QuickBooks Online 2023 E-commerce sales data to QuickBooks Methods Get ready to earn the skills needed to boost your bank books on up with QuickBooks Online 2023 Support Accounting Instruction by clicking the link below giving you a free month membership to all of the content on our website, broken out by category, further broken out by course Each course then organized in a logical, reasonable fashion making it much more easy to find what you need than can be done on a YouTube page We also include added resources such as Excel practice problems, PDF files and more like QuickBooks backup files when applicable So once again click the link below for a free month membership to our website and all the content on it In prior presentations we've been looking at e-commerce situations where we sell inventory but rather than selling that inventory on ground in a store location We're selling it in an online cloud based location possibly with the help, support and use of third party applications Popular applications being for example a Shopify or Amazon type of situation So we want to think about this e-commerce from the perspective of an accounting perspective Which means we would like to be taking that information and putting it into a useful format That usually being financial statements, balance sheet, income statement at the minimum to help us with our federal income tax obligations which we would have if located in the United States This is usually going to require integrations with financial software like QuickBooks Online which will be our primary perspective In other words we're thinking from an accounting perspective of using the software of QuickBooks Online And we want to be able to pull in the financial information that is largely being generated from third party applications such as a Shopify or an Amazon So it's useful to think of two sides of the e-commerce types of transactions and we've gone into this in a bit more detail in prior presentations When you think about a full service perpetual inventory system then these transactions happen at the same time Meaning when we sell inventory we're having an impact on cost to goods sold and inventory as well as the sales and cash side or accounts receivable But when we're trying to pull this information in from a third party application it's useful to break those two up and instead of thinking about a perpetual inventory system Possibly thinking about a periodic inventory system So now we're going to be focused just on the sales side of things So the sales side of things and rather than the inventory side of things which we'll talk about later Meaning the sales are happening on the third party platforms like a Shopify or an Amazon They are facilitating the sales We want to pull that information into our system so we have the applicable revenue We can track our bank account and then there's these other fees that are going to add some more complexity into the problem Of just dealing with the sales side not dealing with the relationship of inventory of cost to goods sold at this point So data can be pulled in with the bank feeds that's one method that we could use We could just say hey look I'm going to let the third party platform do whatever the third party platform does in order to facilitate the sale Meaning of course you have a Shopify or an Amazon web based location Somebody buys the goods not in a store but online in the web based location They put it in their shopping cart and they purchase it and hopefully these third party platforms are dealing with all the logistics and everything of it And at some point you get a revenue that's going to go into your checking account We're going to have our bank feeds set up in QuickBooks to the checking account So even without an integration to these third party platforms which can get a little bit more messy It's more secure it's more we've got down pat or it's an easier integration to integrate just to your bank account Which is going to be something that pretty much every business is going to do And if we could just pull the information in from the bank that would be the easiest thing to do but there's pros and cons to doing that So more sophisticated integrations may be needed to get more detail like fees charged back and refunds That's the problem with just using the bank feeds So remember that when we're looking at the people that are involved the systems that are involved in order to get to the point in time of a sale We have the store location making the sale Amazon or Shopify or eBay or whatever the web based location Then we could have a separate payment processor that being like a PayPal or Stripe or whatever is processing the payments And then finally we've got the QuickBooks or zero or whatever accounting system These are common to accounting systems that could be linked to an e-commerce type of situation Our focus is QuickBooks online here So that means that when we're thinking about our integrations of softwares you might be saying Okay look I just want my accounting software QuickBooks to be connected to the bank And then Shopify and PayPal or Stripe can do whatever they do And I'll wait till it hits my bank and I'll deal with it then but we're going to lose detail if we do that We can think that I'm going to connect my QuickBooks instead to both the bank and to the store Like a Shopify or Amazon and that will be a little bit more complicated of a method but it might give us some more details There could be different ways that we can do that But if we also have an intermediate payment processor which we may not always do Like if you start a Shopify store you might just use the Shopify payment methods and not allow other processors like a PayPal in there And if you do that then you may not have this middle connection But most people want to open up all the payment possibilities because it might increase the possibility of having a sale But in any case then we can think about pulling the information in here But if we have PayPal and Stripe then these intermediary payment processors could have transactions happening at their level At least the fees that they're going to charge and possibly chargebacks can happen at this level Instead of at the Shopify or Amazon or eBay level So that's where the complications come in to pulling this data into the QuickBooks software And that's where we come up with these different methods that we might use to pull the information in So methods to get sales data into QuickBooks Well one, we can just use the bank feeds Or we can have a manual entry of reports from the commerce platform and bank feeds In other words, I can run a report from the platform and then pull that information into QuickBooks Summarizing it with a journal entry that will ultimately tie out to the bank feeds The bank feeds will always be in an integration typically We could use the QBO QuickBooks Online Commerce Connect to Sales Channel and bank feeds In other words, QuickBooks Online is putted into QuickBooks Online connections through QuickBooks Online Instead of using third party applications to things like a Shopify, Amazon and eBay But that's still a new process, so we'll talk more about that in a second And then you've got third party apps like A2X and bank feeds So then you can go to a third party app which can help pull in this information into the system Let's go through each of these in a bit more detail The first one, the bank feed method, the simplest type of method What are the pros and cons of it? On the pros side, it's easy because you're just going to wait until the revenue We're talking about the revenue side right now You're going to wait until the revenue that happened from the third party platforms hits your bank So they do whatever they do to facilitate the transaction, they sell it and whatnot It hits your bank, we're not talking about the inventory, the purchasing side now We're just talking about the revenue side, you wait until it hits your bank and then you record it as revenue So no need for multiple integrations Obviously the more integrations we have, whether they be through QuickBooks or outside of QuickBooks Does add a level of complexity The bank feeds, of course, many people are pretty comfortable with at this point in time Even though it's an integration with the bank But then when we integrate also to third party platforms and to like a Shopify or Amazon Those different integrations pulling in can add obviously more complexity quite quickly So if we can limit that, that would be great, obviously But there's pros and cons to limiting the information So what are the cons then? We'll pull only the net sales So you're going to have very limited information Because remember that on the Shopify side of things or on Amazon side of things They might be doing a whole lot more than just facilitating the sale Like if you were making the sale in your store Then you would charge the sales price and you might still have to do a sales tax And you might have charge backs and those kind of things that happen And then if you do it in an online store You have those things and you have to add on the fact that you're going to have fees That are going to be processed by possibly the Shopify's and the Amazon's and whatnot And then possibly fees for the payment processors So by the time you get the revenue on your books You're recording revenue as the net amount after all those fees, charge backs and whatever happened As opposed to having sales recorded at the gross amount Minus the fees, the charge backs and all that kind of stuff Now you might say I don't care what's the difference I'm good with that There could be an issue with that for taxes Because when you get a 1099 Either from the store or from the payment processors Then it's going to show you the gross sales So you might be able to work around that Because then you can just assume the difference between your 1099 and your net sales Are charges We'll talk more about that in the future But at the minimum You're going to have that issue that you need to properly report your taxes And you need to properly deal with your sales taxes So it does not account for fees, charge backs On either the commerce platform or the payment processor level Because you're not dealing with anything that's happening until the deposit actually hits the bank Resulting in total sales possibly being less than 1099 reports And then you'll have timing issues as well Because the sale could have happened in the prior month or year And then it didn't hit your bank until the current month or year If you're consistent Then it might not be a big issue as long as you're doing a consistent reporting method But that timing method is another issue This 1099 issue often causes problems Because if you get a 1099 that says Hey, you have income for federal income taxes And you report something on your schedule See that is less than the amount on the 1099 Then it's likely the IRS is going to question your return Because they're going to say Hey look, the 1099 says you had more sales than that So one workaround on that would be to assume That of course the 1099 is correct And the difference between your net sales that you recorded at sales And the 1099 amount is the returns and charge backs And therefore increase the sales amount to be equivalent At least to the 1099 amount And then have fees and charge backs To reduce it back down to the proper net income amount Then we have the manual entry of reports from commerce platform and bank feed So how could I get a little bit more detail than you might ask Alright, so we could go actually to the e-commerce platform Or which is like a Shopify or the Amazons And print out and try to get the reports that they are giving to us As they make the payouts So they're basically going to make the payouts They might make the payouts on a daily basis Or like every two weeks or something like that And we can go in there and get the reports Which should give us not only the bottom line of the payout But also the detail of the payout Like fees and charge backs and all kinds of other stuff That could be included So what's the pros? It's still fairly simple to do this method Although it does require of course a journal entry Provides more details Breaking out gross sales and charges to get net deposit That's the goal of doing this Instead of just having the net amount hit your bank account You're looking to break out all the detail to more properly report sales And then all the fees, revenue and expenses As opposed to just net revenue as sales on the income statement More accurate data for taxes for decision making So if you do this method it's more likely That your sales line will be more accurate And your expenses will be more accurate And therefore when you get the 1099 for example That's trying to tell you you need to report this amount For taxes on your gross sales The top line of the income statement You should have a number that's equal to or greater Than that amount which you would think would be a more proper number Because you're reporting more of the detail in the gross sales line Less integrations needed with other methods So this method is an attempt to try to simply just use the bank feeds still But pull in more information at the same time So you get more financial data for decision making and for taxes While not having to more complicate the system with other kind of integrations And then it's less costly Sometimes third party applications can cost more to pull in the integration So obviously this is a cheaper method to try to do a little bit of a step up From just the bank feeds and it can help with timing issues Meaning you can try to look at when the sale actually happened Versus when it hit the bank account and properly record the sales transactions In the time period they happened So if there's a cut off issue the sale happened in December But you didn't get the deposit till January Then the sale on an accrual basis should happen generally in December Cons, much more time consuming Obviously if the