Since 2008, EDEN has been continuously granting the Best Research Paper Award at the EDEN’s Annual Conferences as well as at the EDEN’s bi-annual Research Workshops. A high-quality standard selection process guarantees the branding of a distinguished and reputable award for scholarly conference papers in the field of open, distance and e-learning. The selection process took place in collaboration with the Ulrich Bernath Foundation for Research in Open and Distance Learning. On the last day of the EDEN 2020 Annual Virtual Conference the acclaimed Award was endowed by Jury Chair, Prof. Denise Whitelock to Cecilia Fissore, Marina Marchisio (pictured) and Sergio Rabellino from the University of Turin, Italy. The title of their winning paper is “Secondary School Teacher Support and Training for Online Teaching During the COVID-19 pandemic.”
EDEN has also dedicated a special attention to involve and motivate the future generation of stakeholders of the Open and Distance Learning field, at first offering them visibility by rewarding their achievements. For the recognition of the academic quality of papers presented by young researchers, the EDEN Executive Committee decided to launch the Young Scholar Award. Since 2015 the award was bestowed to 7 young scholars. This year one junior researcher’s achievements as well as dedication to the EDEN Annual Conference have been recognised by the EDEN Presidency. The winner’s research was presented at the PhD Symposium. The junior researcher is also a co-author of two papers, two posters and two workshops. All these works are focused on the topic of the conference: Human and Artificial Intelligence for the Society of the Future – Inspiring Digital Education for the Next STE(A)M Student Generation. The 2020 EDEN Young Scholar Award was conferred by Josep M. Duart, EDEN Vice President for Research on a virtual ceremony, also on day 3 of the EDEN Conference to Francesca Amenduni from Roma Tre University, Italy.