ICDE Annual Report 2011

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATION

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATION

Annual Report 2011 ICDE’s members play a leading role in shaping the future of education worldwide

www.icde.org Picture credits: page 9 – Universitas Terbuka; page 19 – Universitas Terbuka ISBN print: 978-82-93172-12-3; ISBN PDF: 978-82-93172-13-0

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 open and distance education.

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 open and distance learning and aid intercultural cooperation and understanding 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 an NGO official partner of UNESCO (consultative status), 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.

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ICDE is transparent and members are able to follow the activities and decisions of the organization.

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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. Its responsibilities shall include those specifically noted in the constitution and all other matters not specifically allocated to another business body or the Secretary General.

The Executive Committee is composed of six elected members.

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The Board of Trustees advises the Executive Committee, and monitors the conduct of the Secretary General, the President and members of the Executive Committee and is composed of five members

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The Election Committee verifies the qualifications of potential candidates for the Executive Committee and is composed of three members.

The Secretary General being head of the Secretariat is responsible for the sound operation of ICDE in accordance with the particular legislative framework in which it operates. ICDE’s legal representation and liability is with the Secretary General, who shall also be responsible for conducting the day-to-day management and business and all legal and financial matters of ICDE in accordance with the policies defined for ICDE by the Executive Committee and the mission and aims stated in the ICDE Constitution. The Secretary General represents ICDE in matters regarding its day-to-day activities and shall be responsible for the management of the Secretariat.

In 2011, the staff of the Secretariat comprised four persons; the Secretary General, Head of Administration, Head of Information and Membership Services, and Information Coordinator (part-time position). The Secretariat has contracts with third-party providers for services including accountancy and IT provision and has a cooperation agreement with the Norwegian Association for Distance Education for sharing office space and some administrative services.

In 2011, ICDE had 120 paying members comprising 98 institutions, agencies and authorities, and 22 individual members, in addition to honorary individual members and associate members. 39% of ICDE’s paying membership is in Asia, 25% in Europe and 10% in North America with the remainder allocated evenly between Africa, Australasia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

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ICDE Annual Report 2011

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. The Open Educational Quality Initiative ................................................................................................. 6 4.2. Joint study on the use of innovative technologies in BRICS countries .................................................. 7 4.3. UNESCO World OER Congress............................................................................................................. 7 4.4. UNESCO OER Chairs network meeting................................................................................................. 7 4.5. ICDE’s General Delegate at UNESCO ................................................................................................... 7 5. ICDE and Norway .......................................................................................................................................... 7 5.1. Activities providing added value for Norwegian institutions ................................................................... 7 5.2. Relations with Norwegian distance education actors ............................................................................. 8 6. Events and related initiatives ......................................................................................................................... 8 6.1. Events held in 2011 ................................................................................................................................ 8 6.1.1. The 24th ICDE World Conference on Open and Distance Learning ................................................ 8 6.1.2. The World Conference Fellowship Programme .............................................................................. 9 6.1.3. The ICDE Prize of Excellence ......................................................................................................... 9 6.1.4. The 2011 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents ..................................................................... 10 6.1.5. ICDE Policy Forum ........................................................................................................................ 10 6.1.6. ICDE International Conference in Argentina ................................................................................. 10 6.1.7. Online Educa Berlin ....................................................................................................................... 10 6.2. Planning for future events ..................................................................................................................... 11 6.2.1. 25th ICDE World Conference on Open Learning and Distance Learning ...................................... 11 6.2.2. The 2012 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents ..................................................................... 11 7. Projects ........................................................................................................................................................ 11 7.1. The Open Educational Quality Initiative ............................................................................................... 11 7.2. Quality reviews ..................................................................................................................................... 12 7.3. Quality standards .................................................................................................................................. 13 7.4. Regulatory frameworks for distance education .................................................................................... 13 7.5. Policy challenges .................................................................................................................................. 13 7.6. Marketing campaign to promote open and distance learning and success stories .............................. 13 8. Information ................................................................................................................................................... 14 8.1. Printed materials ................................................................................................................................... 14 8.2. The ICDE website ................................................................................................................................. 14 8.3. The ICDE newsletter............................................................................................................................. 14 8.4. Social media ......................................................................................................................................... 15 8.5. Open Praxis, the online journal of ICDE ............................................................................................... 15 8.5.1. Special edition of Open Praxis ...................................................................................................... 15 ICDE Annual Report 2011

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8.5.2. New host for Open Praxis .............................................................................................................. 15 8.6. Report on Policy Forum ........................................................................................................................ 15 8.7. Exposure for ICDE in other media ........................................................................................................ 15 9. Membership services ................................................................................................................................... 16 9.1. Communication with members ............................................................................................................. 16 9.2. Benefits for ICDE members .................................................................................................................. 17 9.3. Recruitment of new members............................................................................................................... 17 9.4. Regional and key national associations ............................................................................................... 18 10. Representation at conferences and meetings ........................................................................................... 18 11. Governance ............................................................................................................................................... 18 11.1. Changes to the ICDE Constitution...................................................................................................... 19 11.2. The Executive Committee .................................................................................................................. 19 11.2.1. The Executive Committee in 2011............................................................................................... 19 11.2.2. Elections to the Executive Committee from 2012........................................................................ 20 11.3. The Board of Trustees ........................................................................................................................ 20 11.4. The Election Committee ..................................................................................................................... 21 12. Financial summary..................................................................................................................................... 21 13. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 22

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1. Introduction by ICDE’s Secretary General Dr. Jan Hylén said in 2006 that “Openness is the breath of life for education and research”.1 The year 2011 indeed gave visibility to the opportunities coming from an increasingly open and online world. The ICDE session at the Online Educa Berlin conference in December which presented developments in the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, showed that ODL has a steadily growing and radical impact on education in all these countries. Figures from India show a dramatic increase in distance teaching institutions, up from 79 in 2000 to 200 in 2010. As a consequence, 25% of Indian students are now covered by distance education.2 One of several disruptive initiatives with the potential to have significant impact on openness in higher education was the Stanford Education Experiment, led by Professor Sebastian Thrun.

