Cirip.eu, Edmodo, Yammer, Plurk, Google Buzz, Identi.ca, Jaiku, Twiducate) http://www.scribd.com/doc/54084667/Academic-research-in-140-characters-or-less and "An empirical analysis of the educational effects of Social Media in universities and colleges" (2012) http://www.scribd.com/doc/92289204/Else-2012-GrosseckHolotescu-Full).


2.1.3 In continuing/post-secondary education


CODECS Romania

The Open University Business School http://www8.open.ac.uk/business-school has been offering courses in Romania for almost twenty years in partnership with The Centre for Open Distance Education for the Civil Society (CODEDS) http://www.codecs.ro/en, a major provider of management education in Romania. CODECS aim to provide a high quality and internationally recognised programme of management education for active managers in the emerging free market economy.

The internationally recognised Master of Business Administration (MBA), presented in English, provides opportunities for networking locally at regular seminars and internationally, both at residential schools and online, with managers studying the programme around the world. Seminars are presented by CODECS and OU Business School lecturers who have management and business experience. The MBA alumni in Romania become members of the OU Business School Romania Alumni Network http://www.codecs.ro/en/alumni-oubs.

The Open University Business School's Professional Certificate and Professional Diploma in Management programmes are presented in Romanian through a network of twelve Regional Centres across Romania. Each year over a thousand students study these programmes; many students then progress onto the MBA Programme.


Online communities/continuing education

The following platforms offers online courses/resources and host online communities for teachers and trainers:

  1. http://elearning.ro
  2. http://iteach.ro
  3. http://tehne.ro
  4. http://cirip.ro
  5. http://forum.portal.edu.ro
  6. http://didactic.ro
  7. http://e-scoala.ro
  8. http://www.dascali.ro
  9. http://www.1educat.ro
  10. http://www.academiaonline.ro
  11. http://www.ecursuri.ro
  12. http://www.academiadeafaceri.ro
  13. http://www.cursuri-online.info
  14. http://www.training.ro
  15. http://www.cursurionline.ro.


2.1.4 Main scientific events

According to the report "The Western Europe Market for Self-paced eLearning Products and Services: 2011-2016 Forecast and Analysis." published by Ambient Insight in 2012, September: "the growth rate for Self-paced eLearning in Western Europe is 5.8%" and "there are now major digitization efforts going on in the school systems in France, Poland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Spain." http://www.ambientinsight.com/Reports/eLearning.aspx

"Up until quite recently, the global Self-paced eLearning market has largely been a story of corporate adoption in developed economies. That has changed dramatically in the last two years and the narrative is now one of rapid adoption in all the buyer segments, particularly in the consumer, academic, and government segments in developing economies. The top ten countries with the highest growth rates are Vietnam, Malaysia, Romania, Azerbaijan, Thailand, Kenya, Slovakia, the Philippines, India, and China. The growth rates in these countries are all above 30%, more than four times the worldwide aggregate growth rate."

Quality procedures

Pre-university level

At the national level of the education system, the quality assurance strategy is implemented by the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in School Education - ARACIP.

This agency is responsible for:

  • external evaluation of the quality of education offered by schools;
  • authorisation, accreditation and evaluation schools.

The purpose of the external evaluation is mainly (i) to certify the capacity of the schools to meet the quality standards, (ii) to play a role in the development of a 'culture of quality' in school education institutions, and (iii) to recommend policies and strategies to the Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports in order to improve the quality of education.

Public education is financed in Romania at a minimum of 4% of GDP. According to the Law on National Education adopted in 2011, public education is financed from the state and the local budgets (town, commune). Public education institutions of all levels can raise and use their own funds, in accordance with the current legal provisions. Current legislation provides the general framework for the establishment of private education institutions at all levels. In order to be recognised as part of the national education system, private education institutions have to be accredited through specific procedures established by the law. Diplomas and certificates emitted by the accredited private education institutions produce the same effects as the ones emitted by the public education institutions. Organizing bodies of private education institutions are entirely responsible of the administration and financing of the activities within the established legal framework.

The quality of the work done by teachers in eTwinning projects is recognized through a National Certificate of Qualitye, which stands as an appreciation of their efforts in promoting quality and openness in European eTwining activities. From 2011, September also students are awarded for their results in such projects. If at least two partners receive the National Certificate of Quality for the same project, they will automatically receive the European Quality Label, which is a prerequisite for participation in European awards. The European version of the certificate is given only once a year (in September).


Higher Education

The Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education ARACIS was established in 2005. One major change has been that universities are now less strictly controlled by the Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports. However, in every university growing autonomy should be accompanied by the development of a quality assurance system that safeguards the quality of university education and highlights differences between universities in terms of educational performance. Universities are very much aware that their appeal among students is largely determined by their ability to deliver tangible results. Furthermore, Romanian universities are implementing an effective quality assurance system in order to prepare for future competition with other universities. From this perspective, the main principles of Romanian quality assurance system focus on:

  • the European Dimension, characterized by the integration in the European Higher Education Area of all Romanian higher education institutions;
  • institutional responsibility, considered as a concept based on the principle of academic autonomy;
  • institutional diversity, guaranteed through the external quality evaluation of all study programmes;
  • cooperation of all the components of the education system as parts of a whole system;
  • a performance-based system, by reference to the position obtained in quality assurance/evaluation;
  • institutional identity, by influencing good practices and successful structures in the field of academic quality;
  • internal institutional self-evaluation, as universities present the specificity of the quality culture through self-evaluation reports, continuous performance improvements;
  • external evaluation, by monitoring the results reported by universities, through analysis of performance and relationship with the stated institutional reality (including student activities, conformity to the stated standards);
  • improvement of quality – the main objective of all higher education institutions and, therefore, of the Romanian quality assurance system.

In 2012, January, two strategic projects for Higher Education 2012-2014 were launched: "Performance in research, performance in teaching. Quality, diversity and innovation in Romanian universities" and "Ready to innovate, ready to respond better to local needs. Quality and diversity of Romanian universities" - http://www.uefiscdi.gov.ro/articole/2758/Conferinta-de-lansare-a-proiectelor-strategice-pentru-invatamantul-superior-2012%E2%80%902014.html. The projects are implemented by UEFISCDI (Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation) http://www.uefiscdi.gov.ro and aimed at improving management and quality assurance system in

Romanian higher education in order to increase its capacity to contribute to relevantly, long-term socio-economic development of Romania. The universities' institutional assessment methodology is developed and implemented by the European University Associationhttp://www.eua.be (EUA) as main partner in these strategic projects - http://www.forhe.ro. 

