EDEN Network of Academics and Professionals (NAP)

1. The European Open and Distance Learning Liaison Committee, http://www.odl-liaison.org had its meeting on 24 February. The draft Policy Paper "Learning Innovation for the Revised Lisbon Agenda", by Claudio Dondi, Peter Floor and Andras Szucs has been discussed. The final version on basis of inputs from the Liaison Committee members is now being accomplished. The document will soon be published and circulated for EDEN members, as well. The meeting of the Liaison Committee was most useful and reinforced the significance of the initiative.

2. EDEN is delighted to welcome Eotvos Lorand University, Centre for Multimedia and Educational Technology as the 150th institutional member of EDEN who joined recently the Association. Further new members in EDEN are:
- Diplofoundation, Switzerland
- The University of Memphis, USA
During the last months, a number of prestigious organisations joined EDEN. You can check them at the "Welcoming new members" link on the EDEN web.

3. For the EDEN Vienna Annual Conference a really high number of submissions was received. The evaluation is going to be finished soon and authors will be notified about the results early April. The registration opened late February and we already experience strong interest for the event. The programme will be finalised and displayed on the conference website around mid-May. We recommend to visit the conference website and in particular the impressing list of keynote speakers and the selection of workshops: http://www.eden-online.org/eden.php?menuId=277
EDEN members can register with reduced rate. Please, be kindly reminded to take care of hotel bookings well in advance, as Vienna will be extremely visited in June.

4. The EDEN Fourth Research Workshop "Research into Online Distance Education and E-learning: Making the difference" hosted by UOC - Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, will take place on 25-28 October 2006 in Castelldefels/Barcelona, Spain. The announcement and call for papers has been mailed to you. This workshop, both in its organisational frame and in approach will be different and innovative, following the good example and experience gained at the Third Research Workshop held in Oldenburg, 2004. We are delighted to welcome Tony Bates as Scientific Chair of the Programme Committee.

5. The Norwegian Networked University, a member of EDEN, organised their annual conference 13-14 March at the University College of Agder. President Ingeborg Boe was invited to give a keynote speech. The theme of the conference and also of Ingeborg Boe's speech was: "New realities - new challenges". She elaborated on the possibilities embedded in the new challenges for the institutions, the teaching staff, the students and the world of work and linked it to both national and international trends.

6. News from EFQUEL - the European Foundation for Quality in eLearning
- The documentation and presentations of the "Innovation for Quality" Conference (December 2005, Berlin) are now online.
- The portal presents a couple of new services. The European Quality Forum has moved from the CEDEFOP site to the www.qualityfoundation.org
- A Quality Wiki invites to collaboratively work on initiatives, papers and declarations in the field of quality in European eLearning.
- A "Quality Roadmap" about How to get started on quality development in an organisation can be found on the site
- The Monthly Special is the article "A Framework for Quality of Learning Resources"

7. EDEN member organisation, EUCEN – European Universities Continuing Education Network is celebrating their 15th anniversary. EDEN congratulates its partner association and wishes lots of success and continuation of a good collaboration.

8. EDEN has participated in the successful SkyWatch project that aimed the "Introduction of European youth in the world of scientific research". In frames of this project a scientific contest in the general field of astronomy and astronomical observations was organised during the Science Week in November 2005. We are pleased to inform you that the initiative is now continued and the SkyWatch contest 2006 was launched on 20th March. For more details about the rules of the contest, examples of good practice, information on last year’s winners, submission forms please visit: http://www.discoveryspace.net

9. A most interesting announcement about the initiative of EDEN member, Open University, UK can be read at: http://www3.open.ac.uk/media/fullstory.aspx?id=8573 Quote from the announcement: "Open University today announced a GBP L5.65 million (US $9.9 million) project to make a selection of its learning materials available free of charge to educators and learners around the world. The website will be launched in October 2006. … During the initial phase of this initiative, the University will select and make available educational resources from all study levels from access to postgraduate and from a full range of subject themes: arts and history, business and management, health and lifestyle, languages, science and nature, society and technology. Learners will also be able to benefit from a range of study skills development material."

10. The Joint Research Centre (Ispra, Italy) is trying to contract two researchers in the field of computer based assessment. Ideally the candidates should have worked also on assessment of learning to learn skills and/or foreign language skills. The two researchers would be working in connection with the Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning at the Joint Research Centre (http://www.jrc.cec.eu.int). The recruitment process is carried out through interview. The type of contract envisaged is as a contractual agent for the period of at least 2 years, envisaged starting date June 2006.

If you are interested please contact angela.pereira@jrc.it for further details.

Members are kindly encouraged to send relevant brief news for the next issue of EDEN Newsflash