2003 Rhodes
2011-02-26 00:00 UTC
Scope and objectives of the conference

The “Quality issue” has become one of the leading concepts in modern society, economy and education. It serves different perspectives and stakeholders: providers, customers, partners and citizens. Different stakeholder perspectives give rise to different “quality cultures”. In the emerging range of open, flexible, distance and eLearning settings, there is an increasing need for information and understanding to permit judgement on the quality of the educational offer, including schools, universities, vocational training and adult education. Quality frameworks and quality assurance procedures represent the priority for both the policy makers and educational providers as well as for the learners, students, trainees and the corporate sector.
eLearning is perceived either as new ICT media and pedagogies, making up the emergent flexible learning environments, or as the new paradigm of knowledge acquisition with related competencies in the Information Society. Whichever the perception, in order to succeed with the mainstreaming of the various ICT-supported learning solutions, it is essential to bring about dialogue between experts, academia, the ICT industry and the publishing sector as well as the education and training authorities across Europe. There is huge interest in the definition of quality assurance practice to be deployed by the broad range of stakeholders in education and training in the public and private sectors, in order to consolidate knowledge, ensure consistent approaches and to add value.
The aim of the 12th Annual Conference of the European Distance Education Network organised in Rhodes, Greece in 2003 was to raise awareness and disseminate knowledge, addressing this strategic area in the learning agenda in Europe. The Greek Presidency of the EU, during the first semester of 2003, has already prioritized ICT and Lifelong Learning as the means for pursuing the upgrading of quality for European education systems.
The conference themes

Quality assurance, quality management systems and frameworks in flexible and eLearning
Distance and eLearning quality approaches, criteria, standards – formulation and implementation; theory and practice
Convergence towards standardization and platforms
Principles and practice of accreditation of courses and institutions
Development and operation of quality concepts and frameworks in open and distance learning with the integration of emerging ICT solutions
Quality in the context of innovation, competitiveness and marketability
Evaluation and benchmarking methods and procedures, testing and certification
Competencies and the added value of different learning cultures and quality approach

2010 Budapest
2011-02-26 00:00
Learning and (e)-valuation in integrated E-learning settings

E-learning increasingly becomes the inevitable form of creating, acquiring and transmitting knowledge. In the field of assessing student performance, evaluating the quality of teaching, judging the value of a digital educational solution, research has recently been intensive and successful. For many e-learning programs however, methods of assessment remain traditional. Accreditation of online courses may be difficult because evaluation methods are not fitted to the e-learning context.

The real value of e-learning, which is questioned for different reasons in different contexts, may be boosted by credible and appropriate evaluation methods and practices.
In the context of assessment, the quality dimension is emerging as contribution to the valuation of ICT supported learning, its re-positioning by better evaluation methods. The quest for added value  how can contribute the new forms of learning, in circumstances of hard socio-economic challenges  is strongly coming forward.
The challenge of quality in peer-produced eLearning content
New approaches for new ways of evaluation, instead of basic ones are becoming apparent in the web 2.0  social networking dominated environments. The impact of peer-to-peer networks on the Internet is evolving. Peer production and user-created content are becoming important elements as learners are no longer just consumers, but they actively participate in the process and influence it. Producers and consumers (prosumers) of the learning content are working together on the peer-assessment. The market is becoming a forum for conversation and interactions. Management and facilitation of this dialogue is crucial in the value creation process.
When we evaluate user generated content, quality may be both the result of the interplay between peer production and peer validation processes of digital content.
The issue of transparency, together with credibility is high on the agenda. Sensitive and prospective territories within this field are the convincing assessment and evaluation of the diversity of personal learning environments (PLE), the workplace learning, competence based assessment, media development, e-portfolios and the accreditation of informal learning.
Online adaptive testing in the classroom and the workplace
Evaluation of skills and competences are in the foreground of educational innovation. Traditional instruments are becoming however inadequate because of lower efficiency and as they hardly offer authentic testing situations.
Online assessment techniques are among the hot topics in educational research, as they provide opportunity to assess skills and competences in the context they occur. Tools include the assessment of open-ended questions, essays, drawing and design tasks. Tests may include animation, simulation and a responsive to user needs selection of items of different difficulty level.
125 experts from 26 countries discussed the latest research results in Budapest. The engaging keynote speeches are available for download.