The initiative recruited more than 100,000 students from all over the world in a very short time span to follow free, online courses3. And in 2011, ICDE agreed to join the UNESCO led global open educational resources (OER) initiative which aims to foster governmental support for OER internationally. In Norway, where the ICDE Secretariat is hosted, a further fresh development took the form of a partnership initiated with the Norwegian Association of Higher Education Institutions and ICDE member Norway Opening Universities. A seminar is under planning for rectors and senior management of Norwegian institutions and leaders of open universities, represented here by members of the ICDE Executive Committee, on the theme of High quality higher education in an increasingly open and online world. This theme could also provide inspiration for similar events in other regions of the world and for a future global policy forum for high level policy makers, which ICDE is keen to organize in partnership with UNESCO. If something could be added to Hylén’s poetic statement today, it might be that openness is also the breath of life for innovation in education and for change of higher education.

The Executive Committee, which took office in 2008, completed its term last year. My predecessor, Carl Holmberg, characterized 2008 as the start of a renewal for ICDE, followed by a year dedicated to the implementation of a new strategy for ICDE, adopted following wide consultations with members. By the end of 2011 it was time for the Executive Committee to sum up the achievements and deliver its message to the new Executive Committee, to begin its term of office in January 2012, with advice on potential new directions for ICDE for the years to come. This strategy planning process, initiated by the previous Executive Committee, will be extended for members to contribute to throughout 2012.

After joining ICDE in August last year, I was highly impressed and motivated by the will and capacity of ICDE members to take responsibility for the development of open and distance education through value-added initiatives such as the ICDE World Conference, (2011 - Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia; 2013 - Tianjin Open University, China); The ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents, (2011 - The State University of New York’s Empire State College, USA; 2012 - Hamdan Bin Mohammed eUniversity, Dubai, United Arab Emirates); to host and take on the editorship of the journal Open Praxis (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia UNED, Spain) and many more initiatives which are described in this report. The foundation for ICDE’s influence and activities is its members, and the focus from 2011 and going forward will be dramatically to strengthen this foundation, to seek synergies with members’ own strategic goals, and to strengthen relations between regional actors and ICDE. The message from 2011 could be summed up as continued renewal for ICDE, strengthening of the membership, further development of internal and external relations, and embracing synergies to create value-added impact for members.

Special thanks should be given to the members of ICDE’s business bodies - the Executive Committee, the Board of Trustees and the Election Committee - for their valuable contributions in building a new future for ICDE.

Gard Titlestad Secretary General, ICDE

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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 2011. It demonstrates progress towards the objectives of the organization in relation to its strategic plan and activity plan (www.icde.org/strategy).

ICDE has worked closely with UNESCO in 2011 on specific projects and towards strengthened dialogue on areas for future 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 and planning of new activities has begun to encourage links between Norwegian institutions and the unique international community which the organization represents.

The 24th ICDE World Conference attracted over 600 delegates to Bali, Indonesia in 2011 to address new approaches to open and distance learning. ICDE led a series of initiatives at the conference including a fellowship programme for participants from countries with developing economies.

The 2011 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents held in New York, USA provided an opportunity for members to debate the challenges for open learning in the context of the new economy and technological developments, while providing an arena for exchange of ideas, solutions and cooperation between vicechancellors of member institutions. An ICDE Policy Forum at the same event drew important conclusions on issues related to cross-border inter-institutional collaboration. An ICDE International Conference was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and ICDE arranged a special session at the Online Educa Berlin conference in Germany. Planning for conferences and meetings in 2012 also began.

In the key area of quality, ICDE successfully concluded its contribution to the Open Educational Quality Initiative and shared with its membership the results, tools and opportunities offered by this project. The ICDE initiated study of regulatory frameworks for distance education delivered its draft report and the dissemination of its findings began, while further initiatives in the spheres of policy, quality and promotion were under development.

ICDE continued its dissemination activities through printed publications and the development of online content and resources, and achieved increased reach through social media in addition to its newsletter service. The need for ICDE to work through project-specific partnerships with members was reflected in the conclusion of an agreement for the hosting and editorship of the online journal, Open Praxis. Added-value for members has been assured through emphasis on membership benefits including special offers and exposure for members’ initiatives and institutions. New members have been recruited, and steps taken to strengthen relations with regional and national distance education associations.

Amendments to the ICDE constitution were adopted in 2011 following member consultations and voting, and elections were held for the new ICDE Executive Committee to begin its term of office on 1 January 2012.

Note: The Annual Report is written in English, ICDE’s language of operation.

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ICDE Annual Report 2011

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.

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ICDE shall promote quality in distance, flexible and ICTbased education, and work for the achievement of a global understanding of quality within distance education.

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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.

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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 2011, members were invited to contribute to a survey to confirm their priorities for the remaining period of the strategic plan. This information, in addition to expectations expressed at the Standing Conference of Presidents meeting and Policy Forum in 2010, culminated in the publication in June 2011 of a progress report summarizing achievements to date. Work towards meeting the objectives of the strategy plan during 2011 is described throughout this report and is summarized in the conclusion.

The strategic plan may be downloaded from: www.icde.org/strategy

4. Relations with UNESCO ICDE seeks 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), particularly through developing relations, dialogue and activities with UNESCO. ICDE is an NGO official partner of UNESCO (consultative status), 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. ICDE achieves this through featuring news from UNESCO in its newsletter, through social media, and on two dedicated sections of the website; UNESCO reports and UNESCO news.

Contacts with UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France, have increased during 2011. In May 2011, the ICDE President, attended the UNESCO Global Forum: Rankings and Accountability in Higher Education: Uses and Misuses. In November, the Secretary General attended a policy forum entitled Mainstreaming Open Educational Practices, and in December he held meetings with UNESCO personnel including the Assistant Director-General Education Sector and the Assistant Director-General Communication and Information Sector to discuss future cooperation.

4.1. The Open Educational Quality Initiative The Open Educational Quality (OPAL) Initiative, a partnership between ICDE, UNESCO and five other organizations and institutions is described under section 7.1. Both ICDE and UNESCO sought through this project to advance their agendas in relation to the enhanced use of open educational resources in an international setting (Strategy and Activities, page 5), and to enable institutions in other areas of the world to help form and benefit from this important area of research.

Staff of the ICDE Secretariat worked particularly closely with UNESCO Communication and Information Sector staff during the development of the OPAL Awards for quality and innovation through open educational practices, including the formation of juries of international experts, administration of the submission and adjudication process, and the presentation of the awards in December 2011.

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4.2. Joint study on the use of innovative technologies in BRICS countries The close cooperation with the UNESCO Communication and Information Sector described above resulted in an invitation from UNESCO for ICDE to consider taking part in a joint study of the use of mobile technologies and open educational resources in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The study would result in online resources being developed including policy briefs reflecting best practice to support policy development for institutional and governmental decision makers. ICDE’s Executive Committee accepted this invitation with further development to be carried out during 2012.

