e-Learning Excellence in the Middle East: Define. Design. Deliver: Held in: Mina A’ Salam and Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai- UAE 15th to 18th of January, 2008
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he main forum program was organized around this year’s theme: Define, Design and Deliver. The first day emphasized on the definition of excellence in e-learning through three outstanding keynote addresses by Professor Mohamed Zairi, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs at the e-TQM College, Dr. Janet Moore, Chief Learning Officer at Sloan Consortium and Professor Rozhan M. Idrus from Sains Malaysia University.
This first day of the forum also featured exciting interactive activities such as a debate addressing the statement “There is no such thing as e-Learning Excellence.” and a working forum which contributed to the drafting of the Dubai e-Learning Declaration. All attendees (keynote speakers, presenters and delegates) participated in this session to try reach a common understating on what constitutes excellence in e-learning.
The second day of the forum focusing on the design of excellence in e-learning started with an exclusive a keynote address by Dr. Richard Straub, Secretary General, European Learning Industry Group and Director of Development, European Foundation for Management Development who life long learning journey as a new paradigm where all forms of learning are included and the roles and responsibilities of all actors are being redefined; his presentation highlighted the macro-development and provided examples and proof points of the changes actually taking place.
The plenary was then followed by parallel presentations from authors of papers who were accepted; the presented papers addressed topics related to: e-faculty development and readiness to e-learning, learning innovations, quality matters in e-learning, teaching and learning, etc. Presents from different countries such as a UK, Canada, US, Greece, Malaysia, India, UAE, etc were present to share their experiences and knowledge with other participants. The day was concluded with a sumptuous gala dinner during which the winners of the Best Paper and Best Presentation Awards were announced. Dr. Kanishka Bedi was the winner of the Best Paper Award for his paper: Innovations in Defining, Designing and Delivering Online Corporate Training Programmes: A Case Study; While Jane Harris was announced as the winner of the Best Presentation Award for the presentation of her paper: e-Mentoring to Prepare and Support Learners. During the gala dinner the forum partners, sponsors and supporters were also acknowledged and thanked for their contribution to the making the forum a success.
The third day of the forum addressing delivery of excellence in e-learning featured two exceptional keynote addresses by Professor Erik Duval and Mr. Aseem Gupta. On this same day the e-TQM College has launched three of its new initiatives in its quest to encourage research and development in e-learning; these initiatives included: the launch of the Center of Excellence in e-Learning, the inauguration of the e-Learning Grid and the launch of the International Journal of Excellence in e-Learning. The launch of these initiatives was followed by the announcement of the Dubai e-Learning Declaration.
The e-Learning souq accompanied this third day of the forum, during which exhibitors had the opportunity to showcase their latest services and products. This year’s agenda also offered participants the opportunity to attend eight half days post forum workshops which took place on the afternoon of the 17th of January, 2008 and the morning of the 18th of January, 2008. The post forum workshops received extremely good feedback from participants.
A variety of networking and social events took place alongside with the forum which allowed for people to network and discuss common interests. The first e-Learning Excellence in the Middle East Forum enjoyed the support and the sponsorship of the following organizations and institutions.
Link: http://elexforum.etqm.ae/index.htm
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