EPICA Initiative

EPICA is bringing together businesses, organisations and universities in both Europe and Africa to design an innovative, scalable ePortfolio, which will improve the quality, visibility and availability of new skills.

2018 Report: Grade Increase: Tracking Distance Education in the United States

The Babson Survey Research Group (BSRG) is a survey design, implementation, and analysis organization. BSRG was founded in 2005 within the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson College.

Addisco - 20 years of experience with lifelong learning in Norway

A successful partnership to enhance employability to be prepared for labour markets in constant change.

Decreasing Student Attrition Rate through Tutor/Counselor Interventions

This brief presentation will portray three tutor/counselor interventions at the OUI that purported to increase the retention rates of novice students at the first degree level:

Ethical and Legal Issues of Learning Analytics: Do we need a global framework?

Data analytics is the 21st Century Orwellian “Big Brother”1 . Every single one of us, to a greater or lesser extent, is living what I would like to call an “e-life” - a life that is shaped and influenced by the digitised world in which we live and move and have our being.

ICDE Global Doctoral Consortium

The Global Doctoral Consortium (GDC) is a global initiative supporting doctoral students in the research field related to online, open, flexible and technology enhanced learning.

The UOC's mobile apps ecosystem for continuous assessment receives an honourable mention at the Learning Impact Awards

The UOC's mobile apps ecosystem for continuous assessment – Explica!, Assess and Submissions – received an honourable mention at the IMS Global Learning Impact Awards, where they had been named among the finalists.

European open and distance teaching Universities decide on certified short learning programmes

European open and distance teaching universities decide on the large scale delivery of certified short learning programmes during the EADTU-EU Summit by signing a Memorandum of Understanding. 

Report On The State Of Open Universities In The Commonwealth, Written For The Commonwealth Of Learning (COL)

‘The report, written for the Commonwealth of Learning, critically examines specialist open and distance learning (ODL) universities. 

The Islamic Online University's case study on the usage of Moodle: an Open source learning management system

The Islamic Online University, member of ICDE, presented a case study on its usage of Moodle named: "Making Moodle Work for You".

Quality Reference Framework for improving, assessing and comparing the quality of MOOCs

The European initiative MOOQ for the quality of MOOCs has started to develop a common Quality Reference Framework for improving, assessing and comparing the quality of MOOCs.

UNESCO presents new finance model that could triple the availability of textbooks

A study by UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM)* proposes an economic model that would help reduce the cost of textbooks and increase their availability to students in schools around the world.

ICDE Member UoC To Lead Major EU Project TeSLA, ICDE Connected Through The Advisory Board

The project is led by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and funded by the European Commission within the European framework programme Horizon 2020.

Webinar: Adults in Higher Education

The webinar will be hosted by Carl Holmberg – a long-time advocate of adults and distance education from ICDE, and Carmen Neghina – the data and intelligence specialist from StudyPortals .

Report: Research & Innovation

The ICDE Research and Innovation Taskforce conducted research in 2014 to better understand the state of research and innovation in open, distance, flexible and online education, including e-learning across ICDE members. The Taskforce is led by Prof. Belinda Tynan, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Innovation) at Open University UK. 

Does the growth of distance learning mean that Open Universities risk becoming "the University of Last Resort"?

This was the question asked by Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Africa (Unisa), Mandla Makhanya, on the release of the Department for Higher Education and Training White Paper on Post-School Education and Training.

New Research On Adult Learners In European Higher Education

A new report on adult learners in higher education shows that courses offered at a distance are liberating and a crucial route to new qualifications.

The current situation for online adult learning in higher education

It is estimated that at least 2 million students are enrolled in distance teaching universities in Europe.

Challenges for education: report on the 2013 ICDE Policy Forum

A Policy Forum, co-organized with UNESCO, was held within the annual ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents (SCOP) meeting at the end of last year in Lisbon, Portugal.

Student Success

How can learners be supported, student success assured, and student drop-out and failure diminished?

Student success in open, distance and e-learning is a report by Alan Tait of The Open University, UK for ICDE.

