Barcelona (ES), May 2010 - "Impact and Sustainability" is the theme of Open Ed 2010, organized by the Open University of Catalunya, the Open University of the Netherlands, and the David O. McKay School of Education at Brigham Young University. It is being held in Barcelona, Spain on 02-04 November 2010, and this is the first time in its existence the conference convenes outside of North America.
The Open Education Conference has been described as "the annual reunion of the open education family". Each year the Conference serves as the world's premiere venue for research related to open education, while simultaneously creating the most friendly and energetic atmosphere you'll find at any academic conference. The prospects are even better this year, as it will take place in Cosmo Caixa, one of Europe's best science museums.
The general objective of the conference is to give a space for discussion, research, practice sharing, and community building around the Open Education and Open Educational Resources (OER) movement, concentrating primarily, but not exclusively, on issues dealing with OER's coming-of-age. The OpenEd Conference is increasingly recognized as the international forum for those who wish to present and discuss their innovations and/or research projects, and for those who wish to learn about the institutional decisions needed to make open education a reality.
Under the theme -œOER: Impact and Sustainability-, the organizers wish to share and discuss OER and other Open Education projects. Discussions will also focus on how these projects are designed, implemented, and sustained, as well as what their business models are. Participants will also scrutinize what the different communities of learners require in order to allow OER projects to become a transforming engine for education, improving learning outcomes, and facilitating access to education to more and more people.
Keynote speakers include Gajaraj Dhanarajan, former Vice Chancellor of Wawasan Open University, Malaysia; Brenda Gourley, former Vice Chancellor of The Open University, UK; Erik Duval, Professor of Computer Science at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium; and Raquel Xalabarder, Director of Learning Resources at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain.
The first two days of the conference will be dedicated to presenting research, developments, best cases, and so forth in a conference format. The final day will focus on the development of a White Paper on OER.
