ISBN: 978-82-93172-03-1 (PDF)
INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATION
INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATION
Annual Report 2010 ICDE’s members play a leading role in shaping the future of education worldwide
www.icde.org Picture credits: page 10 – University of South Africa; page 13 – United Nations University - Vice Rectorate in Europe ISBN: 978-82-93172-00-0
www.icde.org
ICDE profile The International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) was founded in 1938 in Canada and is today the leading global membership organization for the open and distance education community. ICDE is funded by the Government of Norway, membership subscriptions, and income from conferences and is supported by in kind contributions, notably from the universities and organizations represented within the Executive Committee. ICDE is a registered not-for-profit organization in Norway and operates under Norwegian law. ICDE seeks to promote intercultural cooperation and understanding through open and distance learning throughout the world. ICDE works to foster international collaboration, support and develop networks at national, regional, global and linguistic affinity groups levels and provide forums where individuals, corporations, institutions, governments and associations can engage in professional interaction. Further, ICDE contributes to the development of new methodologies and technologies to improve lifelong learning and works to encourage the development of good practice and standards in flexible learning. ICDE is a non-governmental organization in formal consultative relations with UNESCO, and shares that agency’s key aim – the attainment of quality education for all. In addition ICDE is guided by the following values:
ICDE is member focused and involves members in decision making, in cooperative action and in cooperative problem solving.
ICDE is transparent and members are able to follow the activities and decisions of the organization.
ICDE believes that the needs of the learner must be central in the pursuit of education as a universal right.
According to its constitution, the organization is governed by the following bodies:
The Executive Committee is responsible for making policy decisions in accordance with ICDE’s mission and constitution, and is composed of six elected members.
The Board of Trustees advises the Executive Committee, and monitors the conduct of the Secretary General, the President and members of the Executive Committee.
The Election Committee verifies the qualifications of potential candidates for the Executive Committee.
The Secretary General is responsible for the day-to-day business of ICDE and all legal and financial matters, and manages the Secretariat. In 2010, the Secretariat increased its staff to four persons employed in the equivalent of 3.3 full-time positions comprising the Secretary General, Head of Administration, Head of Information and Membership Services, and Information Coordinator. The Secretariat has contracts with third-party providers for services including accounting and IT provision and has a cooperation agreement with the Norwegian Association for Distance Education for sharing office space and some administrative services. In 2010, ICDE had 120 paying members comprising 94 institutions, agencies and authorities, and 26 individual members, in addition to honorary individual members and associate members. 33% of ICDE’s paying membership is in Asia, 27% in Europe, 13% in North America and the remainder are allocated evenly between Africa, Australasia and Latin America and the Caribbean.
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ICDE Annual Report 2010
Contents ICDE profile ....................................................................................................................................................... 1 1. Introduction by ICDE’s Secretary General .................................................................................................... 4 2. Executive summary ....................................................................................................................................... 5 3. The ICDE strategic plan ................................................................................................................................ 6 4. Relations with UNESCO ................................................................................................................................ 6 4.1. ICDE’s General Delegate at UNESCO ................................................................................................... 6 4.2. Projects with UNESCO involvement....................................................................................................... 7 4.3. UNESCO information dissemination ...................................................................................................... 7 5. ICDE and Norway .......................................................................................................................................... 7 5.1. Activities providing added value for Norwegian institutions ................................................................... 7 5.2. Relations with the Norwegian distance education community ............................................................... 7 5.3. International exchange – Chinese visit to Norway ................................................................................. 8 6. Conferences and events ................................................................................................................................ 8 6.1. Events held in 2010 ................................................................................................................................ 9 6.1.1. The 2010 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents ....................................................................... 9 6.1.2. Policy Forum .................................................................................................................................. 10 6.1.3. Third-party events .......................................................................................................................... 10 6.2. Planning for future events ..................................................................................................................... 11 6.2.1. 24th ICDE World Conference on Open Learning and Distance Education ................................... 11 6.2.2. The 2011 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents ..................................................................... 11 6.2.3. Policy Forum .................................................................................................................................. 12 6.2.4. ICDE International Conference in Argentina ................................................................................. 12 6.2.5. Online Educa Berlin ....................................................................................................................... 12 7. Projects ........................................................................................................................................................ 12 7.1. The Open Educational Quality Initiative ............................................................................................... 12 7.2. Quality reviews of the student learning experience .............................................................................. 13 7.3. Regulatory frameworks for distance education .................................................................................... 14 7.4. Global statistics on distance education ................................................................................................ 14 7.5. Policy challenges .................................................................................................................................. 15 8. Publications ................................................................................................................................................. 15 8.1. Printed materials ................................................................................................................................... 15 8.2. The ICDE website ................................................................................................................................. 15 8.3. The ICDE newsletter............................................................................................................................. 16 8.4. Open Praxis, the online journal of ICDE ............................................................................................... 16 8.5. Report on Policy Forum ........................................................................................................................ 17 9. Membership services ................................................................................................................................... 17 9.1. Communication with members ............................................................................................................. 17 9.2. Recruitment of new members............................................................................................................... 18 9.3. Associate membership ......................................................................................................................... 18 ICDE Annual Report 2010
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10. Representation at conferences and meetings ........................................................................................... 19 11. Business structures of ICDE...................................................................................................................... 19 11.1. The Executive Committee .................................................................................................................. 19 11.2. The Board of Trustees ........................................................................................................................ 21 11.3. The Election Committee ..................................................................................................................... 21 12. Financial summary..................................................................................................................................... 21 13. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 22
