Deborah Arnold worked previously at Vidéoscop, the audiovisual and multimedia production department of Université Nancy 2. She has a background in teaching and training, media production and instructional design as well as considerable experience in coordinating European projects, including SEVAQ+ for the self-evaluation of quality in technology-enhanced learning in which EDEN is a partner.

Deborah is a member of the board of directors of the FFFOD (French Forum for Open and Distance Learning) and the executive committee of EFODL (European Foundation for Open and Digital Learning). She is a member of the organising committee of the MEDEA awards which recognise excellence in the production and use of digital media for learning and intervenes as an expert assisting the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) in the management of the Lifelong Learning Programme, specifically for Erasmus Virtual Campuses and ICT.

Deborah teaches multimedia project management on the Master 2 Euromédias at Université de Bourgogne and the analysis of educational media on an online Master for Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle.

She is a National and international projects coordinator at AUNEGe, France

Director for the UNESCO Chair in Education and Technology for Social Change. Professor and researcher at the Open University of Catalonia, Department of Psychology and Education. Member of the founder team of this university (1994-95), where I served as Director, Methodology and Educational Innovation until 2004, being in charge of the educational model of the university; Director of the M.Sc. program in Education and ICT (e-learning) (2006-2012), and Director of the eLearn Center (2012-2014). I have worked as a consultant and trainer in several online and blended learning projects in Europe, America, Asia, and Australia, focusing on implementation strategies for the use of technology in teaching and learning and its quality. Former Vice-president, European Foundation of Quality on E-Learning (EFQUEL), and member of the Executive Committee of EDEN (2003-2009). Recipient of the 2015 Award for Excellence in eLearning awarded by the World Education Congress.

Researcher at the Edul@b research group, and Research Associate at Contact North, Canada.

Current Director of the Industrial Doctorates Programme, Government of Catalonia.

Diana Andone is the Director of the eLearning Center at the Politehnica University of Timisoara in Romania. Diana  runs the team who developed the university’s award wining Virtual Campus CVUPT and is also lecturer at the “Politehnica” University of Timisoara, Romania, in the area of multimedia and web technologies.  She is passionate about the ubiquitous access to technologies and how they can be used to improve people’s life. Diana holds a PhD in Designing eLearning Spaces for Digital Students with University of Brighton, UK, an MA in European Studies, an “Learning about Open Learning”, postgraduate distance education course at the Herriott-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK; an MSc in Artificial Intelligence at the “Politehnica” University of Timisoara, Romania. Her publication list comprises 9 books and 82 papers presented at international conferences, she is reviewer for 12 International Conferences, 4 journals, 6 best paper awards at different conferences and since 2010 Co-chair at the IADIS WWW/Internet International Conference. In 2012 she received the EDEN Fellow Title.

Inés Gil Jaurena is an EDEN Fellow and member of the Steering Committee of the EDEN Network of Academic and Professionals (EDEN NAP). She is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education at the National Distance Education University (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia-UNED), Spain. She has been Editor-in-chief of Open Praxis, a scientific journal published by the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE), in the period 2012-2022. She coordinates the CO-Lab teaching innovation group at UNED.

Dr. Don Olcott, Jr., FRSA, is President of HJ Associates, specialising in global open and distance learning; and Honorary Professor of Educational Leadership and ODL at the University of South Africa and an adjunct instructor with Oldenburg University, Germany.   In June 2018, Don was made a senior Fellow of the European Distance and eLearning Network (EDEN) and was honoured as a global Leader and Legend of Online Learning.  Don is the Chair of the EDEN Council of Fellows for 2021-2022 and a recently-elected member of the EDEN Executive Committee.  He was adjunct Professor of Leadership and ODL at the University of Maryland Global Campus from 2011 -2021.

From 2014-2017, he served as a visiting Professor and Co-Director of the unimagine Digital Innovation Laboratory and as Head of Virtual Campus at Charles Sturt University in Australia.  Don was elected Vice Chair of the EDEN Council of Fellows in February 2019.  He previously served as an ICDE Ambassador for the Global Advocacy of OER and on the ICDE OER Advocacy Committee (OERAC).  He is former (2011-2021) Professor of Educational Leadership and ODL with the University of Maryland Global Campus (USA).

From 2011-2013 he served in a lead consultancy role as the manager of strategic planning and international engagement with the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) system office in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) assisting in online higher education delivery and strategic planning.

Dr. Olcott brings 40 years of experience and leadership in open and distance education, business and the military.   He was the 2016 Stanley Draczek Outstanding Teaching Award recipient from the University of Maryland Global Campus for excellence in online teaching and learning.  Don served two terms on the Steering Committee of the European Distance and eLearning Network’s (EDEN) Network of Academic Professionals (NAP).  He has served as an EDEN conference speaker and on numerous EDEN Annual Conference Planning committees.