reports come out every day Then we got to do a transaction on a daily If they happen every two weeks then we got to go in there and update the transactions You got to make sure to do that because if you don't Then it's going to be quite messy to go in and kind of try to fix everything At one point in time it's not just an automated You're not just going to turn it on it's just going to be automated You got to go in there and do the updates periodically There's a learning curve to understand what to do So clearly there's going to be a journal entry Most people are quite overwhelmed with journal entries Once you understand the process it's not too bad But you got to first think about what's going to happen If you have a little bit of accounting background That would be quite useful when you're doing the journal entries Alright, the next method you got the QBO QuickBooks Online Commerce Connect to Sales Channel and Bank Feeds So this is a newer thing at the point in time of this recording Where QuickBooks Online, my interpretation basically said Hey look, these third party integrations are coming up with these integrations And a lot of people are confused as to what the best integrations are And of course there can be costs with the integrations So QuickBooks Online is attempting to put their own e-commerce integration solutions Into the standard purchase of QuickBooks Online And that would be integrations with some platforms which would include I believe Shopify, Amazon and eBay So there's pros and cons of this Remember that this is still new So that's one of the things that we have to kind of keep in mind So what are the pros and cons? It's simple to set up So it's obviously within QuickBooks Online So you've already signed up to QuickBooks Online You can have your bank feed set up And then it's pretty easy if you have like a Shopify or Amazon To turn on the e-commerce within it Although it is another integration It is not using a different third party app So the fact that we're not going to another company Another third party app is nice It's still kind of an integration Because now we've got the bank feeds that are pulling in from the bank It's still pulling in from a third party But we feel fairly secure with that at these point Most bookkeepers count and stew But now we're pulling in data from another system Again, which is the Shopify and whatnot And we're doing it not with a third party app Which kind of makes us feel a little bit more secure Possibly but we're still doing that integration And the QuickBooks Online, it's still a new thing You know, in QuickBooks Online So we don't have a whole lot of history to go on In terms of exactly how well it's panning out So it provides more detail Breaking out fees and other charges That's the point So it's going to be pulling in this information To break out the fees and the charges properly It bundles sales transactions to match deposits Sent from commerce platform So note, a lot of people when they see it Within QuickBooks you might think Because it's in QuickBooks It's going to pull in all the e-commerce transactions And integrate them as if it was an on-ground store Creating items and sales receipts And so on But that's not what they're doing at this point in time They might, again, they could change this app As it goes forward It's still kind of new at this point in time But from my understanding They've been talking to people that have been Dealing with this commerce situation And they've come to the general conclusion That many people do Is that a lot of most e-commerce businesses Probably don't want to pull in Every transaction information into QuickBooks Online And use that as part of the integration To put into their financial statements Because it would overload the system Because you already have that information on the other software Because you would have to enter the items and whatnot To make sure that those properly And exactly line up to what's in the other system It could bog down your QuickBooks system Because of volume of transactions and sales Which is volume is what you're usually going for So what they're trying to do Is bundle the transactions periodically So that they can kind of group them together So they can summarize the data Which makes it a more of a simplified thing And that's what some of these other third-party applications Do as well So it can help with timing issues So in other words The app actually might break out Like if a sales transactions happened in December And in January of the following year Then it could account for the transactions Of the sales that happened in that cutoff In December versus January And then the cons It is still new So there's not a lot of feedback at this point in time One of the great things about QuickBooks Is that it's so widely used That we have a lot of people That are commenting on it And making reviews on it And we feel pretty comfortable With a lot of the general functionality Of QuickBooks because of all of that This is still a fairly new thing And a lot of the people that are experts At e-commerce at this point in time Are probably still using whatever systems They were using before Whether that be bank feeds Manual reporting systems Or other third-party apps And so I think it's going to take some time Before people move from using The third-party apps that they're comfortable with Possibly to integrating with this one And obviously we'll have to see What develops from the integrations That they currently have So it does not currently track inventory This isn't necessarily a con Because they might in the future Have it so it tracks inventory But I believe that the rationale For not tracking inventory is the same rationale That we've talked about before Is that that's going to cause you Or force you to pull in every transaction And then set up your products and whatnot Which could weigh down your system So I put it in the con side of things Because a lot of people feel like They're just going to turn on this app And it's going to be reporting everything In a perpetual inventory system In a similar fashion as if we were running Inventory in an on-ground setting At this point in time That's not generally the way that It's being set up to do It's being set up to simplify The sales transactions that we're Pulling into the system Which is really what's been recommended By a lot of people that do a lot of e-commerce Because of the reasons we talked about So it works best for getting paid Directly for e-commerce payment portals When adding other payment portals Like PayPal and Stripe It generally will not pick up fees at that level So notice that we've talked about We've talked about the fact that Like if you set up your Shopify store And you only accept Shopify payments Therefore you don't use a PayPal Or something like that for people to pay you But you use Shopify's payment methods Then it should pull all the information In from Shopify quite well And the fees and the charge backs Will be linked because it's linking To the Shopify in that example But when you add that extra level of Complication such as an intermediary Payment processor like a PayPal Now you have some fees that are Happening at the PayPal level And this connection is connecting To the Shopify level So now you're going to have to deal with That problem which is a common kind of Issue with a lot of different integrations Because there's another level in there That we have to deal with So if you had like a Shopify store And you only turned on the Shopify payments And didn't let people pay you from like PayPal and other payment sources That's when it would work most smoothly Most likely But most people when you start a Shopify store Or something they want to turn on Any payment processor possibly because The thought is that will increase The likelihood of people facilitating Or buying stuff And then you end up with these Third party platforms and they have Their own fees and charge backs that could happen At that level which you might be able To deal with by having the PayPal Integration for example Which is kind of like the bank feeds But a modified bank feed thing So in any case And then you could have third party apps Like A2X and bank feed So this is similar to having The system within QuickBooks But now you have A third party app doing it So you can search for an app That fits your specific needs Now note when you're looking for third party apps There's a whole This is one of the reasons I think QuickBooks Online started their own Like integration internally Because the fact that you have Different types of apps Means that you know It's an overwhelming choice and you could use You could pick apps that aren't Best suited for what you're Trying to do. So some apps for example Will pull, will try to pull in All the information and again Track the inventory and all that kind of stuff But a lot Of people recommend that that might not Be the best route to go because You'll overload the system because You want to make sure that you understand Inventory because QuickBooks is not best suited For more advanced Inventory tracking oftentimes And so you want to be careful On which app That you're going to use. So some may Have inventory integrations But be careful which one You want to use. So Oftentimes we're trying to break out In our general thought process Instead of having a full service Perpetual inventory system We're thinking about possibly apps That break out the sales side And then deal with the cost of goods sold side Separately in a periodic inventory system So a good app will generally break Out fees and other charges Similar to what we're trying to do Here is break out the fees That's one of the points of the app Instead of just recording it as net amount On the income statement Which would be done if you just use bank Feeds and it can help with Timing issues meaning Those transactions that happen like in December In sales but you didn't get the deposit Until say January For example Also just note that some of these apps Like at like the A2X For example has A similar kind of process that we talked About with QuickBooks. So it's Not going to try to pull in every Transaction oftentimes But rather try to group the transactions Summarize the transactions And then pull them into your system So you have more detailed information We have similar kind of problems with That scenario as with the QuickBooks one in that if you're connecting To the store Itself and Then it works quite well but When you have that middle tier With the PayPal or something like that That could muddy up Muddy up the connection a bit But also on the Plus side I just want to point out that Of course some of these applications like the A2X have been In use for some time Whereas although the QuickBooks Is these accounting software you're using These integrations Are still new Within QuickBooks and you would think it would take some time For them to kind of work out the bugs Or do whatever they want To do with it although It looks like they're taking a strategy That is similar to Like an A2X where they're trying To kind of summarize the data that they're pulling into The system. Okay cons Working with another outside third party Integration so clearly now You're pulling in data from Your bank feeds likely And now you're pulling in data from The third party platforms And you're doing so With a third party app which isn't Like a big problem but again it's another Now you've got another Kind of company That you're basically Dealing with which is Kind of an issue. The wrong app could Pull more data than you need So this is where you want to be very careful On the app that you're choosing And make sure that you have a plan going into it Because if you choose an app That just pulls in every transaction Every sales transaction you make And you don't know what you're doing From an accounting perspective you will probably Be quite overwhelmed With a massive amount of data in QuickBooks And over time that'll Clog down way down your QuickBooks Most likely if you have a high volume Of sales so you want to make sure That you have an idea Of what the app is doing When you're pulling in the data May still have problems integrating fees At both platform level And the payment processor level Same kind of issue that we talked about With the QuickBooks integration If the app is connecting to Directly to like an A2X Is connecting directly to Shopify or Amazon or whatever Then it can Pull in that detailed information Usually in a summarized way And that's what we generally Are recommending here We summarize the data, we pull it in But when you have that third party Platform like a PayPal or whatnot That sometimes has the fees on its level That could add a level of complexity Which you might be able to solve Possibly by having a PayPal Integration which is basically Like a bank fee type of thing So those are the general Ways that we can go about doing this And now we'll go into some examples And play out some scenarios with them


If you want to give it a try all you need is a PC and the ability to join their discord which I will link in the video description below. They usually hold play tests every Wednesday that anyone can join. You can also download an offline client to test the game out if you want. I will warn you that it isn't an alpha, these are just play tests so you will encounter several bugs and it would be really nice if you could report them as you see them and help improve the game. I've done three of the play tests now and many of us are starting to get a hang of how and when to use our abilities which makes the game so much more fun. The next step is coordinating gameplay so that we can make an unstoppable team. As you can see the graphics are low poly and the action is fast-paced so you can enjoy this one whether you have a $5000 desktop or a $500 laptop.  Oh ho ho ho ho! Magus don't let them... You guys are asking for it now! It's mage time! We got mage, good job guys! Oh! Wow! Pusy! Pusy! The brutality! Tell me you're friends!  Man!


