The Up to University project was introduced to the US education and research community at the Internet2 Global Summit 2017

The Birds of a Feather (BoF) session was attended by people from the US, Europe and Africa and resulted in a congruent strategic discussion. Among other participants, Jack Suess, UMBC, board member of IMS Global and also EDUCAUSE, provided useful feedback on the challenges that we are all up to.

Interoperability is one of the key aspects for any next generation learning platform, therefore Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI), OneRoaster, OpenBadges recently adapted by IMS Global as well as GÉANT’s OpenCloudMesh API are crucial elements of a scalable and portable service architecture, the one that Up2U is designing and piloting for schools. While the biggest challenge in Europe is to address the technology and teaching/learning skills step-up that high-school students often experience at universities, there is a potential flip-side of the fast and productive changes in K12 education.

Interestingly, in some school communities in the US, recent technology changes happened so quickly at high-schools that universities are struggling to catch up. Digitally minded and educated students entering universities were actually surprised by the silo products and lack of flexibilities there. This might be an interesting opposite situation to further analyse, once Up2U accomplishes its mission in narrowing the current gap in Europe. However, partnership with universities is obviously very important for Up2U at the European and global scale.