The 22nd AAOU Annual Conference - 14-16 October 2008, Tianjin, China

First call for Papers

The 22nd AAOU Annual Conference
14-16 October 2008, Tianjin, China

Theme

New Development, New Trends and New Missions of Open and Distance Education in Asia and the World

In order to interpret the theme completely and accurately, the annual conference will generalize systematically and exhibit intensively the following from six aspects: culture£¬system£¬technology£¬learning resource£¬quality and service, especially taking culture and regulation assurance for open and distance education as the sub-themes of the conference. The 22nd AAOU Annual Conference will provide a broad and rational platform for educators and all friends who are engaged or interested in the open and distance education.

For more than 20 years since the establishment of AAOU, Asian and international open education has been making new achievements with the idea of life-long learning, the progress of economic globalization and educational technology, but it is faced with new opportunities and great challenges as well.

It is of great significance to summarize the achievements made so far, grasping the new trends of distance education development, discussing new missions in building life-long learning systems and society, strengthening friendship and cooperation among educators and friends from various social circles, pushing forward the scientific development of open and distance education in Asia and the world and promoting economic development, social progress and human civilization.

Sub-themes

1. The Culture of Open and Distance Education
• Cultural attributes and connotations of open education
• Development of a culture in open universities and some case studies
• Learners' culture in open education
• Cultural characteristics of instructional design in open and distance education
• Research into the culture of cross-border distance education
• The spread of culture and new cultural developments in open education

2. Quality in Open and Distance Education
• The concept of quality in universal education
• Accreditation systems and social appraisal of open and distance education
• The quality of teaching and learning in open and distance education
• Quality assurance in online training
• Quality in cross-border education
• Staff development in corporate universities

3. Educational Technology in Open and Distance Education
• New developments in ICT systems
• New technology in designing online learning platform
• New technology for creating teaching media
• M-learning: design and implementation
• Application of semantic web technologies in open and distance education
• Simulation and its application in online learning

4. Learning Resources in Open and Distance Education
• Research on standards for learning resources and its applications
• Scientific management of learning resources and case studies
• Open access to international courses and sharing of resources
• Development of learning resource libraries for distance education
• Integration of different media in open education
• The way forward for open learning resource development in Asian universities

5. Study Support for Open and Distance Education
• Service models for different types of distance learners
• Support in student-centred education
• Changes in the role of distance education tutors
• Development of public service systems in distance education and examples
• Production chains and logistics support in open and distance education
• Development of information systems and community education
6. Regulation Assurance and Management Innovation in Open and Flexible Learning
• Open education and educational equality
• Systems and mechanisms for sustainable development of distance education
• Comparative study of open educational systems and intellectual property protection in Asia
• Establishment of study centres for online learning and their management
• Reforms in examinations and assessment in open and distance learning
• Cost effectiveness in open and distance education

Important Dates

15 June, 2008 Deadline for Abstracts
30 June, 2008 Notification of Acceptance of the Abstracts
30 July, 2008 Submission of Full Papers
31 August, 2008 Early-bird Registration Deadline
30 September, 2008 Deadline for Registration

Abstracts are to be submitted electronically through:
Email :aaou2008@tjrtvu.edu.cn or aaou2008@yahoo.cn

Contact Us

AAOU2008 Secretariat
Tianjin Radio & TV University
No. 1 Yingshui Road, Nankai District
Tianjin 300191, PR China
Tel: +86 22 23671931
+86 22 23679937
Fax: +86 22 23679972
Email: aaou2008@tjrtvu.edu.cn or aaou2008@yahoo.cn
Website: http://aaou.tjrtvu.edu.cn