The Emo State Command has repealed attempt by bandits to attack Njaba town, including the police station in Njaba, Lokho Kanto. The state police spokesperson Michael Abatam said the interception was made possible by the command operation Restore Peace, where the commissioner of police Abu Tuyaro recently put in place. Abatam said two bandits were neutralized while others escaped with bullet wounds. One AK-47 rifle and 10 round of left ammunition, locally made double barrel pistol and extended cartridges were recovered from them. The bandits also detonated improvised explosive devices, IEDs, around a parking lot near the police station in Njaba, which according to the PPRO caused minimal damage. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.


The human shields lie has been conclusively, irrefutably debunked. One aspect of the recent revelations about the IDF's lavender AI system that's not getting enough consideration is the fact that it is completely devastating to the narrative that Israel has been killing so many civilians because Hamas uses human shields. If you missed this story, a major report from 972 revealed that Israel has been using an AI system called Lavender to compile kill lists of suspected members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic jihad, which have been carried out with hardly any human verification. One automated system, psychopathically named Where's Daddy, tracks suspects to their homes so that they can be killed along with their entire families. The IDF has been knowingly killing 15 to 20 civilians at a time to kill one junior Hamas operative and up to 100 civilians at a time to take out a senior official. 972's Yuval Abraham writes the following, quote, Moreover, the Israeli army systematically attacked and targeted individuals while they were in their homes, usually at night while their whole families were present, rather than during the course of military activity. According to the sources, this was because from what they regarded as an intelligence standpoint, it was easier to locate the individuals in their private houses. Additional automated systems, including one called Where's Daddy, also revealed here for the first time were used specifically to track the targeted individuals and carry out bombings when they had entered their families' residences, end quote. Another 972 report by Abraham back in November revealed that IDF AI systems ensure that the Israeli military is fully aware of every child it's going to be killing in each airstrike and that it deliberately targets civilian infrastructure as a matter of policy. When questioned about these systems by 972, the IDF spokesperson responded that Hamas places its operatives and military assets in the hearts of civilian populations, systematically uses the civilian population as human shields and conducts fighting from within civilian infrastructures, including sensitive sites such as hospitals, mosques, schools and UN facilities. The IDF is bound by and acts according to international law, directing its attacks only at military targets and military operatives. The human shields narrative that's become so popular in Israel Apologia insists that the reason the IDF kills so many civilians in its attacks on Gaza is because Hamas intentionally surrounds itself with noncombatants as a strategy to make the innocent Israelis reluctant to drop bombs on them. But as the intercepts Ryan Grimm recently observed on Twitter, this is soundly refuted by the revelation that Israel has been intentionally waiting to target suspected Hamas members when it knows they'll be surrounded by civilians. Israel's argument that they kill so many civilians because Hamas uses human shields is torn apart by the revelation that the IDF prefers to attack its targets when they are at home with their families, tweeted Grimm. It is not Hamas using human shields. It is Israel deliberately hunting families. A human shield is only a shield if your enemy values human life and seeks to minimize civilian deaths. Israel deliberately maximizes the number of civilians it can kill by waiting until a target is with his entire family. Palestinians are not shields to Israel. They are targets. This is such an important point. Advocates for Palestine like Abbey Martin have for years been presenting compelling arguments against Israel's human shields claims, and common sense shows that the presence of civilians is clearly not a deterrent to Israeli airstrikes. But because of these 972 revelations, the lie has now been thoroughly irrefutably debunked. Civilians aren't getting killed because Hamas hides civilians behind them. Civilians are getting killed because the IDF waits until suspected Hamas members are around civilians to target them with high powered military explosives. A popular quote attributed to former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir says, someday we may be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our children, but we will never forgive them for making us kill their children. You see this quote pop up all the time in varying iterations, shared approvingly by Israel apologists around the world as though it's something wise and brilliant instead of a horrific defense of murdering children. But it turns out this morally depraved quote isn't even true by the most generous interpretations. Israel isn't being forced to kill Palestinian children, it is knowingly choosing to. The human shields narrative is just one more instance in which Israel pretends to be a victim while actually being the victimizer. They lied about beheaded babies so that they could get away with murdering babies. They lied about mass rapes so that they could get away with committing rape. They lied about Hamas using civilians as human shields so that they could kill civilians. They lie about being victims so that they can victimize.