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1. Introduction by ICDE’s Secretary General 2010 was ICDE’s 72nd year of operation, and was certainly one of the most active and productive years in its recent history. Work completed during 2009 furnished the organization with an agreed set of values, strategies and an activity plan for the year 2010, although fundamental elements of the organization underwent reappraisal this year. Support was sought from members for a constitutional change to guarantee continuity from one Executive Committee to the next, an issue unaddressed by the 2006 Constitution. After a period of consultation, this change was due to be voted upon in 2011, when further results of the review of the Constitution will be communicated to members. Openness and transparency are values which characterize the work of ICDE. Investment in a relation management tool provides the basis for increased and more individualized communication between the Secretariat and current and potential members. Reports to the Executive Committee by the Secretary General and President are now circulated to the membership. The Secretariat has also worked hard more effectively to exploit the capabilities offered by the ICDE website, and this work has necessitated the engagement of one further member of staff. The provision of information through the ICDE news services has increased, and members now receive even greater insights in the work of the organization. Newcomers to the field can access overviews of the distance education landscape including listings of leading journals and links to most recently published articles. An overview has been developed of the main associations and network organizations around the globe which work within open and distance education, and of institutions which practise open and distance modes of learning. There is a noticeably higher degree of interaction with members through the website and other member-centred activities. The Policy Forum held on the fringes of the 2010 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents in Pretoria, South Africa, was a highly successful new initiative for the organization. The Forum focused on factors promoting or restricting distance education, and resulted in many interesting ideas for the Secretariat to bring forward in its work on policy challenges to distance education. The Policy Forum will be repeated in 2011. Issues related to quality are high on the agenda of ICDE members. The organization is presently involved in a highly visible project together with European partners and UNESCO focusing on the quality framework for open educational resources. ICDE has also developed strategies and methods for supporting members through quality reviews of the student learning process, and during 2010 conducted a review of one member institution. It is expected this will be launched as a service to members in 2011. ICDE seeks to involve its members in new ways. Beginning in 2010, members were invited to bid to host future conferences. The response has been very positive, and important member institutions have delivered attractive proposals for events ahead. It has also been determined that the online journal Open Praxis will be re-launched allowing members to engage in the editorial work. A third example is the invitation issued to members to bid to undertake an investigation of the regulatory frameworks for distance education. A number of high quality proposals were evaluated by a scientific committee, and the project is now underway, led by a consortium of organizations and institutions in Australia. The projects described above are part-financed by ICDE, and more initiatives of this kind are under planning. ICDE’s healthy balance sheet reflects the organization’s wish to develop high quality proposals with the approval of the Executive Committee before projects are announced, but also the need to be realistic about the capacity of the Secretariat for project management and quality control of the processes and results. An important step during 2010 has been to clarify relations between ICDE and other organizations operating in the field of open and distance education, and as a result ICDE has welcomed many of the larger regional and national actors as associate members. It has been my ambition that ICDE should strongly support cooperation between organizations by being a meeting place for us all; ICDE as the village square in the distance education village. 2010 has seen much preparatory work for events in 2011, particularly the ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents at the State University of New York’s Empire State College in New York, USA, and the 24th ICDE World Conference to be hosted by Universitas Terbuka in Bali, Indonesia, and also the election of a new ICDE Executive Committee. For me, personally, it also includes preparations for the handover to a new Secretary General when my employment contract ends in June 2011. In conclusion, I wish to express thanks to the members of ICDE’s business bodies, who make the most valuable contribution possible to the organization in terms of their time and considerable expertise. Carl Holmberg Secretary General, ICDE ICDE Annual Report 2010
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2. Executive summary This Annual Report describes the activities carried out by the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) during 2010. It demonstrates progress towards the objectives of the organization in relation to its strategic plan and activity plan (www.icde.org/en/about/mission). ICDE has worked closely with UNESCO in 2010 in order better to understand that organization and to define areas for potential cooperation. A greater common understanding of the potential of distance education in achieving the goals of Education for All is imperative. In ICDE’s host country, Norway, activities have been carried out to promote links between Norwegian institutions and the unique international community which the organization represents. The 2010 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents held in Pretoria, South Africa provided an opportunity for members to debate the challenges of distance education within a developing country context, while providing an arena for exchange of ideas, solutions and cooperation between Vice-Chancellors of member institutions. The first ICDE Policy Forum held prior to this drew important conclusions for ICDE’s future work on policy challenges to distance education worldwide. ICDE contributed to third-party events, and considerable energies were directed towards planning for conferences and meetings in 2011. In the key area of quality, ICDE has made a significant contribution to the first stages of the Open Educational Quality Initiative, and has also developed a framework for quality reviews of the student learning experience. The project for the identification of regulatory frameworks for distance education has begun, and further policy initiatives are under development. ICDE continued to improve its dissemination activities through the increased regularity of its news services, and development of new online resources. Emphasis on ever greater opportunities for members included a new strategy for the future of the ICDE online journal, Open Praxis, and the launch of a member-driven investigation of the regulatory frameworks for distance education. New members have been recruited and regional and national distance education associations welcomed to the organization as associate members. The ICDE business bodies have been active in their work to drive the organization forward, and to support and guide the work of the Secretariat.
Note: The Annual Report is written in English, ICDE’s language of operation.
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3. The ICDE strategic plan The strategic plan published in 2009 provides the foundation for ICDE’s work. The key objectives of the strategic plan are as follows:
ICDE shall be the global arena for the discussion of distance education policies.
ICDE shall promote quality in distance, flexible and ICTbased education, and work for the achievement of a global understanding of quality within distance education.
ICDE will contribute to the development of new methodologies and technologies, through the dissemination of information, supporting efforts to find solutions for countries with developing economies, and through working to increase awareness of the digital divide and steps taken to minimize the divide.
ICDE will foster cooperation between members, leading to significant increases in cooperation between national and regional organizations, and greater opportunities for collaboration between institutions in the northern and southern hemispheres.
The ICDE Secretariat’s activity plan is published in combination with the strategic plan where activities designed to meet the strategic objectives are described. During 2010, ongoing consultations were held with members to ascertain the importance of individual activities through an online forum, through personal requests for input, and also at the 2010 Standing Conference of Presidents and Policy Forum. Work towards meeting these objectives is described throughout this report and is summarized in the conclusion. The strategic plan may be downloaded from: www.icde.org/en/about/mission
4. Relations with UNESCO ICDE’s first strategic objective is to be the global arena for the discussion of distance education policies. A key strategy for the achievement of this goal is work to influence international opinion about distance education (Strategy and Activities, page 3). ICDE’s relations with UNESCO provide a crucial arena for this work. ICDE is a non-governmental organization in formal consultative relations with UNESCO, and works together with UNESCO in the service of international cooperation and development. This status grants ICDE’s members a voice at UNESCO, while obliging ICDE to acquaint its members with UNESCO programmes, activities and achievements pertaining to open and distance education.
4.1. ICDE’s General Delegate at UNESCO ICDE’s General Delegate at UNESCO, Bernard Loing, is President of the NGO Conference and President of the NGO-UNESCO Liaison Committee. Dr. Loing kindly agreed to speak at the Policy Forum organized by ICDE in Pretoria, South Africa in September. In his presentation, he gave a warning call for the status of distance education in UNESCO, noting that the impact of distance education is suffering from a lack of support or advocacy from leaders in an organization which should be an obvious ally for distance teaching institutions. There is an apparent reticence in UNESCO for promoting the opportunities afforded by distance education, and Education for All is practically never addressed in terms of distance education or the systematic use of information communication technologies (ICT). This was valuable input to ICDE’s future work on policy as envisaged by the strategic plan (Strategy and Activities p.4). Discussions have also begun with Dr. Loing for the organization of a high level meeting of Ministers of Education to report on ICDE’s policy findings in 2012 (Strategy and Activities p.4).
