Our Future Online: Trends and Challenges in Distance Learning
The EADL 2015 Conference will take place in Prague, the Czech Republic,
from Wednesday 20th Friday 22nd May. The venue is the Prague.
Conference fee:
Fee includes meals and 2 social events
EADL members and DEAC members: € 375
Non members: € 725
Accompanying partner (social events + farewell lunch): € 125
Conference Registration form
Hotel Booking form
Online activities are increasingly a major part of Distance Learning provision. Social Media, Mooc’s, online examinations, big databases, data security, cloud computing etc. are playing a dominant role more and more in the development of Distance Learning. This conference will deal with most of these topics.
Featured Speakers:
Wednesday
Wednesday afternoon Mr. Fred de Vries MSc (Open University of the Netherlands) will give a presentation called:
Adoption of Open Online Education in Europe
Fred will in his presentation discuss current developments in open and online education, including MOOC’s driven by an accelerating digitalization of education and training that can change the structure and business models of education. He will focus on the developments in Europe covering challenges for policymakers and opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Fred de Vries is Policy Advisor for Education and Research at the Open University of the Netherlands (OUNL) and as a background as an educational technologist working on innovations in the organisation and delivery of distance education. At the OUNL he is currently dealing with trends and developments in European Higher Education and in the EADTU in innovation projects and policy development.
After the coffee break Martin Henriksen will give his presentation:
Micro Learning: the next phase
Martin Henrik Andresenis a Project Manager and Mobile Learning specialist at BI Norwegian Business School, which is a private, independent,specialized university institution with a total of six study locations in Norway. BI is the largest business school in Norway and the second largest in all of Europe.With a business development background from media,Andresen was challenged to use technology to disrupt existing methods of teaching . Andresen has explored the opportunities in mobile micro learning in the higher education industry.
Also on Wednesday afternoon, Dr, Leah Matthews will give a presentation with the title:
Distance Education in the US: Innovations, Disruptions or Both?
Distance Education in the United States is evolving rapidly and reaching more students than ever. This presentation provides an overview of the most recent developments in US distance education.
Dr. Leah Matthewsis the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Distance Education Accrediting Committee (DEAC) located in Washington, DC. DEAC currently accredits 110 distance education institutions offering associate degrees through professional doctoral degrees to over 2.5 million students. Dr. Matthews has extensive experience in research, writing and speaking on topics such as higher education quality assurance, the federal and state roles in U.S. higher education, for-profit highereducation and distance education for higher learning. Dr. Matthews earned her PhD in Education with a concentration in Higher Education Policy from George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia.
The last presentation on Wednesday is from Dr. Bin Bai. Dr. Bin Bai will give his views on the Chinese perspective with a presentation entitled:
Assuring quality in the Chinese ODL sector:
Meeting the challenges of size and distance
Dr. Bin Bai’s presentation will focus on the online education in China, especially about the market and quality assurance of online learning.
Dr. Bin Bai is an assistant professor in the Institute of Vocational and Adult Education of Beijing Normal University, which is a very well known university focusing on Education in China. He has worked at the UK open University and in at the Bremen University in Germany. His main research fields is focused on E-Learning, Work-based Learning and Adult an Vocational education. He is involved in many large international cooperation projects between China and Europe, Asia and North America. He is a consultant from Unesco, the Asia Development Bank and many Chinese large educational enterprises.
Thursday
On Thursday morning Mr. Dalecký will give his presentation called:
MOOC’s and the Future of Education
Massive open online courses are among the hottest educational trends. Even although the hype that started in 2011 is now fading, they are still very much a focus of attention.
Educational and business leaders of academic institutions, companies and government cannot ignore the fact that the education industry is changing and MOOC’s are one of the drivers of change. In his talk, he will focus on MOOC’s from the perspective of several players in the education industry and will show the implications which MOOC’s have for the current and future state of education at local level and on a global scale.
Mr. František Dalecký is an educational entrepreneur, university lecturer, consultant and occasional speaker. He solves education and management related problems and his primary focus is on education technology and MOOC’s. He has tutored hundreds of students and worked as consultant for Czech top 100 companies as well as international clients. His work has featured in the national media and he presented at the international conference “The future of Education”. František believes that education is an area ready for disruption and that the best time to do it is now.
Also on Thursday morning Mr. Lukás Paleček will give his presentation called:
From MOOC’s to a virtual environment
We are professionals. We have the education, experience and we have mastered the expertise that we teach. However more is required – flawless administration, time flexibility, accessibility…
The lecturer has to be a bearer of innovation and a role model of good habits in using technologies as well. How is that possible, if even the field of education lecturers does not react fast enough to the changing trends? What is the minimum skillset and where is our profession heading in regards to technology? How to adjust to benefit from the situation and not be “at the mercy” of the current development? This talk will attempt to define the key areas of lecturing skills that arise from the trend of education digitalizing, and also outline the future development in education technologies. Point of view and experience of the audience are welcome.