Webinar, we have on promoting open online learning in the workforce in Europe, a very, very interesting initiative by EASMA from the European Commission, and the project leader, project manager for that initiative was Dr. Christina Davudeda from Price Waterhouse, CUPUS, EU Services. We will have one hour to discuss this initiative and to raise some questions and reflections from the presentation. I am Ebor Sjanilsson, I am the EDEN EC and also the chair of the EDEN Special Interest Group of Technology and Naval Learning and Quality Enhancement and also in EDEN NAP and in EDEN Council of Fellows. So it's a great pleasure to have you all here and it's a great pleasure to organize this webinar on behalf of EDEN. As I said when we were talking before starting, the webinar is recording. You who are here and have registered, you will get an email about the link and you will also get a badge for your participation. During the webinar, Christina will share the findings about this initiative and feel free to raise reflections, questions, etc. in the chat. I will myself try to catch up with that so we can have in the end of the webinar maybe some 10 to 15 minutes to discuss your ideas and your experiences. So please feel free to write whatever in the chat. I think I have said everything. Well, one more thing, those webinars are always followed up by an EDEN chat later in the evening at 6 o'clock PM, central European time. So we will have an EDEN chat. It is with Twitter and the hashtag was also in the email you got for this webinar. So at that chat you have the possibilities to discuss further on and I will be there to moderate that session. Okay, thank you very much. I see that there is a lot of echo from my microphone. Is it better now? So before I leave the floor to Christina, I will say something about EDEN. Yes, here you can see the presenters. And as it was announced in the call for this webinar, it was also under Richard from the European Commission and EASMA who also are involved in this project, but he had a very late council because he had to substitute his director just today and just this time. So I asked Christina to take his part as well about the background. So EDEN is the largest active and developing professional community of researchers and practitioners of the open distance and e-learning in Europe. We are an unprofit and non-governmental association and it was established in 1991. It's a platform for professional cooperation and information exchange. It's open for all levels and sectors of education and training. It's open for institutions, individuals and networks. And we have our legal office in the UK and the secretariat is in Hungary since 1997. The mission of EDEN is to support and divorce to modernize education in Europe, to network and collaborate, facilitate knowledge and practice exchange, improve understanding amongst professionals in distance and e-learning, and promote policy and practices across the area, online learning and e-learning and distance learning. Our members are both from institutions. You can be an individual member, it can be networks. We have some 187 institutional members and some over 1,000 members in the network of academic professionals, which is a meeting and communication forum. And we have over 30 European or national networks presented in membership. We have 400 plus institutions represented from 70 countries, both within Europe but also from outside Europe. As I said, one of the special interest groups EDEN has since I'm here, is the EDEN Special Interest Group on Teaching, Enabling Learning and Quality Enhancement. And I myself share of that interest group. And we are some 10 people, colleagues actively in the core group and then people who have an interest in this area will come to join. So this webinar is on behalf of this special interest group. And the webinar is also in collaboration with the EDEN Network of Academic Professionals, which also is a special network which you are free to contribute with. And they have a special members area like this webpage where people can find colleagues, find projects, find collaborators, etc. And they have also an own steering committee. We are hosting annual conferences each year. The conference in 2020 will be held in Romania, Tymysuara. And the topic is about human and artificial intelligence for the society of the future. It will be 21 to 24 June. So welcome to register for that. The call is also open for contributions. So with that, a brief information about EDEN. As I said, there's a cooperation with EDEN SIG and EDEN NAP and of course with EDEN as a sole. So with that, I will give the floor to Dr. Kristina Devojeda from Pies Waterhouse Coopers, EU Services, to present about the initiative and the findings and the recommendations. And I will also say that EDEN was a partner in this project. So it is a great opportunity to have you here, Kristina. So the floor is yours. Thank you very much, Evel, for your introduction. And thank you very much for this opportunity to be here and to share the findings and the outcomes and to have this discussion with the audience. And the audience that we have today is a target audience of this initiative. I really hope that there are no any issues with sound. So if there is anything, just let me know. But I'll try and do my best for you to be able to hear me. And please let me start with just a brief introduction of myself, who I am. So I'm leading PWC Innovation Research Center in the Netherlands and working for PWC EU Services. We are doing all kinds of assignments for the European Commission and IASMA, already for more than 12 years from my side. And it's mainly in the area of skills, upscaling, rescaling, talent, emerging technologies and skills. So all the new and alternative forms of education and training, artificial intelligence and all the related topics. And in the context of my work, we've carried out lots of different related studies for the European Commission, one of which will be discussed today. And this is this initiative on promoting online training opportunities that was to a year initiative, which was just finished in the autumn of 2019. And we are actually now actively disseminating the outcomes of this initiative. And the objective of our webinar today is to first, for me to introduce to you the key objectives, outcomes and key results of this initiative. And then specifically to present the key elements of the vision, because that was actually the main target of the initiative, to develop this common vision based on inputs from all key stakeholder groups on how do we make sure that online training is actively promoted among the workforce in Europe. But for me, the most important point of the webinar of today is actually to discuss with you how can we make sure that the vision is not just staying in the report as it is right now, but is actually transcended into the real life reality, into your own local context. And that together we discuss how do we maximize the impact of those outcomes of the initiative. So in the end, we would like to have this kind of interactive discussion together with you. So please let me just start with a brief introduction of background and objectives of the initiative. And so we were asked by the European Commission, specifically AASMA and DIGI Grow, to identify the ways to massively promote online training solutions among companies in Europe, and specifically among small businesses in Europe. And how to find this out? We were asked to do extensive desk research. We conducted lots of in-depth interviews to Pan-European online surveys. We had multiple expert workshops and our final conference in Brussels in June. And the key outcomes have been formulated in the final report and the brochure, which are all already accessible online. So you're all warmly welcome to explore them on the EU Publications website. And the link is provided. These are especially defining report is quite a long document. The brochure is more kind of an appetizer, gives you the main highlights of the outcomes. And today I'll try to guide you through them briefly. So let's start with why this topic and why now. I will not surprise you by saying that we leave in wonderful times, times of great change, driven not only by all those disruptive technologies like AI, robotics, big data, Internet of Things, and so on. But we also experience lots of social challenges, societal challenges, economic challenges, political challenges, which should also not be forgotten. Things related to migration, ethical diversity, gender equality, social inclusion, and so on. All those developments inevitably have fundamental implications for skill requirements. And that implies that companies need to work on upskilling and reskilling of the people working there. So we need a new mindset. We need also companies and the company leaders to accept this reality that if you do not invest in upskilling or reskilling, then you are out of the market very soon. So it's just a matter of time. And this time is running out very quickly. So there is a need for new effective approaches to develop the required skills. And this is a quote in the center here, which I really liked it, so from Eden and from our SATA conference that we had in September that it's not about technology. It's about people. We often talked about it during our workshops that technology is not the key factor here. Technology is more like a tool. And it's more about how we will be using this technology, what we will be doing with that, and what implications it will have on us people. And that will determine how the future will look like. And now if we zoom into the world of S&E, it's a small company, small businesses, according to the European Commission's definition. So under 250 employees, then their world, when we talk about this reskilling and upskilling challenge, is even more challenging because they have, as well, this ever-growing need for upskilling their employees. But they are operating under extreme time pressure, extreme budget constraints. They have fierce competition for talent. And often they also have this fear to invest in their people because of a high retention rate and lots of people actually moving quickly from one place to another. And next to all that, we have factors like frustration and ignorance from the company's side, with frustration being represented by the fact that we talk with lots of representatives of small companies, and they say, we would love to do something about that in terms of upskilling and reskilling, but we have no idea literally where to go. It's an ocean of opportunities, lots of different platforms, tools, trainings. Where should we go? What should we do? How should we organize it? There is on the other side another group of small companies we talk to, which demonstrate a huge level of ignorance, which usually these are not high-tech companies, but more traditional sectors, which say, yeah, we're doing this business like this for decades already, and it's gonna be fine. We don't need to bother, and all those digital things, we really do not care, and our business seems to be perfectly okay. Well, it's a big question to what extent this is a sustainable perspective. On the other hand, when we talk about all these upskilling and reskilling challenges, we have such a wonderful thing as online training, and of course, I don't have to tell you about all the benefits that it brings, like flexibility, cost effectiveness, learner engagement, innovative pedagogies, better reach, scalability, and so on. And I have to emphasize here, we do not try to proclaim online training as the only way of organizing learning in this digital age, but it's a promising and highly relevant kind of solution that we should definitely consider, and which companies should be aware about when they deal with these reskilling and upskilling challenges. And I also wanted to make sure that we are all on the same page when we talk about online training. What do I actually mean by that? So here, we've put the definition that we used in our study, and in its essence, it's literally, it's basically, we talk about training that is delivered, enabled, or mediated using digital technology for the explicit purpose of learning on organizations. Actually, you could say that we're talking here about digital learning. So we're not talking explicitly about training, it's