The 26th AAOU Annual Conference (16-18 Oct. 2012)
OUJ hosted the 26th Annual Conference of Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan. The main theme of the conference was “Expanding the frontiers of Knowledge through Open and Distance Learning in Changing Societies,” and six scholars and policy makers in the field delivered keynote and plenary speeches. In the parallel sessions, over 100 participants presented their papers on one of the eight sub-themes. About 300 participants from 22 countries and regions attended this conference. A special session titled “Crisis and Risk Management” was also held to present what has been learned from the great east Japan earthquake of March 11, 2011. In addition, OUJ campus tours were organized for participants to visit our facilities of the TV recording studios, the master control room and the Chiba study center.
Official website of the 26th Annual Conference of AAOU 2012 can be accessed through
http://aaou2012.ouj.ac.jp/
The 4th OUJ, KNOU, OUC International Seminar (17 Sep. 2012)
Korea National Open University (KNOU) organized the annual seminar this year in Seoul as a part of “KNOU’s 40th Anniversary International Forum” under the title of “Future of Open and Distance Learning for Knowledge Network Society”. The theme of the 4th OUJ, KNOU, OUC International Seminar was “Practices & Challenges of Open Universities for Knowledge Network Society”. Six OUJ delegates attended the seminar and made presentations on each of the two subthemes entitled “Collaboration with other Institutes for Knowledge Network” and “Current Status & Challenges of Open Educational Resources”, and engaged in vibrant discussions with participants from Korea and China.
2012 OUJ International Symposium (16 Feb. 2012)
The annual international symposium organized by the Center of ICT and Distance Education (CODE), OUJ, was held at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan. Five experts from U.K., Australia, Canada, Korea and Japan were invited and presented their views with regards to the symposium theme, “Student Assessment in Distance Learning and e- Learning.” After all the presentations by the speakers, a panel discussion was carried out on the topic of “Challenges of Appropriately Assessing Distance Learning Students' Performance” and questions and comments from the audience were also addressed.
The papers and presentations can be accessed through
http://www.code.ouj.ac.jp/sympo/2012/eng/
The OUJ-GLOBE International Seminar (8 Feb. 2012)
The Center for ICT and Distance Education at the Open University of Japan (OUJ-CODE) hosted an OUJ-GLOBE International Seminar, titled “Development, Distribution and Publishing of Cross-media Learning Content in Global Knowledge-based Society” in Tokyo. After the opening remarks by Dr. Katsuhiko Shirai (Chairperson, the Foundation for the Open University of Japan), the delegates from 14 member organizations of Global Learning Object Brokered Exchange Consortium (GLOBE, http://www.globe-info.org/) and invited speakers from an Asian open university and Japanese public/private sectors had a series of plenary speeches and discussions with the audience.
The 25th AAOU Annual Conference (28-30 Sep. 2011)
The 25th Annual Conference of Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) was organized by and held at Wawasan Open University in Penang, Malaysia. The main theme was “Transforming Asia through Open Distance Learning (ODL).” Over 300 international and Malaysian participants including 9 delegates from OUJ participated in the conference. Three OUJ professors made presentations on one of the five conference subthemes. In the closing session, the OUJ president, Dr. Okabe announced that OUJ would host the next annual conference in 2012, and showed the OUJ’s PR video. The overall presentation was very well received by the participants.
Official website of the 25th Annual Conference of AAOU 2011 can be accessed through
http://www.aaou.net/aaou2011/
The 3rd OUJ, KNOU, OUC International Seminar (19 Sep. 2011)
The 3rd international seminar was organized by the Open University of China (OUC) in Beijing. 4 delegates from OUJ, 6 from KNOU, 23 from OUC participated in the seminar and discussed the overall theme of "Reforming Educational Management in Open Universities.” The one day seminar consisted of a series of presentations and discussions. The topic of the morning session was "Effective Management of Open Universities", and that of the afternoon session was "Facilitating Life-long Learning and Learning for All through Integration of ODL Resources."
