=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2356/business_short1
|storemode=property
|title=Springer Nature and online courses with iversity
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2356/business_short1.pdf
|volume=Vol-2356
|authors=Suraj Anand,Francesca Bonadei
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/emoocs/AnandB19
}}
==Springer Nature and online courses with iversity==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2356/business_short1.pdf
Proceedings of EMOOCs 2019:
Work in Progress Papers of the Research, Experience and Business Tracks
Springer Nature and iversity
Suraj Anand 1 and Francesca Bonadei 2
1 Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany
2Springer-Verlag, Milan, Italy
Abstract. Springer Nature is a publishing house and not a university; however,
we also offer high quality products in online and distance education areas. With
iversity.org, Springer Nature is the first publisher in the world to integrate
MOOCs and books, giving authors the unique opportunity to supplement their
books with effective adds like videos and augmented reality. This year
iversity.org expands its repertoire of course formats by adding micro-learning
courses titled “Espresso Courses”. Micro-learning differentiates itself from
normal e-learning or MOOCs in the following ways: a) courses seat time b)
course design c) resources. The aim of offering accessible upscaling of skills
through small, digestible chunks of information addressing only what the
learner needs to know is met through Espresso Courses. In today’s age of
information overload and very short attention spans, a micro-learning course is
the best way to ensure quick and sustainable learning.
Keywords: Distance learning education, Academic partnership, Micro-learning
courses, User friendly, Social learning, Creative design.
1 Introduction
As a global publishing company, Springer Nature publishes high-quality, innovative
products in science, humanities, technical and medical areas. Lecturers at universities,
scientists and professional experts publish at Springer.
Even if Springer Nature is a publishing house and not a university, we offer
products in distance education and online learning as well. We cover a full spectrum
from our full-fledged bachelor and masters distance programs, short certificate
courses across various disciplines to short micro-learning online courses. The latest
230
Proceedings of EMOOCs 2019:
Work in Progress Papers of the Research, Experience and Business Tracks
addition to our offerings in the education space is our online learning platform
iversity.org.
It became a part of Springer Nature in October 2017, with the aim of providing
easy, asynchronous online learning for professionals and students and getting course
achievements recognized.
The platform develops high-quality online courses in collaboration with academics
experts, institutions and corporate experts, and delivers these courses via the platform,
distributing them to individual and corporate customers. Our courses, like our books
and journals, have the Springer Nature stamp of quality since we work in close
cooperation with top class instructors, higher education institutions and knowledge-
based companies making our learning content engaging, interactive thereby making
learning fun.
2 Our courses
The platform offers content in different formats:
• MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses): These are university courses offered
online and available for free to everyone who has access to the internet. Upon
request, the participants can get a Certificate of Participation. MOOCs at iversity
are more than just filmed lectures; they contain interactive quizzes and additional
teaching material. The content is customized and designed specifically for online
teaching. MOOCs are a part of Springer Nature’s open access initiatives.
• PRO Courses: These are paid-for professional courses developed by a University
or a Corporate aimed specifically at continual professional learning. Learners can
choose from ready-to-use online courses across profession areas such as Agile
Management, Predictive Analytics and Digital Marketing. The courses are
delivered by experienced subject matter experts with aim of helping professionals
scale their knowledge at their own pace. Keeping the professional audience in
mind, the engaging courses are a form of edutainment where the learner does not
simply passively watch a video but learns, real hands-on skills that they can apply
at in their day to day work. Just like royalties for our books, Springer Nature enters
a revenue-share model with the course author.
• ESPRESSO Courses: With a view to facilitate point-of-need learning, iversity
recently launched its new micro-learning course format ‘Espresso’. To help
learners learn only what they need an Espresso Course is no longer than 40 minutes
and comprises a quiz and a downloadble Easy Guide.
Springer Nature and iversity cover the full spectrum of learning, and offer an active
and social learning environment instead of passive and isolated one; this approach
allows learners to achieve advanced learning outcomes.
231
Proceedings of EMOOCs 2019:
Work in Progress Papers of the Research, Experience and Business Tracks
3 Academies
Besides what is described above, iversity offers institutions and organizations a
Learning Management System of sorts, which is extremely user-friendly and
completely customizable. An Academy can either be a closed or an open learning
space, where learners can access either existing iversity courses, or courses created in-
house.
There are two types of Academies:
• In-house Academy: users can be invited to join the academy by the administrator.
• External Academy: users need no prior invitation, anyone can access the course
depending on course type (MOOCs/PRO/ESPRESSO).
4 The social learning experience
Online learning is not the same as it used to be at the beginning of 2000. In order to
avoid to spend time and efforts in monitoring learners through archaic and hard to
implement Learning Management Systems, and not really seeing any concrete results,
it might be time to move on to a savvy, practical and easy to use solution. iversity.org
is an online learning platform that offers a user friendly platform, but also top-class
content. The website is optimized for social learning and for a large number of
participants. You can find video lectures, text lectures, PDF presentations, multi-
media additional material and you can interact though quizzes, exercises, assignments
and projects.