4.3. UNESCO World OER Congress ICDE was invited by UNESCO in late 2011 to join preparations for the First UNESCO World Open Educational Resources Congress to be held in Paris, France 20-22 June 2012. The role envisaged for ICDE is to provide good practices, identify key stakeholders, and to raise awareness and promote the Congress and the series of regional policy forums due to precede it.

4.4. UNESCO OER Chairs network meeting ICDE invited the UNESCO Chairs in open educational resources, Fred Mulder of Open Universiteit, The Netherlands and Rory McGreal of Athabasca University, Canada, to hold a meeting on the fringes of the 2011 Standing Conference of Presidents meeting (see section 6.1.4.) with sponsorship from ICDE and SUNY Empire State College. The event, held to exchange experiences in projects, policies and implementation of OER on the national, regional and institutional levels, created an action plan for the UNESCO Chairs based around two key activities: the establishment of a Global OER Graduate School, and the development of an OER Knowledge Cloud. ICDE is committed to help build momentum for capacity building on an institutional, national and international level and research that will contribute to the growing investigation of the OER phenomenon and its potential, and impact on education and learning.

4.5. 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.

The new Secretary General held discussions with Dr. Loing during 2011 on the organization of a high level meeting of Ministers of Education on the theme “Policy Challenges coming from a more open and online world” (Strategy and Activities p.4), and also on how ICDE should be best represented at UNESCO after Bernard Loing completes his term at the end of 2012.

5. ICDE and Norway ICDE established its Secretariat in Oslo in 1989 on the basis of generous funding from the Government of Norway. Today, ICDE receives an annual grant, and 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, while the Secretary General ensures regular contact.

ICDE is proud to count five 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).

In 2011, ICDE formed a partnership with the Norwegian Association of Higher Education Institutions and ICDE member Norway Opening Universities to arrange a seminar for rectors and senior management of Norwegian institutions of higher education. The theme of High quality higher education in an increasingly more open and online world will centre on questions of whether university leadership is ready for the digital future, and whether increased flexibility in learning situations will help to meet the increase in student numbers and help to reduce dropout rates. It was envisaged that representatives of senior management from ICDE member institutions both in Norway and from abroad would feature prominently in the programme. Work on development of the programme for the event, due to coincide with the ICDE Executive Committee meeting in Oslo at the end of February 2012, was carried out and invitations sent to speakers and potential delegates in the latter part of 2011.

Also in cooperation with Norway Opening Universities, rectors of Norwegian institutions received personalized Norwegian language invitations to attend the ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents.

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5.2. Relations with Norwegian distance education actors 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 (NADE) 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. NADE is an associate member of ICDE, and ICDE participated in the NADE annual conference held in Oslo in November. During 2011, ICDE’s Head of Administration was invited to join a panel to determine the winners of NADE’s annual awards for online student of the year and online teacher of the year.

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. The ICDE Secretary General attended Norway Opening Universities Svalbard Conference in March 2011, and the Executive Director of Norway Opening Universities was a member of the programme committee for the 24th ICDE World Conference. The Vice-President of Norway Opening Universities also partook in the 24th ICDE World Conference in 2011 and was a member of one of the keynote panels.

As described in section 7.6, Marie Ferreira of the University of South Africa visited the secretariat of ICDE in August 2011 in preparation for a marketing campaign for the promotion of ODL, and in the course of her stay, held discussions with staff of NADE, as well as member institutions NKI Nettstudier and Lillehammer University College.

6. Events and related initiatives 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) and Policy Forum organized every year for Presidents and other Executive Officers of member institutions. Each of these events is run in cooperation with a member institution.

Venues chosen for meetings rotate among the regions to allow international participants to acquaint themselves with different countries, cultures and education systems, and to give local institutions and host countries the opportunity to showcase their institutions, experts, and educational values and systems to a broad international audience.

Formal calls for the hosting of meetings are announced through the ICDE newsletter and website, and an institution must present a written proposal for consideration by the ICDE Executive Committee before granted host is determined.

6.1. Events held in 2011 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 providing guidance and knowledge based on the experience and good practice of previous conferences, distributing invitations to its network and marketing and promoting the events.

For the first time, and given that ICDE’s home continent of Europe had not seen an event since 2009, an ICDE session was arranged at one of the largest European conferences within the field of technology supported learning. th 6.1.1. The 24 ICDE World Conference on Open and Distance Learning

The highlight of 2011 for ICDE was a tremendously successful 24th ICDE World Conference held over four days in October on the island of Bali, Indonesia and hosted by ICDE member institution Universitas Terbuka.

Over 600 delegates representing 49 countries attended, and the conference was opened by the Indonesian Minister of National Education Muhammad Nuh. The conference addressed new approaches to open and distance learning, and keynote speakers were Duk Hoon Kwak, President and CEO of Educational Broadcasting System (EBS), Korea; Rory McGreal, Associate Vice-President Research, Athabasca University, Canada; Gráinne Conole, Head of e-Learning at the University of Leicester, UK; Lawrence Lessig, lawyer, activist and founder of Creative Commons, US;

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and Hal Plotkin, Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the Under Secretary of Education, United States Department of Education.

The Programme Committee received 547 abstracts which were reviewed by an international reviewer pool, and 195 papers were presented orally in five parallel sessions.

In addition, four symposia were held, including two which presented ICDE projects; the ICDE study on regulatory frameworks for distance education, and an international campaign to increase awareness and understanding of the impact of distance education.

There were nine sponsors of the conference, and 13 exhibitors from Indonesia and abroad. ICDE had its own stand in the exhibition area, and also organized a number of special events during the programme including a social gathering for ICDE members, a presentation of the new Executive Committee, the announcement of winners of the ICDE Prize of Excellence, the launch of a special edition of the ICDE journal, Open Praxis, and the announcement of the host of the 25th ICDE World Conference.

Keynote presentations were streamed live during the event, and proceedings, photographs and selected presentations can be found on the conference website. www.ut.ac.id/icde2011 6.1.2. The World Conference Fellowship Programme ICDE’s third strategic objective includes an expectation that ICDE will work actively to assist countries with developing economies to implement new methodologies and technologies (Strategy and Activities, page 3).