learning more, general approach, and online, yeah, can be also offline if it's digital, we're talking here about digital learning, but even further than that, and here in Purple, we've highlighted this kind of a mindset shift that we wanted to emphasize throughout the report, that we actually need to shift from digital learning idea to what's the idea of learning in a digital world. And let me explain what I mean by that. When we talk about digital learning, we kind of say, well, you can learn in all different ways, but you can actually use digital tools and we can digitalize the way we learn. So let's put it like digital learning, so that's the term. Learning in a digital world actually emphasizes that the world itself is becoming so digital that it's almost impossible to distinguish anymore between digital and non-digital learning, and it doesn't make a lot of sense so that because learning itself becomes part of this digital world, so let's just talk about learning in a digital world. That's the difference. But despite all those great challenges and promises that online training offers to small companies, a reality shows that the adoption rates of online training solutions by European companies, and especially we're talking now about small companies, happens at an unacceptably slow rates, which was the problem that was actually found by the European Commission and was the very reason why this study was launched. And why do we say that the adoption rates are unacceptably low? Well, here is the graph that we developed based on data from PIAC database on the participation rates in open or distance education in SMEs in different countries and in red you see or in dark orange you see companies who responded yes and then yellow no. So there is a still relatively low proportion of companies. By the way, we have also made a split between different sizes within SMEs. So starting from less than 10 people and then up to 50 and 250. But you can see that the rates are quite low here and some countries that are popping up are Spain, Finland, Sweden, Poland, so Lithuania, so these are examples. But for the rest in most countries it's really slow and even in those countries where it's higher than in others it's still not very high. I have to say that the data we are showing here is already quite outdated. And it's a big challenge for us as researchers to work with such analysis and or databases because the time lag from the moment when you get this data till the moment that you can actually analyze this data is an extreme gap. For example, here we were doing this analysis in 2019 and the data we had to work with from these countries was from 2012 to 2015. So you see the difference in some countries almost seven years of difference of measuring moments which is quite insane and certainly does not reflect the current situation. But let's hope that these databases showing this type of data will be moving more and more towards real life data reflections in the future which will allow us researchers also to work with the most actual data. Nevertheless, we talk to companies in terms of checking whether this is a realistic picture of this type of data and they pretty much confirm that the situation has not drastically changed since that moment. So our study was still needed. And before you can solve something you need to understand why it is like this. So our first step was actually we needed to figure out what was the key reason? Why are the adoption rates of those digital learning or online training solutions in small companies was so low which we did by means of in-depth interviews and online surveys and across Europe. And here you can see a list of all kinds of reasons and barriers so it's not like only one thing why the adoption rates are so low but if we have to prioritize we could still clearly see that the most popular reason why was this lack of the overall culture of learning in companies. So learning was not in many companies is still not a major part of the agenda. It's not considered to be something to be treating in a formal way. Many companies they do learn it's not like they completely ignore it but it's not seen as something special or something which needs to be formalized be a kind of part of company's culture. It's just yeah, we do learning sometimes and that's it but we never bother whether it's like a strategic choice or not we just do it whenever we need it and then we forget about you know some kind of more flexible attitude but not an established kind of this culture where it's inspired or encouraged or where people inspire each other where leaders support it where people get to recognize for it or where there are some specific tools, approaches or things like that which would form a more kind of a culture there. But of course there were also other reasons which we needed to take a look at and in any case this pre-analysis supported our initial hypothesis that something needs to be done about it. And we were asked by the commission to explore what exactly needs to be done and by whom but also how should the funding be organized and how should online training complement other traditional forms of training that's what I tried to emphasize from the beginning that we should not promote it as the only way of doing training in the new world, right? Because there are still also promising areas where physical training is needed but also where learning on the job, real-time learning is needed and so on. And what are the most promising ways of reaching out to the workforce to engage them into online training? And that's where I would like also to mention what André Richet, so I have kindly mentioned Mr. André Richet, he's coordinating this initiative from DigiGrow of the European Commission. So what he asked me also to convey during this webinar that this online training initiative forms part of a series of initiatives under the strategic initiative of the European Commission. Skills for industry and there are some other parallel initiatives that look for example at curricular guidelines for engineers of the future including also online training measures or a new funding mechanisms explicitly for stimulating up-skilling and reskilling initiatives or the overall EU skills strategy for 2030. All those initiatives that are carried out by the European Commission, they aim to generate input for the new commission. So because they were launched by the old commission and now they are all delivering inputs for the new commission to take over and to develop these new programs for the future based on stakeholder inputs. And the key way for us to gather answers to these questions was to go to people, to the field, to users, to providers, providers of education and training, to policy makers themselves, to supporting structures, networks, communities and associations and to ask them to provide their views, vision, ideas, suggestions to those questions that we had to answer. So it wasn't our own opinion, but it was a consolidation of lots of consultations with people from the field, from across Europe. All right, so I'm now moving on to the key outcomes. And I already mentioned to you that the report is itself already available on the EU Publications website. And during this webinar, I would like to only to focus on the very last point of this report, which is vision and top priority measures and overall recommendations. But you see that there is a whole list of other bullet points which were covered in the reports quite extensively. So if you're interested in those, you're warmly welcome to explore the reporting. If we have to summarize the key outcomes first, it's just to say that so far, when we talk about specific measures, initiatives and so on of what needs to be done. So now we're already in the area of solutions. We were talking about challenges. Now we're moving already to solutions that we found. And so, so far before we did this study, the initiatives measures programs that were aiming to change the situation, they were mainly supply oriented very often. So they tried to make online training more attractive, to make supply bigger, better to develop new platforms, to support developers of online training solutions and so on. While during this research, we concluded that there's actually a need also, not also but actually for a shift from a supply oriented approach towards a demand oriented initiatives, which implies that we need to put our users in the center because that could be also the very answer to the problem why the adoption rates are so low. So we need to make sure that our users are putting the center of the situation that the training solutions are developed for them, with them and are relevant to what they are doing and tailored to their very context in which they are operating. And that actually relates to all the specific conditions for a massive take up of online training that we talk about the user in the center and of course that the providers, the supply of online training is extremely important and it is extremely important to have high quality and good providers, but it should be more structured around the user rather than around the supplier. So now we are entering the vision itself. The objective for us was to develop an overall blueprint of what kind of measures, roles, priorities would be needed at the EU and national levels in 2021, 2027 and beyond. So actually who has to do what to make sure that the online training solutions are successfully adopted massively within Europe and especially by small companies. So that's what we did. And what I meant shouldn't already that we had to do this based on inputs from all kinds of stakeholders. I will recall them again. So these are users themselves, providers of training solutions themselves. So education and training providers, policymakers, supporting structures. So all kinds of industry associations, cluster organizations and so on and similar structures. So it's a huge kind of community that we had to mobilize and whom we asked through online surveys, interviews and workshops to submit their inputs. And it was our task to make sure that we translate this waterfall of suggestions, of course put it through the assessment framework and develop top priorities. And I can tell you this was a highly challenging exercise because we actually received a waterfall of ideas. I mean it. So it was just an immense amount of all kinds of views, visions, solutions, ideas at all kinds of levels and it all demanded a structure. And we wanted to have a structure which has a holistic approach that we do not tackle only one piece of a bigger picture and just that's it. Or that we do not have fragments of a bigger picture but do not see the whole picture. So we desperately needed a framework where we would be able to put all those collected measures. And we decided to work with two dimensions. And the first dimension was this framework which is called a habit loop model. And please let me briefly explain to you what I mean here because it's a fundamental for understanding how the next steps were structured and how the vision looks like. Why we chose the habit loop model. The habit loop model basically shows you what needs to be done to change somebody's habit or somebody's behavior. We took it from, it was kindly suggested by Qt Solutions. It's a company in Brussels which is professionally changing behaviors of companies. What are we talking about exactly that? You may remember that I mentioned to you that the biggest barrier that we found for adopting online training solutions was this lack of learning culture. So there was a need and there is a need for many companies to change their behavior, their attitude towards learning and their behavior. So this model seemed to be perfectly suitable for that. And the model shows that you first need to have a motor before you can start the, get it running, so to say. And the motor here is the knowledge of the fact that so there are online training solutions that they do exist and that they can be relevant and useful for my company. That's the motor here. The trigger is something operational, like a reason that you need to have to start engaging in online training. Very many people tend to think that, well, it's enough with the motor. If you know that online training solutions exist and that they're very good, that the company will be using that. Of course we see