pdf - EADTU Conference

The Open and Flexible Higher Education
Conference 2015
“Transforming higher education in the
21st Century;
“Innovating pathways to learning and continuous
professional education”
29-30 October, Hagen
EADTU’s annual Conference 2015 is hosted by the FernUniversität in
Hagen
Scope and themes
Topics:
Technology-based teaching and learning lead to the transformation of higher education. Through
new modes of teaching and learning, three complementary educational areas are emerging in
European higher education: (1) blended and online degree education; (2) flexible continuous
education and continuous professional development online, including new types of short
programmes; and (3) online open education through OERs and MOOCs.
Although their costs and business models differ significantly, they are interdependent. Institutional
development in higher education should embrace a holistic perspective, developing these areas
separately, but also integrating them in practice.
It is expected that in Europe, each of these areas will expand in the near future. They will lead to
excellence, innovation and inclusion and will affect international education by supporting
collaborative courses and curricula and virtual mobility.
Policies in the changing pedagogical landscape
Themes: systemic innovation, institutional strategies and frameworks, innovation policies, drivers
and enablers of change, governmental policies supporting innovation
All European universities have installed learning environments. Digital technologies affect teaching
and learning. A true transformation of higher education enhances the quality of the learning
experience and increases the scalability and cost-effectiveness of education. With rising student
numbers and a declining funding per student, this is a challenge. New pedagogies are needed which
open innovative avenues to better teaching and learning. A systemic approach requires institutional
strategies and frameworks in order to make institutions continuously innovative with respect to all
aspects of teaching and learning.
As a matter of urgency, this process should be accelerated as pointed out in the Modernisation
Agenda of the European Commission and in the reports of the High level Group for the
Modernisation of Higher Education.
Governmental strategies and higher education regulatory frameworks with regard to accreditation,
funding, quality assurance, assessment and certification have to support this development.
Empowering universities for the modernisation of higher education
Themes: learning design tools for online course development, (large scale) student support,
student’s access and use of knowledge resources, (large scale) assessment tools, institutional
innovation frameworks, learning technology tools and systems, excellence in teaching and
learning, innovation strategies
To accelerate the modernisation of European universities, experience and expertise should be
mobilised in order to bring added value to higher education institutions, adopting innovations and
pointing out roadmaps for innovation. European experts should support the implementation of new
pedagogies, institutional strategies and business models with interested universities.
Enablers of innovation are developing institutional frameworks for innovation; continuous
professional development for university teachers and leaders; learning technology tools, systems and
services, collecting patterns of good practice in new modes of teaching and learning; making
available sharable resources (e.g. OER), and valorising evidence from research and innovation.
Blended education
Themes: good practices in blended on campus education, online distance education,
(international) collaborative programmes and virtual mobility, long-term employability by
education and training
European universities are faced with the problem of dealing with large student numbers and low
student staff ratios (1/15 or 1/20 and lower, compared with 1/3 or 1/6 in highly ranked universities
in the world); delivering high quality education to these large groups in a close nexus with actual
research and innovation ; and organising this with a decreasing funding per student.
Solving these problems requires the re-thinking en re-designing of on campus education, using
blended forms of teaching and learning, combining traditional formats with new modes of teaching
and learning based on ICT.
On campus universities increasingly combine face-to-face with online formats, valuing the best of
both. The optimal blend can be very different for bachelor and master programmes. Blended
education is also important for the growing number of part-time students. When students are
studying at a distance (in distance universities and increasingly in international education, the online
component can become even more important and even dominant, because of the flexibility needed.
The development towards blended education is going too slow in comparison with the US.
Flexible continuing education and new types of courses
Themes: good practices in online or blended continuing education, CPD, (new types of) certified
short programmes, university-business collaborations, cost and business models for continuing
education, employability, international collaboration
In a lifelong learning perspective, universities will take care of continuous education for innovation in
strongly changing sectors and of continuous professional development and knowledge networking
for their alumni. They will also organise education and training for innovation in the corporate and
public sector.
As flexibility is important for the target groups concerned, this increasingly will be organised in
blended formats or online, enabling students to plan their study in combination with work and
private activities.
This flexibility should also be achieved by new types of short courses, which facilitate the
combination with work by their smaller size. Indicatively, these programmes would have a size of
resp. 15 and 30 ECTS points only, less than the current 60 ECTS points or more for postgraduate
certificates or diplomas. These short programmes should be recognized by a new type of certificates
(certificate of academic studies, extended certificate of academic studies, diploma of academic
studies,…).
To make this successful, new specific business models are to be created, adapted to the target
groups and the type of courses, and incentivizing the organising staff and departments.
Flexible continuing education supports the long-term employability of professionals and hence is
very important for the development of innovative regions European-wide.
Open education and MOOCs
Themes: open access, open pedagogies, scalability (student support, assessment), cost and
business models, open licensing policies, institutional and governmental policies
Online education leads to new opportunities for institutions for scaling up higher education to reach
wider national and international audiences. It leads to the kind of flexible, creative and modern
approach to learning that today’s complex world requires.
MOOCs have received considerable media coverage since the beginning of 2012. Along with their
expansion, confusion has arisen around what a typical MOOC would look like and what could be
expected as its main added value.
Drivers for most universities organising MOOCs are visibility and reputation by valorising research
and development through top class education worldwide; experimenting with large scale online
education, which experience can applied in enhancing the quality of mainstream curricula; recruiting
new students, especially at the master and doctoral level; and opening up education to new target
groups, including national and international students. For teaching staff, main drivers are
experimenting with good teaching and international exposure.
But, MOOCs will also play an important role in continuing education, raising permanent
employability.
Opening up universities to new target groups requires a coherent institutional policy and appropriate
organizational and business models within the institution.
In a knowledge society, governments should stimulate and support universities in opening up to
citizens and society at large.
Learning analytics and learning technologies
Themes: concept and methodology of learning analytis, data analysis and educational
improvement, good practices; learning technologies, e-assessment, learning design tools,
intelligent tutoring
Learning analytics offers many chances for higher education. It is not only about monitoring student
progress. It allows to have an in depth look into what students are coping with and experience as
barriers when learning a course. Learning analytics can contribute in this sense to individualizing
materials to students in custom made support. It further helps educators in generating direct
feedback on their approach of education.
The validity of learning analytics is dependent on the value of the key indicators used in a perspective
of teaching and learning improvement. Another issue is about collecting the right data, which allow
real-time analysis in order to tailor learning activities to the individual student.
Other learning technologies have are related to the use of big data, e-assessment and intelligent
tutoring.
Format of the parallel sessions
Next to plenary keynote sessions by key-experts in the field online, open and flexible education, we
organise parallel sessions, which are a combination of presentations and interactive sessions. Your
contributions under the call for abstracts may therefore be a classic presentation with room for
discussion as well as an interactive workshop like session.
Research and innovation
The conference includes a dedicated research strand, covering the six sub-themes. The best papers
on research will be published in Open Learning Journal. (http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/copl20).
The editorial Board consists of well-established experts in the field of online, open and flexible
learning.
Abstract submissions
Submitting abstracts of conference papers:
Contributions should be in line with the scope and topics mentioned above and submitted to
mieke.vanderleegte@eadtu.eu by 1st June 2015 with accompanying title, theme reference and
keywords. Full format specifications can be downloaded here. The Programme Committee subjects
the programme and the abstracts to a process of review.
Important Dates
Deadline for submission of abstracts
1 June 2015
Notification of acceptance
7 June 2015
Deadline for submission of full conference papers of accepted abstracts
21 August 2015
On-line publication of abstracts for conference participants
18 September 2015