Computer Technology Institute & Press-Diophantus (CTI)
Educational Technologies, Training, and Certification Directorate
elina-megalou
  • Dr Elina Megalou
  • Computer Engineer, PhD
  • Director, Educational Technologies, Training, and Certification Directorate
  • Computer Technology Institute & Press-Diophantus (CTI)
  • e-mail: megalou@cti.gr
  • linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elina-megalou/
  • phone numbers: (+30) 210 3350744, (+30) 6932457270

Dr. Elina Megalou is the Director of the Educational Technologies, Training, and Certification Directorate at the Computer Technology Institute & Press “Diophantus” (CTI), the technological arm of the Greek Ministry of Education. She holds a Dipl.-Ing. (1991) in Computer Engineering and Informatics and a PhD (2000) in Data and Knowledge Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece.

She has been with CTI since 1988, serving in various roles across departments, including the Computer Operation Center (1988–1991), the “Applied Information Systems” Research Unit (1992–1997), the Educational Technology Sector (1998–2009), the Directorate of Strategy and Digital Educational Content (2009–2023), and currently the Directorate of Educational Technologies, Training, and Certification (2023–present).

From 2010 to 2021, Dr. Megalou successfully coordinated the large-scale national program “Digital School” of the Greek Ministry of Education, focusing on Digital Educational Content for School Education (Deputy Project Coordinator of “Digital School I”, 2010–2015, €8.7M, NSRF/OP Education and Lifelong Learning; Project Coordinator of “Digital School II”, 2017–2021, €2.8M, NSRF/OP Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning). Since 2021, she has overseen the operation, continuous enhancement, and expansion of the Digital School services (dschool.edu.gr).

She is the initiator and scientific and product coordinator of the Photodentro Greek National OER Repository ecosystem and Aggregator (photodentro.edu.gr), as well as the “e-me” social digital educational platform for pupils and teachers (e-me.edu.gr), serving over 700,000 users. She also oversees the creation and metadata documentation of digital learning objects of these repositories. Additionally, she is responsible for the official Interactive Textbooks service (e-books.edu.gr) and the national MOOCs platform (mooc.edu.gr). Since 2022, she has led the design, development, and operation of the Digital Textbook Submission System and the new Digital Textbooks Library, supporting the Ministry’s “Multiple Textbook” strategy. She is also the scientific coordinator for the Virtual Innovation Center, including the digital repository “icRepo” and the collaborative platform “iCollab”.

Dr. Megalou has over 25 years of experience in managing, coordinating, and administering large-scale national projects, as well as European projects with numerous partners, in the field of Educational Technology, covering educational software, digital educational content, digital platforms, and online services for schools, managing projects with a total budget exceeding €30M.

Her engagement in educational technology began in 1998 within the “ODYSSEIA” Action (Ministry of Education/Operational Programme for Education and Initial Vocational Training), where she served as Project Coordinator for the “KIRKI” program (1998–2004, €5M), which focused on localizing and adapting 22 international educational software products for Greek schools. She subsequently designed and coordinated the “PLEIADES” program (2003–2008, €7M, OP Information Society), a central initiative for educational software in Greek schools, covering the specification, tendering, and supervision of 70 sub-projects for the development of educational software and scenarios.

At the European level, she designed and served as General Coordinator for the EduTubePlus project (eContentPlus, 2008–2011, €4.6M, 17 partners across 12 countries), developing a European online video library and service to support the pedagogical use of video in classrooms. She has also participated as the Scientific Manager on behalf of CTI in numerous European projects, including Open Discovery Space [2012-2015, 51 partners], coordinating the aggregation of open educational resources and repositories within its infrastructure; SCIENTIX II [2013–2016] for STEM education; EnergyBITS [2011–2013] on sustainable energy; S.A.M.E. WORLD [EuropeAid, 2015–2018] on environmental justice and migration, serving as National Coordinator for Greece and leading the design and operation of the European Environmental Justice Observatory; PAFSE [2021-2024] (Partnerships for Science Education, Horizon 2020), coordinating the development of the European STEM education repository “Photodentro PAFSE” and the collaborative platform “e-me European”; and the iLCD project [2022-2024], which pedagogically utilized “e-me European” in schools across Europe.

Dr. Megalou has extensive expertise in educational technology, specializing in digital educational content and software for school education, digital repositories, e-learning, educational platforms, metadata and international standards, metadata aggregation services, semantic modeling, open educational resources (OER), and open educational practices. For over 15 years, she has served as a technical consultant to the Greek Ministry of Education on these areas.

She has a proven 20-year track record of building, leading, and motivating high-performance, cross-functional teams of up to 200 members, including multidisciplinary and geographically dispersed teams, staff, and subcontractors. She has authored over 20 scientific publications in international conferences and journals.