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4.2. Projects with UNESCO involvement The Open Educational Quality Initiative, a partnership between ICDE, UNESCO and five other organizations and institutions is described under section 9.1. Although part funded by the European Commission, both ICDE and UNESCO – represented by the sections for Communication and Information and for Higher Education – are seeking to advance their agendas in relation to the enhanced use of open educational resources in an international setting (Strategy and Activities, page 5), but also to enable institutions in other areas of the world to help form this important area of research. Project activity during 2010 included a meeting at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris at which ICDE was represented by the Head of Information and Membership Services. 4.3. UNESCO information dissemination During 2010, the ICDE Secretariat has established stronger ties with the sections of UNESCO working within areas related to distance education. This relates in particular to information work, and both the ICDE newsletters and volume of stories on the ICDE website reflect this greater emphasis. In addition, ICDE has sought to aggregate key stories in two dedicated sections of the website; UNESCO reports and UNESCO news. www.icde.org/en/context/unesco
5. ICDE and Norway ICDE established its Secretariat in Oslo in 1989 on the basis of generous funding from the Government of Norway. That funding continues today on the understanding that ICDE works to foster relations between ICDE member institutions and the Norwegian distance education community. Representatives of the ICDE Executive Committee and the Secretary General hold annual meetings with the Ministry of Education to coordinate approaches. ICDE is proud to count four institutions, one agency, two individual members and one associate member from Norway among its membership.
5.1. Activities providing added value for Norwegian institutions The provision of key learning opportunities to actors within distance education in Norway is an activity reiterated in the strategic plan (Strategy and Activities, page 6). Rectors of Norwegian institutions received personalized Norwegian language invitations to the ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents (see also 5.3 below). ICDE has also sought to involve Norwegian representatives in the Open Educational Quality Initiative, resulting in Kirsti Rye Ramberg from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology joining an expert panel. The ICDE Secretary General played a key role in a conference on the future of distance education in Norway organized by ICDE institutional member, Studiesenteret.no, and introduced keynote speaker, Prof. Michael G. Moore from ICDE member institution Pennsylvania State University, USA. With several decades of experience in the field, Moore is well known in academic circles for his work with distance education. Norwegian Minister of Education Kristin Halvorsen also attended the conference. In preparation for the 24th ICDE World Conference on Open and Distance Learning to be held in Bali, Indonesia in 2011 (see also 6.2.1.), Norwegian participation in the programme committee was invited. Eva Gjerdrum from ICDE member, Norway Opening Universities agreed to take on this role. It is also foreseen that a member of the Norwegian distance education community will take part in a keynote panel.
5.2. Relations with the Norwegian distance education community ICDE has a highly beneficial relationship with actors within the distance education community. Through sharing office premises, ICDE and the Norwegian Association for Distance Education are fortunate to be able to benefit from continuous dialogue and information exchange about the Norwegian distance education arena and how the Norwegian context interacts with the international context of ICDE. This relationship was further formalized in 2010 when NADE accepted the invitation to become an associate member of ICDE.
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ICDE is fortunate to have Norway Opening Universities as an active member of the organization. Norway Opening Universities has proven an enthusiastic supporter of the organization’s work and assists ICDE for example by distributing Norwegian language invitations to the ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents to Rectors of Norwegian institutions. In December 2010, ICDE sent its publication ICDE Highlights to over 150 contacts in Norwegian institutions together with Christmas greetings in order to provide exposure for the organization and to help convince more Norwegian institutions to become members. The staff of the Secretariat held an away day in July 2010 with Ingeborg Boe, member of the ICDE Board of Trustees and former Director of the Norwegian Associate for Distance Education to define a strategy for increasing ICDE’s contacts with institutions in its host country.
5.3. International exchange – Chinese visit to Norway In May 2010, ICDE welcomed a delegation from member institution Shanghai TV University (STVU) to the ICDE Secretariat in Oslo, Norway. Led by Vice-President Xu Hao, the delegation visited both the ICDE Secretariat and the Norwegian Association for Distance Education (NADE) as part of a study tour to Norway. The delegation heard presentations from NADE staff and ICDE Secretary General Carl Holmberg, and also discussed the further development of STVU’s relationship with ICDE.
6. Conferences and events ICDE’s fourth key objective is to foster cooperation between members. Conferences bearing the ICDE brand are the most important element to this strategy (Strategy and Activities, page 3 and page 6). Since 1939, ICDE has organized conferences to support the exchange of ideas between practitioners of open and distance education. These arenas have proven valuable for the development of institutions and for ongoing analysis of open and distance education policies worldwide. Three types of meetings have developed: World Conferences organized biennially, International Conferences with a regional focus and the Standing Conference of Presidents (SCOP) organized every year for Presidents and other Executive Officers of member institutions. In 2010, a further meeting concept, a Policy Forum, held in conjunction with the SCOP meeting was launched for the first time. Each of these events is run by ICDE in cooperation with a member institution. Venues chosen for meetings rotate among the regions with a twofold aim:
To allow international participants to acquaint themselves with different countries, cultures and education systems.
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To give local institutions and host countries the opportunity to showcase their institutions, experts, and educational values and systems to a broad international audience. The audience comprises both those attending conferences and those given access to the materials produced as a result of it.
In 2010, ICDE further developed and published its Conference Guidelines, a document setting out ICDE’s expectations of member institutions which apply to host ICDE events. Beginning in 2010, the ICDE Secretariat also began to launch formal calls for hosts for its meetings, whereby an institution must present a written proposal for consideration by the ICDE Executive Committee before the hosting of an event is granted. 6.1. Events held in 2010 A Policy Forum – a new concept for ICDE – was held immediately prior to the 2010 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents (SCOP). The organization of this event demanded a considerable commitment of time from the Secretary General who took the lead in creating the programme and inviting speakers. ICDE Executive Committee members played a key role in the executive planning of events, in defining the strategic and academic agenda, and within the programme committee, while the Secretariat was active in the following areas:
Providing guidance and knowledge based on the experience and good practice of previous conferences
Coordinating and contributing to the programme committee
Distributing invitations and marketing to the ICDE network and beyond
Overseeing the correct use of the ICDE brand
Ensuring the correct level of ICDE exposure
Collecting and disseminating the results of meetings
Writing and distributing news reports and press releases
Sending thank you letters to the host and key contributors
Internal and external evaluation of the planning and organization of the event
Ensuring continuity from one event to the next
As 2010 was a year without an ICDE World Conference, and because of the inaccessibility of the Policy Forum and SCOP meeting, particularly for European institutions, which make up a significant section of the membership, ICDE also took a more active part in the organization and promotion of two third-party events which were in line with the organization’s key objectives. 6.1.1. The 2010 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents The 2010 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents (SCOP) meeting was held 13-15 September 2010 in Pretoria, South Africa. Hosted by the University of South Africa (Unisa), the meeting was attended by executive heads representing institutions from 23 countries including many with membership in the African Council of Distance Education (ACDE). In view of the challenges – and the success stories – in the provision of educational opportunity on the African continent, the overall theme for the meeting was Bridging the Development Gap. N. Barney Pityana, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Africa noted that with only five years of UNESCO’s Education for All initiative remaining, access to higher education in sub-Saharan Africa is at 5% and that while South Africa is the leader, access there is still under 20%. The invited keynote speaker was Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, Chief Executive Officer of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Planning and Coordinating Agency. NEPAD works to address legal, policy and regulatory obstacles in relation to the provision of cross-border services in Africa, particularly ICT broadband infrastructure. Dr. Mayaki noted that less than 3% of worldwide internet subscriptions are in Africa, compared for example with 43% in Asia. Dr. Mayaki argued that internet access is a pre-requisite for development and that increased exchange of knowledge would allow the African continent to drive development through the pooling of internal resources, rather than through dependence on aid.