Challenges for education: report on the 2013 ICDE Policy Forum

The power of online education, and one man’s path to become a world business leader

Ankit Khandelwal’s dream is as simple as it is complex; become a world business leader within 10 to 15 years.

UNISA approves a new strategy for OER

The University of South Africa (UNISA), an ICDE member, has approved its three-year Open Educational Resources (OER) strategy.

What is the global demand for online education?

As the demand for online education grows at a rapid pace, universities are trying to work out how to participate in this trend. Data from DistanceLearningPortal.com based on two million visits to the website during 2013 now reveals some of the hard facts regarding demand for online education.

2013 US Survey of Online Learning published

The 2013 Survey of Online Learning conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group in partnership with the Sloan Consortium and Pearson reveals the number of higher education students taking at least one online course in the United States now exceeds 7.1 million. But it also registers growing skepticism about the role and sustainability of MOOCs.

Challenges For Education: Report On The 2013 ICDE Policy Forum

A Policy Forum, co-organized with UNESCO, was held within the annual ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents (SCOP) meeting at the end of last year in Lisbon, Portugal.

European Commission launches Opening up Education action plan

The aim of this action plan is to boost innovation and digital skills in schools and universities in order to deliver the high quality education and digitalskills which 90% of jobs will require by 2020.

ICDE Leadership Summit 2021: a great step towards more flexibility in education!

On 8-9 April 2021, the first ever virtual ICDE Leadership Summit took place with over 90 delegates - including educational thought leaders and innovators from across the world, coming together across three live regional events in different time zones to discuss the importance of resilience and flexibility for open and distance education providers.

New Policy Briefings from the Commonwealth of Learning (COL)

Two new policy briefs on "Doctoral Study and Research Degrees: Online and Distance Programmes" and "Engineering Education: Online and Distance Programmes" have been published.

ICDE Global Doctoral Consortium Track at the World Conference in Toronto

During the ICDE World Conference in Toronto, a Doctoral Students’ Track took place with the participation of 11 Ph.D students from various parts of the world, all of them doing research related to online, open and flexible learning.

Ph.D. Track at ICDE World Conference

ICDE is happy to announce that the tentative program for the Doctoral Student’s Track at the upcoming World Conference in Toronto is now available.

Doctoral Students’ Track at the  27th ICDE World Conference

The ICDE Global Doctoral Consortium (GDC) has now reached the number of 147 Ph.D students from 44 countries currently undertaking research related to online, open, flexible and technology enhanced learning.

Doctoral Students’ Track at the  27th ICDE World Conference

The ICDE Global Doctoral Consortium (GDC) has now reached the number of 147 Ph.D students from 44 countries currently undertaking research related to online, open, flexible and technology enhanced learning. All members of the GDC have received a special invitation to attend a Doctoral Students’ Track during the ICDE World Conference in Toronto.

OLC: Digital Learning Innovation Award

Online Learning Consortium (OLC) hosts an annual award showcasing the exemplary use of digital courseware to improve student success, especially among minority, first-generation and other underrepresented student groups. The award will recognize projects that inspire innovation, increase access, support implementation, improve outcomes, enable accessibility, and promote sustainability in the use of digital courseware.

Applications are being accepted from March 27, 2017 through June 30, 2017.

Call for participation: Share student feedback approaches with the Open University

The Open University, UK currently runs a module based survey to gather feedback from new and continuing students on their study experience, the survey used satisfaction type statements and is offered to all students at module completion

The ICDE Global Doctoral Consortium and the Global OER Graduate network partner up for doctoral students

The ICDE Global Doctoral Consortium, GDC, and the Global OER Graduate network, GO-GN, are both networks supporting PhD research communities. The GDC has a focus on research fields related to online, open, flexible and technology enhanced learning and GO-GN on open education. There is overlap and synergy between these subject areas both in terms of the focus of study, and the practice of the online, open research process.

Global Doctoral Consortium – sign up for invitations

During the first part of June, ICDE together with founding partners will launch the Global Doctoral Consortium (GDC), a global initiative aiming to support doctoral students in the research field related to online, open, flexible and technology enhanced learning.