Social learning is one of the most important aspects on the platform: for this
reasons there is a section called “journals” where it is possible to communicate with
other students.
5 Micro-learning through Espresso courses
In today’s fast paced age not everyone has the time to sit through lengthy, time
consuming courses. To offer professionals something they could easily dip in and out
of and learn only what they need to learn iversity.org has launched a new course
format titled ‘Espresso’. The basis of this course format is the learning concept of
micro-learning, where learning content is disseminated through small, chunks of
learning.
An Espresso course is composed of not more than 10 such small chunks of learning.
Each chunk is called a Unit. Every Espresso course also has a quiz at the end of the
course where learners can test what they just learned. At the end of each course
232
Proceedings of EMOOCs 2019:
Work in Progress Papers of the Research, Experience and Business Tracks
learners also have the possibility to download an Easy Guide, which is a quick
summary of the key points of the course.
Fig. 1. iversity.org Espresso Course Dashboard. An Espresso course comprises small learning
chunks called ‘Units.’ Learners can start and complete the course at their own pace, practice
their knowledge in a quiz and download an easy Guide and a Certificate upon completion.
6 MOOC and BOOK
The cooperation between Springer Nature and iversity allows to place side by side the
professional books by Springer Nature and the e-learning courses by iversity. Authors
are given the opportunity to publish enhanced textbooks featuring multimedia content
and complementary to an online course.
Springer Nature is the first publisher in the world to integrate MOOCs and books,
giving authors the unique opportunity to supplement their books with experiences
such as videos and augmented reality.
233
Proceedings of EMOOCs 2019:
Work in Progress Papers of the Research, Experience and Business Tracks
The most important feature of this innovative textbook is that it includes links to
the material contained in the MOOC, which the authors consider relevant. The
textbook will feature multimedia content, such as videos and augmented reality,
which can be accessible by PC, tablet, or any other mobile device. Students who buy
the print book can easily access this content through the Springer Nature More Media
App, optimized for cell phones and tablets. Readers simply scan the image with their
cell phone or tablet and they are taken directly to the video, figure, photo, table,
PowerPoint slide, etc. Moreover, this content can be shared via other apps, email,
messengers, and more.
Fig. 2. Springer Nature App. The SN More Media app uses augmented reality (AR) and image
pattern recognition features to facilitate access to supplementary electronic material for
scientists, professionals and students via their smartphone or tablet. It’s designed to allow easy
access to supplementary material like videos, illustrations, handouts, Q&As or guidelines that
are otherwise hidden in online articles and chapters in Springer Nature books or journals. All
books with the Springer Nature Multimedia logo include material that can be accessed with this
app.
234
Proceedings of EMOOCs 2019:
Work in Progress Papers of the Research, Experience and Business Tracks
7 Social Learning on iversity.org
iversity also offers learners the experience of learning in a social network. Through
the following features iversity fulfills social learning.
• Messaging Feature: Learners can privately communicate with other course
members or the course instructor through this function. All they need to do is start
a conversation using the ‘Send Message’ button. Group and video chat functions
are also available.
• Community Managers: Upon assignment of ‘course admin’ a learner can access
special messaging functions in which they can send E-mail announcements to
either all course users or specific groups thereby fostering effective social learning
in an online space.
• Recent activities in a Course: On the course dashboard learners can see a short
preview of recent activities including latest comments or entries in a learning
journal, allowing them to see all the movement in the course similar to Newsfeeds
in other social media applications.
• Peer-to-peer review: Learners can ask questions, participate in discussions and
also peer-review each other’s work upon Instructors’ request. Instructors can
answer learners' questions, post questions relevant to learners and moderate
discussions.
235
Proceedings of EMOOCs 2019:
Work in Progress Papers of the Research, Experience and Business Tracks
Fig. 3. Chat messaging function on iversity.org.
8 Certificates on iversity.org
All our iversity courses offer a Certificate of Participation. This official document
issued by iversity.org confirms that you have participate in a course. Learners are
eligible to receive a Statement of Participation only if they have passed the 80 %
threshold of progress. In MOOCs, the Certificate of Participation must be purchased,
whereas in PRO courses and Espresso PRO courses the certificate is included in the
course price. Learners also have the provision to share the Certificate of Participation
on social media channels like LinkedIn.
236
Proceedings of EMOOCs 2019:
Work in Progress Papers of the Research, Experience and Business Tracks
Fig. 4. Certificate of Participation from an archived MOOC.
Further readings
1. Hollands, F., Tirthali, D.: MOOCs in Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, US (2015)
2. Kinshuk, J., Koutheair Khribi, M.: Open Education: from OERs to MOOCs. Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg (2017)
3. Littlejohn, A., Hood, N.: Reconceptualising Learning in the Digital Age. Springer,
Singapore (2018)
4. Siciliano, B.: Robotics goes MOOCs. Springer, In preparation
237
Proceedings of EMOOCs 2019:
Work in Progress Papers of the Research, Experience and Business Tracks
5. Sillak-Riesinger, B.: The Potential of Massive Open Online Courses in the Context of
Corporate Training and Development, Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden (2017).
238