Election of the Steering Committee of the EDEN Network of Academics and Professionnals (NAP) 2020

Dear EDEN NAP Members,

We are pleased to announce that the new EDEN Network of Academics and Professionals Steering Committee has been confirmed from May 2020 for a three-year period. Every three years, the NAP membership elects members of the Steering Committee to foster the EDEN NAP activities.
The following candidates have been assigned to serve as NAP Steering Committee members for the next three years:
Francesca Amenduni, University Roma Tre, Italy
Igor Balaban, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Organization and Informatics, Varasdin, Croatia
Inés Gil Jaurena, UNED, Spain
Mohammad Sameer Hasan, Universal Institute of Professional Management, India
Orna Farrell, National Institute of Digital Learning, Dublin City University, Ireland
Vlad Mihaescu, University Politehnica Timisoara, Romania

The EDEN Executive Committee delegate in the new NAP Steering Committee will be Alfredo Soeiro (University of Porto).

EDEN congratulates to and welcomes all professionals in their new positions in the NAP Steering Committee.

With best regards,


Dr Andras Szucs
EDEN Secretary General

What are the main activities of the NAP Steering Committee?

The NAP section is a meeting place of EDEN individual members and the discussion forum of EDEN. The NAP activities are self-governed by its own elected body, the NAP SC and self-sustaining. EDEN individual members might initiate topics to discuss in the community.

The NAP activities are an important part of services EDEN provides to its members.

The NAP Steering Committee should foster the NAP activities through initiating different activities, like webinars on relevant topics in the area of distance and e-learning. In the last 12 month the NAP SC organised 12 NAP webinars.

The most popular NAP webinar topics in 2019 encompassed subjects from Open Education Resources and MOOCs through quality issues, learner profiling and e-assessment to e-portfolio and credentialing education outcomes.

During and after each webinar an #EDENChat can also be initiated.

EDEN NAP members have access to the EDEN Newsflashes stored in the NAP area. It is a huge resource of news from the professional field.

If you are a member of the NAP SC you will always be informed about what happens in and around EDEN: The Chair of the NAP SC is steady invitee of the Executive Committee meetings, and one EC member represents the EC in the NAP SC. Nap SC members are informed by the Chair of the NAP SC.

NAP SC members can count on the support of EC members as well as the Secretariat in their work: The Secretariat gives the technical background for virtual events: ensures chat rooms (Adobe Connect room), uploads the supporting material before the meetings, organises the promotion and registration for the events, organises the award of open badges to the presenters, moderators and participants of the meetings.

EDEN recognises the outstanding contribution of its individual members with awards: In the last 5 years 7 NAP members received EDEN awards: 3 became EDEN Fellows, 4 EDEN Senior Fellows.

NAP SC election in the EDEN Constitution

Article 8 – Steering Committee

8.1 A Steering Committee shall be elected to govern the activities of the NAP Section. The Steering Committee shall consist of six members elected by the members of the Section, and one member representing the Executive Committee. None of the elected members shall come from the same country. The term of office shall be three years. A Chair shall be elected from the members of the Steering Committee. No member shall serve more than two consecutive three year term as a member of the Steering Committee.

8.2 Election of members of the Steering Committee shall take place by postal ballot (including electronic mail). Nominations for elected positions shall be invited from the members of the section at least four months before the new Steering Committee members are to take up office. The election shall be conducted by the EDEN Secretariat, and a deadline of votes shall be fixed not earlier than four weeks after the mailing of the nominations to the members of the section. The candidates who get the highest numbers of votes, and who do not come from the same country, shall be elected.