Inspired by examples like DigiEduhack and the Social Hackathon Umbria, the Europeana Education Community invites you to the Europeana social and educational low-code hackathon - Low-Code Fest!

In this annual event, we invite educators and cultural heritage professionals to prototype with their students an educational and socially innovative product using Europeana’s APIs. 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 focuses 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’. 

Read out to learn about Low Code Fest 2024 and explore previous years!

If you are an educator who 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

On 22 March during the C.R.E.A Cultura Festival in Foligno the Europeana Initiative organised a three-hour workshop which supported participants to use Europeana’s APIs for educational purposes and develop a digital resource inspired by Mission Artemis, the NASA exploration program that will once again land humans on the moon. Before the workshop, teams registered for the event were invited to run a one-hour online tutorial to teach students and educators alike what an API is, why they are important, and what Europeana's APIs are. This equips participants with a basic understanding of technical and digital aspects to be considered in the co-designing phase.

This previous training ensured the teams had the necessary basic knowledge to work on a more hands-on workshop during the C.R.E.A Festival.

Take the free online introduction to APIs course here!

Applications for Low-Code Fest 2024 opened on 23 March and closed at 17.00 CEST on 10 May 2024. The call was open to:

• 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 institutions who currently work with schools and students, and want to design a digital educational service or product

During the first week of May 2024 a committee of Europeana Foundation staff selected teams to work on their projects and to be involved in the capacity development activities and final hackfest event. Teams were selected according to the following criteria:

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

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

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

Before the hackfest the teams received a list of experts who mentored them during a 30-minute session with up to three mentors during the hackathon.

The Europeana Low-Code Fest event took place on 3 June 2024.  Expert organisations EGInA and the CRHACK LAB FOLIGNO 4D provided a team of experts who met the teams according to their needs to further develop their projects and pitch them during the hackfest.

After the presentation of the final projects on 10 June 2024, 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)

4. Maturity: Level of development of your proposal (Max. 5 points)

1. The winning team will be invited to Social Hackathon Umbria, from 4 to 7 July in Bevagna, Italy!
   
2. The top three teams will receive a year-long subscription to Curiosity Stream, allowing you to keep on digitally learning with your classmates

The Low-Code Fest 2022 took the format of a competition, with the projects evaluated by the public and an expert jury. The winners had the cost of travel covered to be able to attend Social Hackathon Umbria, an event where teams bring their projects to the next level and meet with experts and other like-minded professionals.