2006 Castelldefels
2011-02-26 00:00
While recognising that there are different perspectives on the definition of e-learning, the workshop aims to focus on research both into fully online distance education, and also into e-learning that combines face-to-face teaching with online learning.
Within the general theme, there will be three parallel sub-themes:
1. Research into institutional planning, management and quality development for online distance education and e-learning
This theme is focused on research serving the needs of policy makers, managers and administrators of online distance education and e-learning.
2. Research into innovative online teaching, learning and knowledge building (including assessment issues)
This theme is focused on research into new models of teaching and learning, and is aimed primarily at teachers, instructors and tutors of online distance education and e-learning.
3. Research into online technology tools and services
This theme is focused on research into the underlying technological infrastructure and services needed to support online online distance education and e-learning, and is aimed primarily at those concerned with designing, building, applying and maintaining technology for e-learners.
There will also be a workshop on appropriate research methods and designs for online distance education and e-learning. This will run at the same time as the parallel sessions. The workshop is aimed at students, teachers and practitioners interested in research design.

2008 Paris
2011-02-26 00:00
Distance education, through its successive developments, from correspondence courses to mass media and present web 2.0 learning has played a central role to make learning possible wherever it has been needed.

Lifelong learning – from school level up to vocational, higher and continuing educations – has constantly looked to the flexibility of the methods and tools of open and distance learning, and nowadays including e-learning.
Todays learners choose open and distance education, for many different reasons: personal fulfilment, employment circumstances, everyday convenience or necessity, philosophical and societal views, handicap, intense specialisation away from school, isolated location, at times of emergency, and for political, cultural and religious reasons.
Educational institutions have to respond to learners situations, on an individual and/or a collective basis, when access to education is at stake, and when special conditions require specific answers to bring education when and where it is needed, by right, by necessity, and on demand. In such situations distance teaching institutions have most generally proven their capacity to remove barriers.
The most recent developments of open and distance education enhanced by ICT advances the practical functioning of distance education and improves its relevance in the contexts described above, turning it into a key actor when and where access to education is concerned. However, arent new questions arising today, and in diversified ways in various parts of the world? The physical spread of technology-enhanced open and distance education must be of good quality, cost-effective, accepted by large audiences, and engaged in meaningful linkages of pedagogy and technology in order to find the right solutions with their social, economical and political implications.
EDEN is continuing its series of successful Research Workshops in October 2008 in Paris. The Fifth Research Workshop, in the jubilee year of the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights, intends to put special emphasis on the “rights” and “access” to education, by exploring how recent developments of open and distance education enhanced by ICT turns into a key actor when and where access to education is concerned and what are the main quests for institutions, students and the information and communication technology.
EDEN invites European researchers, the professional community to contribute and share experience at the Research Workshop in a magnificent surroundings, in the City of Lights, Paris.
The workshop is organised in co-operation with CNED (Centre National d’Enseignement a Distance – the French national distance learning centre), under the patronage of UNESCO.

2004 Oldenburg
2011-02-26 00:00
Learner support is central for success in education and training in general and in open and distance learning (ODL) in particular. The emerging use of e-learning demands that we examine, analyse and develop our concepts and practices to ensure that they are appropriate to the changing education and training environment.

This EDEN workshop had both formal presentations and interactive workshop sessions. The theme throughout has focused on research and innovative practice in the effective support of learners in distance education and e-learning and provided the opportunity for an exchange of ideas, experiences, and best-practices in student support in ODL within the different and varying contexts of both academic and corporate provision. A particular emphasis has been given to recent developments in practice and the conceptualisation of practice.
The keynote presentations and workshops aimed to strengthen the cross-cultural and international exchange of ideas and expertise with a particular emphasis on low-cost/high-outcome approaches to student support, building learning communities, and sustainable institutional models of best practice. The keynote addresses were given by distinguished experts and were followed by parallel discursive workshops. The workshops had been structured around selected papers previously submitted by the participants and moderated by members of the Programme Committee.
The 3rd EDEN Research Workshop has been organised by EDEN and Oldenburg University to jointly celebrate The Centre for Distance Educations 25th anniversary. During the past 25 years, one of the Centres main areas of responsibility has been to provide tutorials for students of the FernUniversität in Hagen. More recently Oldenburg University launched the online Master of Distance Education (MDE) in partnership with the University of Maryland University College (UMUC). In 2003, the Distance Learning Community of Practice of the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA) in the U.S. conferred upon the MDE the Program of Excellence award.

2000 Prague
2011-02-26 00:00
In our ages research is an indispensable activity to provide information for development, decision-making and quality of products and services. Besides this pragmatic view research is urgently needed to learn more about the world we live in and the impacts of former as well as present innovations. This obviously is valid for the development and progress of Open and Distance Learning all over the world, too. Even more this is the case as many changes occur and the pace as well as the extent of innovation very often seems to be dramatically fast and wide.
Open and Distance Learning (and teaching) seems to be a “booming bussiness” in these days again, accompanied by

far-reaching transitions of sytems
the necessity to enlarge target groups and programs
a fast technological drive
a strong tendency to “virtual” teaching and learning and “virtual” organisations
considerable cultural issues and challenges
severe social aspects
a rather strong economic pressure on diverse sides.