Internet in Romania/OER

Official statistics on the information society in Romania are provided by the European Commissionshttp://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digital-agenda/scoreboard/countries/ro/index_en.htm and by Global Information Society Watch http://www.giswatch.org/reports/country/Romania.

Digital inclusion has been a high priority on the Romanian ICT Ministry’s agenda since 2004, and is still present in the authorities’ official statements and actions. An important step in facilitating equal access to ICT infrastructure is the 200 Euro Programme, launched in 2004 and operational since 2005, in partnership with the Ministry of Education. The programme helps Romania’s low-income families purchase computers for school-going children and for university students, assisted by governmental financial aid.

Tangible results concerning digital inclusion in the country have also been achieved by the Knowledge Economy Project (2006-2013), which helped 255 communities get internet access, and supported small business e development and local content creation. This effort was awarded the European Commission’s e Inclusion medal in 2008 in the Geographical Inclusion section. 

In 2009 The Romanian Ministry of Communications and Information Society (MCSI) adopted a Strategic Plan for 2010-2013 that set out the actions and programs for developing an efficient information society and knowledge economy. Through this strategic plan, MCSI has established the following directions of activity:

  • Electronic Communications – aimed to encourage investments in infrastructure, promote innovation and ensure effective management of limited resources, as well as, improve the capacity of R&D systems to support future policy documents, strategies and regulations developed by MCSI.
  • Information Society – aimed to ensure an integrated approach according to the European policies, to modernize public administration by managing and promoting information and public services using electronic means, to develop the IT research-innovation sector, and to implement the specific technologies in central and local administration and business environment; to contributes to computer skills improvement and facilitates access to modern ICT for citizens in disadvantaged communities.
  • Structural Funds Management – trying to achieve a high degree of absorption of structural funds and an efficient use of interventions.
  • MCSI Administrative Capacity – financed through the budgetary program Advanced Institutional Management, which aims to mobilize the available resources for developing a competitive, knowledge based information society, promoting ICT services and increasing citizens' comfort.

There were 8,578,484 internet users in Romania (representing 39.2% of the population) in mid-year 2012 (June 30, 2012), according to Internet World Stats, October 2012 - http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats4.htm#europe. 

The majority of users in Romania access the internet through a PC, with 67.3% citing this as their main point of access. Laptop computers are significantly less popular, and the devices make up only 4% of total national internet access in Romania.

As is the case across Europe, the most active age group is the 18 - 24 year-olds, who make up 35% of the online community.  The 25 - 34 age group comprises 33% of internet users, and the 35 - 45 age group represents 32% of users.  Overwhelmingly, Romanian internet users are educated to degree level; employees with university degrees account for 38% of the online population, with students and post-graduate scholars representing a further 22% of users.

Romanian Internet users by occupation:

  • Employee with a university degree - 38%
  • Scholar, student - 22%
  • General Manager (executive) - 11%
  • Self Employed - 8%
  • Qualified worker - 5%
  • Homemaker - 3%
  • Pensioner - 1%
  • Unemployed - 1%
  • Farmer - 1%
  • Unqualified worker - 1%
  • Other - 10%.

There are significant discrepancies across geographies in Romania in terms of internet accessibility. The capital city, Bucharest, is the most active location in Romania on the Internet: 79% of its inhabitants have access to the internet either from home, work, school or public access points, and 56% access online content on a daily or weekly basis. (Public Intelligence, January 2011 - http://publicintelligence.net/ufouo-u-s-state-department-social-media-landscape-romania)

A report published by the Romanian Institute of Evaluation and Strategy(http://www.ires.com.ro/uploads/articole/ires_romanii_si_internetul_2011.pdf) analyses the Internet uses in Romania at the end of 2011.

The report "Statistical data report on the Internet access services and the leased lines and data transmision services" published by the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications of Romania (ANCOM http://www.ancom.org.ro/en) provided figures such as http://www.ancom.org.ro/en/december-12-2012_4910 states that the market of broadband Internet access services maintained the ascendant trend in almost all segments in the first half of 2012, with mobile Internet registering the most significant growth rate:

  • the number of fixed broadband Internet access connections exceeded 3.4 million, standing for a half-yearly growth of 4.1% and for an annual growth of 9.1%, respectively
  • the penetration rate of fixed broadband Internet access connections per 100 inhabitants reached 18% as of mid-2012
  • the penetration rate per 100 households grew to 44%
  • in the first half of 2012, the number of fixed connections installed to business users rose by 4% as compared to the same period of the previous year
  • the connections installed to residential users registered an annual growth rate of 9.6%; out of the 3.4 million fixed broadband Internet access connections reported by the middle of 2012, more than 90% have been installed to residential users
  • a noteworthy increase in the number of connections installed in rural area was registered as of mid-2012, i.e. almost 0.8 million connections (+11.7% half-yearly growth, respectively +26.4% annual growth)
  • in urban area, the number of connections registered a 2% half-yearly increase and, respectively, a 4.8% annual increase, reaching 2.6 million connections
  • as regards the speed of fixed Internet connections, half of such connections used by residential subscribers are high-speed connections (at least 30 Mbps)
  • according to the data reported by the 6 providers of mobile Internet access services, the total number of active mobile broadband Internet access connections amounted to 6.9 million, up by 63.8% as compared to end-2011 and almost double as compared to the value registered at mid-2011: thus, 5.6 million active mobile broadband connections achieved over mobile telephones and 1.3 million active mobile broadband connections achieved over modems/cards/dongles were reported; the total number of terminals/SIM cards allowing mobile Internet access over 3G (including 3G+), EV-DO, 4G or other technologies superior to 3G reached about 7.4 million as of 30 June 2012.

"Romanians are increasingly interested in mobile Internet and this is shown by the spectacular evolution registered in the number of connections achieved over mobile phones, against a monthly payment. Basically, in only one year, the total number of active mobile broadband Internet access connections almost doubled",  Mr. Catalin Marinescu, the president of ANCOM, said.

Further information at http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/markets-by-country/10-europe/80-romania,http://mediafactbook.ro/ebook/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/MediaFactBook2012_Initiative.pdf and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Romania.


