Presentation by prof. Lorenzo Cantoni, president of IFITT - International Federation for Information Technologies and Travel & Tourism, at the IFITT Doctoral Summer School, at MODUL University (Vienna, Austria, 20-21 July 2015)

1. MOOCs and eTourism
A reflection on the university mission, and on the impact of ICTs
prof. Lorenzo Cantoni, PhD
USI – Università della Svizzera italiana (Lugano, Switzerland)
IFITT – International Federation for Information Technologies and Travel & Tourism
UNESCO chair in ICT to develop and promote sustainable tourism in World Heritage Sites
lorenzo.cantoni@usi.ch ¦ @lorenzocantoni

2. A COUPLE OF WORDS ABOUT IFITT
www.ifitt.org – @IFITTorg

3. AGENDA
University: its nature and mission
The impact of ICT
Looking for impact
The case of/for MOOCs

4. WHAT IS A UNIVERSITY?
To preserve, extend & transmit socially-relevant knowledge
Unity / harmony of knowledge
Research ¦ Teaching ¦ Service

5. RESEARCH_1
Publications
“Publish or perish” (“Demo or die”)
Some problems

6. RESEARCH_2
IMPACT OF ICTS
“Digital scholarship”
Global competition/collaboration
Open access, open data
…
Griffith, S. (2015). Libraries in the digital age. In L.
Cantoni & J.A. Danowski (eds.) Communication and
Technology. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

7. RESEARCH_3
IMPACT OF ICTS
However…
… disappointing data on readership and actual impact

8. TEACHING (AND SERVICE)
IMPACT OF ICTS
ICTs & learning/teaching: eLearning
Life Long / Informal Learning
OER > MOOCs

9. ELEARNING & TOURISM
Why is it so relevant?
Four areas of interest:
Academic ¦ Destinations ¦ Corporate ¦ Independent
Miralbell, O., Cantoni, L., & Kalbaska, N.
(2014). Special issue on the role of e-
learning applications within the tourism
sector. “ELC Research Paper Series”, Issue
8.
Cantoni, L. (2012). Special issue on
eTourism and eLearning. Journal
of Information Technology &
Tourism. Issue 13 (1).

10. MOOCS
A short history
Some main characteristics (publics, credits, flipped class, platforms, …)
xMOOC vs. cMOOC
Murphy, J., Kalbaska, N., Horton-Tognazzini, L., & Cantoni. L.
(2015). Online learning and MOOCs: A framework proposal.
Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism –
Proceedings of the International Conference in Lugano
(Switzerland). New York: Springer, 847-858.

11. MOOCS
IN TOURISM
Murphy, J., Kalbaska, N.,
Williams, A., Ryan, P.,
Cantoni, L., & Horton-
Tognazzini, L. (2014).
Massive Open Online
Courses: Strategies and
Research Areas. Journal of
Hospitality & Tourism
Education, 26, 1-5.
Kalbaska, N. (2014). Massive
Open Online Courses: Future
Education in Hospitality and
Tourism. 12th ApacCHRIE
conference. Kuala Lumpur
(Malaysia), May 2014.

12. Why should a University offer a MOOC?
• Social responsibility
– Access by
• relevant publics:
professionals, policy-
makers, students
• disadvantaged regions
– Impact onto the concerned
industry/sector
• Positioning/reputation
– Offline: awareness/recall
– Online: higher positioning
on SE & SM
• Marketing
– More (motivated / better /
diverse / …) students
• Research
– Instructional Design,
Learning analytics, …
• Possible business models
– Paid certificates, learning
analytics, awarding credits,
…)

13. A CASE_1
ETOURISM: COMMUNICATION PERSPECTIVES
USI’s MOOC workflow
1. University Board Meeting: initiation
2. Project Proposal and Funding
3. Team Forming
4. Partner Platform Selection
5. Instructional Design
6. Content Creation
7. Video Production
8. Course Demo and Promotion
9. Course Delivery
10. Internal Project Assessment

14. A CASE_2
ETOURISM: COMMUNICATION PERSPECTIVES
Preparation
Promotion
Delivery
Evaluation
Lin, J., Kalbaska, N., Tardini, S., Decarli Frick,
E. & Cantoni, L. (2015). A Journey to Select
the Most Suitable MOOCs Platform: The Case
of a Swiss University. In S. Carliner, C. Fulford
& N. Ostashewski (Eds.), Proceedings of
EdMedia: World Conference on Educational
Media and Technology 2015 (pp. 486-496).
Association for the Advancement of
Computing in Education (AACE).

15. eTourism: Communication Perspectives
http://iversity.org/en/courses/etourism

16. Thanks !
prof. Lorenzo Cantoni
USI – Università della Svizzera italiana (Lugano, Switzerland)
UNESCO chair in ICT to develop and promote sustainable tourism in World Heritage Sites
IFITT – International Federation for Information Technologies and Travel & Tourism
lorenzo.cantoni@usi.ch ¦ @lorenzocantoni