To foster research related to these (and other) issues EDEN introduced its own Research-Network (“R-Net”) last year. This workshop will be the first meeting point for presentation and in-depth discussion of research organised by EDEN´s R-Net. It is open to professionals inside and outside EDEN.
The workshop will especially focus on relationships between research and innovation in different areas of Open and Distance Learning. Thus EDEN as a network for professionals, teams, institutions and organisations in the field invites all those who do research, who need research, who want to do research and those who want to learn from others how, where and with whom to start research activities.
The aims of the First EDEN Research workshop are:

To learn about research done (in order to enlarge knowledge)
To evaluate the potential of research for innovation (in order to provide a better ground for decision-making and development)
To find partners for collaboration and exchange of views (in order to highlight the benefits of networking)
To develop guidelines for EDEN´s research policy (in order to strenghten the networks support for researchers in the field)

The official language of the workshop is English.

2002 Hildesheim
2011-02-26 00:00
The workshop dealt with the relation of research and comprehensive aspects of Open and Distance Learning and eLearning, focusing policy and strategy issues. The event aimed to:

strengthen the position of ODL and its competent actors, serving as reference in eLearning developments
support professional development
improve suitable platforms for discussion with regional and national governments and funding organisations and the European Commission
define relevance and potential contribution of research in ODL for political decision-making
discuss ODL research from a policy-making perspective

awareness
quality,
dissemination,
support for decision-making and consulting

evaluate funding frameworks and procedures
discuss about guidelines for future funding policies
reconsider research policy – aims and strategies of funding organisations

2005 Poitiers-CNED
2005-02-26 00:00
The 5th Open Classroom Conference will address the ever-increasing needs of Teachers Professional Development, in search for Innovation and Quality in School Education, as these needs are imposed by the emerging e-learning paradigms, the search for new, more effective school structures and the broader challenges that societies are facing in their way towards what has been identified as the Knowledge Economy.

EDEN is organising the Open Classroom Conferences since 1997 and established the Open Classroom Working Group in 1998 which is working in collaboration with the European Experts Network for Education and Technology (EENet), since 2003. Previous Open Classroom events – conferences and workshops – have reflected upon the vision of schools communicating through networks as well as with various content and application service providers, in the cyberspace, validating open, distance & e-learning practices.
During the last decade, certain developments and the pervasive impact of the Information & Communication Technologies on school education have been materialized and closely followed-up, through a number of initiatives, projects and policy actions, engaging relevant actors and stakeholders in Europe (schools, universities and education authorities, training bodies and technology providers). At the same time, social evolutions  namely social mobility, migration, internationalization, multi-culture societal structures etc. , have already changed the mandate which School Education is up to. There is an increasing demand for a radical upgrade of quality, in order to meet the needs for new competences and skills.
Towards this Quest for Quality, the already critical role of the Teacher as well as of other education professions is being significantly upgraded, in terms of both the new competences and skills required and the emerging professional perspectives and tasks in the school environment.
Transforming the school education system to an open (e-)learning environment in the lifelong learning perspective means significant amendments to the existing teacher profiles as well as the elaboration of new professions (and education tasks) that are necessary in order to run a school system successfully.
The EU has already adopted a set of policy orientations, under the Education & Training 2010 Programme of actions (see eg. the ICT Group of Experts Report), in the framework of the Lisbon Process, while most Member States are striving through resisting structures and hindering factors, in order to introduce innovation and well-defined changes, having the teacher at the (epi-)center.
The 5th Open Classroom Conference must contribute to the social, political and research dialogue, for the development of sustainable collaborative Teachers Training & Professional Development Models for Schools in the Knowledge Society. These models should address the new complexities, in terms of (e-learning) processes, new competences, contexts and resources in school education, fostering new roles for learners, teachers, experts and policy makers, scientific, academic and cultural entities.

2002 Copenhagen
2002-02-26 12:00
Workshop aims and themes

During the EDEN workshop invited panelists, experts from around Europe and researchers representing important large scale Nordic ICT initiatives will highlight critical issues related to the openness of school system and discuss the key questions of the two main thematic areas:

Flexible Teachers Training Schemes: feasibility and effectiveness
Going Digital: New Skills and Learning Objectives/ Curricula and Content/Learning Resources

The event will ensure a dynamic and innovative atmosphere, a real workshop with active involvement of participants. There will not be traditional paper submission for presentation.
Working language in Plenary and Parallel Sessions will be English.
About the conference venue – Copenhagen
The conference will be organised in Central Copenhagen with two venues: Christiansborg Castle, the seat of the Danish Parliament and the headquarter of KKA, the Copenhagen Coursecenter and Eveningschool.
With a rich history that is evident in its historic buildings and ancient streets; dozens of world class museums and galleries; the uniquely enchanting Tivoli Gardens; and a resident monarchy that is the oldest in the world, the Danish capital has a host of attractions to suit all tastes. Read more on www.visitdenmark.com
Location for the workshops is the KKA course center located in the center of Copenhagen.

