In 2019 EDEN hosted the fourth year of the European Distance Learning Week (EDLW) in cooperation with the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) – and our Special Partner for this year: the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia (ODLAA).
During the European Distance Learning Week, participants have access to daily online webinars and panel sessions of expert scholars and practitioners presenting a variety of cutting edge open and online learning topics, from innovations in design to open educational research.
EDEN issues digital open badges as a recognition of EDLW participation and contribution.
EDEN’s webinars during the week
Why is digital learning relevant for curriculum transformation in Higher Education?
November 11 2019, 11:00-12:30 CET
Moderator: Airina Volungevičienė, Vytautas Magnus University, EDEN Senior Fellow, LieDM association
Format: Panel discussion
Description: Digital learning opened new ways for society members to start early careers on a global scale, but also to seek for the possibilities to re-enter HE at different stages of life, to seek for (re-) qualification in a variety of ways. Digital and network society is the new target group of HE, which learns in new, timeless and borderless spaces. Such society members are always connected and online, sharing and co-creating knowledge, developing and co-authoring innovations themselves, and they may serve as the biggest driving force for HE, but also quite a high challenge to deal with. Digital education, teaching, learning and assessment seems to be a good solution for the transformation of HE curriculum, and many HE institutions already found their ways. But why this is again a growing issue? Why does digitalization continue raising many challenges for HE institutions? The panel discussion will focus on the digital innovations rapidly spreading in social, economic and cultural life; integration of digitalization into HE curriculum and constantly changing needs, tools and habits of learning that HE institutions must deal with.
Panel members:
- Mark Brown, DCU, EDEN EC member
- Michael Gaebel, EUA
- Elena Caldirola, University of Pavia, EDEN EC member
- Sandra Kucina Softic, SRCE, EDEN President
- Andras Szucs, EDEN Secretary General
- Margarita Teresevičienė, VMU, EDEN Fellow
- Yasmin Djabarian, Hochschulforum Digitalisierung /Stifterverband
- Martin Rademacher, Hochschulforum Digitalisierung / German Rectors’ Conference
- Giuseppe Pirlo / Deputy Rector Third Mission (Outreach) / University of Bari
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Distance Education: Challenges on the European and the Global Level
November 11 2019, 15:00-16:30 CET
Moderator: Sandra Kucina Softic, University of Zagreb University Computing Centre, EDEN President
Format: Panel discussion
Description: Technology has been changing the landscape of education for years and one of the greatest advancements has been in distance education. ICTs have been playing an important role in the delivery strategies of distance learning and providing a variety of new techniques for educators and learners to enhance their knowledge. Distance education is growing in popularity globally, maybe not so in Europe as in America, Canada, Australia…
More and more learning and classes are taking place online and depending on the technology. We take e-books, online courses, watch videos on YouTube, communicate online, have virtual practices and laboratories, get online certificates and diplomas. The number of online programmes and accessibility for learning are growing every day. While technology brings numerous opportunities for students and teachers, still challenges are opening for distance education as well.
In discussion with distinguished experts join us in the discussion on some of the challenges the distance education is facing: how recent technology innovations line VR, AI, AR can be used to support distance learning efficiently and do/can they provide real opportunities in learning? With all information available today through numerous communication channels learner attention is easily disrupted and difficulty kept, deep learning is difficult to achieve – how to keep learners’ attention on the course?
how to create and ensure good quality materials and courses, from the point of online learning in HE to distance education?
how to protect respectable institutions and good quality programmes from the fake ones?
MOOCs were at one point taken as a trend that will pass – is it so, and how important MOOCs are for the education?
Panel members:
- Airina Volungevičienė, Vytautas Magnus University, EDEN Senior Fellow, LieDM association
- Jennifer Roberts, Vice President/Publications Officer, ODLAA
- Dean Hoke, USDLA board member president-elect
- Svetlana Knyazeva, UNESCO IITE, EDEN Fellow
- Jonatan Castaño Muñoz, EC JRC
- Sally Reynolds, ATiT
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What might the future hold for distance education universities?