Internet in Education

Developing the ICT infrastructure and the internet connection for the Romanian education institutions were the core goals of the major programs: 

  • SEI Programme (Sistem Educational Informatizat - Education IT-Based System) http://portal.edu.ro 13,181 Romanian schools have computer laboratories equipped with the latest technology and with internet connection, the total number of computers being over 192,000. 
  • Knowledge Economy Project http://ecomunitate.ro: ICT and internet infrastructure was enabled for 255 schools in rural/disadvantaged communities from 38 counties.
  • RoEduNet (Romanian National Research and Education Network) http://www.roedu.net is Romania's research and education (R&E) network, consisting of more than 4,200 km of optical fiber that connects universities, schools, research centers and cultural institutions across the country. RoEduNet was initiated in 1993, connecting the universities of Bucharest, Iaşi and Cluj-Napoca - see RoEduNet hsitory at http://www.roedu.net/ro/page/istoric. RoEduNet forms part of GÉANT http://www.geant2.net, the European education and research network linking academic and research institutions in 34 European countries. In 2011, RoEduNet has moved to 100G to carry 100GbE traffic across a link from Bucharest to Iaşi, the country’s second largest city located more than 450 kilometers to the north http://www.ciena.com/connect/blog/Ciena-100G-hits-Eastern-Europe.html.

Starting with 2013, the Romanian government will implement two educational projects, due to the fact that Romania is the first EU country which provided 4G license:

  • wireless connection in every school
  • e-book reader for all children.

Copyright law in Romania/OER

Romania is a member of the Bern Convention on Copyright. 

The Romanian Law on Copyright and Neighboring Rights 8/1996 was adopted in March 14, 19968 ENGLEZA.doc http://www.orda.ro/fisiere/legi/LEGEA%208%20ENGLEZA.doc, http://www.legi-internet.ro/en/copyright.htm. The law was further modified several times in 2004, 2005 and 2006, mainly to adopt it to the EU acquis communitaire . 

In 1998, the Romanian Parliament ratified the latest versions of the Bern and Rome conventions. The Romanian Copyright Office (ORDA) was established in 1997 http://www.orda.ro. 

In 2005, the Government and Parliament stiffened sanctions for copyright theft, stripped the Romanian Copyright Office (ORDA) of its law enforcement responsibilities, and designated the General Prosecutor's Office as the national coordinator of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) enforcement activities.

A new change to the Copyright Law (see info in Romanian and comments http://apti.ro/modificare-legislatie-drepturi-de-autor)  has passed the Senate vote and should be discussed and adopted by the Chamber of Deputies at the end of 2012. The new text implements a definition of “orphan works” but establishes a quite difficult regime for their re-use. Also the new text will impose a new levy to be paid to collective societies for the public libraries and higher education libraries (only the pre-universitary libraries will be exempted).

In September 2, 2008 the Creative Commons Romania version was launched with the help of ApTI - The Association for Technology and Internet http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ro/, http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Romania. This launch followed a period of prior work with iCommons, the entity that manages these licenses internationally, which involved the translation of licenses and their adaptation to the Romanian legal framework, a consultation period public, and finally the availability of these licenses in Romania. News about events related to CC and a non-exclusive list of projects/blogs using CC licenses may be found at CreativeCommons Romaniahttp://ro.creativecommons.org.


Copyright law in Education

The Article 22 of the Romanian Law on Copyright and Neighboring Rights specifies that the educational uses of (some parts of) a work already disclosed to the public are permitted without the author's consent and without payment of remuneration, being mandatory to mention the source and the author's name if it appears on the work used http://www.legi-internet.ro/en/copyright.htm:

(c) the use of isolated articles or brief excerpts from works in publications, television or radio broadcasts or sound or audiovisual recordings exclusively intended for teaching purposes and also the reproduction for teaching purposes, within the framework of public education or social welfare institutions, of isolated articles or brief extracts from works, to the extent justified by the intended purpose;

(...)

(i) the representation and execution of a work as part of the activities of educational institutions, exclusively for specific purposes and on condition that both the representation or execution and the public's access are free of charge.

The Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sport has a National Ethics Council (http://www.ancs.ro/ro/articol/1011/despre-ancs-organizare-organe-consultative-3-consiliul-national-de-etica) governed by the specifications of the National Ethics Code, and an Ethics Commission and Code exist in each university; the council and commissions inform and monitor the respect of the codes and of the Intellectual Property rights in education, analyzing the plagiarism cases.

Some independent websites have been developed to publicly present the cases of plagiarisms that allegedly are widespread in the Higher Education system. See for example:

A few universities have dedicated departments for Copyright/Intellectual Property, such as:

The Intellectual Property Right Scientific Association (ASDPI) http://www.rrdpi.ro is a Romanian non-profit, apolitical, non-governmental, private legal entity, the members being professors, specialists in the law field, especially in the field of intellectual property, researchers in the Judicial Research Center of the ”Nicolae Titulescu” University of Bucharest. The main concern of The Intellectual Property Right Scientific Association is the quarterly publishing of The Intellectual Property Right Romanian Magazine, and also the development of scientific relations in the field, organization of courses, conferences, debates, symposiums, round tables, bilateral exchanges, dissertations and other activities in this field in order to prevent and stop the counterfeiting and the piracy.

Co-financed with European Funds, the project "Interuniversity virtual community for science, technology, innovation and intellectual property valorization" (2010-2013) aims to create and develop a portal with resources, courses related to research intellectual property, and also service centers dedicated to both students and teachers from partner universities and business people http://www.cviu.ro. Such a center was already opened by University "Politehnica" of Bucharest http://cttpolitech.webs.com.

An Intellectual Property Campaign http://www.osim.ro/Proprietate_Intelectuala_in_Universitati/en was launched recently by the European Patent Office (http://epo.org), through its European Patent Academy (http://www.epo.org/about-us/office/academy.html), and the State Office for Inventions and Trademarks (OSIM - http://www.osim.ro). It is a pilot project and is being developed for one year simultaneously in four countries: Spain, Romania, Czech Republic and Turkey. The goal of the project is to raise and increase awareness on Intellectual Property, promote Intellectual Property culture and Intellectual Property management in universities and expand Intellectual Property in university curricula.

OER Initiatives in Romania/OER

Romania appears active in the OER movement mainly through institutions/groups or individuals engaged in specific initiatives, projects or programmes, but also through some proposals of policies at the governmental level that can become driving forces.


National OER initiatives

5.1.1 Knowledge based Economy Project

An important strategic national project that worths mention is the Knowledge based Economy Project (KEP) http://www.ecomunitate.ro/en/proiect, presentation  http://www.cegd.eu/renaissance_for_eGovernance_2012/materials/ppt/1_Tuesday/Romania-presentation.pdf, implemented by the Ministry of Communication and Information Society between 2005-2013, and founded by the World Bank. The Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sport is a partner in this program, that has three components http://www.ecomunitate.ro/Raport_CPI_%2817549%29.html:

  • Expanded access to Information & Communication Technologies and improved digital literacy
  • Development and promotion of government e-services
  • Promotion of e-commerce and innovation support for SMEs.


