The project “Mu.SA: Museum Sector Alliance” (ongoing project) is approved in the European Framework of Erasmus+ / Sector Skills Alliances. It aims to address the increasing disconnection between formal education and training and the world of work because of the emergence of new job roles due to the quickening pace of the adoption of ICT in the museum sector. Mu.SA addresses directly the shortage of digital and transferable skills identified in the museum sector.

The partnership consists of eleven partners from four Countries: Hellas, Italy, Portugal and Belgium with coordinator the Hellenic Open University – DAISSy Research Group, Hellas.

Mu.SA – Museum Sector Alliance project opens a series of online and offline learning opportunities to develop essential digital skills for museum professionals.

The online course “Essential Digital Skills for Museum Professionals” (MOOC) is especially designed for the museum community, both for professionals as well as students, volunteers or unemployed, who want to pursue their future career in the museum sector. The aim is to support these groups to improve their digital competences and apply them in their daily work at the museums.

The Mu.SA MOOC is a flexible, self-paced course that requires learner’s engagement for at most 10 hours per week. The course is organized in modules that allows students to develop a complete set of digital and transferable competences required for the museum sector.

The MOOC aims at enhancing the digital skills and 21st century skills of museum and cultural professionals. It consists of training modules based on the European e-competences framework (e-CF), DigComp and P21 – the course is a unique combination of these standards, and for this reason it is considered as best practice at European level. The instructional design was based on learning outcomes and is modular in order to allow each trainee to study based on his / her pace and availability.

The MOOC extends to 8 weeks of training and requires a total of 80 hours of training and study. Each week, it focuses on 1 e-CF competence (a European standard of IT skills) and combines competences from DigComp (the global standard of digital literacy of the average citizen) and P21 (a 21st century skill model) frameworks. For each competence, a separate training module has been designed, the material of which is grouped in units. Each unit includes presentations, videos and study material related to a set of learning outcomes that are assessed at the end.

Online tutors monitor, assist and facilitate learners’ training procedure. Once enrolled, students have guided access to all videos, quizzes, and assignments. The course is designed as to facilitate active participation, peer-learning and open discussion among the course participants.

The training platform was developed by the DAISSy team of HOU.

After the completion of this course, learners will be able to develop and use digital and transferable competences necessary for professionals working in the museum sector.
Beyond the ability to develop digital strategy, digital content or use digital tools and platforms, students will also advance skills like time management, communication, team-working, leadership and creative thinking.

The course is free and open for all, already running since the 7th of January 2019! The main language of the training is English and videos are subtitled in Greek, Italian and Portuguese.
Up to now, more than 5,200 people have registered in the course from all around the world!

Learners who will complete the MOOC and succeed in at least 80% of graded activities are eligible to continue their learning journey by applying for an advanced, six-month specialization course. Selected students can choose focused trainings in one of the emerging job profiles: Digital Strategy Manager, Digital Collections Curator, Digital Interactive Experience Developer and Online Community Manager. Selected group, who has successfully finished both the MOOC and specialization training, will get the work-based learning in one of the European museums.

More information about the MOOC in here and the Mu.SA project in here.

Read the article here!