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Working groups were held on access, participation, success and graduateness; knowledge transfer; Education for all, and cooperation, partnerships and exchange. Summaries of discussions were published on the ICDE website. Podcasts of key presentations, papers, slide presentations and photographs were made available on the SCOP 2010 website shortly after the meeting concluded. www.unisa.ac.za/scop2010
6.1.2. Policy Forum ICDE has committed through its strategic plan to highlight the increasing number of government actions which restrict the success and impact of distance education as an instrument for lifelong learning, and restrict progress towards the UNESCO Education for All goals (Strategy and Activities, page 4). ICDE members have consistently reported that governmental policy towards open and distance education around the world is an issue of concern. In some cases formal limitations are placed on the use of non-traditional teaching forms, often contributing to negative public perceptions of the value of qualifications obtained through online study or other distance teaching methods. As a first step towards improving attitudes to open and distance education, ICDE organized a Policy Forum on the fringes of the SCOP meeting in Pretoria to gather members’ input and experiences. Nicholas H. Allen, Provost Emeritus of University of Maryland University College (UMUC), chaired the Policy Forum entitled Education for All? Access? Equity? Quality?, which began with perspectives from the USA, Latin America, Africa, and from ICDE’s General Delegate at UNESCO, Bernard Loing. Wider discussions resulted in calls for more vigorous advocacy work to increase appreciation of open and distance learning (ODL) within governments, including broader alliances with businesses which benefit from the skills of ODL graduates. Delegates also agreed on the need to work more closely with quality agencies to ensure that the ODL approach is both represented and respected. However, it was noted that measures to improve standards within institutions and to effect internal culture shifts often have a key role to play. Delegates concluded that collaboration is the key to promote change, both for joint advocacy, training and sharing of best practice, but also with traditional face-to-face teaching institutions in order to counter negative arguments. A report on the Policy Forum was prepared by ICDE and distributed to members. Podcasts of key presentations, papers, slides and photographs were also made available on the SCOP 2010 website. 6.1.3. Third-party events ICDE member institutions, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain, and Open Universiteit Nederland, the Netherlands joined with the David O. McKay School of Education at Brigham Young University, USA, to organize the annual Open Education Conference entitled OER: Impact and Sustainability.
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Held in Barcelona, Spain on 2-4 November 2010, this was the first time in its existence the conference convened outside of North America. As an event organized by two prominent ICDE member institutions, and with the visible participation of many other members, ICDE determined to accept the offer to become an official supporter of the conference and worked to promote it through its news channels The 2010 European Distance and E-learning Network Research Workshop held 25-27 October in Budapest, Hungary was organized in collaboration with ICDE, and also included the participation of many member institutions. ICDE members received a discount on the registration fee, while ICDE selected a keynote speaker, and organized a workshop. Narimane Hadj Hamou, Assistant Chancellor for Academic Development from ICDE member institution Hamdan Bin Mohammed e-University, United Arab Emirates, held the keynote presentation entitled A Holistic Approach to Defining Excellence in Online Education: Challenges and the Way Forward. The ICDE workshop entitled International Trends and Perspectives in ODE, providing a forum for the exposure of current issues and challenges in open and distance education worldwide as well as strategies to overcome these. In his introduction, the Secretary General presented an overview of trends worldwide, while Dr. Hadj Hamou, who is also President of the Middle East e-Learning Association, spoke on the current status of education in the Arab world. A question and answer session was moderated by Don Olcott Jr.
6.2. Planning for future events A significant part of the Secretariat’s work during 2010 was planning for four major events to be held in 2011, including a second Policy Forum. The Secretariat was aided in this by careful documentation of routines and processes as well as evaluations from previous conference and meetings. 6.2.1. 24th ICDE World Conference on Open Learning and Distance Education A meeting was held in March 2010 in ICDE’s offices with the Rector and the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs of the host institution for the 24th ICDE World Conference, Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia. This provided the basis for a revised proposal for the conference and the forming of the programme committee. Keynote speakers were contacted during 2010 and a first call for papers was announced in June in time for the European Distance and E-Learning Network Conference where this was marketed. Abstract submission opened in September. At each stage, ICDE has promoted the conference through its electronic newsletter and by placing a banner on the front page of the website. Publicity materials were distributed at key events and were also sent to all members together with membership renewal notices in November. The conference theme is Expanding Horizons – New Approaches to ODL, with the following sub-themes:
ODL and human capacity building
ODL in a changing world
Quality and ODL – the way forward
Management and strategic development of ODL
Open educational resources in a global world
International development and distance learning
6.2.2. The 2011 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents A call for expressions of interest for the 2011 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents (SCOP) meeting was announced in April 2010, and The State University of New York’s Empire State College, USA, a longstanding member of ICDE was confirmed as the successful applicant by the ICDE Executive Committee. The date for the meeting – 19-22 June 2011 – and location in central Manhattan, New York City, was announced at the 2010 SCOP meeting. In the final months of 2010, work was carried out in order to form a programme committee and begin discussions of the theme and practical arrangements. By the end of 2010 an outline programme was clear on the theme of Open Learning in a New Economy including a focus on issues and opportunities associated with open learning and its innovative uses of technology. Potential keynote speakers and panel members had been contacted and collaboration had also begun on producing the website and an invitation letter. Initial discussions were also held with member institutions, Open Universiteit Nederland and Athabasca University, Canada, for the organization of a meeting – with ICDE’s support – of the newly appointed UNESCO Chairs in OER to be held prior to SCOP 2011, and which would report to SCOP meeting. 11
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6.2.3. Policy Forum After a successful pre-meeting Policy Forum in Pretoria in 2010, host institution of SCOP 2011, SUNY Empire State College stated their interest in arranging a repeat event as a prelude to the main meeting, but where the host would take the lead in designing the programme. During 2010, provisional ideas were discussed based on the theme Quality and International Collaboration: The Role of ICDE in Inter-Institutional Quality Assurance. The aim will thus be to build on the outcomes both of SCOP 2009 in Barcelona which had considerable focus on quality, and of the 2010 Policy Forum, and will feed into ICDE’s future work on quality issues (Strategy and Activities, page 5). 6.2.4. ICDE International Conference in Argentina Among ICDE’s key actions to foster cooperation between members, the organization commits to give increased attention to regional conferences (Strategy and Activities, page 6). While Università di Roma Tor Vergata had planned to host an ICDE International Conference on quality in distance education in Italy in cooperation with SIe-L Società Italiana di e-Learning, this had to be postponed until 2012 due to internal considerations. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes (UNQ), Buenos Aires, Argentina continued with its preparations for a conference entitled Distance Education, ITC and the University: Quality, Equity and Access to Higher Education, planned for 14-15 April 2011. They were aided in this work by ICDE Executive Committee member, Marta Mena, who has significant experience of organizing such events in Latin America and beyond. ICDE announced the first call for papers in December 2010 and coordinated the marketing of this event with UNQ. 6.2.5. Online Educa Berlin Discussions began in 2010 with the organizers of the annual Online Educa Berlin conference for ICDE to secure a forum for the presentation of its work, and to promote global perspectives on technology-enhanced learning. The conference is attended by up to 2,000 delegates from Europe and beyond including over 100 members of the Norwegian distance education community. It is a key priority for ICDE to reach this constituency (Strategy and Activities, page 6). A provisional agreement was made for ICDE to run a session at the conference and for the organization to become an associate partner, implying a reduced registration fee for staff of ICDE member institutions.