A key achievement of the World Conference was the Fellowship Programme which enabled 16 delegates from countries with developing economies, including a number of students, to receive sponsorship to take part. The programme was made possible by the generosity of eight member institutions which donated funds, and ICDE both contributed to and administered the scheme, with the selection of recipients being made by the conference programme chairs.

Recipients were nationals of Argentina, Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Turkey and Zimbabwe, and each wrote a report on their experience which was published on the ICDE website.

6.1.3. The ICDE Prize of Excellence A call for nominations was announced in 2011 for the ICDE Prize of Excellence awards and the winners were announced at the 24th ICDE World Conference. The awards recognize attainment of the highest possible excellence in the fields of open, distance and flexible learning, and an independent international jury was formed to evaluate the nominations, resulting in the selection of two winners. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Helmut Hoyer, Rector at FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany, was selected for the Prize for Lifelong Contribution to the Field while the Individual Prize of Excellence went to Prof. Fred Mulder, Former Rector of Open Universiteit, The Netherlands and UNESCO Chair in OER. 9

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6.1.4. The 2011 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents The 2011 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents meeting was hosted by the State University of New York Empire State College in New York, USA on 19-22 June 2011. Approximately 70 institutional leaders and other executives from 30 countries and every continent took part in this annual meeting for discussion of policies and developments in open and distance education and to network and make connections.

The theme for the meeting was The New Economy and the Role of Open Learning and Jagdish Bhagwati, Professor at Columbia University and a Senior Fellow in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, delivered the keynote presentation on the role of skills in economic transformation and the need for policy to recognize this. In the panel discussion that followed, Kevin Kinser of the University at Albany, Michael Fortunato of SUNY Empire State College, Daniel Pianko of University Ventures Fund and Bruno Laporte of the World Bank provided perspectives on the keynote and the interface between open learning and the new economy. Group discussions also looked at the role of the state in ODL, comparative advantages of distance education, and whether the future of ODL may be secured through public or private funding.

Tension between pedagogy and technology in the learning environment was a further key theme at the meeting which was sponsored by Pearson, CISCO, Datatel and Brite Computers. Delegates were given the opportunity to hear presentations from the sponsors, while a session entitled Keynotes and Conversations on New Technologies and Open Learning brought representatives of Pearson e-College and CISCO together with Diane Oblinger of EduCause and Elliott Masie to debate the role of technology in empowering learning. http://choose.esc.edu/scop2011 6.1.5. ICDE Policy Forum Following a successful and well received policy forum at the SCOP meeting in 2010, host institution the State University of New York Empire State College agreed to take the lead in organizing a repeat event.

ICDE has committed through its strategic plan to foster cooperation between members (Strategy and Activities, page 3), and in this spirit the theme of quality in cross-border inter-institutional collaboration was chosen.

Proceedings were led by Meg Benke, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at SUNY Empire State College and President of The Sloan Consortium, and the keynote address was given by Gary E. Miller, World Campus Executive Director Emeritus from ICDE member institution Pennsylvania State University.

A report on the policy forum was prepared and distributed to members. Videos of key presentations, papers, slides and photographs were also made available online.

6.1.6. ICDE International Conference in Argentina Member institution Universidad Nacional de Quilmes (UNQ) hosted an ICDE International Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina in April 2011. Attracting more than 220 participants and a range of high-profile keynote speakers, this was an opportunity for researchers, academics and specialists to come together to explore topics which fell under the theme of Information and Communication Technologies and the University: Quality, Equity and Access to Higher Education.

Representatives of institutions in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Iran, Mexico, Norway, Paraguay, Sweden, the United States, Uruguay and Venezuela attended the conference. The event was presided over

by Gustavo Lugones, Rector of UNQ, and Marta Mena, member of the ICDE Executive Committee. There was a strong ICDE presence among the speakers including, Begoña Gros from ICDE member institution Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain; Fred Litto, President of ICDE member institution ABED, Brazil and ICDE Executive Committee member; and Louise Bertrand from ICDE member institution Télé-université UQAM, Canada.

The conference was sponsored by the National Ministry of Education, the Secretary of Public Communication, the National Secretary of Culture, the Network University of Distance Education, and by the Government of Canada.

6.1.7. Online Educa Berlin ICDE made an agreement with the organizers of the annual Online Educa Berlin conference for ICDE to convene a special session to promote global perspectives on technology-enhanced learning at the conference in December 2011. 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 Annual Report 2011

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ICDE to reach this constituency (Strategy and Activities, page 6) and also to increase communication between developed and developing nations (Strategy and Activities, page 3).

ICDE invited members from the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China to present on trends and challenges in open and distance learning in their respective countries in the session, entitled Learning Cultures: An International Panorama which covered technologies, factors supporting and hindering development, present trends, and theoretical discourse in the four countries.

The session was chaired by the ICDE Secretary General, and Dietmar Kennepohl of ICDE member institution, Athabasca University, Canada, and contributors were Luciano Sathler of the Brazilian Association for Distance Education (ABED), Irina Smirnova of the Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics (MESI), Hemlata Chari of the Institute of Distance and Open Learning, University of Mumbai, India and Li Yawan of The Open University of China.

6.2. Planning for future events During 2011, ICDE began planning for events to be held in 2012 and 2013.

6.2.1. 25th ICDE World Conference on Open Learning and Distance Learning The 25th ICDE World Conference on Open and Distance Learning will be hosted by Tianjin Open University, China, on 16-18 October 2013. Tianjin is a coastal city approximately 120km from Beijing and was selected following a bidding process. This was announced at the 24th World Conference where the President of Tianjin Open University, Professor Feng Xuefei, gave a presentation of venue for 25th ICDE World Conference. A preparatory meeting was also held between the ICDE President, staff of the ICDE Secretariat and the President and staff of Tianjin Open University during the 24th World Conference.

6.2.2. The 2012 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents A call for expressions of interest for the 2012 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents (SCOP) meeting was announced in January 2011, and Hamdan Bin Mohammed e-University was confirmed as the successful applicant by the ICDE Executive Committee with the announcement being made at the SCOP meeting in New York in June 2011.

An initial planning meeting was held in New York, and regular telephone meetings throughout the remainder of 2011. By the end of the year, the programme committee had been established and it had been decided that the theme would be Open and Distance Education (ODE): Barriers, Opportunities & Strategies Forward.

It was also agreed with the host that a Policy Forum would form part of the programme, and that this would provide opportunities for consultation on ICDE's strategic plan for 2013-2016.

