EDEN Fellow Award

Professor Mark Brown, Director of the National Institute for Digital Learning, has been made a Fellow of the prestigious European Distance and e-Learning Network (EDEN). He was presented with his Fellow Award at the recent EDEN annual conference in Jonkoping, Sweden. A DCU news item on the award reports that the purpose of the EDEN Fellow Scheme is to provide validation and support to professionals in Europe in the field of open, distance and e-learning, and to enhance their mobility within Europe through a respected scheme of recognition. Mark continues to serve on the EDEN Executive Committee.

EDEN Award

EDEN Research Award

We are pleased to announce that Elaine Walsh and Dr James Brunton received the Best Poster Award at the prestigious EDEN Research Workshop at Oxford for their work entitled “Assessment Strategy – Designing and Developing Assessment for Online Distance Education”. Their poster was a clear winner and validates the leading-edge work they are doing in the area of online Assessment. The Award was jointly presented at the end of Day One by Professor Antonio Moreira Teixeria, President of EDEN, and Professor Belinda Tynan, Pro Vice-Chanchellor (Learning & Teaching), The UK Open University, with official Rapporteur, Professor Tony Bates, closely watching proceedings. Congratulations to Elaine and James!

Poster

EDEN Poster Award

Earlier in the day, Colum Foley, also from the NIDL, gave an excellent report back to conference delegates after the first keynote address by Dr Cristobal Cobo from Oxford University.

Colum Later in the day Dr James Brunton, Lorraine Delaney, and Dr Eamon Costello assisted Professor Mark Brown in chairing the highly successful Oxford Debate. In arguing the motion “That Open Educational Resources (OERs) have fundamentally transformed Higher Education”, Professor Rory McGreal from Athabasca University, Canada and UNESCO/COL/ICDE Chair in Open Educational Resources (OER) came up against Professor María Soledad Ramírez Montoya from Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico, who holds both an ICDE Chair in OER and UNESCO Chair in Open Educational Practice (OEP). After the cut and thrust of a lively debate the motion was eventually won by Professor Ramírez Montoya in favour of the motion.

Debate

NIDL staff will be presenting two papers on Day Two of the Research Workshop, which is being attended by many leading scholars in the field from around the world.

Oxford_upcoming4