The changes in educational paradigms and development of ICT are promoting the modernization of universities and the establishment of open and flexible study programs, freeing academic boundaries.Quality, accessibility and innovation are concepts that are driving the changes of virtual higher education. ACAI-LA Universities Network undertake the challenge of modernizing and internationalizing higher education, and contributing to development and social cohesion in Latin America, with an academic offer in pursuit of excellence, equitable and innovative.This academic offer will be available in the ACAI-LA Virtual Campus with accessible:- Life long learning program, MOOC.- Master for training of trainers, MOOC, certified by the consortium universities.This university campus will integrate online services for: support to students, support to graduates and job placement, and guidance to teachers in methodologies and innovative educational techniques.The curricula will:- Be open and flexible.- Form its students with ICT skills required by the labour market.- Include educational materials and laboratories, accessible to social groups with learning difficulties because of economic, ethnicity, gender or disabilities reasons.- Be available in: English, Spanish, Mayan and / or African descent languages.A sustainable business model will be supported for capacity building in:- Young graduates.- Teachers, who create innovative educational, quality and accessible resources.This scientific and educational cooperation network shows the diversity in Latin America. The ACAI-LA Network consists of three European universities and eight Latin American, four of which are located in less developed countries of Central America and the others are from South America. This condition will improve the impact, dissemination and exploitation of project results, publications and open educational materials.

By developing this project, the consortium aims to contribute for the resolution of several challenges, such as unemployment among young graduates; difficulties to attract private funds to research; the academics' needs for constant pedagogical skills update; difficulties to promote the transference of knowledge; the difficulty to attract students from social disadvantaged classes and mantain them; the need to promote entrepreneur minds to contribute to decrease economic and social crisis; the use of crowdsourcing as a tool to create a network; the difficulty of attracting users from different regions and finally, the need to improve students' career guidance.In order to achieve the purposed goals, were defined three core activities: the platform development, where different stakeholders will be connected; the platform room to promote its use; and the entrepreneurship, crowdsourcing and employability stakeholders' training to help them to improve these skills and create opportunities through the use of the platform.

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) face nowadays new opportunities and challenges arising from the evolution of educational technologies and from the new professional profiles demanded by the labor market. MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have been an opportunity and a challenge at the same time, allowing new ways of lifelong learning, and the provision of quality and open education able to reach even the most disadvantaged groups. The technologies and experience gained through MOOCs are also being used to improve teaching on campus through SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses). However, the MOOC movement, which emerged in the US and was enhanced by Europe, has little impact in Latin America, as it can be seen by the fact that Latin American HEIs are barely represented in the major MOOC initiatives.The MOOC-Maker project proposes to build management capabilities of MOOCs (and SPOCs) in Latin American HEIs so that they can offer quality courses aimed at improving access to teaching and learning programs in Latin America, and developing in students the skills and knowledge required in the 21st century. To do so, the MOOC-Maker project will create an intercontinental network between Europe and Latin America, where the experience, best practices, and success cases from European partners will be the starting point. In the short term, this project will upgrade the educational offerings, teacher training and support services from HEIs in Guatemala, Chile and Colombia, improving their teaching on campus, encouraging lifelong learning of alumni, and contributing to equitable access to education. This effect will be transferred to the Latin American society as a whole, promoting the acquisition of updated knowledge and skills, and promoting the employability of young people.