Dr. Olcott is former Chief Executive of The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education (OBHE) in the UK (2007-2011), former Chairman of the Board of Directors and President of the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) and is a 2010 EDEN Fellow bestowed by the European Distance and eLearning Network (EDEN) for his leadership and contributions to European open and distance learning.  During 2014, he also consulted on major projects with the African Virtual University (AVU) in Kenya; Microsoft (Indonesia) and with the British Council in the UK and Columbia.   As president of USDLA in collaboration with his Board of Directors, Don led the founding of National Distance Learning Week (NDLW) which was offered in 2007 in the U.S.  and has since expanded to other regions of the world including Europe and Australasia.

Dr. Olcott was the 2013 recipient of the International Council of Distance Education (ICDE) Individual Prize of Excellence for his leadership and contributions to global open and distance education.  Don holds dual Canadian-U.S. citizenship.  Dr. Olcott was inducted in to the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) Hall of Fame in May 2014.  Don formally served on the external Strategy Group of the Open University, served on the UK Online Learning Task Force (2009-2011); and is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (FRSA).   Dr. Olcott recently completed an honorary three-year (2011-2014) appointment as Professor of Education and ODL with the Faculty for the Professions at the University of New England – Australia.  Dr. Olcott is a former member of USDLA’s Board of Directors (2001-2015) and former chair of the association’s global partnership committee.

Dr. Olcott serves as the Distinguished Global Advisor and Editor for the International Journal of Open Educational Resources (IJOER).   He serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Learning for Development (COL), the Merlot Journal of Online Teaching andLearnin; Open Education (Greece), Open Learning (UK), The American Journal of Distance Education (AJDE), and the Asian Journal of Distance Education.

Dr. Olcott previously served for six years as regional editor on the editorial board of Athabasca University’s International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL) from 2001-2007 and on the Distance Education (Australia) editorial board from 2008 – 2017.   Dr. Olcott was the senior editor on all research published by The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education 2007-2011.  He served on the editorial board of the European Journal of Open and Distance Learning (EURODL) from 2008-2020 and the International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education – formerly the Revista de Universidad y Sociedad del Conocimient (Spain) from 2008 – 2020.

Don was the 1998 recipient of the Charles Wedemeyer award as the Outstanding Distance Education Practitioner in North America awarded by The American Centre for the Study of Distance Education and the University of Wisconsin – Madison.  He has published extensively for thirty years in ODL and international education and has consulted with universities, governments, and corporations across the globe.  Dr. Olcott also has extensive experience teaching online and other technologies, designing curriculum, and developing assessment tools for online learning.  Serving as lead editor, his 2006 book ‘Dancing on the Glass Ceiling:  Women, Leadership and Technology’ is one of the first scholarly publications that examined women’s leadership in open and distance learning and technology.

He has held faculty and key leadership appointments at The Observatory on Borderless Higher Educaiton (London), Western Washington University, UMGC, Oldenburg University, the University of Missouri, Oregon State University, the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education (WICHE), the University of Arizona, Western Oregon University, the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT-UAE) and Charles Sturt University (Australia).  Dr. Olcott has worked in the private sector as a Vice President for Higher Education and in his chief executive and research role with OBHE.

He earned his bachelors and masters’ degrees from Western Washington University and took a doctorate at Oregon State University in higher education leadership.  He has also completed advanced professional development at Harvard University, New York University and Cambridge University – UK.

Dr. Olcott’s research interests include language and culture in cross-border higher education, sustainable ODL and OER business models, innovative learning design models for ODL and OER, and leadership and innovation in open and distance learning and open educational resources (OER).  His personal interests include golf, history, travel, languages and culture.  Don and his wife Nicoleta divide their time between the U.S., Canada and Romania.

Email:

don.olcott@gmail.com

donald.olcott@uni-oldenburg.de

Phone: +40 760 914 852

António M. Teixeira (Lisbon, 1965) is an Associate Professor with tenure at Universidade Aberta (UAb), the Portuguese open university, since 1991. A member of the Department of Education and Distance Learning which he headed from 2016 to 2020, he’s also a researcher at the University of Lisbon’s Center of Philosophy and collaborates with the University of Rome 3 as well as the Distance and eLearning Lab (LEaD) at UAb. He was a visiting scholar at the Korean National Open University (2010).

Having graduated from the University of Lisbon where he received his PhD (2003) and MPhil (1994) in Philosophy, Dr. Teixeira conducted his training in online education at the University of Turku (2004).

From 2006 to 2009, he was Pro-rector for innovation in Distance Learning at Universidade Aberta. In that capacity, he conceived the strategy and managed the university’s successful and speedy transition process from a print-based distance learning institution to a fully online one. He was also responsible for the design and initial implementation of the university’s research lab on distance education (LEaD) and the university’s open access scientific repository (Repositório Aberto).