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Inspired by examples like DigiEduhack and the Erasmus+ project #hackAD - Social, the Europeana Education Community invites you to the first Europeana social and educational low-code hackathon - Low-Code Fest 2022! This programme and series of events aims to engage teachers, educators and their students to co-develop solutions to social challenges and/or enhance educational processes and practices. 

The Low-Code Fest will focus on using the  Europeana APIs and supporting European educators and cultural heritage professionals to identify innovative approaches for educational initiatives. This programme is open to applications from all types of  educators (whether you teach arts and humanities or STEM disciplines) because previous coding experience is not required - it is ‘Low-Code’. 

Why join?

If you are an educator that wants to engage your students or peers with online data and digital cultural heritage, the Low-Code Fest will teach you how to use online tools to go beyond simply searching through a website. You'll learn the basics of what APIs are, how they can be used in educational projects, and discover innovative ways of delving into online databases to find wonderful cultural heritage objects to work with. 

If you want to have students work hands-on with online data, improve their digital literacy and understanding of how websites and databases work, this programme will hand you the tools you need to do so. After this programme you'll be able to engage students and teach them:

  • how websites are built on top of databases

  • what cultural heritage data and metadata is and how to use it

  • how to query a database using a website as well as an API endpoint

  • critical thinking on the use of keywords, queries and advanced searching

  • how to develop and assess use cases for their digital projects

  • how to start using APIs in their own projects using digital cultural heritage

The three best projects will have special prizes, so keep reading until the end!

Phase 1: Open call for applications

We invite the following people to apply to join Low-Code Fest by 10 October 2022:  

  • Teachers in formal education (from primary to secondary and Vocational and Education training, VET) from European countries who have an interest in digital technologies for education and want to learn how to use low-coding apps and tools. Your project application needs to consider how to benefit a cultural heritage institution with a digital collection in your area.

  • European cultural professionals working in museums, archives, libraries and any other cultural heritage institution who currently works with schools and students, and wants to design a digital educational service or product.

Applications can be submitted separately by educators and cultural operators, but joint proposals (for example a teacher working with an educator from their local museum) are very welcome.

Submit your application for Low-Code Fest 2022

Phase 2: Selection of teams

During the first week of October a committee of Europeana staff and Council Members will select a maximum of 12 applicants to form teams to work on their projects and to be involved in the capacity development activities and final hackfest event. Teams will be selected according to the following criteria:

  • Eligibility check: the applicant is from one of the two eligible categories and has correctly provided all the requested information in the online application form.

  • Local partnership: there is an evident connection between the school and the cultural venue mentioned in the form. 

  • Feasibility: the co-development project proposed by the team can effectively benefit from the integration of existing Europeana APIs.

Phase 3: Capacity-building sessions

Europeana will organise two, two hour long webinars on 20 and 21 October to build capacity in participants to use Europeana’s APIs for educational purposes. 

The first webinar will focus on presenting digital cultural heritage data and metadata, what an API is, and what Europeana's APIs are, to equip participants with a basic understanding of technical and digital aspects to be considered in the co-designing phase. 

The second webinar will present examples of Europeana’s APIs’ integration in different projects, with the aim to provide inspirational input to the teams. It will allow for participants to discuss their ideas for the Low-Code Fest. 

Following these sessions, remote support will be provided through a common online channel where participants can post questions and receive feedback from experts. In the period between the capacity building and the hackfest, the teams will receive a final list of experts who will mentor them, and will be able to book a 30 minutes mentoring session with up to three mentors during the first day of the hackathon.

Phase 4: Low-Code Fest

The Europeana Low-Code Fest event will be organised over two consecutive days (the afternoon of 10 November and complete day on 11 November). It will take place two or three weeks after the end of the capacity building sessions, to give teams enough time to meet and cooperate in designing the project to further develop and present during the hackfest.

Each day will have a programme that combines plenary and parallel sessions. Expert organisations EGInA and the CRHACK LAB FOLIGNO 4D will provide a team of experts who will meet the teams according to their needs.