Lukás is enthusiast active in the field of online education since 2006. Currently he is dedicated to an innovative start-up project called Virtual Job (an assessment center on a cloud, using gamified simulations of job positions). The activities of his companies, however, also include language education with the support of e-learning. Live Online Teaching and the representation of Pearson Digital Platforms in the Czech Republic. As a regular participant in events such as London BETT and Online Educa Berlin, he maintains a good focus on current trends in the industry. As a student of the University of Edinburgh, Digital Education, he is pursuing simulations in human resources professional training.
On Thursday afternoon Dr. Filip Vojtášek from Albertina Icome Praha s.r.o. , a distributor of resources online, providing professional information for the academic sector in the Czech Republic, will give his presentation called:
Providing Distance Learning with comfortable access to relevant content
E-book have been widely accepted in Czech universities in their portfolio of resources of professional information. It is not only the number of titles that are available for educational and research purposes that makes this medium attractive. It has a great potential to be used as a vital tool for distance learning because of its functionality, primarily 24/7 on site and remote access for both students and staff, easy searching, printing selected parts in high quality, implementing mobile devices and sharing information within courses.
Mrs. Carly Mason presents on Thursday afternoon:
The effectiveness of Social Media in Marketing
We all know that as a business, you have to be active on social media these days. But does it meet our expectations, and is it effective? This talk will explore the social media journey, from deciding it’s a good idea to it becoming a productive part of your strategy, as well as looking at some of the ways in which we can track the effectiveness of our social actions.
Carly Mason is the Sales and Marketing Manager at the National Extension College (NEC), a UK-based provider of distance learning at pre-university level. Carly has both a personal and professional interest in Social Media, and has integrated social media into marketing strategy at NEC.
Mr. Michael Zwinger presents also on Thursday afternoon:
E-Learning challenges with focus on target user
We have several e-learning projects already up and running and their target users vary from elementary level kids learning to read, through high-schoolers trying to cheat in our apps, IT departments complicating everything all the way up to business professionals and even stroke patients in the recovery phase.
Along the way we have learnt that every user is an individual (bad news for e-learning designers) but also that you can radically improve adoption rate and usability (good news …) when working with those individuals systematically. .
We have a lot of experience in the UX and UI part of e-learning that is critical to the final adoption among users of it. We have our own apps that need to be perfect so that people buy them as well as we have developed apps for in-house company training that needed to be well accepted as well as very customize-able content wise…
We know that poorly executed e-learning is a waste and I can share some thought and experience on this topic.
Mr. Zwinger is a Graduate of the International Management CEMS program. Wannebe businessman, expert on e-learning projects, gamification students and enthusiast. Cofounder of online project Rozečti se (Legentas), Numericum and Levebee (Včelka). UI and UX consultant for e-learning applications.
The last presentation on Thursday afternoon is given by Mrs. Hannelore Dekeyser:
Improve your impact: E-coaching and online student collaboration
Despite good quality, beautiful materials and a lot of enrollments …… your students are procrastinating, get demotivated along the way, do not get the maximum out of it or even drop out. Such a waste! Every unsatisfied student is a bad Messenger. So it might be time to improve the impact of your courses?
No shocking news: one of the most crucial factors for customer retention, motivation and study progress is the social factor of your distance courses. We know it works, but …. how do you make it work? And how to create a motivating social environment for your students with a relatively minimal effort and investment? This presentation leads you through a lot of examples of good practice and some practical solutions on how to improve your courses through social media, e-coaching and online student collaboration.
Hannlore Dekeyser (MSc) is a psychologist and educational scientist, specialized in educational technology, “how people learn”, on line learning on the job and educational innovation. Owner of Ter Wadding Educational Technology and Change Management. Her motto is: “Plus est en vous” (or: You can more than you expect). Hannelore works as a researcher, project manager and consultant for several universities, Polytechnics and distance learning companies in Europe. She trains coaches and trainers to become a certified e-coach or e-trainer. Recent focus points: social media and e-coaching in learning, working, knowledge sharing and collaborative learning.
Friday
On Friday morning Mrs. Jolanta Galecka will give her presentation:
Big data and the quality of education – can we sclae great solutions onto the global market?
We constantly learn about great examples in education. Then we try to implement those solutions in our neighburhood and it does not work. Teams of specialists visit Finland or Poland or Singapore, yet we are still unsure what is at the core of their success.
Is it possible to scale good education? Are there any international examples and can they be transferred into digital environment? Will it add value or take it away? Can Big Data help with all of this or will it destroy the human aspect of education itself? Please come to see Mrs. Galecka and share your views.
Mrs. Jolanta Galecka is an Education Expert in Young Digital Planet. Responsible for the expertise in education, research, articles, scenarios and public speeches. She shapes Young Digital Planet’s (YDP) brand as an expert in education. Follows educational trends. designs some herself, keeps in touch with many experts all around the world. She is passionate about education, child development, human psychological development, brain development and its functioning.
