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EDENRW9 – Sneak Peek at the Programme

Conference Programme Structure

The Conference programme includes plenaries, parallel sessions with paper presentations, workshops, poster and synergy sessions. The event starts on Tuesday afternoon on 4 October, with registration, followed by the Welcome Reception and ends with the Closing Plenary Session on 6 October.

Conference Opening – Distance Education Legend Otto Peters will welcome the conference in a video message

peters-2It is our pleasure to inform you that the Conference Opening will feature a welcoming video message from Distance Education Legend Otto Peters, providing a perfectly appropriate kick-off to the programme that, indeed, is exposing the deepest roots of ODL research and innovation.

Few individuals have had the degree of global impact in adult and continuing education as has Otto Peters, Ph.D. Entering the field in the 1960s, when continuing education was beginning to be affected by telecommunications technology, Peters provided both administrative and scholarly leadership during a time when distance education transformed from a “correspondence study” model to a media-based national strategy for workforce education in both developed and developing countries. As a pioneering administrative leader, scholar, and professional leader, he shaped the direction of university-based distance education in Europe and the world during a career that spans four decades. His contribution to the field has been recognized by organizations around the world.

Keynote Speech Titles Revealed

Inge de Waard: Self-determined learning: lifelong learning in an open range or fenced land?

Olaf Zawacki-Richter & Som Naidu: Exploring 35 Years of Research into Distance Education

Isa Jahnke: Studying Learning Expeditions in Cross Action Spaces with Digital Didactical Designs

George Veletsianos: A scholarly life online

Adnan Qayyum: The changing role of online and distance education in national systems: a macro level analysis

Workshop Session Sneak Peek

How to Improve Soft Skills to Ensure Better Employabilitytelescope-685174_640

In a world where linear careers in the same company are a thing of the past, employability means much more than producing ‘job-ready’ graduates for a particular industry. It’s about equipping them to integrate collaborative working environments and to cope with the challenges of a world undergoing profound change. And very few people would argue that when it comes to soft skills such as communication, teamwork, creativity and entrepreneurship, there is a significant gap between what universities equip their graduates with and what they will need in the workplace. Initiatives such as the ERASMUS+ funded eLene4work and Open Badge Network projects are serving a crucial purpose in addressing this issue.

So how can we measure soft skills and how can students and young workers improve and demonstrate their skills in their CVs or e-Portfolios? These are the main questions of this workshop, which will begin with an insightful presentation of Deborah Arnold describing the pathway eLene4work created to help students develop soft skills, followed by interactive group work and a Q&A section.