2000 Barcelona
2000-02-26 12:00

Teaching Online Competences: Debate in a Post Confinement Scenario
2025-12-14 02:33
REGISTERRegistered webinar participants will be awarded by EDEN open badges.
Description
In recent months teachers needed to perform their activities online without proper training. They had to perform their duties in an unknown scenario for most of them. This fact and the already existing need of a teacher online reference framework motivate the need to discuss a set of teaching online requirements. A proposal already discussed by the EDEN Executive Committee will be presented followed by experiences learned. The proposal is based on a CALOHEE publication “Guidelines and Reference Points for the Design and Delivery of Degree Programmes in Teacher Education” by Julia M. González Ferreras and Maria Yarosh. A set of competencies required to teach online for level 6 of the EQF will be presented in terms of descriptors. The debate of the webinar is expected to be useful to tune the future terms of reference and to learn from recent experiences of shifting to online mode.

You will meet
Alfredo SoeiroEDEN Executive Committee member, Deputy Chair of the EDEN NAP Steering Committee, EDEN Senior Fellow,University of Porto, PortugalDegrees in Civil Engineering (U. Porto, 76) and (U. Florida-Ph.D.-89). Academic director and vice president of Civil Engineering (U. Porto, 03/07). Pro-Rector of U. Porto (98/03). Founder of EUCEN (European University Continuing Education Network, 92); RECLA (Network of CE in Latin American, 96) and AUPEC (Association of the Portuguese Universities for CE, 99). Vice president of EUCEN (92/98) and SEFI, Société Européenne pour la Formation des Ingénieurs (02/04); president of IACEE, International Association of Continuing Engineering Education (01/04); president of AUPEC (01/05); president of SEFI (03/05). Vice- chair of EMC of FEANI (14/18) and of Steering Committee of NAP of EDEN (14/…), Vice-president of ISHCCO (19/…) and member of Executive Board of EDEN (19/…). Member of EUCEN Council (13/16), secretary general of AECEF (17/…) and member of IACEE Council (95/…). Medal of 800th Anniversary of U. Sorbonne (98), International Hall of Fame of Adult and Continuing Education title (06), EDEN Fellow award (08), IACEE Fellow (14), Global Engineering Education Award by IEOM (16) and EDEN Senior Fellow (18).

Francesca AmenduniEDEN NAP SC Member,University Roma Tre, Italyhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/francescamenduni/Francesca Amenduni is a PhD Student in Education, Culture and Communication at Roma TRE University (IT). She has developed her expertise in the e-learning field both as practitioner and researcher at national and international level. She carried out research on blended learning and her current PhD project regards semi-automated assessment of Critical Thinking short essays and open-ended answers. Part of her research has been developed at the Educational Testing Service in Princeton (NJ, USA) where she spent a term period as visiting student, funded by the Italian Minister of Education and Research (MIUR) through the “Leonardo da Vinci” scholarship. She has been working as researcher in several European projects in the field related to MOOCs, Open Education, and Digital Skills.

Ulf-Daniel EhlersEDEN EC Member, EDEN FellowProf. Educational Management & LLL, Vice-president EURASHE, Former Vice-President Co-Operative State University Baden-Wurttemberg, GermanyProf. Dr Ulf-Daniel Ehlers is full Professor for Educational Management and Lifelong Learning at Baden Wurttemberg-State University in Germany. He has been Vicepresident for Quality and Academic Affairs at the same university for the past six years. Before he has held positions as Associate Professor in the Duisburg-Essen, Germany, Professor for Technology Enhanced Learning in the University Augsburg, and Associate Professor of the Graduate School for Management and Technology of the University of Maryland. Ulf is an educational scientist and holds degrees in English Language, Social Sciences and Educational Sciences from the University of Bielefeld, where he finished his Ph.D. with honors in the field of Technology Enhanced Learning in 2003, and was awarded his habilitation in 2008 from the University of Duisburg-Essen.Ulf is an award winning entrepreneur and has founded and lead three companies nationally and internationally in the field of education and technology. He has created many international, European and national projects and has been President of the Society for Media in Science and President of the European Foundation for Quality in E-Learning, as well as serving on advisory boards to several professional associations in the field.Ulf is an internationally recognized researcher and innovator in the area of Educational Technology. He has extensive experience in helping individuals achieving superior learning performances and has run lighthouse initiatives in the field of e-learning and knowledge management as well as e-business, including knowledge-technology consulting for small and medium sized enterprises. Ulf has developed the Learners’ Quality Model for e-learning, which is a basis for learner centred quality development in e-learning. He is working as advisor to governments and non-governmental organisations in the field of learning and development cooperation and is member of several advisory boards and editorial committees.