7. Projects ICDE concluded its involvement in The Open Quality Initiative in 2011, and the results of the project to assess the regulatory frameworks for distance education in the Asia-Pacific region were presented. A project for the promotion of open and distance learning through a marketing campaign, and the collection of success stories were begun. Work related to quality standards, policy challenges and the advancement of planning for quality reviews of the student learning experience was also carried out during 2011, while the project for the development of global statistics on distance education was put on hold due to issues relating to intellectual property rights and ownership of the material between ICDE and the envisaged project partners.

Dialogue was initiated on closer cooperation on projects with the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) and was due to be continued in 2012.

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 (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 3), ICDE was from 2010-2011 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 was part funded by the European Commission Education and Training Lifelong Learning Programme focused on the provision of innovative open educational practices, both in higher education and adult education, and sought to promote quality, innovation and transparency.

During 2011, the consortium continued to work to gain support among the academic and regulatory communities within higher and adult education for the term open educational practices (OEP). These are 11

ICDE Annual Report 2011

practices at the policy, institutional and teaching levels which provide the pre-conditions for creating, sharing and using freely available learning materials.

A report entitled Beyond OER: Shifting focus to Open Educational Practices was published. This presented the findings of a quantitative survey and showed that institutional policies for OER are still a long way from impacting on educational institutions, that OER are more widely used where programmes or initiatives for open resources exist at the institutional level and that where open educational practices are supported through cultures of innovation, these in turn lead to innovation in organizations. Online tools were developed including a maturity model, detailed description of the concept, and description of the elements which constitute open educational practices and a register allowing organizations and institutions to self-assess their use of open educational practices for review by international experts, as well as an interactive metro map, enabling learners, educational practitioners, leaders of organizations, and policy makers to plot their trajectory on the path to open educational practices.

Invitations were issued – including to ICDE members – to join consultations among a multi-stakeholder network of organizations including quality bodies, policy experts and institutional leaders, and to help OPAL to coordinate effectively with existing international OER initiatives. These were held online during May and June, and a policy forum on mainstreaming open educational practices in higher education and adult education was held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France in November, with participation from the Secretary General of ICDE. In 2011, staff of the ICDE Secretariat took part in two face-to-face and multiple online meetings, and played key liaising roles, in particular in relation to the information and communication work of the project, which ICDE led. This included the authoring of regular news stories, updating the project website, authoring and coordinating the production of publicity materials, and the participation of the Secretary General in several conferences and meetings to further the message of the project. ICDE also provided extensive reports on the dissemination activities of the project to the European Commission.

Key to the success of the project, and the exposure of its findings and central messages was the development by ICDE in collaboration, primarily with UNESCO and the European Foundation for Quality in e-Learning, in the organization of the OPAL Awards. ICDE carried out a study of best practice in educational awards, and developed the conceptual framework, terms and conditions, a framework for adjudication, and helped to form and administer the work of the juries for the three individual awards, as well as carrying out promotion. These were presented at a special session of Online Educa Berlin, a key European conference, where the three winning and two highly commended entries collected their awards. ICDE staff also authored the extensive reports delivered to the European Commission, reports which will also provide input to the basis for the future development of ICDE’s awards and prizes.

The OPAL website: www.oer-quality.org 7.2. Quality reviews 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). This is 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: •

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

•

To provide a means of securing external accountability for the use of public and private funds received by institutions

During 2011, the Secretariat in consultation with the Executive Committee further developed the proposals for procedures. The ICDE Executive Committee approved revised aims missions and objectives in June 2011 and a draft operational plan was agreed by December, for quality reviews to be further developed and

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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. Quality standards Following discussions and consultations at the Standing Conference of Presidents meetings between 2008 and 2010, and the Policy Forum of 2010, it was determined that ICDE would seek external help in its aim to explore and describe criteria for excellence and accreditation strategies for its members (Strategy and Activities, page 5). It was envisaged that this would lead ultimately towards the creation of a template for defining quality (Strategy and Activities, page 5).

In July 2011, ICDE launched a request for proposals for the delivery of a written report to provide analysis, and a series of recommendations to the ICDE Executive Committee, for the organization’s future work on supporting its membership in defining quality standards and providing quality assurance. It was expected that such a report should cover expectations towards ICDE, analysis of differences based on geographical area, state versus private institutions, political support for open and distance education, and existing quality structures, and analysis of opportunities for ICDE to align and coordinate its work with other stakeholders, and to present proposals which ICDE may realistically pursue.

By the end of 2011, no acceptable proposal had been received, and it was envisaged that a new call would be announced in early 2012.

7.4. 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 with partial funding from ICDE to study regulatory systems within distance education throughout the world (Strategy and Activities, page 4).

A consortium of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education, the Australasian Council on Open, Distance and E-Learning, the Distance Education Hub (DEHub), and the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) completed their work on this project during 2011. The study looked at the regulatory environment for distance education in 24 countries in the Southwest Pacific/ South East Asia Region and found that regulatory frameworks do not necessarily constrain the development of distance education. A more significant factor, argue the authors, is how an individual institution adapts its own governance practices and procedures. Indeed, the study found that a series of other factors – including resourcing, level of wealth, ICT infrastructure and capacity – are usually more significant.

The initial findings were presented by Rosalind James and Belinda Tynan of DEHub, and Len Webster of AUQA at the 24th ICDE World Conference, and the draft final report was delivered to the ICDE Executive in December 2011. An online resource presenting key data on the countries and case studies of nine institutions in the region was also nearing completion by the end of 2011. www.icde.org/regulatory_frameworks 7.5. Policy challenges Distance education policy (Strategy and Activities, page 4) is an area of key concern for ICDE’s members.

This is reflected in ICDE continuing to hold policy forums alongside the Standing Conference of Presidents meetings. ICDE has also continued to seek to give space through its news channels and on its website to key policy issues. High on the agenda is the need for the development of a task force to explore the opportunities for increased exchange between regions on open and distance education policy (Strategy and Activities, page 4). This work was begun in 2011 at the 24th ICDE World Conference where the Secretary General held meetings with representatives of key regional associations.

7.6. Marketing campaign to promote open and distance learning and success stories ICDE aims to work with the education sector internationally to support the development of an understanding of the values and possibilities of distance education as an instrument for lifelong learning (Strategy and Activities, page 4).