   5.1.1.a OER educational policies

One of the important activities of the KEP project towards the field of open education was the elaboration in 2007 of a set of recommendations for the Romanian Ministry of Education for policies supporting the Open Source (OS), Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Educational Practices (OEP): to adopt a clear definition of open licenses and to support the principle that public funded products should carry such licenses; to facilitate the sustainable implementation of OER by creating incentives for use and reuse, and funding technical infrastructure to increase access to OER (http://www.scribd.com/doc/189255399/Recommendations-for-Ministry-of-Education-related-to-Open-Educational-Resources-and-Practices, http://www.ecomunitate.ro/Elaborarea_politicii_educationale_referitoare%2817548%29.html). A part of the recommendations are quoted below:

  1. encourage  the use of open source software in schools and in educational institutions for operating systems, applications, for virtual learning environments and content management systems, for open educational content development
  2. the training programmes for teachers and administrators to contain open source solutions presentations and applications, not only proprietary solutions;
  3. teach pupils and students skills, not specific applications; the ICT and Technological Education manuals to present both proprietary and OS solutions;
  4. create a repository with the educational projects in which Romanian schools and educational organizations have participated, such as  Leonardo, Socrates, eContent programmes: trained human resources, gained experience and skills, produced materials could be used, projects could be continued or new ones could be started;
  5. partnership with publishers, broadcasters, libraries, cultural institutions to provide access to their own resources;
  6. implement an online system for collaborative production of open educational resources by teachers and students, based on Web2.0 collaborative technologies. OER can make a valuable contribution to a diversified supply of learning resources, supporting methodological diversity, and promoting the individualization of the learning process;
  7. the teachers training programmes should contain topics related to OER, new licenses and tools to create educational materials in a collaborative manner;
  8. encourage a competitive market for educational resources production,  guarantee transparency of supply and equal opportunities to market actors; define a set of quality criteria.

Some of these recommendations were specified in the "Proposal for public policies for ICT integration in the pre-universitary system" and adopted by the Ministry of Communication and Information Society and by the Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sporthttp://www.mcsi.ro/Minister/Despre-MCSI/Unitatea-de-Politici-Publice/Documente-de-politici-publice/formular_pp_TIC, http://administraresite.edu.ro/index.php/articles/9132 (2007): diversification of the educational resources for schools, encouraging educational software market, usage of open / free educational resources, development and sharing of resources by teachers; quality criteria / development standards / evaluation / selection are necessary.


    5.1.1.b Open Educational Resources (OER) and (Open Educational Practices) OEP

During the KEP implementation, the access to knowledge was enabled for 255 rural/disadvantaged communities from 38 counties, addressing to over 1,8 million people (8% of Romania's population). The schools of these communities are the beneficiars of (http://www.ecomunitate.ro/Implementarea_tehnologiei_informatiei_si_comunicatiilor_in_scoli%2817527%29.html):

  • ICT infrastructure
  • training of teachers
  • inclusion of new technologies in education.

The training of teachers and pupils started with the pilot program in 2007, in which 17 schools were involved; OER, OS, open collaborations, CC licenses were main topics  http://timsoft.ro/pilot, http://www.slideshare.net/cami13/program-pilot.

The pupils and teachers in the 255 schools are very active in integrating open collaborative technologies and in using and creating OER (little OER - Martin Weller 2010 http://openaccess.uoc.edu/webapps/o2/handle/10609/4851, usually published on social networks) in the process of learning and teaching. They take part in networking activities, summer camps and competitions (http://www.ecomunitate.ro/evacanta, http://ebc-networking.wikispaces.com) organized in this project. 

In October 2012, in the KEP project, the Ministry of Communication and Information Society together with the Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sport organized the national seminar "Open digital resources in educational practices"http://www.mcsi.ro/Minister/Comunicate-de-presa-2012/Economia-Bazata-pe-Cunoastere-ofera-profesorilor-s, http://ebc-networking.wikispaces.com; there were launched two guides, having as central topics OER and collaborative technologies (Web2.0) in education: 

  • "Integration of new technologies in education" and
  • "Using ICT for educational activities".

The activities in the KEP project have led the schools towards a shift in focus from the resources themselves towards the practices associated with the creation, use and management of OER: that is, open educational practices (OEP). "The vision of open educational practice includes a move from a resource based learning and outcomes based assessment, to a learning process in which social processes, validation and reflection are at the heart of education, and learners become experts in judging, reflection, innovation within a domain and navigation through domain knowledge" (OPAL, 2010, p. 46 http://www.slideshare.net/OPAL2010/opal-d3-v6-07052010). "Open Educational Practices (OEP) constitute the range of practices around the creation, use and management of open educational resources with the intent to improve quality and innovate education." OPAL OEP Guide http://www.oer-quality.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/OPAL-OEP-guidelines.pdf.


5.1.2 OER in the Government Programme

The Government Programme for 2013-2016 adopted in December 2012 (http://www.gov.ro/upload/articles/118981/program-de-guvernare-2013-2016.pdf) specifies that the Ministry of Information Society and the Ministry of Education will collaborate to support the innovative integration of Web2.0 and Open Educational Resources in education, to promote the use of open/free resources, and the development and sharing of resources by teachers and students.

In 2014 the Romanian Government has adopted the National Strategy on Digital Agenda for Romania (http://www.imdd.ro/sites/default/files/library/691-strategia_nationala_privind_agenda_digitala_pentru_romania.pdf) that focuses on three main pillars: the modernization of the public administration, supporting the competitiveness of the private sector via ICT, and providing ICT access and digital education to the public at large; the Agenda is implemented by the Technical and Economic Committee for Information Society. Using ICT (OER and Web 2.0) in the learning process and in the Life Long Learning process – LLL is defined under the Strategic Lines of Development for ICT in Education:

  1. OER implementation efforts imply, in terms of ICT, providing the frame and the related ICT product and digitizing and archiving the educational content;
  2. Include Web 2.0 platforms in the learning processes;
  3. Stimulate students to become more involved in the learning process;
  4. Encourage the Life Long Learning process.

Romanian Preliminary Priorities for using European funds in the programming period 2014-2020 (http://www.fonduri-structurale.ro/Document_Files//Stiri/00012765/kxgb0_8.%20Prioritati%20preliminare.pdf) refer also to OER:

  • Developing of solutions for the extension of ICT: using ICT for Education (innovative methods of integrating Web 2.0 educational resources and open educational resources for learning, integrated digital infrastructure of educational institutions and administrative services in education at all levels);
  • Improving the quality, efficiency and openness of the tertiary education, in order to increase the share of tertiary education graduates: the development and use of innovating technologies, including open educational resources, in order to offer a high quality education, including opportunities to improve and upgrade he teachers and researchers competences and to develop an attractive system of higher vocational education.