7. Projects ICDE made good progress on a number of projects during 2010, while the organization’s wish for highquality project frameworks, and considerations regarding project management and quality control capacity at the Secretariat, has meant that others have been delayed.
7.1. The Open Educational Quality Initiative ICDE’s second strategic objective to contribute to the development of new methodologies and technologies challenges ICDE to develop a strategy for enhancing open educational resources – freely available teaching and learning materials in an international setting. The strategy should follow the recommendations of the ICDE members’ 2008 Task Force on Open Educational Resources (Strategy and Activities, page 5). As the first element of this, and indeed to meet ICDE’s strategic objective to promote quality (Strategy and Activities, page 5), ICDE is a project partner in the Open Educational Quality (OPAL) Initiative with six other organizations including UNESCO and ICDE member institution, The Open University, UK. The OPAL Initiative, which runs through 2010 and 2011 focuses on the provision of innovative open educational practices, both in higher education and adult education, and promotes quality, innovation and transparency. It is part funded by the European Commission Education and Training Lifelong Learning Programme. During the first year of the project, the consortium worked hard to gain support among the academic and regulatory communities within higher and adult education for the term open educational practices (OEP). These are practices at the policy, institutional and teaching levels which provide the pre-conditions for creating, sharing and using freely available learning materials. ICDE Annual Report 2010
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Online consultations and workshops were held and a quantitative survey of policy makers, institutional managers and administrators, educational professionals and learners was carried out. ICDE members received a personalized invitation to take part in this survey. The OPAL Consultative Group on Open Educational Practice, a multi-stakeholder network of organizations including quality bodies, policy experts and institutional leaders held a first meeting to discuss policy implications of the research work carried out by the consortium, and to help OPAL to coordinate effectively with existing international OER initiatives. ICDE also took a leading role in a half-day workshop held at Online Educa Berlin, a key European conference, which consisted of a practical introduction to a key OPAL Initiative product – innovation guidelines for teachers, learners, institutional managers, and policy makers with a focus on raising the quality of learning experiences. In 2010, members of the ICDE Secretariat took part in three face-to-face and multiple online meetings, authored the dissemination plan for the project and carried out significant communication activity including encouraging participation in the consultation exercises through its network, the ICDE website and email newsletters. The organization has also begun work on the development of the framework for the OPAL Awards, to recognize outstanding achievements in the field of OEP, which will open for nominations in the second quarter of 2011. The OPAL website: www.oer-quality.org
From OPAL workshop at Online Educa Berlin, Germany, December 2010
7.2. Quality reviews of the student learning experience As a key action to promote quality in flexible and ICT-based education, ICDE will offer member institutions an external peer review of the student learning experience (Strategy and Activities, page 5). These are designed to support institutions in their ambitions to enhance quality in student support, and in their developmental work. The proposal is thus not accreditation but assessment of quality, the opportunity to learn from others and to implement best practice. The objectives for the quality review process can be summarized as follows:
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To contribute, in conjunction with other mechanisms, to the promotion and enhancement of high quality learning To ensure that students, employers and others can have ready access to easily understandable, reliable and meaningful public information about the extent to which institutions are offering programmes of study that meet general national expectations in respect to standards and quality To ensure that if the quality and standards of provision are found to be weak or seriously deficient, there exists a basis for ensuring rapid action to improve them ICDE Annual Report 2010
To provide a means of securing external accountability for the use of public and private funds received by institutions
During 2010, the Secretariat in consultation with the Executive Committee further developed the proposals for procedures. As an important part of this process, members were asked to confirm their support and expectations. In October 2010, ICDE member institution Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia, agreed to be the first institution to submit itself to the renewed review process, and made available extensive documentation concerning management of quality and standards. ICDE appointed a three-person panel with significant experience from international quality auditing of educational institutions. The panel assessed the documentation, and carried out a five-day visit to the institution culminating in a written report. In the final stage of the Quality Review, Universitas Terbuka provided an action plan for enhancing quality. The ICDE Executive Committee will be asked to provide their approval in 2011 for quality reviews to be offered more widely to ICDE member institutions, as both a service to members, but also as a source of future income for the organization. 7.3. Regulatory frameworks for distance education As a key activity under the objective to become the global arena for the discussion of distance education policies, ICDE launched a project to study regulatory systems within distance education throughout the world (Strategy and Activities, page 4). This represents an important strand to ICDE’s active engagement in global discourse on open and distance education policy as foreseen through the ICDE strategic plan. It is argued that the social relevance of distance education, as well as security, quality and equity of access, are closely linked to the application of sound regulatory systems. The aim of the project is therefore to identify the main regulatory frameworks that apply to distance and online education in different regions of the world, and to identify good practices. Twelve applications were received and the successful bidder for the pilot stage of the project was announced in September 2010. A contract was signed in late 2010 with a consortium of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education, the Australasian Council on Open, Distance and ELearning, the Distance Education Hub, and the Australian Universities Quality Agency. The pilot will assess the Asia Pacific region, including key members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Pacific Island Forum nations. This region will provide a pilot study area that is sufficiently diverse to offer opportunities for comparison and a good basis for a generative framework, useful also in other regions. It is envisaged that the report from the pilot project will be completed by the end of April 2011 and that the project will be expanded to other regions after this. The objectives of the wider project are ultimately:
To identify the main regulatory frameworks that apply to distance and online education in different regions of the world To identify similarities and differences, both within each region, and also across regions To gather the existing laws, norms and rules related to distance and online education in a database To identify good practices in terms of the regulation of distance and online education
7.4. Global statistics on distance education Work continued during 2010 on a proposal for a project to develop online data on the global spread of open and distance education. Again, this features under the objective to become the global arena for the discussion of distance education policies (Strategy and Activities, page 4). The development of this proposal has involved the ICDE Secretariat working closely with ICDE member, the Brazilian Association for Distance Education (ABED). ABED has recently launched its fourth annual statistical yearbook of distance learning in Brazil, work which is probably unique in the world and could serve as a model for the work on collecting global data. This project remained at the planning stage at the end of 2010 due to ongoing negotiations relating to intellectual property rights and ownership of the material between ICDE and potential project partners.