November 12, 2019: 18:00-19:30 CET
Moderator: Timothy Read, UNED, Spain, EDEN Executive Committee Member
Format: Presentation with discussion
Description: In this webinar four experts in the field of e-learning and distance education will reflect upon how the very nature of learning at a distance is changing to meet the needs of the modern society, reductions in expenditure in higher education, the incursion of face-to-face universities in this area, changes in institutional structure, and the ever-advancing role of technology. Historically, distance education institutions stood apart from their face-to-face rivals with educational models that were very different, reflecting a variety of types of students. Nowadays, with the pace of modern society and the need for constant updating of our knowledge and qualifications, the demand for e-learning and distance education has increased. However, traditional face-to-face universities have extended their educational offer to try to meet this demand, arguably blurring the difference between the two types of institutions. This convergence together with the corresponding expansion of technology-enhanced learning and reductions in funding is arguably leaving distance education universities in a state of crisis. The webinar explores the issues related to this crisis and looks at what the future might hold for this educational modality and the institutions that champion it! The following article: http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/ried.22.1.22288 can be consulted as background reading before the webinar.
Presenters:
- Antonio Teixeira, Universidade Aberta, Portugal, EDEN Senior Fellow
- Tony Bates, EDEN Senior Fellow
- Jose Mota, Universidade Aberta, Portugal
- Alan Tait, Open University UK, EDEN Senior Fellow
- Liz Marr, Open University UK
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Future perspective in open routes: the quality and assessment dimension
November 13 2019, 15:30-16:30 CET
Moderator: Antonella Poce, University Rome Tre, Italy, EDEN NAP SC Chair
Format: Presentations with discussion
Description: The rapidly growing number of open educational materials and repositories makes the issue of how to find the most relevant and best quality resources to be integrated in teaching and learning offers. In addition, overlapping and competing standards, size of the search pool, quality of metadata represents issues that different initiatives in the field of Open Education have tried to solve. Thus, there is an urgency for effective search, discovery, and quality assessment tools. During the webinar, the relation between quality and dimensions in Open Education, with a focus on Open Educational Resources will be described and discussed.
Presenters:
- Antonella Poce, University Roma TRE, EDEN NAP SC Chair
- Ulf-Daniel Ehlers, Baden-Wurttemberg Cooperative State University, EDEN Executive Committee Member
- Ebba Ossiannilsson, SADE, EDEN Executive Committee Member
- Dr. Don Olcott, Jr., Global Consultant, EDEN NAP SC member, EDEN Council of Fellows Vice-Chair
- Francesca Amenduni, Ph.D. Student, University of Roma Tre, EDEN NAP member
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Higher Education
November 14, 2019, 17:00-18:30 CET
Moderator: Josep M. Duart, OUC, EDEN Vice-President & Diana Andone, Politehnica University of Timisoara, EDEN Vice President
Format: Panel Discussion
Description: Education offers incredible potential for the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, with several significant opportunities — and challenges — that the introduction of artificial intelligence could bring, especially to higher education. Increasingly, higher education institutions, as well as adult and professional learning are being transformed by intelligent systems that are helping humans learn better and achieve their learning objectives. The breadth of areas in which AI is already inserted in education includes intelligent tutors or chatbots, personalized learning, smart teaching, learning analytics, reducing student drop-off, education administration, data privacy and ethics. This webinar will explore research and experiences of introducing, at different levels, AI in education, and looks at what the future might mean for teachers, students and institutions.
Presenters:
- Tony Bates, EDEN Senior Fellow
- Olaf Zawacki-Richter, University of Oldenburg, Senior EDEN Fellow
- Cristobal Cobo, Oxford Internet Institute
- Alexandra I. Cristea, Durham University
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The journey to social justice and openness in ODL
November 15, 2019, 13:00-14:30 CET
Moderator: Lisa Marie Blaschke, Programme Director, Center of Lifelong Learning (C3L), Oldenburg, Germany; Senior Fellow and Chair of the Board of EDEN Council of Fellows
Format: Presentation and panel discussion
Description: In the past decade open, distance, and eLearning and distance learning (ODeL) continue to build upon their foundational roots of education accessibility, making great strides towards openness in education by leveraging the affordances of technology, through open educational resources (OER), MOOCs, open pedagogy, and research. But are these initiatives levelling the educational playing field for citizens around the world or are they deepening existing divides and inequality? Join our panel of distinguished experts to discuss the journey to social justice in ODL: where we’ve come, where we are, and where we should be going.
Presenters:
- Maha Bali, Associate Professor, Center for Learning and Teaching, American University in Cairo, Egypt
- Narend Baijnath, CEO, Council of Higher Education, South Africa
- Sarah Lambert, Manager – HEPPP, Deakin University, Australia
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