5.1.3 Romanian Coalition for OER

The Romanian Coalition for Open Educational Resources was initiated in October 2013, gathering persons or organizations that support and promote the concepts of open access and OER (http://www.acces-deschis.ro/ro/oer/60-coali%C8%9Bia-red). Initially, the memorandum of understanding was signed by the members of the project "OER Awareness Activities for Librarians and Academics in Romania" (see below) - ApTI, Soros Foundation and ANBPR and has been signed by many university teachers and also by private companies.


5.1.4 Digital Textbooks

At a national level, there is a debate going on digital textbooks for the 1st and 2nd grade: while the legislative proposals do not mention copyright issues, NGOs are trying to propose open textbooks. All the digital textbooks are going to be freely available for download from a section of the Ministry of Education website (now under construction - http://www.manuale.edu.ro).

Regional OER initiatives

Institutional OER initiatives

Both Regional and Institutional OER initiatives are presented below:


5.2.1 Related to FLOSS (Free / Libre / Open Source Software)


The interest and use of open source software by teachers, pupils, and students in Romania are very important, but there are mainly institutional/group/personal initiatives. 

Many Linux and LAMP users are active in user groups, building online communities, with online support, discussions forums, but also periodical f2f meetings. Romanian Linux distributions were developed by teams formed by young students. A lot of workshops and conferences in which actors from educational system participate are organized.

This important issue of FLOSS and its benefits for education were not the subject of a concrete initiative or programme of the Ministry of Communication and Information Society and of the Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sport. "On  14 September 2010, ICT Minister, Valerian Vreme, reveals that the Government sought to develop - http://www.epractice.eu/en/news/341075 - an IT strategy in order to increase public administration’s use of open source software, as a means to reduce government spending. Furthermore, he declares the start for drafting rules on interoperability to ensure that governmental institutions using open source can communicate with those using proprietary applications." (eGovernment Romania Factsheet http://www.epractice.eu/en/document/288404).


    5.2.1.a Groups

  1. Free Unix for Romania http://linux.punct.info/freeunix.html, active in the 90s, was an international independent non-profit organization, founded in 1992 by Marius Hancu, working to help in the technical and scientific progress of Romania. It managed in less than a year to practically cover the entire surface of Romania with free software distribution centers. 
  2. Asociation ProLinux http://prolinux.ro is a non-profit organizations that promotes FLOSS, having as central words: "Community. Ideas. Help".
  3. LUG - Linux Users Group http://lug.ro is a national group of FLOSS enthusiasts, organizing events and developing projects.
  4. Rosdev - Romanian Open Source Development http://www.rosdev.ro has as aim to promote Romanian OS developers in academic groups and in IT events.
  5. Ubuntu Romania http://ubuntu.ro is a community of Ubuntu users; see other communities of specific Linux distributions http://wiki.lug.ro/Comunit%C4%83%C5%A3i_Linux_din_Rom%C3%A2nia#Comunit.C4.83.C5.A3i_centrate_pe_distribu.C5.A3ii_specifice.
  6. Foundation Ceata http://ceata.org is a foundation that creates and promotes free arts and technologies; projects http://ceata.org/realizari.
  7. Community ROSEdu - http://rosedu.org, founded in 2007, gathering programming and open-source software enthusiasts, mainly from the Faculty of Automatic and Computer Science of Politehnica University of Bucharest - https://csite.cs.pub.ro/index.php?lang=en. An annual event is Linux Install Fest in universities http://lif.rosedu.org/.
  8. ApTI (Association for Technology and Internet) http://www.apti.ro is a non-governmental organisation whose aim is to support and promote a free and open Internet where human rights may be observed and protected. "ApTI is an independent Romanian NGO that has the scope to promote the fair use of information society services in agreement with the legal norms in force, the human rights in the digital environment and support the digital civil rights in the Romanian society." ApTI is a member of  European Digital Rights - EDRIhttp://www.edri.org, ICANN’s European Regional At-Large Organisation - EURALO https://community.icann.org/display/EURALO/European+Regional+At-Large+Organization+(EURALO), Civil Society Information Society Advisory Council - CSISAChttp://csisac.org. 
  9. ORDU (Romanian Organisation for User Rights) http://www.ordu.ro advocates for change and adapt existing copyright laws to new socio-cultural paradigms imposed by the emergence and development of the Internet: using of open licenses by the state institutions and in education.
  10. The Free Software Group (FSG) took birth in 2005 among several students from Technical University of Cluj-Napoca - http://www.utcluj.ro/english/index.php. The people activating now in the groupd are involved individually in local, national and international projects that respect the idea of Free Software. FSG promotes Free Software through the group projects page, where some of them are dedicated to localizations, others to get connected communities and bring new people, and the last ones have the meaning to support new communities and inform the society about their activities and/in Free Software - http://softwareliber.ro.
  11. Society of the free software authors (Societatea Autorilor de Software Liber) http://soft.punct.info/  and http://dan.corlan.net update the site Linux in Romania: Linux, Unix and Open Source History in Romania, and also lists of Romanian authors of open source software, Non-profit groups related to open source, Portals, Publications, Companies, Localization efforts, Translations - http://linux.punct.info/indexen.html.
  12. OpenGIS http://opengis.unibuc.ro, Geo Spatial  http://earth.unibuc.ro - groups for Free open source solutions for geospatial data processing and representation.

See also:


    5.2.1.b Conferences / events

  1. "Informatics at the Castle" is a summer school organized by Vasile Goldis Western University Arad at the Macea Castle - http://proinfo.uvvg.ro, gathering teachers and students interested in FLOSS, OER, collaborative platforms, and new technologies in education (2009 - 2012). This event continues the "Linux and Virtual Learning Environments" International Symposium, organized by the same university (2003 - 2008). The event hosts ProInfo, a national competition for students developing projects using FLOSS.
  2. RILW - Romanian Internet Learning Workshop had 5 editions (1997-2001) promoting OS and online education  (http://rilw.itim-cj.ro, archive http://web.archive.org/web/20120524072120/http://rilw.itim-cj.ro/).
  3. eLiberatica - The Benefitis of Open and Free Technologies http://www.eliberatica.ro (2007-2009) was a prestigious International Conference initiated by a group of IT enthusiast (ROSI -  Romanian Open Source and Free Software Initiative http://rosi.ro); check "OER and FLOSS" presentation at eLiberatica 2007 http://www.slideshare.net/cami13/oer-and-floss.
  4. Programatica Open Source is a conference organized in 2012 by the Romanian IT media firm Agora, having as aim to continue the eLiberatica Conference and to revive the community built around it - http://www.agora.ro/conferinta/programatica-open-source.
  5. ROSE Romanian Open Systems Conference and Exhibition were a series of prestigious and innovative conferences organized between 1993-1996 by the Romanian UNIX User Group (Grupul utilizatorilor români de Unix - GURU), coordinated by Alexandru Rotaru, and by Prof. Irina Athanasiu http://www.irinaathanasiu.ro from Politehnica University of Bucharest. Richard Stallman, Jeffrey S. Haemer, Phil Zimmerman came at Cluj-Napoca in 1993, later John Quarterman, Evi Nemeth, Esther Dyson, and Linus Torvald had participated in ROSE'93, in Bucharest; see Marius Hancu's presentation at Rose '93 http://linux.punct.info/rose93.html and  Mihai Jalobeanu: A history of Linux in Education in Romania - http://www.itim-cj.ro/~jalobean/Cursuri/Linux-in-educatie.html.
  6. LOAD - Linux Open Alternative Days is an international conference being organized from  between 2006 - http://itchannel.ro/load.
  7. Linux Innovation was organized in November 2006 http://web.archive.org/web/20070125214949/http://www.futurefreedom.ro.
  8. OSOM – Open Source Open Mind http://osom.ro - an event held annually, designed to reveal the general Open Source and Free Software concepts, and trying to promote them in business, media and education.
  9. FLOSS Camp http://camp.softwareliber.ro - summer camps held annually starting with 2008, gathering those interested in FLOSS.


    5.2.1.c Courses / Trainings / Research

  1. OOSS - Open Source Summer School - http://open-source.cs.pub.ro/summer-school was organized at Politehnica University of Bucharest (http://www.pub.ro) in 2012, June.
  2. Summer Camps in Eforie, Gălăciuc-Focşani, Bucureşti 1994-1996, where courses on Linux were facilitated by the volunteers of the Romanian UNIX User Group (Grupul utilizatorilor români de Unix - GURU), coordinated by Alexandru Rotaru; see the archived GURU About page http://web.archive.org/web/19980131010342/http://www.guru.ro/about.html.
  3. Intel Student Open Lab http://intel.pub.ro is a laboratory for OS research-development at Politehnica University of Bucharest, Faculty of Automatics and Computer Science, equipped by Intel, that will host 650 students and researchers interested in OS (October, 2012). Technology Day is an event organized in 2012 November, aimed to present Intel Technologies and Open Source http://intel.pub.ro/technology-day/.
  4. Unix, Linux and OS are topics in numerous courses offered by Romanian (CS) faculties. 


    5.2.1.d Linux distributions and Open Source projects development

  1. Check a list of Authors http://linux.punct.info/autori.html and Projects http://linux.punct.info/limba-romana.html.
  2. The IOSSPL Project proposes to develop a complete web-based, standards-compliant, open-source library software system which will become available to be implemented in all the public libraries in Romania in the long run http://www.iosspl.org,http://news.softpedia.com/news/Romanian-Libraries-Use-Open-Source-Software-68807.shtml.


5.2.2 Related to OER, OEP and Open Content/Access


    5.2.2.a Courses / Trainings / Programs 

  1. One of the most prominent projects in the area of OER movement is "OER Awareness Activities for Librarians and Academics in Romania", funded by CC Affiliate Project Grants (http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Affiliate_Project_Grants, http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/43115), implemented in 2013-2014 by ApTI Association for Technology and Internet (http://www.apti.ro), Soros Foundation Romania (http://www.fundatia.ro) and National Association of Libraries and Librarians in Romania (http://www.anbpr.org.ro); the National Coalition for OER was started in October 2013 (see above); across country there were run a series of events and workshops about free licences, OER and MOOC, also a national conference about open education was organized; the project published two guides on OER too: Open Content: Free Licenses and OER, and Guide on Good Practices of OER (http://www.acces-deschis.ro/ro/schimb-de-resurse/cat_view/26-resurse-educa%C8%9Bionale-deschise?orderby=dmdatecounter&ascdesc=DESC). Bogdan Manolea, project coordinator, put in the final report (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_AkWZf_EUQ4WWpaWXB5aFNUQVE/edit): "The conclusion of this project is that there are only building blocks for Open Educational Resources (OER) in Romania since at the moment there is not a clear OER practice – only grassroots initiatives or projects with huge potential of becoming OER. Most of the projects we discovered in essence share the same philosophy behind OER, but they nevertheless omit to attribute a license for the created resources. In conclusion, more awareness and training activities are needed in order to reach a level of maturity regarding OER and their use".
  2. Moodle Romania http://www.moodle.ro/course offers courses for teacher training in using new technologies, also hosts/supports courses for schools and universities.
  3. Didatec http://elearning.upt.ro/proiecte/ro/didatec/126 is a Human Resources Development Project (2010-2013), implemented in 10 important technical universities, offering a certified blended-learning training in new educational technologies for teachers and trainers; OER, CC licenses, open technologies are core topics (http://elearning.upt.ro/assets/upload/content/Didatec_Prezentare_Program_formare_upt.pdf). More than 1000 teachers and professors benefited from this project.
  4. ViCaDiS http://vicadis.net: The ViCaDiS (Virtual Campus for Digital Students) Virtual Campus Project supports the development of an innovative virtual campus for digital students; the EU LifeLongLearning Erasmus Project ran beetwen 2007-2010 and was coordinated by the Multimedia Centre and Regional Distance Education Centre - CSID of the University Politehnica Timisoara, Romania; the multilingual platform is still open and offers courses around Europe, some resources being un free licenses.
  5. iTeach http://iteach.ro - offers online courses on new technologies and pedagogies (http://iteach.ro/pagina/21495).
  6. The Institute of Educational Sciences offers a series of online courses about open education and open pedagogies - http://training.ise.ro.
  7. "Facilitator for lifelong learning in school - a new teaching qualification for a school that learns" http://www.invatarepermanenta.ro is a Human Resources Development Project, that offers training for Lifelong Learning facilitators and will pilot centers for LLL.
  8. "Social Media for Higher Education" was one of the courses developed and run in the project "Improving University Management", having as goal to promote updated knowledge, modern techniques and actual management instruments for the higher education institutions across Romania http://www.management-universitar.ro/606/section.aspx/362. OER and OEP were topics of the course.
  9. Partnerships and participations of Romanian schools in eTwinning projects related to OER and OEP (Romania became a partner in the eTwinning programme, with ISE - Institute of Educational Sciences as the national coordinator in 2007, October 1; since 2012, 7000 schools and 9000 teachers took part in eTwinning projects). 
  10. Sloop2desc courses at “Dunarea de Jos”University of Galati, involved 75 participants; the courses have been characterized by collaborative interaction between trainees and tutors, resulting in the production of 26 open educational resources for student usehttp://www.scribd.com/doc/72898865/8/THE-EXPERIENCE-OF-THE-SLOOP2DESC-COURSES-IN-ROMANIA.
  11. ActiveWatch Media Monitoring Agency (http://www.activewatch.ro/en/home), a human rights organization that militates for free communication for public interest, offers an online course for effective use of digital tools, for understanding the concepts of mediated reality, privacy, copyright, and open educational resources http://www.activewatch.ro/en/media-education/mediasis-online-course; also in 2014 it has organised the Open Educational Resources: Teacher Training Workshop for primary and secondary school teachers, about the field of Open Educational Resources (OER) and technology-based open education (http://activewatch.ro/en/media-education/events-and-activities/open-educational-resources-teacher-training-workshop).
  12. The Technology Enhanced Learning course offered in the Department Academic Development programme for the academic staff and Master students of University Politehnica of Timisoara is run on the Cirip.eu microblogging platform, integrating activities on many other SM networks, and having as topics: eLearning2.0, social VLEs, Learning communities facilitation, OER, RSS, Blogs, Microblogging, Wikis, Social Networks, Collaborative documents, OS/CC, Social Search Engines, PLE.