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Find out more about the programme

Day 1 (TBC)

  • 12.45 – Opening - Europeana to open access to the online environment selected for Hackfest

  • 13.00 – Welcome (plenary session) from Isabel Crespo, Business Development Coordinator, Education at Europeana Foundation, and Altheo Valentini, Chair of the Europeana Education Community. 

  • 13.15 – First mentoring session; teams will be divided into parallel sessions within the chosen communication environment and meet one of the eight available mentors for a 30-minute session

  • 14.15 – Teams work remotely on the project, without the mentor

  • 15.30 – Return to plenary and direct calls with the various teams for flash presentations of the work being done by the testimonials

  • 16.00 – Second mentoring session

  • 17.05 – Closing remarks after the first day of EduHack

Day 2 (TBC)

  • 8.45 – Opening - Europeana to open access to the online environment selected for Hackfest

  • 9.00 – Welcome (plenary session) from Isabel Crespo, Business Development Coordinator, Education at Europeana Foundation, and Altheo Valentini, Chair of the Europeana Education Community. 

  • 9.15 – Third mentoring session 10.15 – Teams work remotely on the project, without the mentor

  • 12.45 – Back to the plenary session for the random drawing of pairs of teams that will compete online by presenting their solution and trying to get as many votes as possible from the members of the other teams and all those who will be connected to the streaming of the event.

  • 13.00 – Lunch break

  • 13.45 – Access to the online environment is available for participants and the public (promotion of this part of the event that will be open to everyone interested)

  • 14.00 – six semifinals according to the six pairs of teams drawn before lunch. Each team will have five minutes to present their project. In the end public voting online via Mentimeter and selection of six finalists.

  • 15.30 – The jury meets in a separate room to agree on the final selection of the best projects

  • 16.30 – Announcement of the top three ranked teams

  • 17.00 – Closing remarks

Each team enrolled in the Europeana Low-Code Fest will independently manage the logistical organisation for the involvement and active participation of team members in the activities proposed for the hackfest. In particular, the coordinator of each team will have to ensure:

  • If necessary and possible, the provision of physical space that enables synchronous collaboration between all team members; Europeana will provide the teams with a virtual space for collaboration (tbd) and help as much as possible solving doubts and facilitating advice and tools;

  • Moderation between the team members;

  • Participation in the capacity building phase and make sure (if schedule allows) their team members synchronously attend or, alternatively, make sure they have access to the recordings;

  • Notification of all communications and information received before, during and after the Low-Code Fest;

  • Participation in the plenary sessions and meetings planned with mentors in the programme of the Low-Code Fest.

Jury and selection criteria

The Low-Code Fest takes the format of a competition, with the projects evaluated by the public and an expert jury. The best projects will be awarded with special prizes. 

During the second day of the Fest, a first round to select six final projects  will be done by the public.

After the presentation of the final projects, the jury will meet for the final evaluation and selection of the most deserving project from among those that have passed the first selection phase. They will evaluate the entries in three areas: 

  1. Relevance: how much the project improves the collaboration between schools and cultural institutions. (Max. 5 points)

  2. Feasibility: how easy is it to integrate the selected API(s) in the proposed project? (Max. 5 points)

  3. Transferability: is it possible to integrate/adapt the solution to other projects and in other sectors? (Max. 5 points)

Prizes

The winners will have cost travel covered up to 2,500 euros to be able to attend Social Hackathon Umbria, an event where they will be able to bring their projects to the next level and meet with experts and other like-minded professionals.

The projects awarded second and third place will receive a collective subscription to Brilliant or Curiosity (up to 250 euros each team) that can be used individually by its members, to continue upskilling and reskilling their new acquired competencies. 

All of the winners will have the chance to have an interview published on Europeana Pro.

Submit your application for Low-Code Fest 2022
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Europeana empowers the cultural heritage sector in its digital transformation. We develop expertise, tools and policies to embrace digital change and encourage partnerships that foster innovation.

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