Digitally enhanced learning at European higher education institutions – state of play and prospects
2025-12-14 02:33

How to design and manage assessments for online learning
2025-12-14 02:33
Description
After two successful webinars within the Education in time of pandemic webinar series, we’ve taken a step back to form a quick survey of the current educational landscape and the challenges we are all facing as educators during the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve brought together the numerous chat questions asked during the previous webinars and identified specific, emerging themes, such as instructional design, accessibility, online assessment, teaching, and student engagement and collaboration.
Our next webinar in the series will focus on helping you find answers to questions surrounding these themes, while drawing on the practical experience of an expert panel comprised of three EDEN Fellows — Don Olcott, Jr., Antonella Poce, and Lisa Marie Blaschke — and moderated by EDEN President, Sandra Kucina. This special Q&A session will give you a unique opportunity to learn from the decades of online learning experience of these panelists, as they address your most important questions and issues.
Moderator
Sandra Kučina Softić
EDEN President
SRCE

Sandra Kučina Softić is the Assistant Director for Education and User Support at the Zagreb University Computing Centre (Croatia). She is also the Head of the E-learning Centre and the Head of the Office for E-learning at the University of Zagreb. Her work is focused on monitoring and fostering e-learning in Croatian higher education and providing support and advice to institutions, teachers and students in implementation of new technologies in learning and teaching. She was appointed Croatian representative in ET2020 Working group on Digital Skills and Technologies (2016-2018) and in ET2020 Working group on Digital Education: learning, teaching and Assessment (2018-2020). In 2018 she was appointed member of European Education and Training Expert Panel.
Her field of interest is strategic decision making related to e-learning and distance education, quality assurance, educational technologies and open education and open educational resources. She has been involved in a number of projects (national and international) related to these fields and she also actively presents at international conferences. She is also author of training courses for teachers and speaker on these topics.
She has a master’s degree in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom) and PhD in Information and Communication Technologies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb.
She has been a member of EDEN Executive Committee since 2013 and in 2014 she received the EDEN Fellow Title. In 2019 she became President of EDEN.
Presenter
Don Olcott, Jr.
EDEN Senior Fellow & Vice Chair, Council of Fellows; NAP Steering Committee
FRSA

Dr. Don Olcott, Jr. is a Global Higher Education Consultant specialising in educational leadership and open and distance education. He is based in Romania. Don is adjunct full Professor of Educational Leadership and ODL with the University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), Honorary Professor, University of South Africa (Unisa) and an adjunct instructor with Oldenburg University, Germany in the MTEL Master’s program. From 2014-2017, he served as a visiting Professor and Co-Director of the uImagine Digital Innovation Laboratory and as Head of Virtual Campus at Charles Sturt University in Australia. Dr. Olcott was the 2013 recipient of the International Council of Distance Education (ICDE) Individual Prize of Excellence for his leadership and contributions to global open and distance education
Dr. Olcott brings nearly 35 years of experience and leadership in open and distance education and business. He was a 2016 Stanley Draczek Outstanding Teaching Award recipient from the University of Maryland University College for excellence in online teaching and learning. Dr. Olcott is former Chief Executive of The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education (OBHE) in the UK (2007-2011) and former Chairman of the Board of Directors and President of the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA).. Don holds dual Canadian-U.S. citizenship. He serves on numerous editorial boards in open and distance learning. Don was the 1998 recipient of the Charles Wedemeyer award as the Outstanding Distance Education Practitioner in North America awarded by The American Center for the Study of Distance Education and the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He has held faculty and leadership positions in the U.S., UK, Germany, Australia, United Arab Emirates, and Romania. His research interests include OER culture & business models, leadership and organisational transformation.

