A. Kameas, E. Georgakakou
An inclusive society ensures inclusion, equality of opportunity and the capability of its members, independently of differences of race, gender, class, generation, and geography, to participate in social interaction and benefit from the services and opportunities offered. Social inclusion has several dimensions, the most important being full participation in all aspects of life, while exclusion refers to the conditions (barriers and processes) that impede inclusion.
The Dynamic Ambient Intelligent Sociotechnical Systems (DAISSy) Research Group of Hellenic Open University has developed a suite of educational instruments which, when put together, amount to a holistic approach towards achieving a more inclusive society. These include:
- The Inclusive STEAM Educator Competence Framework, which contains forty-two (42) competences stemming from the role that an educator has to assume in order to manage an inclusive classroom;
- Occupational profiles and assorted online training for the professional development of professionals in the inclusive tourism sector;
- A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to train migrants and employers so as to enhance the integrations of migrants in the labour market;
- Training, peer learning and direct interventions in order to promote migrants’ women empower and integration;
- A Social Hackathon so as to highlight entrepreneurial competences of migrants and produce business plans;
- The Higher Education Inclusiveness Index that aimed to turn Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) into inclusive places that promote social dialogue irrespective of gender and sexual orientation;
- A MOOC and Specialisation Courses for the professional development of managers and Higher Education students on the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) principles;
- An accessibility study and an online course on enhancing the accessible digital education for people with learning disabilities.
In this paper, these instruments, together with the experience gained from putting them in practice, are presented.
Keywords: Inclusion, education, technology, hackathon, MOOC, competences.