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What is the Future of Digital Resources for Learning & Teaching?
Essen, April 2013 - To discuss this matter, the University of Duisburg-Essen invites educators and researchers to a European conference on May 16 and 17, 2013. Some main points of dialogue will include defining quality in learning and innovations in learning resources.
Recently Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have shaken up the blogosphere and media reports on higher education. These courses make use of open digital resources for learning and have attracted hundreds of thousands of online learners at no cost. A digital resource for learning can be a written text, pictures, slides, videos, a 3-D simulation or a website combining all of them into ready-made curricula including tools for (self-)assessment for educators or learners. More and more digital resources with open licenses facilitate educators and learners in editing, improving, and adapting to different learning situations inside or outside of the classroom and in turn share their own work with the online community. These open digital resources provide the foundation for a borderless exchange of teaching and learning methods in many different fields. But a potential conflict exists between open learning resources and the quality of those resources. Restrictions on the certification of the creators of such content or the access to learning materials through paywalls have to some degree defended the quality of those resources in the past. How can creators ensure that their digital resources meet an appropriate level of quality and how can users be certain that said resources are worth their time?
The LINQ conference will bring together current initiatives from all areas of education - schooling, adult learning, informal and on-the-job learning - to demonstrate their online resources and methods of quality development and thereby address this potential conflict. An example of such an initiative is VOA3R (Virtual Open Access Agriculture and Aquaculture Repository), a European research project consortium of a variety universities and research centres. This group is building a hub for resources in agriculture and aqua-science through a social network in which researchers can share, comment and rate content. Through the VOA3R platform advances are being made in the sharing, reciprocal reviewing, and rating of learning innovations in the aforementioned fields, thereby addressing the important aspect of learning quality which should accompany learning development. These advances have proven of great interest to the Global Headquarter of United Nations' organization Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) - LINQ conference host and supporter of the VOA3R project.
In Rome, discussions will deal with the following questions:
· How can the quality of resources be improved and what does “quality” actually mean for teachers, learners and institutions?
· Are teachers and educational institutions ready to make use of the wealth of resources and how do they find the “right” thing?
· Will the future of digital resources be determined by metadata, i.e. the data about data, feeding databases and search engines?
· What must be done to ensure that we can still access valuable resources in 15 years from now (think about your files from 1998)?
· Do more easy-to-find resources lead to better learning?
Especially but not exclusively for those who do not plan to travel to Rome in May, the University of Duisburg-Essen is inviting interested parties to exchange views on the future of digital resources on Facebook: www.facebook.com/LINQConference. Two conference fee waivers will be given away to Facebook-Followers.
LINQ Conference 2013: Deadline for Papers and Projects Approaching
Participants in the 2nd European Conference on "Learning Innovations and Quality" (LINQ 2013) are encouraged to submit their entries as soon as possible, before the March 4th, 2013 deadline. Paper or project templates are available on the LINQ website.
The extended submission period for scientific papers and research project descriptions to be presented at the 2nd European Conference on "Learning Innovations and Quality" (LINQ 2013) will come to an end on March 4th 2013. Submissions of papers related to the conference (max eight pages) must be sent by March 4th, 2013, using the official LINQ template. Submitters will be informed of their acceptance by the 20th of April 2013.
LINQ 2013, which will take place at the Global Headquarters of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy, has already attracted submissions from throughout Europe, as well as Asia, America, and Africa.
The LINQ 2013 call for papers invites all experts and practitioners to contribute through the submission of high-quality papers related to the following topics:
- Innovations and future trends in Learning, Education and Training (LET)
- Quality improvement and learning outcome orientation in LET
- Harmonization of innovations and quality development in LET
- Digital resources, online repositories and metadata for online objects
- Web 2.0, Social Media and Online Communities for LET
- Open access, open educational resources and user-generated content
- Technology‐Enhanced Learning for schools, universities and lifelong learning
- Learning quality in vocational education and training and HR
- Implementation of learning innovations and quality improvements
- Knowledge, innovation and ideas management in LET contexts
- Standardisation of LET design, production and services
- Quality management, standards, and certification in LET
- Competence and skills development in lifelong learning
- Quality and standardization of learning assessment and evaluation
For the latest information on the conference and to submit any pre-conference feedback, please visit the LINQ Facebook page and follow the LINQ Twitter account.