Antonella Poce
EDEN Fellow, EDEN NAP SC Chair Associate Professor
Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Roma, Italy
Antonella Poce is Associate Professor, qualified Full professor, in Experimental Pedagogy at the Department of Education Roma TRE University (Italy). Her expertise concerns education research methodology and evaluation. In the last few years, her interests have been focused on methods to develop and assess transverse skills and dispositions (critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication) in different kinds of users by combining formal, non-formal and informal methods through the use of innovative digital technologies. Currently, within her research group, she has been working on Critical Thinking automatic assessment through the analysis of open-ended questions and essays. She chairs the Centre for Museum Education (Dept- of Education – Roma TRE University) and the post graduate courses: (annual) Museum Education and (biennial) Advanced Studies in Museum Education. She coordinates national research units within European projects frameworks and she has been chairing international academic committees dealing with distance learning (presently EDEN NAP – Network of Academics and Professionals Chair). She is author of different publications of national and international relevance on the topics of innovation, assessment and use of technology in teaching and learning, in the context of heritage fruition.

Lisa Marie Blaschke
Senior Fellow and Chair of the Board of EDEN Council of Fellows
Programme Director, Center of Lifelong Learning (C3L), Oldenburg, Germany
Dr. Lisa Marie Blaschke She is a former executive committee member of the European Distance Education and E-Learning Network (EDEN) and is a Senior EDEN Fellow and Chair of the Board of the EDEN Fellows Council. She is also a former adjunct associate professor at the University of Maryland University College, where she received the Stanley J. Drazek Award for Teaching Excellence in 2016. Lisa has a BS in Technical Communication, and two master’s degrees (MDE, MBA), and a PhD. Prior to academia, Lisa worked for SAP for over a decade in Walldorf, Germany, leading and implementing enterprise-wide knowledge management and training processes and solutions. Lisa’s research interests are in the areas of self-determined learning (heutagogy), online collaborative learning, pedagogical application of web 2.0 technology and social media, and user interface design.
Joining

Click on the link for the meeting room:
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The link opens in your standard browser and a dialogue box is shown. Make sure that “Zoom Meetings” is chosen and choose “Open link” at the bottom of the dialogue box.

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Click on the symbols for microphone and camera down in the left corner in the meeting room to enable audio and video.

Virtual Events
2025-12-14 02:33

Designing online courses: a practical approach
2025-12-14 02:33
REGISTERRegistered webinar participants will be awarded by EDEN open badges.
Description
Living in these times is challenging for everyone involved in education, students and teachers alike. Many teachers woke up one day with the obligation to transfer all their teaching to the online environment. However, many of them lacked the knowledge on how to do this in an optimal way, due to reasons varying from lack of ICT skills to lack of training offered by educational institutions. The question that arises here is how to efficiently transfer teaching practice online, using the available tools, avoiding to use learning management systems as online repositories.
This webinar proposes to fill parts of the gaps existing in teachers’ knowledge related to instructional and learning design in regards to online education, by presenting hands-on approaches already used by teachers who are experienced with online learning and especially in transferring teaching methods online.
There are two main topics which will be presented during this webinar:

Best practices of instructional and learning used in different online courses.
Integration of MOOCs in online learning courses.

Presenters
Vlad Mihăescu
EDEN NAP SC Chair
Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Politehnica University of Timisoara
Vlad Mihaescu has a PhD in educational and technological models of MOOCs and has more than 10 years’ experience as a trainer and teacher in areas like multimedia technologies, social media, e-tourism, e-learning, usability, entrepreneurship, programming, soft skills and leadership. Author of over 25 scientific papers and book chapters published in international conferences and journals, Vlad is involved in several European research projects in the field of eLearning. He is also a lecturer for UPT.
Vlad Mihăescu
EDEN NAP SC Chair
Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Politehnica University of Timisoara
Vlad Mihaescu has a PhD in educational and technological models of MOOCs and has more than 10 years’ experience as a trainer and teacher in areas like multimedia technologies, social media, e-tourism, e-learning, usability, entrepreneurship, programming, soft skills and leadership. Author of over 25 scientific papers and book chapters published in international conferences and journals, Vlad is involved in several European research projects in the field of eLearning. He is also a lecturer for UPT.
Maha Bali
Associate Professor of Practice at the Center for Learning and Teaching at the American University in Cairo, Egypt
Maha Bali is Associate Professor of Practice at the Center for Learning and Teaching at the American University in Cairo. She has a PhD in Education from the University of Sheffield, UK. She is co-founder of virtuallyconnecting.org (a grassroots movement that challenges academic gatekeeping at conferences) and co-facilitator of Equity Unbound (an equity-focused, open, connected intercultural learning curriculum, which has also branched into academic community activities Continuity with Care, Inclusive Academia, and Community Building Resources). She writes and speaks frequently about social justice, critical pedagogy, and open and online education.
She blogs regularly at http://blog.mahabali.me and tweets @bali_maha.

