The International Open Education & Science Practices Workshop has been organised annually since 2014 by Politehnica University of Timișoara through its Digital and Distance Education Department, with the support of EDEN Europe and IEEE Romania, as part of Open Education Week, supported by Open Education Global. The event was held in hybrid format — simultaneously in the K1 Amphitheatre of the UPT Conference Centre, online, via Zoom and was streamed live on Facebook — as part of Open Education Week 2026, supported by Open Education Global.
The workshop brought together 14 speakers from 4 countries (Romania, Italy, Spain, and the United States), presenting online and on-site. Over 300 participants took part in the event, with more than 280 joining online and over 30 attending in person. Sessions were highly interactive: participants posed questions from the floor, through Zoom’s Q&A feature, and via the Mentimeter live polling application. Participation was free of charge and all presentations were delivered in English. Attendees received Open Education Workshop Participant Open Badges (open digital credentials), with in-person participants additionally receiving Certificates of Participation. Submitted manuscripts will be published in open-access format by the Politehnica University of Timișoara Publishing House.
E³UDRES² initiatives presented
The European Universities Alliance E³UDRES² initiatives were presented throughout the workshop, with several sessions dedicated to E³UDRES² initiatives and infrastructure. Prof. Em. Radu Vasiu (UPT) presented the Alliance’s Open Science strategy, including the E³UDRES² Bank of Researchers — connecting over 360 researchers across partner institutions — joint doctoral programmes, and citizen science initiatives across Europe; Andrei Ternauciuc (UPT) presented the architecture of E³UDRES² ARENA, the Alliance’s federated digital platform built on open-source solutions and designed to serve over 100,000 students, researchers, and staff across partner universities.
Topics and Themes
Under the theme “Digital and Emerging Technologies in Education and Science”, the workshop covered a broad range of subjects. Dr. Jesus Alcober (UNITE! European University Alliance, Spain) delivered the keynote, exploring how university alliances are reshaping open knowledge ecosystems across Europe; Dr. Diana Andone (UPT) presented best practices in digital transformation through the Accelerate Future HEI project; Gabriela Grosseck (West University of Timişoara) examined the AI prompt as an open educational resource; Conf. Silviu Vert and Diana Szekely (UPT) shared a user-centered redesign of UPT’s admissions platform; Conf. Vlad Mihăescu (UPT) discussed how MOOCs can improve student motivation; Marina Marchisio (University of Torino, online) presented the Edvance Digital Education Hub, a federated ecosystem of 16 Italian universities offering over 150 open courses; Prof. Carmen Holotescu (“Ioan Slavici” University of Timişoara) demonstrated how Generative AI supports student-centered course redesign using the ABC Learning Design methodology; Mark Frydenberg (Bentley University, USA, online) introduced vibe coding — building functional applications through AI-assisted prompting without prior programming knowledge; Dr. Diana Andone (UPT) also presented the open courses and flipped classroom model within the within the E³UDRES² Ent-r-e-novators platform; Diane Popa (“Florin Fleşeriu” Sports High School, Sebeş, online) explored the intersections between Open Science, emerging technologies, and the digital transformation of research; and Dr. Angela Nistor (West University of Timişoara, online) presented findings from a mixed-methods study on the integration of social and medical services for vulnerable elderly patients in emergency departments.
Links
➞ elearning.upt.ro: Hundreds of participants at the Open Education & Science Practices Workshop 2026 UPT
➞ elearning.upt.ro: Workshop Open Education & Science Practices
Article created by: UPT