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7.5. Policy challenges ICDE’s members have repeatedly stressed the wish for ICDE to concentrate resources on the area of distance education policy (Strategy and Activities, page 4). The Policy Forum of 2010 and the launch of the project for the identification of regulatory frameworks have occurred concurrently with work undertaken by other organizations – notably UNESCO, the World Bank and the Commonwealth of Learning – in this important area. ICDE has therefore created an area of the website to highlight policy challenges: www.icde.org/en/context/policy_challenges
8. Publications ICDE seeks to be the global arena for the discussion of distance education policy and publications and dissemination of information are central to this objective (Strategy and Activities, page 3). ICDE undertook significant work on improving its website and information dissemination during the year (Strategy and Activities, page 5 and page 6). A new strategy was devised for the online journal Open Praxis (Strategy and Activities, page 6), which was also made open access, and a report on the ICDE Policy Forum was published. The organization has also worked hard to improve its branding by commissioning cleaner versions of its logos and creating a style guide for the correct use of its logo by partner organizations.
8.1. Printed materials ICDE’s membership is dispersed throughout the world and a significant proportion of members are to be found in countries with limited broadband width. ICDE therefore makes key information materials available to its members in printed format, as well as online. In 2010, the Secretariat arranged for both the Annual Report, information on the 24th ICDE World Conference, and an attractive summary of activities over the previous twelve months – ICDE Highlights – to be sent to the membership. These last two items were also widely distributed at Online Educa Berlin, a significant European conference held each December. A membership pack for the recruitment of new members has also been produced, comprised of a folder and inserts. It was distributed at the 2010 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents, and also by post to former members and potential new members (see 9.2.).
8.2. The ICDE website According to the strategic plan, the ICDE website should be used for dissemination, as a source of reference and as an arena for cooperation and interaction (Strategy and Activities, pages 4-6). After the adoption of a new website platform in 2009, ICDE has worked steadily to develop the content, functionality and appearance, with greater interactivity, increased opportunities for members to contribute and a greater wealth of resources. These developments demonstrate that the ICDE website is well on its way to being both an authoritative reference tool and a virtual meeting place for all actors from the open and distance education community. Developments over the past twelve months include:
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The Message board facility which allows users to post questions for the Secretariat and comment on ICDE’s activities and news articles The Contribute function allowing for the submission of events to the Global conference calendar – one of the website’s most used services – as well as to submit news stories for immediate publication Video library containing recordings of presentations at ICDE conferences
ICDE Annual Report 2010
Interactive maps in the ICDE Membership and Context sections which make it easier to find organizations working in open and distance learning in a particular region A list of leading journals including RSS feeds which link to most recently published articles as they become available Sections devoted to the Open Educational Quality Initiative, reports and handbooks on distance education, and information about open educational resources Right-hand menus containing updates from individual sections, providing an at-a-glance view of what is new
During 2010, ICDE held talks with member institutions Shanghai TV University, China, for the creation of a Chinese language version of the website, and MESI, the Russian Federation, for translation of website material into Russian. It is expected that these services will be launched in 2011. The ICDE website: www.icde.org
8.3. The ICDE newsletter Increased capacity in the ICDE Secretariat means that ICDE publishes a greater number of news stories and has increased the regularity of its email newsletter service to twice per month. The following areas are given prominence:
ICDE activities UNESCO activity of relevance to distance education Policy developments Profiles of new members News from member institutions Calls for assistance with research projects Calls for papers for journals and conferences
In addition, ICDE began to seek offers for members in collaboration with conference organizers, publishers and others whereby in return for exposure through the ICDE news channels, members receive free access to materials for a limited period, or a reduced registration fee for a conference. Over 800 individuals have actively subscribed over the past twelve months and approximately 15,000 active email addresses receive the newsletter. In 2010, ICDE established a Facebook profile as a further means for communication and an alternative news channel for those who prefer to receive news updates through this medium. By the end of 2010, 80 Facebook users had added ICDE as a favourite page: www.facebook.com/icde.org
8.4. Open Praxis, the online journal of ICDE An issue of Open Praxis, ICDE’s online journal, was published in March 2010 on the theme of quality. It featured papers delivered at the 2009 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents, and five of the best papers from the quality assurance sessions at the 23rd ICDE World Conference in addition to papers submitted by ICDE members. The ICDE Executive Committee also determined that Open Praxis should be made an open access journal. During 2010, the Secretariat worked together with the ICDE Executive Committee to devise a strategy for the future of Open Praxis (Strategy and Activities, page 6), culminating in a decision to re-launch the journal as a forum for young researchers to publish and meet under the guidance of experienced practitioners in the field. The journal will highlight challenges, lessons and achievements in the practice of distance and e-learning. Member institutions are to be invited to apply for the editorship for a two-year term, with the editorship to be held by a researcher in the early years of their career or a doctoral student approaching the end of their PhD. The editor will work under the supervision of a senior researcher who will provide guidance to the Editor for the two-year term and will act as Consultative Editor. It was agreed that ICDE will make available a grant of USD 10,000 for this project, and a call for proposals was under preparation by year end. The next issue of Open Praxis will be published under guest editorship in late 2011, and in recognition of N. Barney Pityana, retiring Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Africa, and his contribution
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to distance education and to ICDE. This token of appreciation was announced at the 2010 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents. The first issue of Open Praxis to be published under new editorship will appear in mid-2012.
8.5. Report on Policy Forum As described in 6.1.2., ICDE published a report on the Policy Forum held at the 2010 Standing Conference of Presidents, and distributed this to members by electronic means. It is planned to publish this in printed format for distribution in 2011.
9. Membership services During 2010, ICDE has focused on continually improving the level of service provided to members. In addition, it is a strategic priority for the organization to attract new members (Strategy and Activities, page 6). In March, a membership strategy plan was presented to the ICDE Executive Committee detailing specific aims and actions in relation to both the retention of members and attracting new members. The Executive Committee also sanctioned the open publication of membership lists on the ICDE website.