Mia Zamora
Associate Professor of English, the Director of the MA in Writing Studies, and the Director of the Kean University Writing Project in Union, NJ, USA

Mia Zamora, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of English, the Director of the MA in Writing Studies, and the Director of the Kean University Writing Project in Union, NJ, USA. She has recently received the Kean University “Professor of the Year” Award. Dr. Zamora’s commitment to equity, digital literacies, data rights, and intercultural understanding is clear in both her scholarship and leadership work. She has founded several global learning networks including Equity Unbound (#unboundeq) and Networked Narratives (#netnarr), and was Co-Chair of ALT’s #OER20 conference on “Care in Openness”.

Autumm Caines
Instructional Designer at the University of Michigan – Dearborn, USA

Autumm Caines is an Instructional Designer at the University of Michigan – Dearborn in the Hub for Teaching and Learning Resources, prior to which she held professional appointments at St. Norbert College and Capital University. She holds a MA in Educational Technology from The Ohio State University. In the Open, she is a Co-Director of Virtually Connecting where her work explores questions of presence and spontaneity in synchronous virtual conversations as well as equity and inclusion in online community. She also helps to organize and facilitate Open/Connected online events for the purposes of faculty development and her own practice in digital stewardship, most recently with the tags #DigCiz, #DigPINS, and #EthicalEdTech. Autumm tweets @autumm and maintains a web portfolio at https://autumm.org
Sources:
Bali, M., Caines, A., Hogue, R. J., DeWaard, H. J., & Friedrich, C. (2019). Intentionally Equitable Hospitality in Hybrid Video Dialogue: The Context of Virtually Connecting. eLearning Mag (special issue). Retrieved from: https://elearnmag.acm.org/archive.cfm?aid=3331173
Bali, M., & Caines, A. (Dec. 2018). A call for promoting ownership, equity and agency in faculty development via connected learning. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-018-0128-8
Equity Unbound site https://unboundeq.creativitycourse.org

Previous EDEN webinars
OPEN

EDEN #onlinetogether webinar series
2025-12-14 02:33

Granada
2025-12-14 02:33
The conference was collecting examples of existing good experience, trends and their evaluation, encouraged partnerships, supported collaboration with special regard to co-operation and joint research in ODL, collaboration in design and development of e-learning courses, distance education to create virtual communities of learners and consideration of Europes educational import – export relationships – what can we offer in the export-import exchange with the other continents?
The conference themes were:

To which extent are the present motivations and interests in the educational world relevant to follow the internationalisation trends?
How can the scope be widened for those involved in European co-operation, to enter into activities outside the continent?
How can the role of internationalization in the consolidation, standardization and professionalisation of the European ODL and eLearning be described properly?
What are the appropriate means to find and support excellence in countries which are not in the forefront?
Can co-operation in ODL really efficiently go beyond borders and enter small markets?
What did we learn from the evaluation of models of virtual mobility?
How should we develop and design new models of production and delivery in ODL and eLearning in the international perspective
How can we identify points of excellence, in respect of European co-operation, and their outcomes?
How can ODL contribute to professionalisation and internationalisation of training of teachers?

Helsinki
2025-12-14 02:33
Lifelong learning is high on the agenda in Europe: having enjoyed a continuously increasing policy profile, it is now the key term for the new generation of integrated educational and training programmes of the European Union in 2007  2013. ICTs represent in the programme a most important transversal strand of activities, crossing all educational sectors.
Bringing e-learning closer to lifelong learning is very relevant today. Education systems are seriously facing the modernisation challenge as a result of the Lisbon process. The importance of flexible delivery modes and institutions is increasing, the scenario is changing on all levels. Lifelong learning obviously implies intensive interaction between the world of work and the different educational sectors. Adult and lifelong learning represent a more and more essential part of the portfolio of traditional educational institutions. Higher education is specially positioned for producing, and disseminating knowledge, but also acting as an important interlocuteur in raising awareness, and promoting the culture of learning.
The integration of ICTs in the different sectors of education is an intensive ongoing process, accompanied by consolidation of the e-learning field. Professionalisation of methodologies and management plays an important role: with the increasing understanding and realisation of advanced concepts of learning and teaching and the proper use of technologies, e-learning is better positioned to receive new important assignments from the society than ever before.
All the above aspects emerge in an integrated context and make up a good basis to believe that this will lead indeed to increased uptake of modern educational methods. Improving e-learning services and products permit institutions to elaborate and implement well-founded strategies and new partnerships with the corporate sector. Academic knowledge and professional experience accumulated in the field of open, distance and e-learning should be highlighted with all its complexity and achievement in this important period.
The EDEN Annual Conference in 2005 will focus on open, distance and e-learning from the perspective of lifelong learning, with the approach of collaboration and knowledge transfer from all educational sectors, including adult and vocational education. The event intends to bring together and present the related experience of professionals and practitioners in ICT supported learning, introducing the state of the art and providing a survey of what we expect to happen in the next years. The conference will especially address the transversal and intersectoral issues, in particular the role of universities, as well as post-secondary and tertiary further education.
The conference venue and the host institution offer more than perfect conditions for the event. The Finnish economy is one of the best examples worldwide in realizing development and modernisation, in organic synergy with science and education. Dipoli and Espoo, with the campus of the Helsinki University of Technology and the Otaniemi Science and Technology Park is a symbolically important environment for a future oriented gathering of educational experts. The Lifelong Learning Institute of the University has pioneered at national and European levels a number of flagship initiatives in a range of various sectors of education and economy in Finland.
EDEN, continuing its successful series of conferences, invites you to join the European community of educational professionals with interest and experience in ICTs, open, distance and e-learning in discovering the state of art, innovative practice and future scenarios for the European agenda of lifelong learning.