that it's absolutely not the case because to start using something you need a good reason for that. And that's your trigger. The trigger is actually when you work on a project in a small company, for example, in this case, and you consider, and you see there is a challenge and you understand I need to follow a certain training, an online training in this case, to solve that problem. And if I don't do this, I most probably will not be able to solve it or it will be more problematic and I'm not sure. So that could be a good solution for me if I follow an online training. So you get an immediate trigger to start doing that. And if you have the trigger, then you can move to routine. Routine is the actual process, how it's all organized, including the tools, technologies and the solution itself, the online training itself. And then it's not enough. Again, I heard from many people as if they think that just following the training is the ultimate objective. But of course we should not forget that we are not following these trainings just because of doing learning for the sake of learning. We want to probably apply it somewhere. Otherwise it does not have a lot of sense at least to me. And probably difficult also for SMEs to convince them themselves to do this if there is no practical implementation. So this is the reinforcement point where you apply training to practice and as a company you actually make sure that this is relevant and is applied. Otherwise what's the point, right? And environment, that's the fifth one. So it has to be sustained. It has to be a sustained process. When there is this culture, when people do this, not on an ad hoc basis, but it's kind of a part of your normal behavior in companies and everybody's aware, everybody's engaged in learning, people exchange their experiences, they help each other, they discuss it with each other and the leadership is supporting this and so on. So these are the five elements and only when you have all five of them present will the behavior have a chance to be changed. If something is missing, it's probably not gonna be a big success from the very beginning, it's already quite clear. So we took that model to structure the measures that we were collecting from stakeholders, but that was only one part of the approach and we liked it a lot because it's a cyclical, holistic approach showing that organizing learning is much more than just the third element, routine, which is usually related to just tools, technologies and learning solutions themselves. So now if we go further, I also have to emphasize that of course, we're talking now about small companies as if it's one homogenous population of companies but it's not the case. As we all know, SMEs are so different in terms of size, sector, age, culture, like even high-tech SMEs are different. If you take ICT related SMEs, they are in a totally different world, you don't have to convince them about online training. Most probably they have been using it for a decade already at least. But if we talk about other high-tech SMEs, not ICT related, then it's already less popular and if we go to more traditional sectors then it's less and less popular. So we have to keep this all in mind when we develop a vision and that's why it has to be multi-dimensional because what we also found when we have to develop solutions, we need to understand that there are lots of actors involved in the process so we cannot delegate all the solutions to SMEs themselves or to the European Commission or to the suppliers of education and training solutions. So it has to be a complex approach where lots of different actors have a certain role to play. And that brings us finally to the picture of how we structured the vision in four strands which is kind of summarizing the whole idea behind the approach and that's what I would like to explain to you in detail. You can see here two axes. One is related to the target group, horizontal one employers and employees and another one motivation intrinsic and extrinsic. And in our research we found that actually of course both need to be targeted employers and employees. If you work exclusively with employees that do not get leadership support then employees will not get enough support and opportunities to use online training solutions at work. If you work exclusively with employers then obviously you're missing out the end user, the employees who need to be retrained and in terms of motivations, we had lots of discussions whether we have to focus on intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. I hope we all are on the same page just to clarify. So by intrinsic we mean motivation when people are doing something because it's their own wish, their own desire because they have some internal personal satisfaction after doing that like personal growth because they want really to excel in certain skills and extrinsic is related to external rewards. So people are doing something because they will be rewarded for that. And our research has shown that we need both approaches. Both can be good and sometimes combined and there is no one best way to do things. So that's why we actually split all the measures that we collected from different stakeholders into four strands and we assigned them a certain color. And our first color was blue which refers to this visionary leadership and it covers employers with intrinsic motivation and refers to all the measures that aim to inspire employers, to encourage them to promote online training among their employees and to facilitate those processes and help them exchange experiences, set up all those processes and so on. If we go below that, so yellow strand refers to the same target group employers but there we will find measures that aim to reward employers for stimulating online training within their companies and we talk here about tax measures, labels, SME awards. Then we have a green strand and that is focusing on intrinsic motivation of employees which is the most natural way of learning that we have here. It's where people genuinely just want to learn something because they like it, because they want to grow in something because it's needed for them. So that's this green strand and they need to be inspired and facilitated. And then there is this red strand where measures aim at rewarding learners for engaging in learning activities. We even have seen suggestions to use monetary rewards, non-monetary recognition and so on. We can discuss a lot about which one is good, which one is bad and we had lots of quite hot discussions on that with an overall conclusion that we cannot claim that something is better than the other because they are meant for different target audiences, these types of measures and in some cases one measure, one strand is better in other cases, it may not be working and so on. Sometimes they could be combined. These, we are still not at the level of specific measures. This is just an overview of dimensions just to show you how we structured the vision. So you may remember the cycle that I showed you back here. So this cycle of the behavioral change and now this picture with four colors. So these are our four, these are two frameworks that we use to structure the measures. And why we had to use frameworks because now I will be showing you, please don't try to read this, it's not meant for you to be reading this, it's just, but it's all available in the report. So it's all openly available. It's just to show you, so I will be clicking through it quickly that we have, in total, it's something around 50 different measures which were prioritized out of hundreds of solutions which we had to combine, assess, re-assess, merge together and then derive these about 50 measures. So we could not have a list of just 50 measures and say, oh, this is just huge list and that's what you have to do. We needed to set priorities and we needed to understand do we have a full picture or not. So putting it into these dimensions, so in purple, you will see here, this is the framework. So if you see on the left side of the table, we have motor and then there will be trigger routine and so on. So these are measures structured around the cycle, the habit loop. And on the right side, you will see the colors and these are the colors of the vision strands. You may remember that we just discussed it. So what we had to do, we had to link each specific measure with a certain point on a cycle of the habit loop model and a certain vision strand. And in some cases, one measure was related to different strands simultaneously. So it could happen as well. And here you can see that in total, we had a similar number of measures for different vision types or different strands. But in terms of priorities, how did we define the top priorities? We had a European stakeholder survey again. And we asked the stakeholders, which I already mentioned to you, all those key groups to nominate their top priorities. And here I will show them to you later on. I just wanted to illustrate that the strand that gathered the highest number was the blue strand. And that's, you may remember, it's a visionary leadership when leaders of small companies are tackled, are targeted and are inspired, encouraged, facilitated to exchange experiences. And if you move down to the next point, it's, so the second place, so to say, it goes to the green strand, which refers to learners in the driver's seat. And you remember this, the most natural way of learning when learners themselves are just genuinely engaged in learning process because they want it for themselves. And yellow and red received less priorities, but still they are included in the priority list. So actually this priority check showed us that all four vision strands need to be included in the common vision. So they are all valid. Some of them are more relevant to some context than others, but we should not exclude any of them and say that they are not or are wrong, which we had as a question during our debates. And now if we look at the top priority measures, so here they are, you will see them in the brochure, you will find them in the reports. We will not have time to go into each of them in detail, but you can just briefly look at them. So it's basically specific elements need to be present. Related to different aspects of what we've covered, related to establishing communities of practice, but also developing multi-stakehold collaboration platforms, things related to personalization, like developing platforms with personal learning accounts, personal learning environments, but also, for example, things related to recognitions, to learning reviews as part of management reviews and providing spaces for experimentation and innovation. So that was one of the key points that we need at the EU level and national levels. We need some hubs, some spaces where we could try out new approaches because very often with these digital technologies with radical changes, you do not know what will work and what will not work and you have to experiment. You have to take risks. You have to try out things before knowing whether it will be working. And it has to be some kind of this environment which is available to both suppliers, providers of online training, but also for them to engage users and also for users to try out things. So this type of initiatives. Each of those blocks which you see here is connected to specific suggestions, proposals for projects at the EU and national levels. So we did not stop at just saying, okay, you have to establish communities of practice. Okay, well, you all may agree, but what needs to be done and who has to do it and what kind of projects and how, so what we did for each of those measures for these top priority measures, we developed quite specific tables and I will show just an example to you. So here, they are all available again in the final report where we also describe so what kind of activities could require dedicated budget. These are examples of activities, of course. The list is not exhaustive, but we show here that it's, for example, a pan-European initiative that needs to be introduced with a specific budget, with a certain duration and what could be the scope of that, then what kind of regional national funds would be needed and so on. So we did it actually for all of those measures and that's the most important input that we were trying to deliver to the new