Following an expression of interest from the University of South Africa (Unisa), the first stages were undertaken to prepare for a marketing campaign to promote open and distance learning. A survey was carried out among the ICDE membership – with 26 institutions and organizations responding – to establish the current status of communication and marketing activities to promote distance education. Marie Ferreira from Unisa visited the ICDE Secretariat and members in Norway, and presented the findings of the survey in a symposium at the 24th ICDE World Conference, which also gave members the opportunity to provide input to the planning. The results of the survey were also published online.

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ICDE Annual Report 2011

In 2011, ICDE also made a start in collecting examples of success stories – including through launching a call for contributions – which demonstrate best practice in the provision of open and distance learning. It is envisaged that this will be further developed during 2012.

8. Information 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 continued its work to improving its website and information dissemination during the year (Strategy and Activities, page 5 and page 6).

A special edition of the online journal Open Praxis, was published, and a host institution secured for the relaunch of this publication (Strategy and Activities, page 6). A progress report and a report on the ICDE Policy Forum were published, as were flyers for ICDE initiatives, which were distribution at key events.

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 internet connectivity. ICDE therefore makes key information materials available to its members in printed format, as well as online. In 2011, the Secretariat sent its annual report and a progress report detailing the organization’s progress to date on achieving the goals set out in the strategic plan, and information on the 24th ICDE World Conference to members in July. The membership pack for the recruitment of new members was also revised, comprising a folder and inserts, and used for direct approaches, including at the 24th ICDE World Conference and the Online Educa Berlin conference. A flyer was produced for the world conference advertizing ICDE’s services and offers to faculty members and researchers, and drawing attention to ICDE initiated activities at the event. At the end of 2011, the annual Highlights publication was under preparation for publication in January 2012.

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). ICDE worked to develop the content on its website during 2011, particularly in the form of the conference calendar, reports, and news from UNESCO. New sections added to the ICDE website in 2011 included: •

Articles referring to ICDE from other media: www.icde.org/en/about/icde_in_the_media

•

Information on how to determine whether an institution is genuine and accredited (a frequently asked question): www.icde.org/en/context/bogus_institutions

•

Database of information on the regulatory frameworks for distance education in the Southwest Pacific/ South East Asia Region (see section 7.4 above): www.icde.org/en/resources/regulatory_frameworks

•

Success stories (see section 7.6 above): www.icde.org/en/resources/success_stories

During 2011, ICDE member institutions Shanghai TV University, China, and the Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics, the Russian Federation, carried out the translation of key sections of the ICDE website into Chinese and Russian. www.icde.org/cn; www.icde.org/ru 8.3. The ICDE newsletter During 2011, the ICDE Secretariat sustained the regular publication of news stories and its email newsletter service which is sent to approximately 15,000 active email addresses 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

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•

Calls for assistance with research projects

•

Calls for papers for journals and conferences

In addition, ICDE has collaborated 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 (see section 9.2.).

8.4. Social media Recognizing the limitations of website functionality and the opportunities inherent in social media platforms, the organization has also made an investment of time in developing its presence through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Facebook is generally used to draw traffic to the ICDE website, and stories are published approximately every three to five days here. On Twitter, ICDE seeks to create up-to-date listings of key reports, publications, conference news, the opinions of thought leaders within the field as well as news from members, non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations and news media which are relevant to the field of open and distance learning. ICDE uses YouTube to post videos from its conferences and other events. By the end of 2011, ICDE had 500 followers on Facebook, 120 followers on Twitter, and its videos had been viewed on 1,200 occasions. www.facebook.com/icde.org; www.twitter.com/icde_org; www.youtube.com/icdevideos 8.5. Open Praxis, the online journal of ICDE Open Praxis has been the journal of ICDE since 1993, and in 2005 it became a purely online journal. Having determined that the journal should be an open access publication, ICDE's Executive Committee determined that it should be placed under the editorship of a host institution. A special edition of the journal was also published.

8.5.1. Special edition of Open Praxis A special edition of Open Praxis was published during 2011 dedicated to former ICDE Executive Committee member N. Barney Pityana. Professor Pityana stepped down from the ICDE Executive Committee after retiring at the end of 2010 from his position as Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of South Africa (Unisa).

Leading experts in ODL from around the world contributed to the publication, which was edited by guest editor Olugbemiro Jegede, Secretary-General of the Association of African Universities. Personal tributes and articles on open and distance learning were contributed by Olugbemiro Jegede, Mandla S. Makhanya, Sir John Daniel, Brenda M. Gourley, Nicholas H. Allen and Susan C. Aldridge, Tolly Mbwette, James C. Taylor and Wayne Mackintosh.

The published journal was presented to Professor Pityana at a special ceremony at the 24th ICDE World Conference, and copies were due to be sent to members in early 2012.

8.5.2. New host for Open Praxis Following an open call among ICDE members in March, Inés Gil Jaurena of Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Spain was selected by ICDE’s Executive Committee as the new editor of Open Praxis. ICDE concluded a formal agreement with UNED in late 2011, and the ICDE Secretary General visited the institution in order to plan the timetable for the re-launch of the journal.

8.6. Report on Policy Forum As described in 6.1.2., ICDE published a report on the Policy Forum held at the 2011 Standing Conference of Presidents, and distributed this to members by electronic means. It was also distributed in printed format at the 24th ICDE World Conference.

8.7. Exposure for ICDE in other media During 2011, ICDE received exposure through a number of other media:

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•

An interview with outgoing ICDE Secretary General, Carl Holmberg, featured in an issue of ICDE member institution, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya's, magazine WALK IN.

•

Incoming ICDE Secretary General, Gard Titlestad, featured in the June edition of the Commonwealth of Learning's monthly newsletter.

•

An in-depth interview with ICDE’s incoming Secretary General, Gard Titlestad, featured in the Norwegian Association for Distance Education's journal Synkron in June.

ICDE Annual Report 2011

•

The ICDE Secretariat and President Frits Pannekoek contributed to an article on online education and science in Nature, the highly-respected weekly international science journal in October.

•

An article introducing ICDE's special session at the Online Educa Berlin conference appeared in the newsletter of this conference in November

9. Membership services During 2011, ICDE has focused on continually improving the level of service provided to members, both through the quality of communication and information dissemination, accessibility to information, and through improving awareness of member benefits, as well as securing special offers for the membership through agreements with third-party organizations. It is further a strategic priority for the organization to attract new members (Strategy and Activities, page 6) and work was ongoing to fulfil this aim.