Porto
2025-12-14 02:33
Innovation and Creativity are considered to be key drivers for development in the 21st Century, and thus Knowledge-based societies need to place strong emphasis on establishing those flourishing conditions, which will make for the Creation of Ideas and Knowledge as well as for the better use of Knowledge and Innovation, in order to build value for their social systems. A set of Key Competencies are required, which enable all people to embrace change as an opportunity and to welcome as well as produce new ideas and approaches, in order to respond effectively to the challenges of the new participatory cultures and globalization.

Such Key Competencies favor innovative and creative social acting in the personal, interpersonal and intercultural fields. Sustaining Creativity and Innovation in Education constitutes a promising strategy to reach societal well being, through increasing understanding and promoting growth as well as addressing social inequalities. Placing Creativity and Innovation among the key objectives in the learning process, starting from early childhood through tertiary education, in the Lifelong Learning perspective, could be a major contribution to innovativeness in society. Learner-centered education supports the enhancement of Key Competencies, as the 21st Literacies, having the Learning to Learn, Mathematics, Mother & Foreign Language, Science & Technology, Cultural Awareness and Entrepreneurship, as major competencies among them.
In this context, sustainable change in Knowledge Building and Curriculum Development as well as the Pedagogies and the Teachers Professional Development could only be addressed by motivation and incentives, leadership and quality upgrade. In order to introduce this new Learning Culture, education authorities and institutions need to adopt changes in the fields of organization and governance and be reflective to emerging bottom-up initiatives, in a new balance between top-down planning and grass-roots implementation and quality regulation. Todays education systems have to cater for experimental innovation and tolerance of failure, thus encouraging innovative approaches and practice. School Autonomy  whether formal or informal – provides with the grounds for releasing and developing Creativity and Innovation. So, it seems that the enhancement of School Autonomy, Teachers professional development as well as of Networking among school communities, constitute an effective way for moving towards the future, by serving Excellence and Learning Efficiency while catering for Equity and Social Inclusion.
To bring up and reflect upon these considerations, EDEN in the framework of its Open Classroom Initiative is organizing this Conference on The European School 2.0: Incubating Creativity and the Capacity for Innovation, together with the Universidade Aberta, the Portuguese Open University, and the University of Porto as well as the support of other European and international expert bodies. The Conference aims at enriching the European dialogue around the 21st Century School, while contributing to the European Education policies and the objectives of the European Year for Creativity and Innovation 2009. It will offer the opportunity to European schools and teachers to present and reflect upon their innovative experiences, in such a way to enhance cross-country Good Practice on introducing and managing Innovation in the school systems, to the benefit of the quality in education.

Stockholm
2025-12-14 02:33
Surrounding evidence fostered by a number of developments coming with the pervasive impact of the Information & Communication Technologies on school education, is leading education researchers and pedagogists as well as policy makers and international agencies to adopt the hypothesis of an emerging Paradigm of Schooling, in the 21st century.
In the years to come we need to further intensify our joint efforts in order to better understand, plan and act upon the social evolutions, namely the social mobility, migration, internationalisation, multicultural societal structures, that are changing the mandate of School Education, in Schooling 21C.
Transforming School Education systems to open (e-)learning environments, in the Lifelong Learning perspective implies evolutionary changes as regards:

the way we understand the emerging learning needs of youngsters at school ages, the way we define learning objectives and how we go about meeting them through structured learning offers;
the planning and the running of schools and networks of schools, teachers, classes and classrooms, with individualized learning paths and collaborative learning experiences;
concerning the way we innovate and scale-up, by validating new forms of education content development, consolidation and knowledge building and sharing of experiences.

The Sixth Open Classroom Conference aims at offering an opportunity to present, be informed about and join the European dialogue about how families, teachers, experts, authorities and societies at large are experiencing and handling the changes that are leading towards Real Learning in Virtual Worlds.
