D4.4.2 Report on ASPECT Workshops, Plugfests and Conferences N2&3
Summary
This second report on ASPECT Workshops, Plugfests and Conferences lists and describes dissemination events that took place in the second 15 months of the project.
The approach that we followed to report these events was driven by the project evaluation methodology, which differentiates between technical events and general dissemination events. The impact of both types of events surpassed the original expectations of the Description of Work with the project witnessing 265 individuals taking part in technical events and 925 in general ASPECT dissemination activities.
Particularly worth noting is the success of the series of webinars organized during the second half of the project. These online events proved to be a cost-effective way to reach a wide audience both across Europe and internationally. The impact of ASPECT within the Learning Technology community in Europe is also reflected by the successful event organized at the end of the project: the Strategic Seminar on Educational Publishing Futures. With more than 150 participants, it brought together high-profile speakers and the main stakeholders in the content value chain, including Ministries of Education, Publishers and Technology providers. The seminar evaluation demonstrates that delegates were very satisfied by the event and are keen to be further involved in these kinds of activities.
Outcomes from ASPECT have been disseminated through technical publications as well. These include journal and conference papers but also proposals for technical specifications that have already entered into the standardization process both at the European level, with two CEN Workshop Agreements and two European Norms, and internationally, with one specification to be published by IMS GLC.
Online dissemination was also essential both in terms of spreading the results of ASPECT and publicizing its events. Here the Learning Technologies Standards Observatory (LTSO) played a key role. This observatory has had more than 1.6 million visits during the ASPECT lifespan and was supported by nearly 200 top international experts in the field of SSLT.
ASPECT also succeeded in the creation of an active network 197 Associate Partners who benefited from the lessons learnt and best practices generated during this 30-month Best Practice Network. Resources such as events, scientific publications, technical documents and direct access to ASPECT experts were made available to ASPECT Associate Partners thanks to the efforts of the whole project consortium.