    5.2.2.b Open Content / Open Access / Communities for OER and OEP

  1. Open materials (especially for the pre-university system) and discussions for validation / improving them in the online communities: 
  2. The University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Bucharest http://en.usamv.ro is a partner in the project Organic Balkanet http://www.organic-balkanet.eu, that developed Organic.Edunet http://portal.organic-edunet.eu, a learning portal that provides access to OER on Organic Agriculture and Agroecology.
  3. iTeach http://iteach.ro - online community of over 8500 teachers, sharing educational resources and practices; iTeach publishes also an open journal (http://iteach.ro/experientedidactice) - http://www.oer-quality.org/iteach-a-teacher-training-programme-for-the-xxi-century; o revistă pentru educaţie şi educatori - 
  4. The Centre for Innovation in Education (TEHNE Romania) http://www.tehne.ro is an organization aiming to support educational initiatives through projects and programs covering areas of e-learning, ICT in education, curriculum development, education for democratic citizenship, lifelong learning, and in-service teacher training.
  5. Cirip.eu (http://cirip.eu) is an educational multimedia microblogging platform, hosting online / blended courses on new educational technologies, open to SM platforms for using/sharing/creating/recreating (little) OER, gathering an educational community around learning scenarios.
  6. Siveco (http://siveco.ro) and Unisoft (http://unisoft.ro) are two Romanian software companies participating in the project Open Discovery Space: A socially-powered and multilingual open learning infrastructure to boost the adoption of eLearning resourceshttp://opendiscoveryspace.eu.
  7. The Romanian Open Access community portal http://www.acces-deschis.ro/en is a website aimed to bring more insight into the Open Access publishing models and to open new directions in Romanian research and development. The expected audience are researchers, scholars, university and high school teachers, university librarians, research librarians, archivists, and all those who work in the information science field.
  8. Kosson (http://kosson.ro) is a portal about open access and new techniques and technologies for data communication and management, published under a CC license, and is dedicated to Romanian specialists in the field of information science (documentary, archives, library, museum curators, etc.), to eGovernment sector specialists, to students, and to general public. Founding Kosson community members are supporters and signatories of the Budapest Declaration on Open Access Initiative. In November, 2012, Kosson organized an International Workshop on Open Access, at University "Transilvania" of Brasov http://kosson.ro/resurse-profesionale/124-cultura-informatiei/653-abordari-inovatoare-promovare-acces-deschis-cultura-informatiei.
  9. An important number of Romanian libraries have signed the Agreement of Open Access http://startad.kosson.ro/,  http://www.kosson.ro/acces-deschis/50-despre-promovare-acces-deschis/650-accesul-deschis-si-bibliotecile,http://www.slideshare.net/kosson/valorificarea-cercetarii-europene.
  10. Math videos are published on the sites http://profesorultau.ro (only some are free), http://math-pdr.com.
  11. Romanian Encyclopedia http://enciclopediaromaniei.ro is published under a CC license.
  12. Veioza Arte http://veiozaarte.ro is video sharing platform acting as an open source production house for the Romanian cultural scene. 
  13. Sound Supradose http://www.soundsupradose.com and Local Records http://www.localrec.ro are collections of audio products under a CC license.
  14. Brașov Creative Commons Film Festival http://bvccfilmfest.tumblr.com, organized in November 2013, is the first Romanian film festival with free licenses.
  15. City Projects http://cityprojects.ro is a community proposing/working on software projects for local communities/ smart cities, based on open data.
  16. Sex vs Stork http://www.sexulvsbarza.ro is the first online platform for sex education with video content in Romanian. The project is initiated by Adriana Radu and Front Association and aims to encourage open tolerant attitude about the body, sex and relations. All videos are platform available under a Creative Commons license.
  17. Sites that offer information about copyright issues, open licenses and OER: http://copy-me.org, http://dreptuldeautor.noisieu.ro/creative-commons.
  18. Other projects under CC licenses can be found at http://ro.creativecommons.org.


    5.2.2.c Conferences and Workshops

  1. The National Conference on Open Education was organized in Bucharest, in April 2014, during the Open Education Week, as the closing event of the project "OER Awareness Activities for Librarians and Academics in Romania" (see above), having over 70 participants from academia, pre-university system, companies, NGOs (http://www.fundatia.ro/?q=node/add/formular-inregistrare); many projects/initiatives related to OER and open content were presented and a vivid debate on digital textbooks took place.
  2. The above project also organized seven workshops about free licences, OERs and MOOCs, in Brașov, Galați, Cluj, Timișoara, Arad, Iași and Bucharest. In total, there were over 122 librarians, academics and other related professionals taking part in the workshops.
  3. The International Workshop on Open Educational Resources and Massive Open Online Courses, co-located with the 10th eLearning and Software for Education Conference - eLSE 2014, Bucharest, April 24th - 25th, 2014, published a number of interesting papers and hosted an interesting debate with many participants. The Keynote speaker was Giles Pepler, Sero Consulting Ltd, UK, Deputy Project Manager POERUP, with the presentation Developing policies to stimulate the uptake of OER in Europe (http://www.elseconference.eu/pages/view?page=open_education_open_online_courses).
  4. During the Open Education Week 2014, the eLearning Centre of University Politehnica Timisoara organized an workshop on OERs and MOOCs http://elearning.upt.ro/seminar-oer/n-32-70-178/d.


