Themes

Open Educational Resources

With the promotion of Open Educational Resources (OER), EADTU is taking a leading role in helping to increase and widen participation in lifelong open and flexible learning. With the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) having launched its OpenCourseWare initiative in the United States, universities in Europe are now seeking to launch their own programme on OER. Under the umbrella of EADTU, different distance teaching universities have united. They are preparing a first wave of OER, to be disseminated freely and online, throughout Europe in a multilingual format. National initiatives are also contributing to the movement: the Open Content Initiative by the Open University of the United Kingdom, the OpenER initiative by the Open Universiteit Nederland, and the e-Taster initiative by the North Hungarian Regional Distance Education. All these initiatives are exponents of a bigger wave on OER going throughout Europe. With regard to the conference track , OER actions are presented which are special in nature and which differ from offers of traditional universities in the sense that they consist of pedagogically-rich learning materials, specifically designed and developed for distance learning and intended for independent self-study; are compiled in the national languages, with the EADTU initiative being multilingual, reflecting the European dimension; and support and are supported by the policies of the national governments and the European Commission.


Academic Cooperation

For national associations and consortia the primary advantage of collaboration is the possibility of adding to student’s learning experience an international or Euro­pean dimension. For many dual mode institutions the focus is both on campus-based students in full-time programmes and on part-time students in open and flexible distance education programmes. Both groups should have the opportunity to study abroad either through physical mobility programmes like the ERASMUS Programme or through virtual mobility. In the Task Force Academic Cooperation a main focus is on involving students more in lifelong open and flexible learning. The Academic Cooperation track of the EADTU 2006 Annual Conference will feature the state of the art on collaboration. Progress is reported on the establishment of European networks as well as on the collaboration between different institutions in distance HE. Potential for collaboration between national consortia and (their) intra-level members, is reviewed. Important domains for cooperation are subject to exploration, such as: virtual mobility, student and staff, pooling and sharing of resources, different types of integration such as joint degrees and joint programmes. A dedicated workshop will reflect the position, progress and achievements of the Task Force on Academic Cooperation (TFAC). Subjects include: collaborative actions on joint course branding and the development of double diplomas. Best-practices addressed in this workshop are: financial models, formal collaboration, and non-formal collaboration. Clear showcases of collaboration are presented and results are highlighted.


Quality Assurance and e-learning

Improving e-learning starts with benchmarking e-learning. E-benchmarking is currently introduced and implemented on the national and European level in various approaches, all with the intention of enhancement.

What can e-benchmarking do for your institution?

Related workshops:

  • e-benchmarking UK: UK-wide higher education e-learning benchmarking exercise developed in response to feedback from institutions about the need to understand more about their own, and the sector's, progress in e-learning. Report on phase 1 with involvement of 12 universities.
  • E-xcellence: in three pilots at University of Oulu (Fin), EITSA (Ee) and Uninettuno (It) the benchmarking quality criteria for e-learning and validation methods have been tested. Report and discussion on the implementation and results of e-learning assessment on-site. Recommendations on enhancing your e-learning approach.

New Business Models and New Funding Models

Exploring universities' possibilities for optimal funding mechanisms. Interchanging information on funding schemes currently operational and future perspectives in the light of the Lisbon objectives.

Related workshops on business models on sustainable funding and strategies.


Virtual Mobility

Virtual mobility is a complement to physical mobility as well as an educational concept of its own. It offers new opportunities for students who cannot benefit from physical mobility by enrolment at a distance to other universities than your own. By this, VM can provide unlimited access to (specialised) courses at universities of your choice in all phases of lifelong learning and training. VM can be used to enrich programmes on content by inter-institutional academic cooperation as well as offering students an international experience.

Related workshops:

  • International Course Exchange on the Bachelor and Master level. Examples from practice on bringing together offerings and demands in Humanities programmes between various Universities in distance HE. The overall objective is to organise a pool of international courses to enable students to choose courses from different foreign institutions. This, as to further individualise and specialise the students' education.
  • European Virtual Seminar. This is a didactic concept that promotes an international, multidisciplinary dialogue between students on authentic and topical issues, using modern ICT and the internet to overcome the constraints of place and time. It is a joint course structured concept in which students from various universities participate in cooperation.
Towards Lisbon 2010: "Collaboration for Innovative Content in Lifelong Open and Flexible Learning"