Open ECBCheck is a new accreditation and quality-improvement scheme for eLearning programmes and institutions in international capacity building. It supports capacity building organisations to measure how successful their eLearning programmes are and allows for continuous improvement though peer collaboration and benchmarking.

During the past month, EFQUEL has had the opportunity to collect feedback from international organisations' pilot trials in which the ECB toolset was tested under real conditions. Among them were UNITAR, FAO, Open University Philipines, the African Virtual University, and others. The workshops at eLearning Africa will include the findings of the research and other highly relevant topics.

The sessions are:

I) The Third International Advisory Board Meeting of Open ECBCheck

Topic: Governance structure for the Quality Certification scheme

The meeting is planned as a full-day workshop and will take place on 26 May 2009, one day before the eLearning Africa Conference starts. A meeting room has been reserved directly in the conference premises: Le Méridien President, Pointe des Almadies, Dakar, Senegal.

II) Pre-Conference Workshop

In addition to the meeting, EFQUEL is organizing a pre-conference seminar on Open ECBCheck in which achievements and outcomes of the previous workshop(s) will be presented. The seminar is for the African community and will present the progress of the research as well as offer the tools for community use.

Seminar M3: Open ECBCheck - A Community-Based Quality Label

Time: 09:00 - 13:00

Price: Free for African participants; €35 fee for non-African participants

Languages: English and French

III) The open ECBCheck approach to the delegates of the 3rd UNESCO-UNEVOC TVET Summit on "Access and Inclusion: Improving TVET Through ICT-Based Information and Learning Solutions". The presentation to the summit delegates will take place after the Open ECBCheck Seminar.