9.1. Communication with members The increased emphasis on news dissemination has improved the organization’s visibility and the general information flow to members. A separate newsletter is usually prepared for ICDE members in order to provide extra visibility for internal and member-related issues which previously would only have been published on the members’ area of the ICDE website. ICDE has also invested in mailing software which allows for personalized emails to be sent with ease. In 2010, ICDE made a further initial investment in relationship management software, in order better to charter and track its communication with individuals, their preferences and areas of interest, and to simplify the sending of member opportunities, invitations and other personalized communications. Specific communication activities carried out in 2010 included:
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Sending printed copies of the strategic plan
Call for expressions of interest in hosting SCOP 2011
Personalized invitations to bid for the investigation of regulatory frameworks for distance education project
Personalized invitation to take part in the Open Educational Quality Initiative survey
Printed copies of the 2009 Annual Report
Invitation to provide feedback on proposals for quality reviews of the student learning experience distributed to member contacts
Promotional materials and stand presence at the 2010 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents and Policy Forum
Personalized invitations to the Standing Conference of Presidents sent as letters and emails
Individual contacts with every ICDE member institution to offer the opportunity for profiling on the ICDE website, to seek confirmation of correct contact details and to form a closer relationship with the communications department
A package containing information on ICDE’s activities, sample copies of Routledge journals and an offer for free online access to journals sent with membership renewal notices in November
Proposal to amend the ICDE Constitution circulated
Season’s greetings email
President’s reports circulated in May and September
Secretary General’s reports circulated in September and December ICDE Annual Report 2010
9.2. Recruitment of new members The ICDE Secretariat actively follows up all enquiries regarding membership, and works to encourage members which have failed to renew, to return to the organization. The following specific communication activity targeted at potential and lapsed members was carried out:
Annual report 2009 sent to lapsed members from 2009
Invitations to the 2010 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents and Policy Forum sent to 400 nonmember Presidents as letters and emails
Personalized invitations to the 2010 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents and Policy Forum sent by letter to Norwegian rectors through Norway Opening Universities
120 membership packs and personalized letters dispatched to Vice-Chancellors of potential member institutions – primarily in Australasia and South-East Asia
Thirty membership packs and personalized letters sent to Vice-Chancellors of lapsed member institutions
A discount offer for institutions applying for membership during the second half of 2010
Membership packs and 2009 Annual Report distributed; individual follow-up correspondence and invitations to become members sent to executives met at the 2010 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents
ICDE Highlights sent with local language Christmas greeting to 150 individuals in Norway, Sweden and Denmark
Prospective member institutions are required to provide evidence of recognition in their home country and references to confirm their institution’s good standing and commitment to codes of ethics in distance learning before their applications are presented to ICDE’s Executive Committee for approval. Eighteen new institutions, and six new individuals were admitted to the ICDE membership during 2009. Overall, the number of members remained stable and membership income rose slightly compared with 2009. This is due to significant work to convince members to increase their contribution to ICDE, and also results from the number of large institutions joining ICDE at the higher rate of contribution. Together these factors offset the fall in the value of the Euro against the Norwegian kroner during 2010. ICDE successfully recruited members from regions where the organization previously had low representation. Whereas over 80% of the membership in 2009 was concentrated in Asia and Europe, in 2010 that percentage fell to 60% (Asia 33%, Europe 27%), while North American representation remains stable at 13%, Latin America and the Caribbean represent 10%, Australia and Oceania 9%, and Africa 7%.
9.3. Associate membership The ICDE strategic plan states that ICDE should work more closely with national and regional organizations (Strategy and Activities, page 6). With this in mind, the ICDE Executive Committee voted to allow national and regional distance education associations to apply for associate membership of ICDE. While ICDE has always enjoyed informal and working relations with a number of associations, it was decided to take this step in order to demonstrate openness and equality in our policy towards all associations. Associate membership status does not permit taking part in the governance of ICDE, but allows associations to play a role in ICDE task forces and projects, to launch activities and events in partnership with ICDE, to promote links between the organization’s members and ICDE members, and to work together to disseminate news of projects and initiatives. Associations accepted for associate membership of ICDE during 2010 were:
Società Italiana di e-Learning The African Council for Distance Education The Australasian Council on Open, Distance and e-Learning The Distance Education Association of New Zealand The European Association of Distance Teaching Universities The Norwegian Association for Distance Education The Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia The South African Institute for Distance Education
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10. Representation at conferences and meetings ICDE’s Executive Committee and Secretary General receive frequent invitations to attend third-party conferences. It is usual for the hosting institution or the Executive Committee member’s own institution to fund their participation. Over the past twelve months, ICDE has been represented at the following conferences:
3rd forum on e-Learning Excellence in the Middle East, United Arab Emirates, February 2010
International Seminar on Quality and Accreditation in E-Learning in Higher Education, Brazil, April 2010
Fourth NRN Regional Conference, USA, May 2010
International Education Forum and Exhibition: e-Learning Russia: e-Learning Opportunities Today, Russia, June 2010
EDEN Annual Conference: Media Inspirations for Learning, Portugal, June 2010
ICT2010 Singapore, June 2010
The Future of Distance Teaching, Norway, August 2010
ABED 16th International Congress on Distance Education (CIAED), Brazil, August 2010
Adult Learning in Europe – Understanding Diverse Meanings and Contexts, The Annual ESREA Conference, Sweden, September 2010
Sixth EDEN Research Workshop, Hungary, October 2010
AAOU Annual Conference, Vietnam, October 2010
International Forum “Innovation. Business. Education”, Russia, November 2010
Future Learning Spaces, Norway, November 2010
Online Educa Berlin, Germany, December 2010
11. Business structures of ICDE According to ICDE’s constitution, ICDE has three business bodies. The Executive Committee is responsible for making policy decisions in accordance with ICDE’s mission and constitution, the Board of Trustees advises the Executive Committee, and monitors the conduct of the Secretary General, the President and members of the Executive Committee, while the Election Committee exists to verify the qualifications of potential candidates for the Executive Committee. There were no changes to the composition of these bodies during 2010, though work began on a proposal for changes to be made to the constitution to guarantee continuity from one ICDE Executive Committee to the next on the occasion of future elections. This proposal was circulated to members for comment in November 2010, and was expected to be put to a vote in early 2011.
11.1. The Executive Committee The Committee sits for a period of four years and is composed of six elected members, one of whom is elected by the individual members of ICDE, while five members are elected from and by ICDE’s member institutions. The extra contribution made by a small number of member institutions in terms of the time of the Executive Committee members, their support staff, and travel costs represents a significant contribution in kind to ICDE. Six Executive Committee meetings were held during 2009 including two physical meetings; in Oslo, Norway in March, and at the Standing Conference of Presidents in Pretoria, South Africa in September. Documentation relating to the agenda of each meeting is uploaded to the Executive Committee area on the ICDE website by an agreed date before the meeting. Provisional minutes are distributed to the Executive Committee and the ICDE membership through the members’ area of the ICDE website. Beginning in 2010, it was also decided to make the President’s and Secretary General’s reports available to members. These are circulated through the member newsletters and are available on the members’ area of the ICDE website.