    5.2.2.d MOOC Initiatives

  1. UniCampus http://unicampus.ro: Started in 2014 under the initiative of University Politehnica Timisoara, Unicampus is a project supported by Ministry of Education and developed by the Association of Technical Universities from Romania (http://rouni.ro): University Politehnica Timisoara, Politehnica University of Bucharest, Technical University of Cluj, Technical University Gh.Asachi Iasi, Civil Engineering University of Buchatest, Technical Military Academy. The project is will offer MOOCs on a platform implemented by partners and based on Moodle.
  2. UniBuc Virtual (http://www.unibuc-virtual.net: Credis, Department of Distance Learning of University of Bucharest, offers 3 MOOCs for Teachers Training; the platform is based on Google Apps.
  3. University "Vasile Goldis" Arad in partnership with Fédération Européenne des Écoles.
  4. Experiments for integrating MOOCs in blended academic courses can be found at University Politehnica Timisoara (Holotescu, Grosseck, Cretu & Naaji, 2014 http://www.scribd.com/doc/213864614/Integrating-MOOCs-in-Blended-Courses).


    5.2.2.e Studies

Recent studies reveal an important interest of the Romanian educational community for applying new / open technologies in education, for sharing resources and practices on Social Media platforms, for using social networks for collaboration with students, teachers, practitioners. One can note a shift in focus from the resources themselves towards the practices associated with the creation, use and management of OER: that is, open educational practices (OEP). "The vision of open educational practice includes a move from a resource based learning and outcomes based assessment, to a learning process in which social processes, validation and reflection are at the heart of education, and learners become experts in judging, reflection, innovation within a domain and navigation through domain knowledge" (OPAL, 2010, p. 46 http://www.slideshare.net/OPAL2010/opal-d3-v6-07052010).

  1. At the beginning of the KEP project (in 2007), a survey applied to the 17 pilot schools showed that: "even if teachers create a lot of didactic materials, very seldom the materials are shared, validated in discussions with others or create in a collaborative way. The teachers are not aware about the OER or licences such as Creative Commons, and don't have the necessary skills to search materials in repositories and to evaluate their quality." (http://www.ecomunitate.ro/Elaborarea_politicii_educationale_referitoare%2817548%29.html).
  2. A recent study "Academic research in 140 characters" (2011) shows how Romanian educators use microblogging (Twitter, Cirip.eu, Edmodo, Yammer, Plurk, Google Buzz, Identi.ca, Jaiku, Twiducate), one of the top educational technologieshttp://www.scribd.com/doc/54084667/Academic-research-in-140-characters-or-less:
    • The search for scholarly (open) content remains a favorite activity, 56% of academics are looking to discover new information, ideas or practices. By looking for specific ideas the researcher can scan easily the stream for news other than academic papers, science magazines, data bases, scientific discoveries etc.
    • It seems that the use of microblogging as a dissemination channel for promoting of own results / articles / projects or studies / formal products has a greater importance for 47% of respondents.
    • 22 percent say that microblogging is an important tool for reviewing the literature, collecting and analyzing research data, “for listening what other researchers are going to say”.
    • Talking and sharing experiences online, communicating scholarly ideas, collaboration between colleagues, networks of stakeholders, and other contacts are favorite activities for 73% of academics.
    • Building a network of contacts for research opportunities, finding sponsors, reaching fellow specialists was indicated by 38% of the responders. Thus the development of a Personal Research Network (PRN) is appropriate not only for “establishing professional expertise” but also for “professional identity construction”.
    • Only 17% of the respondents believe in the power of sharing, skills development or knowledge creation by building a “social scholarship” in communities of practice.
    • A 26% percent shows a low participation within learning academic community, student centered. Thus we can say faculty members are (still) unprepared to deal with incorporating microblogging technologies into their courses.
    • Nowadays following conferences and posting from scientific events (with a special hashtag) is a common practice. Thus, the usage for monitoring scientific events is encountered at 41% of the respondents and may fall in one of the following categories: communication before, during and after the event, using microblogging as official, quasi-official or unofficial back-channel, for collaborative keynotes, feedback etc.
    • An important percent (22%) say that they use microblogging for scholarly publishing and capturing contextual information 
  3. "An empirical analysis of the educational effects of Social Media in universities and colleges" (2012) http://www.scribd.com/doc/92289204/Else-2012-GrosseckHolotescu-Full concludes that:
    • Almost all respondents are aware of the large categories of Social Media platforms. The most popular seems to be those for multimedia content sharing: video – 89% of responders declared that they use such platforms, documents/books - 87%, image – 78%, in all cases at least half posting content. The large interest for the documents/books sharing (78%) and presentation sharing platforms (61%) confirms the social reading trend in the 2012 Horizon Report in higher education. However, we can note that the platforms for podcasting and audio sharing are at the opposite pole of interest – only 20% of respondents use them.
    • More than two third are active on wikis (78%), general networks (78%), professional networks (76%) and blogs (66%), and more than half of them post content on these platforms, the highest rate of postings being on general networks (68%).
    • Half of respondents (48%) monitor feeds to keep track of news and activate on microblogs. As one of the most important usage of microblogging is for news searching, the micro-posts streams can be seen as curated feeds, containg news, but also comments and validation. Only 20% pay attention on miniblogs (such as Tumblr and Posterous).
    • Even if with very interesting and challenging uses, such as collaborative work on scenarios, tutorials and micro-lectures, the educators show a low interest on mindmapping (24%), screencasting (16%) or digital storytelling platforms (15%). An explanation could be the fact that to use such platform you need to be and keep informed, to activate in online communities where to learn and share ideas and experiences.
  4. Digitaledu http://www.digitaledu.ro is an evaluation and monitoring service of the new technologies integration in the Romanian educational system. It offers a map of the uses of such open technologies by educational institutions, teachers and students.
  5. Check also the studies of TEHNE http://www.tehne.ro/activities.


Some conclusions

There is no doubt that the OER initiatives in Romania at all educational levels are a real gain for teachers and learners, tailoring education as a real engine for change. We appreciate that Romania is active in the OER movement on the following axes/directions:

  • trainings/courses related to OER and OEP organized for both pre-university and university sectors
  • proposals at a governamental level related to OER and Web2.0 – but not yet in formal policies
  • national events related to open resources produced by pre-university teachers; national guides were published too
  • directories with open resources (more numerous for pre-university level)
  • projects in development for MOOCs at university level and for continuing education
  • strong communities/events for open source, open access, open data, open licences.

References

  1. ReVica/VISCED page for Romania - Romania

Reports

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