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Massive open online courses may offer countries around the world an affordable way to democratize higher education, but at best such a possibility is a long way off. This was the conclusion of a recent event in Washington D.C. sponsored by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research - which financially supports ICDE. The meeting sought to find solutions to problems shared by Norway, Canada, and the United States. Tony Bates, Research Associate at ICDE member Contact North - Contact Nord, Canada and Berit Kjeldstad, Pro-Rector for Education at ICDE member, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology spoke at the event.
Torbjorn Roe Isaksen, Norway’s Minister of Education and Research, said MOOCs have the potential to “give people all over the world access to education.” But he said he knew of no MOOCs reaching into developing countries in South America and Africa. He further noted that MOOCs are not necessarily attracting people who have never had a formal education in the first place. More...

Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) announces the 4th African Council for Distance Education (ACDE) Conference and General Assembly, which will take place in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe from 6-9 June 2014 on the theme of “Continental Integration through ODL in Africa”.
The conference sub-themes are:

1.     The philosophical context of ODL
2.     The rationale for open access and empowerment
3.     Inclusive ODL philosophy and the elitist philosophy of higher education
4.     The role of ODL in the socio-economic context of higher education.
5.     ODL: The virtual empowerment model in higher education
6.     Quality Assurance across ODL programmes. More...

To help build a global overview of MOOCs, ICDE in cooperation with the Open University of China organized a think tank, “Mind to MOOCs”, immediately after the ICDE World Conference. Invited experts from all regions of the world and senior management of a number of ICDE member institutions debated this current opportunity and challenge for higher education. As part of the preparations, ICDE undertook a survey of its institutional members, with 80% of respondents reporting that they have launched or are planning to launch at least one Massive Open and Online Course (MOOC).
The think tank began with a summary of the status of MOOCs, and reflections on MOOCs' importance and impact from North America, Latin America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Australasia. More...

ICDE member the Arab Open University recently organized the 1st AOU International Conference on Open Learning in Kuwait on the theme of Role, Challenges, and Aspirations.
The conference, organized in collaboration with the Regional Center for Development of Educational Software was attended by 250 people representing Arab and international organizations and universities, as well as government and non-government organizations from inside and outside Kuwait. In addition to the Minister of Education and Higher Education in Kuwait, the opening ceremony was attended by the Minister of Higher Education in the Republic of Sudan and the Minister of Higher Education in the Republic of Lebanon. More...

How can the distance education offered by European higher education institutions be better matched to the needs of adult learners? ICDE is proud to announce its partnership with the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning and StudyPortals in the Impact of Distance Education on Adult Learning project. The project will run until 2015 with financial support from the EU Lifelong Learning Programme.
The IDEAL project will seek to achieve better understanding of distance education offered by higher education institutions and to examine how higher education institutions can contribute to adult learning by way of distance education. More...

In an increasingly open and online world, ensuring quality higher and adult education is more important than ever. The ICDE Quality Review service for institutions provides member institutions with the opportunity to initiate an independent, external peer-review of the service provided to the student. The Quality Review process is an ICDE member service designed to promote and support quality open, distance, flexible and online education.
The focus for the ICDE Quality Review service is the enhancement of quality of student support. As a central element of open, distance and online education it will involve many aspects of an institution. More...

Nelson Mandela's commitment to the importance of education for all, and to its power to create change was undoubted. What is less well known is that he was an alumnus of ICDE member institution, the University of South Africa (Unisa). Nelson Mandela was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 by the Nobel Committee, appointed by the Norwegian parliament. Norway has been the host country for ICDE since the government began to support the organization in 1988.
Mandla S Makhanya, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Unisa writes that, "President Mandela was one of us – an illustrious alumnus with whom we took the long walk in his thirst for knowledge and education, culminating in his acquiring all his degrees, BA Law and LLB from Unisa". More...

Have you ever looked for good research data on the global impact of distance or online learning and discovered that this just doesn't exist?
ICDE has partnered with UNESCO, the European Commission, the International Association of Universities, the Sloan Consortium, StudyPortals and Babson Survey Research Group to begin work on this formidable task.
Context
The global landscape of post-secondary education is in a period of dramatic change. A significant driver for this has been a dramatic rise in the use of technology and the extension of the traditional campus to more learners.
Although there is clear evidence of the growth of online learning, the global data remains anecdotal or limited in scope. There has been no formal effort or process to define online learning in the global context. More...

ICDE International Conference 2014. Connecting the World through Open, Distance and e-Learning. Sept. 25-26, 2014 Moscow, Russia. 
An ICDE International Conference will be hosted by Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics (MESI) in Moscow, Russia, 25-26 September 2014.
Venue of the Conference (September 25-26): Renaissance Moscow Olympic Hotel, Moscow, Russian Federation Address: 18/1 Olimpiysky Prospect, Moscow 129110, Russian Federation.
The conference will discuss economic, technological and social aspects of distance education, closing the gap between formal education and work, e-learning in conventional institutions, and the balance between quality and diversity and plurality.
Conference website. Flyer ICDE Conference MESI 2014. 
Conference
The development of technology considerably changes major characteristics and even the philosophy of education. Distance learning and e-learning have become a part of daily life and penetrate into conventional educational establishments. OER and MOOCs, as well as emerging smart education challenge existing educational systems. The kaleidoscope of approaches, techniques, breakthroughs and gaps in education make sharing experience and promoting cooperation a vital necessity at international, regional, national, local and institutional levels.
THEME OF THE ICDE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2014:
Connecting the World through Open, Distance and e-Learning
SUB-THEMES:

• distance education: the economic, technological, pedagogical and social outlook
• open, distance and flexible learning for reduction of the gap between formal education and work
• e-learning in a conventional educational establishment: challenges and possibilities
• distance and smart education: narrowing or widening digital and cognitive gaps?
• quality and standards of educational provision in distance settings; social and cultural diversity and linguistic plurality; educational tradition and innovation – where does the balance lie?
• open, distance and e-learning as a field for cooperation at international, regional, interregional, national, local and institutional levels.

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Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) have just published their BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) university rankings, a collaborative effort with Interfax, the Russian news agency. The top ten contains seven Chinese, two Brazilian and one Russian university. There are none from South Africa or India, although the University of Cape Town is eleventh. The methodology is based on the QS World University Rankings methodology but with some important modifications to reflect the situation of emerging economies.
On the subjective side the employer survey has a weighting of 20%, compared to 10% in the World University Rankings, while the weighting for the academic survey is reduced to 30%. These rankings also assess universities for faculty student ratio (20%), faculty with Ph Ds (10%), papers per faculty (10%), citations per faculty (5%), international faculty (2.5%) and international students (2.5%).
The top five overall are:

In the top 100 there are 40 Chinese, 19 Russian, 17 Brazilian, 16 Indian and 8 South African universities. More...