Internet Learning Volume 4, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 77

Internet Learning Journal – Volume 4, Issue 1 – Spring 2015
middle of the road approach where it is maximized the availability of the knowledge that is
not proprietary, whereas all people are taught the best methods for developing knowledge
that can be proprietary. It is in learning this middle of the road approach that online
academic programs can have a very relevant effect on online educational expansion. We’ll
also argue that online learning has an important potential role within the European economy.
As evidenced by several studies in the field of neuroscience, in situations of
interdependence, what the individual considers to be rational behavior strongly depends on
what the individual explicitly knows from personal and societal experiences (Whitehead,
1978 & 1995; Calhoun, 1996; Oishi, Kesebir, 2012). The empowerment of individuals is
useful for the cultures where it already exists, as it is the case of the countries of northern
Europe, but it is even more useful for southern European cultures where the existence of
such empowerment is less prevalent (Norrie, 2005). The online learning is an opportunity
for students from southern European countries to be more in touch with other students and to
make a qualitative leap through this training, thus becoming more independent in both their
behavior and decision-making.
The situation in Europe after the 1999 Bologne Agreement between 29 European
countries led to a reform of the curricular systems in Europe, which has been a collection of
good and bad events, as it happens in all reforms. But with what was learned from that and
from the EU Science funding FP7 program a new set of goals and guidelines have been
prepared by the governing bodies of the EU. Approved in 2011, Horizon 2020 is the EU
continuation of the FP7 program that started being fully implemented in 2013. The purpose
of the Horizon 2020 focuses on the creation of inclusive, innovative, and safe societies
(European Commission, 2011). This foci directly results from the overarching urgency to
eliminate recession and proactively re-launch the European economy. According to this
program, the EUs global competitiveness demands budgetary consolidation and structural
reform; but, mostly, demands strategic investments in all areas, with a special focus on
research and innovation. According to the European Commission, it is necessary to become
a society that is more efficient in the use of its resources in all areas of economical activity.
According to the perspective presented by the European Commission, research and
innovation will improve both prosperity and quality of life, through the creation of
“worldwide public goods” (EC, 2012).
Today, education is an economical activity capable of generating transactional goods
that can be exported, and it is thus a major engine for the growth of national Gross Domestic
Product (GDP). The Horizon 2020 program gives economical incentives to activities that
promote a “smart, sustainable and inclusive growth” (EC, 2011, p. 2). The Horizon 2020
assumes itself as a rupture with the past, through the generation of ideas, growth, and
employment for the future. Education is now, together with research, a key and essential
priority for a sustainable and inclusive growth of the EU. In universitary education, it is no
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