The Belt & Road Open Education Learning Week has Successfully Completed

date:2017-12-27 14:18author:小编source:Smart Learning Instituteviews:

On December 18-20, 2017
The online discussion has lasted 5 days.
It has invited 23 guests from 14 countries.
It has attracted more than 300 participants from over 10 countries.
Participants spontaneously formed a number of parallel sessions for heated discussion.

 
        In order to actively respond to the concept and appeal of open educational resources (OER) initiated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Smart Learning Institute of Beijing Normal University (SLIBNU) (The Belt & Road Open OER International Community) initiated the Belt & Road Open Education Learning Week. The Learning Week lasted for 5 days (from December 18-22, 2017). 23 renowned experts, leaders from educational institutes and enterprises in the open educational domain of 14 countries made online discussion on some hot issues with audience like innovative practice of The Belt & Road OER, the role of teachers and students as well as international cooperation. It has invited more than 300 participants online and offline from over 10 countries.
Online Discussion
        In 2015, UNESCO approved Education 2030 Framework for Action, proposing the SDG4-Education 2030 Agenda of the United Nations, that is, “to ensure inclusive, equitable and high-quality education, and to promote the opportunity for lifelong learning for all”. The Belt & Road Initiative proposed by China has provided new opportunities for cooperation and communication among different countries in different processes of development. Meanwhile, ICT has increasingly provided more chances for open education and open learning as well as supplied more inclusive, equitable and high-quality education with more internal power. In the Belt & Road Initiative, it needs to further explore the ways of implementing the role of government, schools, enterprises and other social forces as well as activate and enrich the connotation of educational cooperation. The Learning Week is aimed to establishing an international exchange and cooperation platform based on online discussion, promoting the specific action of the application of OER in the institutes of The Belt & Road countries as well as achieving the goal of inclusive, equitable and high-quality education so as to promote the opportunity for lifelong learning for all.
        The Learning Week had five sub forums: “State-of-the-art and case studies of OER development”、”Innovative OER practice to achieve SDG4”、”The role of teachers, students and institutions in OER”、”Harnessing OER for development of ICT competency” and “Experience on international OER cooperation”. Fengchun Miao, Chief of Unit for ICT in Education, UNESCO; Zeynep Varoglu and Joe Hironaka, Programme Specialists, ICT in Education, Knowledge Societies Division, Communication and Information Sector, UNESCO; Airina, President of EDEN, Director of Innovative Studies Institute, Vytautas Magnus University; Bojan Lalic, Director of Belt and Road Institute, Head of Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, University of Novi Sad; Christian M. Stracke, ICDE Chair in OER and Associate Professor for Open Education and Innovation; Fawzi Baroud, Assistant Vice President for Information Technology at Notre Dame University made excellent reports respectively.

The colorful schedule and effective form of the Learning Week has not only demonstrated the latest OER research outcome in The Belt & Road countries, even in the whole world, but also shared the international cooperation and practical experiences in the OER domain, which would provide an exchange platform for educational researchers and teachers in The Belt & Road countries to further their mutual understanding. Participants spontaneously formed many parallel sessions, including overseas sessions in Serbia, Thailand and others, as well as domestic sessions in Beijing Normal University, Capital Normal University, Higher Education Press, National Centre for Open & Distance Education, etc.  
Parallel Sessions in Serbia
Parallel Sessions in Thailand
Parallel Session in Beijing Normal University
Parallel Session in Capital Normal University
Parallel Session in Higher Education Press
Parallel Session in National Centre for Open & Distance Education
The Belt & Road OER International Community is a non-profitable open international community initiated by SLIBNU and voluntarily organized by colleges, universities, research institutes, publishing units aiming at the development of OER. Based on the concept and action of UNESCO on OER, the Community has a good linkage mechanism among community members guided by China’s The Belt & Road Initiative. Drawing from the experiences of implementing OER in developed and developing countries, it has helped make plans for the direction of OER development in The Belt & Road countries and achieved the international construction and development of OER on the basis of co-constructed and shared resource platform. Currently, more than 30 countries and districts has joined the Community, including Arabic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (22 countries) as well as colleges, universities, research institutes and publishing unit from Bahrain , India, Maldives, Malaysia, Egypt, Serbia, Ukraine, Romania, Greece, etc.

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