Innovation in EU Communication: MOOCs from the European Committee of the Regions

Abstract

Towards the background of its political work and communication activities, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), the EU’s assembly of regional and local representatives, became in the last two years the first EU institution having developed two MOOCs to contribute to capacity-building of regional and local authorities with regard to EU affairs, helping them to navigate their way through the EU’s complex legal and institutional set-up, and multifaceted decision-making process. This experience paper briefly presents the two online courses developed by the CoR in 2015 and 2016, and focuses on the production process, design and delivery, as well as student evaluation and survey results. It aims to show how the reflection of the CoR has evolved regarding the development of online courses, and which lessons can be learnt from the past to improve the offer of MOOCs in the future.