«Digital Learner Data Portability: DAAD’s Perspective on Initiatives and Projects»

Abstract

The digital transformation has been shaking higher education institutions and individual learning paths of the learners equally. As one consequence of this, there is an urgent need for a better way the academic credentials being processed, transported, and presented. On learner’s level, the expectations are also challenging easy portability and full control of the data. Building a reliable system that copes with institutions and learner’s expectations should consider many factors, to name just a few: politics, regulations, legacy systems, and standards. In our presentation, we touch those challenges and thereby present some examples of promising initiatives and projects from Germany, Europe and internationally. We also present DAAD engagement in this field. We conclude our presentation with some recommendations coming from a wide experience DAAD accumulates over the years.  

Bio

Alexander Knoth works as Chief Digital Officer (CDO) and Head of Section Digitalisaton at the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Berlin. He is responsible for the strategic planning and management of DAAD’s digitalisation activities. Before he took over this position, Alexander Knoth worked as an Advisor for the Digitalisation of Teaching and International Affairs at the President’s Office of the University of Potsdam. As Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) coordinator, Alexander has gained experiences in interdisciplinary and international co-teaching scenarios, connecting classrooms around the globe. He also worked at the chair of Complex Multimedia Application Architectures (Institute for Computational Science) and at the chair of Gender Sociology both at the University of Potsdam. Alexander is an Educational Expert Fulbright Alumnus. He has been honoured by the Federal President of Germany and he has won the Teaching Award of the Federal State Brandenburg twice. His mobile application “Reflect.UP” has been nominated for the German E-Learning Innovation award.

With huge passion for digital transformation and equipped with a master’s degree in computer science and wide experience in IT-management and services in both industrial and public sectors, Rami Alkubaty joined the digitalization team at the DAAD as senior desk officer for Groningen Declaration Network. His career started at the German Aerospace Center where he worked as IT-officer and then as IT-manager. His journey in the IT-Management world continued. After leaving the DLR, he worked for two companies. One develops software for health-care sector and the other develops web-based applications. He also had the pleasure to work in the scientific sector. He was involved as research assistant in a project focused on energy-saving in multicore-processor-systems. The journey has reached its destination by joining the DAAD in 2018.