She is a speaker and pannelist at multiple educational conferences. Expert in European projects TEL MAP and VISIR. She is also a manager of several education projects that she has designed: a global marketing action that would promote YDP as a modern company, an establishment of classrooms under YDP’s patronage, a Nationwide action directed towards teachers.
Studied psychology and sociology, graduated from law (Masters in Law) and passing the Bar exam became an attorney-at-law. When in the United States volunteered and worked at different schools: taught in the Montessori School, and a Spanish Immersion Academy. Involved in Waldorf education, Berlitz method and state-of-the-art educational materials. Worked at Microsoft as software Design Engineer in Test in Natural Languages Group and tablet team.
Mother of two boys, she loves being involved in their educational development. Together they experiment a lot, fight for what they feel is right and try to spread the message about the process of learning anywhere they go.
The second presentation on Friday morning is from Mr. Kit Sadgrove:
What questions should I be asking about data security?
Kit Sadgrove is CEO of The Blackford Centre (www.inst.org), one of the UK’s leading distance learning companies. He is an expert on risk management, and the author of several business books, including The Complete Guide to Business Risk Management, published by Gower, which is now in its third edition.
The last presentation of the conference is from Mr. Michael Lammersdorf. His presentation is called:
Pricing Strategy – Does it works? Everywhere?
Pricing indeed is not known as the attractive element in strategic scenarios of Distance Education companies. And often in European countries we see public regulations or law restrictions for price building in distance education courses with the consequence that price as an element of marketing mix is somehow underrated. However it is worthwhile to deal with this issue and to detect principles, hidden rules, open facts and opportunities in order to benefit from creative price building methods. In this presentation we want to explore 4 aspects of price strategy in distance education. In a first step we collect some facts about tuition fees as they are used nowadays in some European markets. In the second place we take a look on strategic opportunities of distance education companies by using particular price building means in order to generate an advantage in the marketplace. Thirdly: we want to work out which role pricing could play in the game of marketing mix in distance education. Are there some foxy examples we can learn from? And finally we try to design some creative pattern and smart methods in order to make pricing an important element of providing a real economic benefit for a distance education company.
Since 2015 Michael Lammersdorf works as a management consultant for companies and institutions in Germany which are stake holder in private education companies or are interested to enter into this market. He has a huge experience in this field as he worked as CEO and Managing Director from 1987 until 2014 in several distance education vocational and university subsidiaries (DWG, ILS, SGD, EuroFH, Apollon, AKAD) of the two biggest German education publisher groups Klett (Stuttgart) and Cornelsen (Berlin). He also took over the management responsibility as shareholder representative for distance education companies in The Netherlands (NTI), Switzerland (Klett Akademie), Austria (HFL, Ferdinand Porsche University) and the United Kingdom (ICS). Additionally he took over responsibility in the board of the German National Association for Distance Education DFV (1989-1994) as well as member of the board of the German Direct Marketing Association DDV (1996-2000). In 2003 he chaired the local organizing committee of the German EADL Conference in Hamburg. He has been Vice President of EADL (2005-2014) and worked as chairman of the EADL Research & Development Committee.
The program is as follows:
Wednesday May 20th
13:00 – 13:45 Opening and welcome
13:45 – 14:15 Representative Czech ministry of Education: DL in the Czech Republic
14:15 – 15:00 Adoption of Open and Online Education in Europe: Fred de Vries Open University of the Netherlands
15:00 – 15:30 Coffee break
15:30 – 16:00 Micro Learning: the next phase: Martin Hendrik Andresen
16:00 – 16:45 Distance Education in the USA: Dr. Leah Matthews
16:45 – 17:30 Assuring Quality in the Chinese ODL sector – meeting the challenges of size and distance: Dr. Bin Bai
18:00 Visit city Brewery, evening free
Thursday May 21
09:00 – 09:45 Why use Mooc’s: František Dalecký
09:45 – 10:30 Mooc’s Business model
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 – 11:45 From Mooc’s to Virtual Learning Environment: Mr. Lukás Paleček
11:45 – 12:30 Online Examination:
12:30 – 14:00 Lunch
14:00 – 14:30 Providing distance learning with comfortable access to relevant content: Dr. Filip Vojtášek
14;30 – 15:00 The effectiveness of Social media: Carly Mason
15:00 – 15:15 Coffee break
15:15 – 16:00 E-Learning chalenges with focus on the target user: Michael Zwinger
16:00 – 16:45 e-coaching, on-line student Cooperation: Mrs. Hannelore de Keyser
16:45 AGM
19:00 Social evening
Friday May 22
09:30 – 10:15 Big data and the quality of education – can we scale great solutions onto the global market?: Mrs. Jolanta Galecka
10:15 – 11:00
11:00 – 11:30 Coffee break
11:30 – 12:00 What questions should I be asking about data security?: Kit Sadgrove
12:00 – 12:30 Pricing strategy: Does it work? Everywhere?: Michael Lammersdorf
12:30 Closing Ceremony
13:00 Farewell Lunch