commission, which I mentioned in the beginning, because the objective was to make sure that we informed them based on the market needs of what the priorities of the new commission should be directed at next, so the upcoming period, 2021-27 and to give them some food for thought but also specific suggestions and specific initiatives to consider in the future. And all those initiatives and suggestions, again, were developed based on the inputs collected from the stakeholders. And just some final remarks from my side. So to conclude, what our research suggests is that there is a need for learning ecosystems. I think that's a topic that is popping up during pretty much most of the discussions when you talk about the promotion of online training. It's a complex phenomenon, complex idea that we're talking about and we cannot deal with it at the level of an individual organization or even the country. It's very often there is a need for joining forces at the level of multiple organizations, countries and creating these ecosystems which all key players are included and a central role is assigned to learners themselves as I already emphasized. And of course, personalization. We had this discussion again between personal and personalized which let's not enter it. So personal learning solutions are crucial and need to be also part of the whole approach and I put at the cornerstone. Then the support that needs to be provided to learners needs to be not an ad hoc basis but has to be present during the whole professional career. Yes, so everything should be oriented towards this notion of life. All right, so that's it from my side for the presentation part. Thank you so much for your attention and I'll give the floor back to Eba, I guess for moderating the question and answer session. Yes, thank you so much, Christina. It was a really, really fantastic presentation. I have myself followed this project as an evaluator and expert for the whole period of time. So we have had many discussions and I think this project initiative is extremely useful for the workforce in Europe. So that's why we also wanted to have it as a webinar because we have to, it has been disseminated and all of us need to do our part what you are suggesting from this initiative. So there are a couple of questions in the chat. For example, one from, you had a slide about the approach and there was a question from Rickard. What is the approach and approach to? Promoting online training or a vision of online training? I need some help to figure out what this question is about. Yes, I can maybe go back to the slides if I remember where it was. Vision, I think it, let me see, this one. Right, so if I understand it correctly, the question is, is this an approach or a vision for promoting online training or a vision for online training? Yes. Is that the question? Right, yes. That's a very good question and thanks a lot for asking that because I really need to make it clear indeed. So the vision is for promoting. So the ways of promoting online training. It's not the vision of how online training should look like but it's the vision of how can we make sure that the online training solutions are actively adopted by companies and especially small companies. I hope I've answered that. Thank you. Yes, I think that was clear for all of us. Let me see. Here was another one. I'm interested in what is understood by online training like MOOCs, Lax MOOCs or what they're also, or not about community of practices and learning about buy and from communities of practices. Right, and that's what I also tried to address when I showed the definition in the beginning where I emphasize that we try to talk about online training in the broader sense as all kinds of learning that has a digital component in it, using digital technology. So it's a much broader perspective than just something being purely online. It can be also offline. It can be whatever is digital and it does not have to be formal training. It can be learning. We actually had a big discussion in the very end of this project when one of the steering committee members pointed out that the online training term may not be the best term to use here and we may even reconsider using it at all. But since we've been using it, we got it as it is already from the commission when we started working on the project and we already presented so many times the project itself that we had some kind of brand already established around this initiative. So we thought it could be a bit too dangerous to rebrand it at the very end. So we kept it, but we tried to write. So I bet you were there as well, indeed. Yeah, so we had very tough discussions about that. But I think what you have written here on this slide as well, shifting from the digital learning to what's learning in a digital world is very important to emphasize. Let me see. Catherine is saying you have a focus on SMEs. What differences do you see in promoting online training among academics? All right, that's a great question. Thank you so much. Well, although we have not focused on academics, but we occasionally heard some opinions from their side as well. And I have to say something really striking was mentioned by some people from academia when they said to us, actually, in our university, we kind of see that our professors, they try to hide the opportunities of online training from students because they sincerely think that they compete with those online trainings themselves and that they will become not needed anymore as teachers, as professors. So there is a kind of artificial, there is a kind of a resistance from professors, from teachers' side. So they do not promote it because they think that they will lose their jobs. So that I think is something which is typical. I'm not saying that it's typical for academia because I've seen great universities with lots of digitalization already in place. But that's something that you do not have with SMEs and companies probably because they do not compete with teachers, but here you have this too. And there was also discussion in the student committee we had about that academia need to be more involved in this kind of issues together with SMEs. Absolutely. That is also in your report. I have one question for you as well. Having presented all your findings in the background and also your visions and recommendations, what can we do to promote open learning in the workforce in Europe from our sides? What can each of us do? Yes, that's a great question. That's actually the central question of the whole initiative. I do not think I can answer it very quickly because it again, it depends on which position you are in, which stakeholder group you represent, right? But there are in our report and in our brochure what we tried to highlight those roles for specific stakeholder groups and try to highlight those key directions for action which starts from awareness raising. So we all need to work on raising awareness among companies that these tools do exist. They are at a quite high level of advancement and become better and better that these solutions become accessible. And actually very often they are even cheaper than traditional training or even for free. So we need to create this awareness. We need to make sure that these companies know where to go and where to find training but also that they get assistance with implementing it and hopefully also at the stage of developing training that they get engaged in developing it and making sure that it's relevant to their own needs and that we also finally to close the loop, we have to support them with sustaining the sculpture of learning. And I think just to summarizing what I was trying to say if we go back to the model that I showed, this habit loop model, that's actually what we all need to do because that's, you know, all these five elements, these are the elements we all have to work on and starting from the company but then at each level it adds up. So European Commission needs to work on it from their level, national organizations from their level and then so on. Then we will completing the cycle. Yes, right. We need to do the work both on a micro level, master level and micro level. And each of us can make a difference before you can get things happening. There is actually a final question on, also by Rickard on the second to the last slide. That was why I was moving in your slides. There was a reference on IE ecosystem or something similar. Can you give an example? This is the second last slide. Yes, here it was meant more like, oh yeah, it's here. That yes, AI augmented learning ecosystems and platforms. It means that we just need to start, well, we increasingly start using AI technologies and all the other digital solutions that are out there to tailor to personalize the content of trainings to the needs of specific users so that, yeah, to maximize the relevance. And in terms of examples, well, pretty much there are lots of different examples in companies what we've heard, for example, from IBM was a prominent example, but that's of course a big name, which small companies can hardly replicate on their own. But I would say that most modern learning platforms then they start already using these AI technologies to make sure that the content is tailored, is monitored, that the user is constantly observed and it gets the options that they're most suitable and relevant to the user. And so the systems that we will be building in the future, there will be more and more AI enabled and it's just the beginning of it, but we can hardly imagine what will be possible in a few years' time and what kind of solutions AI will be able to generate to us in the end. Yeah, exactly. That's what I'm... So thank you very much again, Christina, for sharing your insights on this initiative with us. I would really recommend you to take part of the report. It's really, really useful. The background material, the desktop research and the interviews and the surveys are really, really comprehensive and your findings and recommendations are so interesting to deal with and take part of and to gain it to disseminate. And we can do a lot ourselves to make things happening. So thank you all for being with us for this hour, for this webinar. I'm sure there will be a lot of more questions. So we will have a chat at six o'clock p.m. Central European Time, I will moderate that one. And as I said, I have been involved in this project as well working with Christina. So I have also some insights in the project so we can continue the discussion. And then, so six o'clock p.m. and the hashtag is Eden Chat. And we have a next webinar coming up on the 26th of February with Alfredo Soreira, who also is an Eden EC member and it will be on IE. So you're welcome and that will be the board announcement from the Eden webpage. So thank you all very much and thanks a lot to Christina. Thank you very much. Also from my side, thank you. And thanks a lot to you, the Secretary, to have been behind the webinar doing all the technical things and announcement for this webinar. Thank you especially to Dora. So bye, see you next time. Bye-bye.