More information about the seminar can be accessed through
http://202.205.161.64/news/473/473
2011 OUJ International Symposium (23 Feb. 2011)
The annual International Symposium was organized by the Center of ICT and Distance Education (CODE), OUJ. In this symposium, experts from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, U.K. and Japan were invited to present their views on digital literacy based on their research and actual activities related to the topic. It also discussed issues and directions educators have to consider in developing digital literacy of students, as well as teachers themselves.
The papers and presentations can be accessed through
http://www.code.ouj.ac.jp/sympo/2011/eng/
The 2nd OUJ, KNOU, OUC International Seminar (3 Sep. 2010)
The 2nd international seminar was organized by OUJ. 11 delegates from China and 5 delegates from Korea participated in the event. The seminar consisted of a series of presentations followed by discussions. The overall theme of the seminar was "Improving Educational Services in Open Universities," in which the subtheme of the morning session was "Student Support", and that of the afternoon session was "Professional Development of Teaching Staff"
The papers and presentations can be accessed through
http://www.ouj.ac.jp/eng/nicchukan-seminar-e.html
2010 OUJ International Symposium (18 Feb. 2010)
The International Symposium was organized by the Center of ICT and Distance Education (CODE), OUJ. In this symposium, experts from Australia, Japan, Korea, U.K. and U.S. were invited to present their views on the student-centered teaching and learning based on their actual experiences in implementing student-centered learning. It also discussed how we can implement student-centered learning in higher education institutions in Japan.
The papers and presentations can be accessed through
http://www.code.ouj.ac.jp/sympo/2010/eng/
The World Conference of Open University Presidents in Saitama (14 Nov. 2009)
The World Conference of Open University Presidents was held in Saitama, co-hosted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the municipal government of Saitama, and OUJ. Presidents and vice presidents of open universities from ten countries (Canada, China, Indonesia, U.S.A., U.K, Thailand, New Zealand, Malaysia, Korea and Japan) gathered for this event. The participants made interesting presentations and had lively discussions on the theme of "International Perspectives for Building Lifelong Learning Communities and Roles of Distance Education." The event was open to the general public, and more than 300 people attended the conference.
Open University presidents and vice presidents from the aforementioned countries delivered their presentations over two days. Each presenter spoke about relevant situations in his/her own institution and country, and presented the current status and future prospects of open universities. Their presentations made it clear that the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for building new communities would be a common future issue among the educators and the students. Ample time was allotted for question and answer sessions at the conference, which allowed for a constructive exchange of views.
The papers and presentations can be accessed through
http://www.ouj.ac.jp/symposium/sympo-english.html
The OUJ-GLOBE International Seminar (15 Oct. 2009)
The Center of ICT and Distance Education (CODE) hosted the OUJ-GLOBE International Seminar at the International Conference Hall at Makuhari Messe. GLOBE is an international consortium formed to share and reuse learning objects on a global scale. It is made up of thirteen core institutional members from different countries that develop and distribute learning objects. Invited speakers from EDUCAUSE which promotes ICT utilization in higher education in the United States and the UK Open University delivered their presentations. Seminar participants actively exchanged their views on the latest trends in sharing and reusing learning objects. It is anticipated that OUJ, as a founding member of GLOBE, will link campus-based education to distance education, and higher education to lifelong learning.
The 1st OUJ, OUC and KNOU Seminar (4 Sep. 2009)
In line with the KNOU-OUJ international exchange agreement signed on September 22, 2008, the OUJ President Ishi proposed to organize a seminar together which was later agreed also by OUC to participate. The 1st International Seminar, organized by OUJ, KNOU and OUC, was held in Seoul, Korea.
The seminar theme was "Innovation of Educational Practices in Open Universities." The first session centering on the topic of "Media Use and e-Learning of Distance Education" featured presentations delivered by one speaker from each institution, and followed by general discussion. A common theme that emerged in the discussion was to the difficulty of encouraging positive student involvement in their learning. In the second session, participants from each institution gave presentations on the topic of "Functions of Regional Campuses". The issues of institutional name recognition and the presence of competitors in the area of distance education were addressed in the subsequent general discussion.