Athabasca University is hosting an international conference in Banff, Alberta from February 27-March 1, 2011. Papers for the First International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge 2011 are being accepted until November 1, 2010. The conference will focus on integrating the technical and social/pedagogical dimensions of learning analytics (the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs). Keynote speakers include: Barry Wellman, Director of NetLab at the S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto; Xavier Ochoa, Principal Professor at the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral in Guayaquil, Ecuador; and Erik Duval, Professor in the research unit on hypermedia and databases at the computer science department of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Flanders, Belgium. Visit https://tekri.athabascau.ca/analytics or contact gsiemens@gmail.com for more information.
The number of students enrolled in online and distance learning courses and/or programs is expected to reach over 2.6 million according to the United States Distance Learning Association. It also reports that currently, online distance learning courses represent approximately 10% of the available training. In the U.S. around two-thirds of the largest educational institutions offer online programs. Statistics indicate that most of the students are undergraduates, which signals a continuation of this trend.
Open Learning and new technology were featured topics at an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development conference entitled Higher Education in a World Changed workshops with separate registration and payment. Possible themes of the workshops include 'Best Practices in ICT-based ODL Management' and 'Revisiting Open Educational Resources (OER).' Visit www.ut.ac.id/icde2011 for more information.
The 2010 European Distance and E-learning Network (EDEN) Research Workshop, organized in collaboration with the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE), is open for registration. The Workshop will be held October 25-27 in Budapest, Hungary. Keynote speakers include: Professor Gilly Salmon, University of Leicester, UK; Steve Wheeler, University of Plymouth, UK; Olaf Zawaczki-Richter, Fernuniversität Hagen, Germany; Walter Kugemann, European Foundation for Quality in E-Learning and MENON Network; and Ama Auvinen, CEO, HCI Productions, Finland. Visit www.eden-online.org/eden.php for more information.
A measure seeking to develop better distance education programs has been filed at the House of Representatives in the Philippines. Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara filed House Bill 400 directing all education agencies to conduct an evaluation to better integrate distance education programs into the national policy and enable the and Distance Learning, Montana State University, Extended University, along with collaborator Deborah Windes of the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, recently received the 2010 Elizabeth Powell Award from the Distance Learning Community of Practice of the University Continuing Association. The Powell award recognizes articles, book chapters or papers published in 2009 that make significant contributions to research in the field of distance education. Wherry and Windes won the award for their chapter "When Distance Technologies Meet the Student Code." The chapter was published in the book, Cases on Distance Delivery and Learning Outcomes: Emerging Trends and Programs. The chapter was recognized for its "helpful insights that were informative and served well to remind all that campus policies and procedures are applicable to distance learning."
The Seventh Annual Open Education Conference, held November 2-4 in Barcelona, Spain, serves as a venue for research related to open education. This year represents the first time the conference will convene outside of Utterly: Doing More with Less, held in Paris in September. Online education is set to end the model of higher education as a result of "scarcity" of places according to Peter Smith, Senior Vice-President, Academic Strategies and Development, Kaplan Higher Education. Smith said that as a result of growing access to information, the challenge facing universities is "doing more with more." Smith forecasted the end of the traditional university model.
In mid September, the Academic Council of Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) cleared a proposal for the development of a Directorate of Open and Distance Education. K. R. Viswambharan, Vice-Chancellor, KAU, said the distance education mode will benefit some rural youths. "Lessons in practical farming and scientific agricultural practices will be imparted through distance education programs," Viswambharan said.
The UNESCO Chair in e-Learning of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) has initiated a project devoted to the promotion of Open Educational Resources using an open repository, the institutional Open Access Repository of the University, to collect and centralize key resources about Open Educational Resources. The project, named MetaOER, involves the use of web 2.0 collaborative tools such as del.icio.us to provide an effective way to locate, tag and share the original location of existing OER documents available all over the web, facilitating the process of evaluating and adding them to the open repository. The aim being that they will always be available in the same place to the OER community, teachers and other interested parties.
A national award was recently bestowed to authors for their writing on distance education. Peg Wherry, Director, Online North America. The conference theme for 2010 is Open Educational Resources: Impact and Sustainability. Keynote speakers include: Gajaraj Dhanarajan, former Vice Chancellor of Wawasan Open University, Malaysia; Brenda Gourley, former Vice Chancellor of The Open University, UK; Erik Duval, Professor of Computer Science at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium; and Raquel Xalabarder, Director of Learning Resources at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain. Visit http://openedconference.org/2010 for more information.
Abstract submission is open for the 24th International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) World Conference on Open and Distance Learning. Hosted by Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia, and supported by the Ministry of National Education of the Republic of Indonesia, the 24th ICDE World Conference will be held October 2-5, 2011 in Bali, Indonesia. The conference theme will be "Expanding Horizons - New Approaches to Open and Distance Learning (ODL)", with the following sub-themes: ODL and human capacity building; ODL in a changing world; Quality and ODL - the way forward; Management and strategic development of ODL; Open Educational Resources (OER) in a global world; and International development and distance learning. Eight keynote speeches, 297 paper presentations and approximately 150 posters will be featured at the conference. In addition, the conference includes pre/post-conference Congress to enact more pro-education legislation."With the advent of the information age through the World Wide Web, distance education program can be a valuable tool in reaching out to the areas which do not have access to the school campses," Angara said in a statement. He said the report will also identify the elements by which the quality of distance education, as compared to campus-based education can be assessed, including elements such as subject matter, interactivity and student outputs. These elements also include access to higher education, job placement rate, undergraduate and graduate rates, and professional degree attainment rates and identification of the types of students.
The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) plans to offer a certificate program in English through Nokia phone's Ovi Life Tools in order to integrate modern technology into distance education. IGNOU entered into a strategic collaboration agreement with Nokia to provide the program, which will be in functional English provided mainly through SMS. The six-month program will begin in January 2011 and will be divided in three levels - English in daily life, English in education and joining the workforce.
The 2010 International Distance Education Advanced Forum, held October 10-11, explored new missions, opportunities and challenges to distance education in future development. It provides an opportunity for in-depth discussions on the status quo and the latest theories of distance education in higher education, career training, basic education, community and rural education. Examining distance education practice and showcasing the latest research results, the Forum promotes academic innovation and practical development of distance education. The Forum is lead by the China Committee of Open and Distance Education (CCODE) and is co-hosted by Peking University and the Open University United Kingdom. Visit www.ideaforum.com.cn/English for more information.
Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh is preparing to launch an educational television channel that aims at telecasting lectures to students of distance education according to the University's President Suleiman Abalkhail. During the trial run, the channel will telecast a number of programs through the Internet. The Cabinet recently approved the rules and regulations for educational TV channels.
The Commonwealth of Learning's biennial Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning, in partnership with Indira Gandhi National Open University, will be held November 24-28 in Kochi, Kerala, India. The Forum brings together over 70 countries to explore applications of open and distance learning in widening educational access, bridging the digital divide and advancing the social and economic development of communities and nations at large. Visit www.pcf6.net/pages for more information.
Kenya is working towards establishing an Open University that will exclusively allow students to study online. It is scheduled to be in place next year, Higher Education Minister William Ruto said. "Under this program, we want to ensure that students who want to join university for courses that do not require much contact between the lecturers and the students can learn through an Open University process," he said. The project is expected to break new ground and help the Government handle rising demand for higher education in the next decade. If successful, the University should allow the intake of at least 40,000 extra students. The Open University is one in a raft of strategies being pushed by the Government to improve access to higher education.