LINQ 2013: Call for Papers and Projects Extended
The consistent demand demonstrated by applicants for the 2nd European Conference on "Learning Innovations and Quality" (LINQ) has encouraged the organizers at the University of Duisburg-Essen to extend the submission period for papers and project presentations until the March 4th, 2013.
The consistent demand demonstrated by applicants concerning the 2nd European Conference on "Learning Innovations and Quality" (LINQ) has encouraged the organizers at the University of Duisburg-Essen to extend the submission period for papers and project presentations until the 4th of March, 2013. LINQ, the leading annual European conference on learning innovations and learning quality, has already attracted submissions from throughout Europe, as well as Asia, America, and Africa. This year thus shows a continuation in the high level of interest which made LINQ 2012 such a successful conference in Brussels last year.
“We are pleasantly overwhelmed with the response to this year’s call for papers and call for projects,” says Christian M. Stracke, LINQ Conference Chair and international ISO Convener for learning quality from the University of Duisburg-Essen. “Through this extension we intend to even more greatly expand the diversity of both practical and theoretical approaches to the issue of digital repositories in lifelong learning, as well as learning innovations and quality.”
This year LINQ 2013 and its motto "Innovations and Quality: The Future of Digital Resources" addresses and invites experts active in the field of Innovations and Quality in Lifelong Learning (LLL). Potential points of access to this field include new learning methods and design, Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL), quality standards and certification, human resources development, competences and skills, digital resources, learning materials, and online collaboration and communities.
The LINQ 2013 call for papers invites all experts and practitioners to contribute to LINQ’s dialogue through the submission of high-quality papers describing fully-developed results, on-going work or innovative concepts related to the following topics:
• Innovations and future trends in Learning, Education and Training (LET)
• Quality improvement and learning outcome orientation in LET
• Harmonization of innovations and quality development in LET
• Digital resources, online repositories and metadata for online objects
• Web 2.0, Social Media and Online Communities for LET
• Open access, open educational resources and user-generated content
• Technology‐Enhanced Learning for schools, universities and lifelong learning
• Learning quality in vocational education and training and HR
• Implementation of learning innovations and quality improvements
• Knowledge, innovation and ideas management in LET contexts
• Standardisation of LET design, production and services
• Quality management, standards, and certification in LET
• Competence and skills development in lifelong learning
• Quality and standardization of learning assessment and evaluation
Submissions of papers related to the conference (max eight pages) must be sent by March 4th, 2013, using the official LINQ template. All papers will be reviewed by the international scientific LINQ Programme Committee through double-blind peer review. Submitters will be informed of their acceptance by the 20th of April 2013. All accepted papers can be presented at the LINQ conference, will be published in the official proceedings of the European conference (with ISBN) and distributed to all conference participants as well as throughout Europe. Specific guidelines and requirements can be found on the conference website at www.learning-innovations.eu.
Attendance at the European conference "Learning Innovations and Quality" (LINQ 2013) is subject to a conference fee (early bird rate: 90 €, after 31 March: 150€) and requires registration through the LINQ website, as places are limited. The conference fee includes all provisions including a warm 3-course lunch, the coffee breaks, the conference bag, and the official conference proceedings. At least one author has to register for the publication of an accepted paper.
Overview of the important dates:
- Paper submission deadline: 4th of March 2013
- Notification of acceptance: 20th of April 2013
- Camera-Ready copy due: 31st of April 2013
- Conference date: 16th and 17th of May 2013
For the latest information on the conference, please visit and like the LINQ Conference Facebook page at www.facebook.com/LINQConference and follow the LINQ Conference Twitter account at www.twitter.com/LINQ_Conference.
Please send full papers and direct enquiries to the LINQ Conference Manager Mrs Anne-Christin Tannhäuser, at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), Germany, via e-Mail to: anne.tannhaeuser (at) icb.uni-due.de
SPDECE-2011. Multidisciplinary symposium on the design and evaluation of digital content for education
For the eighth consecutive year will be held SPDECE. This is an event that provides an open framework for educators and computer specialists to discuss progress in the implementation of new technologies in education, covering aspects such as new teaching and learning environments, content standards and metadata, Learning Objects and Learning Designs and teaching materials in digital format.
SPDECE focuses on new training systems and electronic learning, based on the design of digital content. The topics include how to achieve greater flexibility and reuse of content for use in different learning contexts.This year the symposium is dedicated to the management and exploitation of knowledge models in educational practice.