9.1. Communication with members Continued emphasis on news dissemination has improved ICDE’s visibility and the general information flow to members. A separate newsletter is usually prepared for ICDE members in order to provide extra exposure for member benefits including special offers and reduced conference fees. The investment in a customer relationship management database represents an important tool for tracking and maintaining relations with individual stakeholders both within member institutions and beyond.

Specific communication activities carried out in 2011 included: •

Sending printed copies of the progress report and 2010 Annual Report

•

Distributing a call for expressions of interest in hosting SCOP 2012

•

Sending personalized invitations to vote on amendments to the ICDE constitution; updates and results of this process

•

Sending personalized invitations to support the ICDE Fellowship Programme

•

Sending personalized invitations to the Standing Conference of Presidents, also as printed letters

•

Circulating the Secretary General’s regular reports, following the presentation of these at Executive Committee meetings

•

Distributing personalized invitation to take part in the Open Educational Quality Initiative survey

•

Circulating calls for nomination of candidates to the ICDE Executive Committee, voting information and updates, and announcement of the final results

•

Distributing invitations to take part in a marketing survey in preparation of the marketing campaign for the promotion of open and distance learning, and results of this survey; updates to participants in the survey

•

Sending a call for nominations for the ICDE Prize of Excellence

•

Distributing a call for success stories

•

Providing the link to a survey for members to express their expectations in relation to the fulfilment of the strategic plan

•

Sending personalized emails to thank delegates for their participation in the Standing Conference of Presidents meeting and the 24th ICDE World Conference

•

Sending invitations for members to register their institution in the Open Educational Quality (OPAL) Initiative register of institutions supporting open educational practices, to undertake a selfassessment exercise and to submit examples of best open educational practices; invitations to nominate candidates for the OPAL Awards

•

Distributing a message of farewell from the outgoing Secretary General, and a statement of priorities from the incoming Secretary General

•

Providing promotional materials and establishing a stand at the Standing Conference of Presidents meeting and 24th ICDE World Conference; providing promotional materials for distribution at other key events

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•

Individual contacts made with new member institutions and selected existing member institutions to offer the opportunity for profiling on the ICDE website and to seek confirmation of correct contact details

•

Distributing a season’s greetings email to all organizations and contacts which the ICDE Secretariat had contact with throughout the year

9.2. Benefits for ICDE members ICDE sought during 2011 to increase awareness of the specific benefits available to existing and potential ICDE members. A summary of benefits was distributed to members and published on the ICDE website with dissemination through the organization’s news channels. ICDE also concluded agreements with third-party organizations for a number of special offers. Special offers circulated among the membership during 2011 included: •

A special members' rate for the Learning Futures Festival Online 2011

•

Free access to Routledge journals for a limited period

•

An offer from the Times Higher Education magazine (THE) for members to receive four weeks of complimentary access to the digital edition

•

A reduced participation fee for the 2011 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents meeting

•

A special registration rate for the British Council Going Global 2011 conference in Hong Kong, China

•

A special registration rate for the Online Educa Berlin 2011 conference in Berlin, Germany

•

The opportunity to order printed copies of the special edition of Open Praxis

•

A special rate for the Hamdan Bin Mohammed eUniversity 5th Conference on e-Learning Excellence in the Middle East in Dubai, United Arab Emirate in January 2012

•

A reduced conference fee for the Asian Association of Open Universities Annual Conference for participants also attending the 24th ICDE World Conference

•

A discount on a handbook published by Raabe Publishers, entitled The Leadership and Governance in Higher Education Handbook for Decision-makers and Administrators

9.3. 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 2010 sent to lapsed members from 2010

•

Invitations to the 2011 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents and Policy Forum sent to 400 nonmember presidents as letters and emails

•

Personalized invitations to the 2011 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents and Policy Forum sent by letter to Norwegian rectors through Norway Opening Universities

•

73 membership packs and personalized letters sent to vice-chancellors of lapsed member institutions from the past four years; 8 sent to lapsed individual members

•

A discount offer for institutions applying for membership during the second half of 2011

•

Membership packs and 2009 Annual Report distributed; individual follow-up correspondence and invitations to become members sent to executives met at the 2011 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents meeting

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.

Eleven new institutions and five new individuals were admitted to the ICDE membership during 2011. The net number of institutional members increased from 94 to 98 institutions, though there was a slight decline in the number of individual members. By the end of December, a further eleven institutions had been accepted for membership, but payment of membership fees had not yet been made.

39% of ICDE’s paying membership is in Asia, 25% in Europe, 10% in North America with the remainder allocated evenly between Africa, Australasia and Latin America and the Caribbean.

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9.4. Regional and key national associations The ICDE strategic plan states that ICDE should work more closely with national and regional organizations (Strategy and Activities, page 6).

Associate membership 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 2011 were: •

European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN)

•

Arab Network for Distance and Open Education (Anode)

•

Middle East e-Learning Association (MEeA)

•

Association of African Distance Learning Centres

ICDE’s Secretary General held discussions with representatives of a number of regional and national associations at the 24th ICDE World Conference, and presidents of seven associate members contributed regional reports for publication in the ICDE Highlights publication due to appear in early 2012.

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. During 2011, ICDE was represented at the following conferences: •

46th SEAMEO Council Conference, Brunei Darussalam, January 2011

•

4th Annual Conference on e-Learning Excellence in the Middle East - HBMeU 2011 Annual Congress, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, January 2011

•

National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) and Association for Learning Technology seminar, United Kingdom, February 2011

•

e-Learning Regional Conference, Kuwait, March 2011

•

Seminar: Open Educational Culture and Open Educational Practices, University of Lund, Sweden, March 2011

•

Norway Opening Universities Svalbard Conference, Norway, March 2011

•

UNESCO Global Forum: Rankings and Accountability in Higher Education: Uses and Misuses, Paris, France, May 2011

•

ED-MEDIA 2011 – World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications, Lisbon, Portugal, June 2011

•

ABED 17th International Congress of Distance Education, Manaus, Brazil, September 2011

•

Higher Education Rankings and e-learning seminar, Barcelona, Spain, September 2011

•

UNESCO Policy Forum on Mainstreaming Open Educational Practices, Paris, France, November 2011

•

Annual conference of the Norwegian Association of Distance Teaching Universities, Oslo, Norway, November 2011

•

Online Educa Berlin, Germany, December 2011

11. Governance 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.

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11.1. Changes to the ICDE Constitution Following consultations with the ICDE membership on proposed amendments to the ICDE constitution concerning the continuity from one Executive Committee to the next, comments and feedback was circulated through the members’ area of the ICDE website. Voting took place in February 2012 in a process led by the Secretariat but under the supervision of three independent scrutinisers; Asha Kanwar, Vice President of the Commonwealth of Learning, Paul Grimwood, Former Chief Executive of The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand and Svein Qvist-Eriksen, Rector of NKI Nettstudier, Norway and President of the Norwegian Association for Distance Education.