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ICDE Annual Report 2010
In addition to preparations for and participation in Executive Committee meetings, members of the Executive Committee have been particularly involved in the following areas:
Budgetary oversight
Participation in the programme and organization committees for ICDE conferences
Representing ICDE at conferences and meetings
Project planning and risk analysis
Liaison with members, particularly in their own regions
Recruiting new members
Evaluation and analysis of the constitution
Approval of membership applications
Providing editorial input to documentation and publications
Providing feedback on the work of the ICDE Secretariat
The members of the ICDE Executive Committee are (from left to right):
Fredric Litto, President of the Brazilian Association for Distance Education – ABED
Denise Kirkpatrick, Pro Vice-Chancellor Learning, Teaching and Quality, The Open University, UK
Nyameko Barney Pityana, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Africa (UNISA)
Tian Belawati, Rector, Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia
Frits Pannekoek, President of Athabasca University, Canada (President)
Marta Mena, General Coordinator of PROCAE, Cabinet of Ministers, Government of Argentina
The Executive Committee is responsible for making policy decisions in accordance with ICDE’s mission and constitution.
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11.2. The Board of Trustees The members of the ICDE Board of Trustees are:
David Sewart, Former President of ICDE, and Former Director of Student Services at The Open University, UK (Chair)
Svein Haaland, Former Rector of Lillehammer University College, Norway (Vice-Chair)
Ingeborg Boe, Member of the Board of Directors of the European Foundation for Quality in Elearning (EFQUEL), Norway
Atwi Suparman, Former Rector of Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia
Ezra Maritim, Former Vice-Chancellor of Egerton University, Kenya
The Board of Trustees is composed of five persons, and aims to reflect the diversity of the ICDE membership culturally, linguistically and geographically, as well as in the expertise of its members. The Board’s role is to advise the Executive Committee, and to monitor the conduct of the Secretary General, the President and members of the Executive Committee. The Secretary General reports formally to the Board of Trustees on a monthly basis, and he and the staff of the Secretariat maintain regular contact with individual members on matters relating to the history and memory of the organization. As well as receiving copies of the minutes of Executive Committee meetings, the Board of Trustees also receives access to background documentation from Executive Committee meetings after a meeting has taken place, again through the relevant area of the ICDE Extranet. The Executive Committee invites a representative of the ICDE Board of Trustees to attend each physical meeting of the Executive Committee in the role of observer. This member of the Board of Trustees is invited to comment on proceedings and the work of the Executive Committee and Secretariat at the end of the meeting. In 2010, Svein Haaland attended the physical meetings in Oslo, Norway and Pretoria, South Africa. During 2010, the Board of Trustees made preparations for the recruitment of a new Secretary General to replace Carl Holmberg, who is due to retire in June 2011. This included the publication of a job advertisement in December 2010. The Board of Trustees was also consulted in relation to the proposed changes to the ICDE Constitution, and the Chair provided a written opinion on the proposal. 11.3. The Election Committee The members of the ICDE Election Committee are
Ingeborg Boe, Member of the Board of Directors of the European Foundation for Quality in Elearning (EFQUEL), Norway (Chair)
Gary E. Miller, Executive Director Emeritus, Penn State University World Campus, USA
Helmut Hoyer, Rector, FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany
The Election Committee shall seek nominations for positions on the Executive Committee from ICDE members, present its own proposals where it feels that this is appropriate, and verify the nominations and construct a list of candidates for the election process. The Election Committee is composed of three persons. The Constitution states that one member shall have served on a previous Executive Committee or Board of Trustees, one shall be a well-known expert in ICDE’s sphere of interest, and one shall represent the host country of the ICDE Permanent Secretariat. In 2010, the Election Committee was asked by the Board of Trustees, in accordance with the Constitution, to assist in the recruitment of the new Secretary General, and it was agreed that the Chair of the Election Committee would be the contact person for – and would verify – applications for the position.
12. Financial summary ICDE’s audited annual accounts for 2010 are available for members to access on the ICDE Extranet. Income for 2010 was NOK 3,927,122 with the corresponding figure for 2009 of NOK 3,941,719. ICDE achieved an operating result of NOK 526,968 compared with NOK 872 618 in 2009, and a surplus of NOK 499,334, compared with NOK 731,351 in 2009. 21
ICDE Annual Report 2010
By the end of the year 2010, ICDE’s total assets were NOK 2,394,180 compared with NOK 2,229,377 in 2009, while ICDE’s total liabilities in December 2010 were NOK 530,779 compared with NOK 845,501 in 2009. By 31 December 2010, equity was NOK 1,863,401, while in 2009, equity was NOK 1,364,068. This equity represents both a reserve fund equivalent to the wind up costs of the organization, as well as funds allocated to projects in 2010 which are yet to be dispersed. Note USD = NOK 6
13. Conclusion This Annual Report has sought to describe ICDE’s activities during 2010 and to present them in relation to the ICDE strategic plan. Specific progress towards the key actions in ICDE’s strategic plan during 2010 was as follows:
1. To be the global arena for the discussion of distance education policies
Project for the investigation of the Regulatory Framework of Distance Education underway Online publication of papers from the Policy Forum Establishment of a policy challenges section on the ICDE website Continued discussions in the planning of the project for the collection of global statistics on distance education Highly successful Policy Forum organized and report circulated Closer relations with UNESCO at an operational level, and an improved understanding of the challenges in lobbying for distance education in this organization
2. To promote quality in distance, flexible and ICT-based education
Major distance education journals presented on the ICDE website with automatic updates of most recently published papers Considerable activity to promote open educational practices; dissemination plan authored, dissemination work carried out, and initial framework for awards devised for the Open Educational Quality Initiative Framework for quality reviews of the student learning experience finalized and one quality review carried out
3. To contribute to the development of new methodologies and technologies
Background material for the project to overcome the digital divide collected at SCOP 2010 First steps in defining ICDE’s strategy for enhancing open educational resources through the Open Educational Quality Initiative A strategy prepared and agreed with the Executive Committee for the future of Open Praxis
4. To foster cooperation between members
ICDE 2010 Standing Conference of Presidents successfully held Planning underway for events in 2011 and 2012, including regional conferences Active ICDE involvement in regional conferences organized by members and preparatory work for the creation of new arenas for ICDE exposure Website further developed to provide exposure for regional, national and institutional actors in the world of open and distance education, interactive functionality including a Facebook profile, and a section describing ICDE’s work with UNESCO Significant membership activity implemented and new members recruited Key learning opportunities offered to Norwegian actors within distance education
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