In the name of God, the most beneficent and the most merciful. All praise be to Him, our Creator and our Sustainer. I begin in His name and I send my peace and blessings upon Muhammad and his holy progeny and I send my condolences to the Imam of my time, Imam ul Mahdi ur Mantad me Allah Haste and his reappearance on the tragic occasion of his mother Fatima to Zahra is marching them between the door and the nail. In our previous episode we analyzed the events that led up to the attack on the house of Fatima, the slapping of her face, the kicking of her stomach, the lashing of her back and her arms by Ibn Suhaq and tonight I will begin with this piece of poetry, this piece of poetry by Al-Allama Al-Qazweeni who died in the year 1335 after Hijrah. This piece of poetry materializes the entire event of the attack on the house of my lady Fatima, peace be upon her. He says, He says, Sunaym said something. He says, did they really enter without permission? Sunaym is talking to Salman in the famous hadith found in Kitab of Sunaym al-Qays al-Hilali. Did they really enter the house of Fatima to Zahra without permission? He said yes by the glory of Allah subhanahu wa ta'aia while at Zahra had no protection on her. He says, He says, behind the door say the Fatima, peace be upon her, sought refuge, observing the rules of the veil, observing the rules of the Hijab.  May my life be her ransom, she said, oh fiddha support me, support me for surely have they killed my fetus this very day. She miscarried the daughter of guidance, oh grief, miscarried her son, the one who was called Muhassin. Poetry like our reports, like the historical reports and analysis from the traditionists, from the historians give us an event of what happened to say the Fatima. If you refer to the book Al-Hijum al-Abayti Fatima, The Attack on the House of Fatima, or the report, the book, sorry, titled Na'sat al-Zahra. These two books, the tragedy of Zahra and the attack on the house of Fatima are translated in English. You will find the compiler of the book, recording poetry from approximately the year 150 or sorry 170 from Sayyid al-Hamiiri all the way until contemporary scholars today. Poetry tells a story. Poetry is one of the ways where we can prove the Fatima. So if one asks us a question and says to us these are all lies and fabrications and none of the Shia of the Ulema believed. Tell them a Sayyid al-Hamiiri wrote beautiful pieces of poetry concerning Sayyid al-Fatima al-Zahra and he lived at the time of Imam al-Sadr, peace be upon him and at the time of Imam al-Qadim, peace be upon him. What does Sayyid al-Hamiiri say? Sayyid al-Hamiiri died in the year 173 after Hajar. He says beating she was and of her rights deprived and was made to taste after his demise of wounds. God severed the hands that did this to her and of that who agreed and followed sweet. God may never forgive them nor spare them the honor of leaving the grave. These are two examples from a scholar like al-Alam al-Qazweeni which is not approximately about 100 years from today's time and somebody like Sayyid al-Hamiiri who was praised by Imam al-Sadr, peace be upon him, who lived in the school of Imam al-Sadr, peace be upon him. 1000 years ago tells us the tragedy of Fatima al-Zahra and this is only the beginning part of his poetry. So I ask you, my dear viewers, to please go and research and you will find the answers. Now, today I want to end this beautiful journey, this beautiful series with the complaints and the shakwat of the Imams, peace be upon him. I will begin with the Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him. Imam al-Baqir was once asked by Abu Basir concerning the signs of the coming of Imam al-Mahdi al-Muntadr from Allah, his tinnis reappearance. He began to tell him, these are the signs of the Imam, such and such sign until he said heart breaking words. He said the firewood that was collected to burn the house of my mother Fatima, we still have it till today and we inherited Imam after Imam until the Qa'im of Al-Muhammad. The Ahl al-Biyat still have the firewood that was used to burn, to burn the house of Fatima al-Zahra. The tragedy of Fatima al-Zahra in the hearts of Ahl al-Biyat, some reports say that it hurts us more than the tragedy of Imam al-Hussain, peace be upon him. On the day of Karbala, when he was massacred and murdered in cold blood and his companions and his family members, the youngest of them, Ali was slaughtered on these lands of Karbala. These days of Fatima al-Zahra behind the door and the wall calling out to Rasul Allah hurts us more than the tragedy of Imam al-Hussain, peace be upon him. The poet says, Did the news of the nail reach you when it pierced my mother Fatima al-Zahra and outrevealed all the secrets? I mentioned to you before that say the Fatima al-Zahra, peace be upon her, is the rams, the pillar, the column, the flag, the flag, the flag, the flag, the flag, the flag, the flag, peace be upon her is the rams, the pillar, the column, the flag, that is the flag of willaya and baraa. When questions become to arise, when you begin to ask questions about how did Fatima al-Zahra die, every single uncovered secret becomes unveiled. There is no more Majal, there is no more corner for you to go to concerning the secrets that will be unveiled when you read the Haditha of Fatima al-Zahra, peace be upon her, alayhi salati wa salam. Now I want you to listen to the next two reports that I will narrate to you. The complaints and the tears of Imam al-Qadum, peace be upon him, and Imam al-Jawad, peace be upon him, concerning the tragedy of their mother, Fatima al-Zahra, peace be upon her. The first Hadith is found in Kitab al-Tarf, al-Sayyid Ali ibn Tawus. The senate is the following. We will talk about Kitab al-Wasiyyah, al-Shaykh Aisa ibn al-Mustafaad al-Darir, al-Museb al-Jafar, al-Abihi. Listen to the words of Imam al-Qadum, peace be upon him. From his father al-Sadaq, peace be upon him. When the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, called the Ansar and said, He said, Imam al-Sadaq is narrating to Imam al-Qadum, peace be upon him. He said, when the time of Rasulullah's death came near, he asked the Ansar to come. He began to speak about the manaqah of Fatima al-Zahra. And then he said, indeed the door of Fatima, peace be upon her, is my door. And her house is my house. So whoever transgresses this house and disgraces it, has disgraced and transgressed the hijab of Allah SWT. The narrator says, Abu al-Hasan, Imam al-Qadum, peace be upon him, began to cry for a very long time because he remembered his mother Fatima. He began to cry for a long time and he did not continue his speech to me. Then he began to say, Wallah, by Allah, the hijab of Allah has been transgressed. Wallah, by Allah, the hijab of Allah has been transgressed. Wallah, Wallah, the hijab of Allah has been transgressed.  He started remembering what happened to his mother Fatima al-Zahra and Imam al-Qadum began to cry. And they tell us today, do not cry. This is one narration. The second hadith is Imam al-Jawad, peace be upon him. This hadith is found in the Laila al-Imamah of Muhammad Ibn Darir al-Tabariya al-Imamih. He told me, Abu al-Hussain Muhammad Ibn Haroun Ibn Musa said, Tell me, father, may Allah be pleased with me, about Ja'far Muhammad Ibn al-Hasan Ibn Ahmed Ibn Walid. Tell us, Muhammad Ibn Ahmed Ibn Abi Abdullah al-Barqi This has been my memory. When Abu Abi Ja'far came, Ja'far, and he was 4 years old. This has been my memory.  Picture this, picture, picture Imam Al-Ridah and picture Al-Jawad coming to Imam Al-Ridah. What does he say?  And he began to think, reminisce and remember. He said to Imam Al-Ridah, Why have you lost your mind? Why have you lost your mind? He tells him, May my soul be ransomed for you. Why is it that you spent a long time reminiscing and remembering and thinking? Al-Jawad, Al-Ridah, four years old. He says, I began to remember what they did to my mother Fatima al-Zahra. I will remove them. I will remove those two. Ibn Abi Quhafa and Ibn Al-Khattab. Burn those two. I want to remove those two. Burn those two and blow away their remains in Masih. This is Imam Al-Jawad.  Then Imam Al-Ridah, peace be upon him, said to him, The Imam said, May my soul be sacrificed for you. The Imam truly is yours after me. Subhan Allah, this action by Imam Al-Jawad, this baraa'a was needed for the completion of his willaya. My dear brothers and sisters, my time is almost complete. One more hadith I will narrate to you. After Fatima al-Zahra, peace be upon her, she got very weak and the time of her death came.  If I do not answer you, means I have left this world. Al-Hasan and Al-Husayn, peace be upon them, came.  Come back a different time.  Come back a different time. Al-Hasan and Husayn said, When does my mom sleep at this hour? She usually is supplicating to Allah, Subhanahu wa Ta'ala and praying. They went inside the room and they saw Fatima al-Zahra, peace be upon her, has left this world.  They went to the masjid, they began crying and the companion saw them. They said, why are you crying? May my life and my soul be sacrificed for you. Is it because you remember your grandfather Rasulullah? They said, no, but our mother Fatima al-Zahra has passed away. Ali ibn Abi Talib, I ask you, Ali ibn Abi Talib, Qali ibn Abu Khaybar, he would leave battle with wounds on his face, a lion in battle, a fierce lion in battle. Asadullahu l-Ghalib, Ali ibn Abi Talib, when he heard the cries of Al-Hasan and then Hussain, when he heard that Fatima al-Zahra has passed away, Ali ibn Abi Talib fell face down on the floor to the point where they had to sprinkle water on his face for him to wake up. Ali ibn Abi Talib, who amar, when he came inside the house, he saw Ali ibn Abi Talib with his head between his knees, crying. He said, why do you cry, Ya Mullah, you tell us to be patient and saboor. He said, you did not see what I see when I was washing and doing the ghusl of Fatima al-Zahra. My hand touched one of her ribs and it was broken. I removed her shirt and I saw her hands black from the wounds of the lashes of Ibn Al-Khattab al-Khunfum, Ibn Al-Allah. We went back to him. May Allah bless Muhammad and Ali Muhammad. My dear brothers and sisters, thank you for joining me on this program. I apologize for any shortcomings and I pray that you will remember us in your dua'a and insha'Allah in the future we can contribute more to you. And we ask Fatima al-Zahra to be upon her. Ya Allah, bi haqq Fatima wa abiha wa ba'liha wa baniha wa sirra al-Mustawda ifiha Ya Allah, by the right of Fatima, her father, her husband and her two sons and the secret bestowed in Fatima. Cure those who are sick, those who are captive, bring them home. Protect the shia'a of Amir al-Mu'mineen and protect every single human on this world who has been unjustly treated. O Allah, by the right of Fatima, my master, my Mawla, Imam al-Mahdi, you can listen to me right now when you hear me. Accept these tears. Protect the Muslimin. Protect the believers all over the world. And I ask Allah, by your right, to give us the tawfiq and the guidance to serve the Holy Household.  As-salamu alaiki ya Fatima al-Zahra. May Allah hasten the reappearance of my Mawla, Imam al-Mahdi al-Muntah. May Allah hasten the reappearance of my Mawla, Imam al-Mahdi al-Muntah. May Allah hasten the reappearance of my Mawla, Imam al-Mahdi al-Muntah.


I say this not to the employees of the war machine, who in truth serve nothing besides imperial domination and the profit margins of Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. I say this to the peacemakers, to the truth-tellers, to the defiant ones, to the ones who've shown the light of truth upon the blood-spattered face of the Empire against their own interests for the benefit of everyone. To those who've stared down the barrel of the most powerful military force ever assembled and said, do your worst. To the grandparents who've been dragged from nuclear weapons protests in handcuffs to create a safer world for their grandchildren. To the activists whose incurable disobedience has led them to disrupt Empire managers at think-tank conferences or paint no war across the face of the Sydney Opera House. To the selfless martyrs who've exposed the abuses of the machine, knowing full well that the scales of justice are weighted heavily against them. To the hero in Belmarsh, to the Pentagon Papers whistleblower who today closed his gentle, loving eyes for a final time. Thank you for your service, for serving the highest interest over your own, for pouring everything you've got into the hope of a better tomorrow, for betting everything on the hope of a healthy and harmonious world, for creating a guiding light to help humanity steer its way home, for seizing your moment to help make things right instead of letting it pass like everyone around you, for somehow finding the strength to swim against the current when it would be so much easier to drift along with the madness, for somehow finding a higher calling in this wildly dysfunctional society where everything is pointed at selfishness and meaninglessness, for somehow cultivating something profound and authentic within yourself in the midst of a civilization of the vapid and fraudulent, for doing your very best to get a foot on the brake pedal when everything else is accelerating toward the cliff's edge, for listening to that small voice within which can tolerate no more, for turning around, for taking your stand, for finding the courage, for doing what is right, for putting truth first, for lighting the way. Thank you for your service. We will do our best to carry the torch forward and finish what you started.