A majority of votes in favour was recorded and the revised constitution came into effect on 3 March 2011. www.icde.org/en/about/constitution 11.2. 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. 11.2.1. The Executive Committee in 2011 In 2011, Mandla S. Makhanya, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Africa (UNISA) was co-opted to the Executive Committee following the retirement of N. Barney Pityana.

The members of the ICDE Executive Committee are (front row left to right): •

Marta Mena, General Coordinator of PROCAE, Cabinet of Ministers, Government of Argentina

•

Tian Belawati, Rector, Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia

•

Mandla S. Makhanya, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, the University of South Africa (UNISA)

•

Denise Kirkpatrick, Pro Vice-Chancellor Learning, Teaching and Quality, The Open University, UK

And (back row left to right):

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Mandla S. Makhanya, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, University of South Africa

•

Frits Pannekoek, President, Athabasca University, Canada (President)

•

Fredric Litto, President, the Brazilian Association for Distance Education – ABED ICDE Annual Report 2011

Secretary General, Gard Titlestad is also pictured on the back row at far right.

Six Executive Committee meetings were held during 2009 including two physical meetings at the Standing Conference of Presidents meeting in New York, USA in June, and at the 24th ICDE World Conference in Bali, Indonesia in October.

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.

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 events

•

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 Executive Committee is responsible for making policy decisions in accordance with ICDE’s mission and constitution.

11.2.2. Elections to the Executive Committee from 2012 A call for nominations to membership of the Executive Committee of ICDE for the term of office beginning in 2012 was launched in April 2011. An anonymous and confidential voting system was established by the Secretariat and the election process was carried out under the supervision of the Election Committee.

24 nominations were received, 20 for institutional membership and four for individual membership. The final results of the election were announced in July with the following being elected: •

Tian Belawati, Rector, Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia, for four years

•

Denise Kirkpatrick, Pro-Vice Chancellor Learning and Teaching, The Open University, UK, for four years

•

Mandla S. Makhanya, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, University of South Africa, for two years

•

Marta Mena, General Coordinator of PROCAE, Cabinet of Ministers, Argentine Government, Argentina (individual member), for four years

•

Frits Pannekoek, President, Athabasca University, Canada, for two years

•

Yang Zhijian: President, The Open University of China, for two years

11.3. 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

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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.

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 2011, Svein Haaland attended the physical meeting in New York, and Ingeborg Boe attended the meeting in Bali. The Board of Trustees also played a key advisory role in 2011 in relation to the proposed changes to the ICDE constitution.

During 2011, the Board of Trustees interviewed candidates for the position of Secretary General to replace Carl Holmberg, who retired in June. Gard Titlestad accepted the position, and began work on 1 August 2011.

11.4. 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 2011, the Election Committee supervised the elections of the new Executive Committee and also assisted in the recruitment of the new Secretary General, with the Chair of the Election Committee being the contact person for – and verifying – applications for the position.

12. Financial summary ICDE’s audited annual accounts for 2011 are available for members to access on the ICDE Extranet.

Income for 2011 was NOK 3,665,597 with the corresponding figure for 2010 of NOK 3,927,122.

ICDE achieved an operating result of NOK 34,187 compared with NOK 526,968 in 2010, and a deficit of NOK 39,845, compared with NOK 499,334 in 2010.

By the end of the year 2011, ICDE’s total assets were NOK 408,915 compared with NOK 2,394,180 in 2010, while ICDE’s total liabilities in December 2011 were NOK 585,359 compared with NOK 530,779 in 2010.

By 31 December 2011, equity was NOK 1,823,557, while in 2010, equity was NOK 1,863,401. This equity includes a reserve fund equivalent to the wind up costs of the organization.

Note USD = NOK 6

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ICDE Annual Report 2011

13. Conclusion This Annual Report has sought to describe ICDE’s activities during 2011 and to present them in relation to the ICDE strategic plan.

Specific progress towards the key actions in ICDE’s strategic plan during 2011 was as follows:

1. To be the global arena for the discussion of distance education policies •

Study of the regulatory frameworks for distance education completed and dissemination of results underway

•

Policy Forum organized and report circulated

•

Increased contacts and cooperation with UNESCO

•

A role defined for ICDE at the UNESCO World OER Congress

•

Discussions begun with UNESCO and regional associations on the need for a high level policy forum on open, distance and e-learning

•

Dialogue initiated on closer cooperation with the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization

2. To promote quality in distance, flexible and ICT-based education •

ICDE’s role in the Open Educational Quality Initiative was completed: considerable exposure given to the concept of open educational practices and members engaged with the project

•

Further work carried out on the proposed procedures for quality reviews and call for bids for external help in describing criteria for excellence and accreditation strategies sought

3. To contribute to the development of new methodologies and technologies •

Further steps taken towards defining ICDE’s strategy for enhancing open educational resources through the Open Educational Quality Initiative, the 24th ICDE World Conference and involvement in the UNESCO World OER Congress

•

A host institution secured for Open Praxis and planning underway for re-launch

•

A start made in collecting example of success stories

4. To foster cooperation between members •

ICDE 2011 Standing Conference of Presidents successfully held

•

24th ICDE World Conference successfully held

•

ICDE International Conference in Argentina successfully held

•

Preparations underway for events in 2012 and 2013

•

Active ICDE involvement in key third-party European conference, Online Educa Berlin

•

Website content and structure further developed and wider use of social media to reach new audiences

•

Significant membership activity implemented and new members recruited

•

Key learning opportunities offered to Norwegian actors within distance education including preparations for a joint seminar with the Norwegian Association of Higher Education Institutions in cooperation with Norway Opening Universities

ICDE Annual Report 2011

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INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATION

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATION

Annual Report 2011 ICDE’s members play a leading role in shaping the future of education worldwide

www.icde.org Picture credits: page 9 – Universitas Terbuka; page 19 – Universitas Terbuka ISBN print: 978-82-93172-12-3; ISBN PDF: 978-82-93172-13-0

www.icde.org