Digital skills are an essential pillar of competitiveness and the NAUplatform , with the collaboration of public and private entities, aims to promote the production of relevant content, creating a consistent and collaborative ecosystem, encouraging personal and professional development. This initiative is especially important for Portugal to succeed in the digital world and is in line with the program of the 22nd Constitutional Government.
NAU has just launched a new website with the aim of reinforcing its commitment to Portuguese training and qualifications. This distance learning and training platform for large audiences, which aggregates online courses and is managed by the FCT's National Scientific Computing Unit (FCCN), with around 78,000 registered users and a range of courses offered by public and private entities, wants to continue to grow and become a reference platform for the knowledge, personal and professional development of the Portuguese.
Almost 18 months into its existence, the NAU platform redesigned its website(https://www.nau.edu.pt/) to make it more appealing and make it easier to search and interact with the contents, not only for users but also for the promoting entities: public administration, higher education institutions (universities and polytechnics) and private entities. Currently, the NAU has 15 active promoter entities and aims to reach 25 next year.
"We make a very positive balance, but with the awareness that there is still a lot of work to do, especially in winning new promoters. NAU is a platform that aggregates the courses provided by entities, so we need public and private entities to look at NAU as a partner that can bring them great advantages", says Nuno Feixa Rodrigues, member of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), responsible for the NAU project.
Launched on April 3rd, 2019, NAU - Distance Learning and Training for Large Audiences, allows the aggregation of training actions provided by recognized and relevant entities in society in MOOC(Massive Open Online Course) format for a large number of users, including civil servants. MOOC is a distance learning format open and accessible to all, which allows training a large number of people at the same time.
NAU has already provided 30 courses and generated 120 thousand enrolments, but the goal is to reach 60 courses per year. Currently, 19 courses are available on the platform, promoted by 9 different entities, namely: Cybersecure Citizen and Cyberinformed Citizen, from the National Cybersecurity Centre; RGPD for Attentive Citizens and RGPD for Implementers in Public Administration, from INA; Hand Hygiene in Infection Prevention, Prevention of Infection and Resistance to Antibiotics and Safe and Responsible Medication Use, from DGS; Team Canvas - for more aligned and productive teams, Telework in Isolation Times, from AMA; Inclusive Education, from DGE; Fakenews - Don't Let Yourself Be Deceived, Photography and Video with Smartphones and Introduction to Digital Communication, from CENJOR; and Gender Equality in Work and Employment, from IEFP.
Based on Open EDX, a software provided by the EDX.org consortium in open-source, which has over 24 million users worldwide, the NAU aims to position itself as the platform for the dissemination and promotion of content produced by higher education institutions and other national promoters, thus contributing to the dissemination of science and projection of entities internationally in this globalized world.
There are two ways of accessing courses on the NAU platform: open courses, which are the most frequent ones, in which anyone can register and access them, without prerequisites or access restrictions; and closed courses, which are less frequent and in which it is the promoting entity itself that indicates the trainees who can access the course.
There are two models of learning: the 'Self Paced'(self-learning), the most common, in which the course is available for a period of time (about 6 months) and the learner can access it at any time and progress at their own pace, with access to the respective certificate upon completion; and the 'Instructor Paced'(modules), the model most used by the Directorate General of Education (DGE), in which the course has a defined start and end date and the content is presented over time, usually from week to week, with the certificate being obtained after the end date of the course.
By providing an independent technological platform for the dissemination of content in MOOC format, the NAU project aims to put Portugal on the same level as other European countries, such as France or England. Globally, excluding China, MOOCs reached 110 million users last year and, in 2019 alone, 2,500 courses promoted by 450 universities were created. NAU's goal is therefore not only to make available the courses promoted by partners specifically for NAU, but also to aggregate those that are already available on its own platforms. The aggregation of quality content in Portuguese language allows the development of economies of scale, greater institutional exposure, greater geographical reach and greater projection among the people who are enrolled.
The founding partners of the NAU project are the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), the Directorate-General for Education (DGE), the Directorate-General for Health (DGS), the Directorate-General for the Qualification of Public Service Workers (INA), the Institute for Employment and Vocational Training (IEFP) and the General Secretariat for Education and Science (SGEC).
