Release date：2021.07.06
IIOE Partnership Meeting 2021 (Africa and West Asia)
— Building Higher Education Back Better: An Institutional Ecosystem that Drives and Supports
Online and Blended Learning
The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the urgency of adopting online and blended learning, especially at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in developing countries. Even as university campuses are gradually reopening, online education has become more than a supplement to face-to-face education, but a new normal that supports and is supported by face-to-face education. UNESCO's global survey "COVID-19: Reopening and Reimagining Universities" launched in June, 2021 shows that more and more countries are shifting to online education, while the blended mode of teaching has become the most popular form. However, the adoption of online and blended learning needs a holistic approach and committment of all higher education stakeholders, including higher education workforce, HEIs, governments, and the private sector. In order to provide systematic guidance to HEIs and all higher education stakeholders to plan and implement quality online education, a solid quality assurance framework tailored to online and blended learning is urgently needed to support and facilitate HEIs to build a conducive ecosystem for the planning and implementation of online and blended learning.
The International Institute of Online Education (IIOE), launched by UNESCO-ICHEI with 11 leading HEIs in Africa and Asia, 9 global EdTech enterprises, and 4 HEIs in China in December 2019 in Shenzhen, China is committed to addressing common challenges facing higher education in developing countries, such as access to higher education, quality and relevance of HE programmes, as well as the capacity and qualifications of the higher education workforce. Supported by UNESCO, IIOE aims to strengthen the capacity of HEIs and especially the capacity of higher education workforce to conduct online and blended learning, in order to enhance higher education quality and access in developing countries and to help achieve SDG4.
In order to achieve its goals, IIOE has implemented a series of programmes and initiatives to support HEIs in higher education innovation and promote digital transformation. This includes customised capacity building programmes for higher education workforce in terms of online education, and application of frontier ICT technologies (i.e Big Data and Artificial Intelligence) in higher education; provision of multilingual online courses in the field of ICT; and establishing a multi-stakeholder network for online education encompassing HEIs, enterprises and international organisations. As a key component of IIOE, the IIOE Quality Assurance Framework 1.0 and its online self-assessment tool was launched in December 2019 and has been widely utilised by IIOE partner HEIs as a reference and supportive tool to plan their actions in online and blended learning.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, IIOE partner HEIs that were actively engaged in online and blended learning provided UNESCO-ICHEI with feedback on IIOE's teacher capacity building programmes, development of IIOE online courses and revising the IIOE ICT Competency Framework for Higher Education Teachers. Notably, there is an increasing call for an updated IIOE Quality Assurance Framework to support partner HEIs in planning and implementing online and blended learning. In response to the call of IIOE partner HEIs, UNESCO-ICHEI developed the IIOE Quality Assurance Framework, Guidelines and Toolkit for Driving and Supporting Online and Blended Higher Education (hereinafter referred to as "IIOE Quality Assurance 2.0"). IIOE Quality Assurance 2.0 was developed on the basis of IIOE Quality Assurance 1.0, with special emphasis on issues raised by partner HEIs during its implementation, and especially new challenges facing online and blended learning during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. UNESCO-ICHEI will organise consultations on IIOE Quality Assurance 2.0 with international quality assurance experts and IIOE partner HEIs, and jointly launch the outcome of consultations with participating IIOE partner HEIs.
Within this context, UNESCO-ICHEI invites the IIOE's global partners to meet on July 29, 2021, to discuss issues vital to the future development of IIOE and common concerns of partner HEIs regarding IIOE, share actions taken and lessons learned to ensure higher education continuity and quality during and beyond COVID-19, promising practices to strengthen institutional and teacher capacity for higher education digital transformation, with a focus on harnessing IIOE Quality Assurance 2.0 for HEIs to take up the potential of online and blended learning.
Theme
The theme of the meeting is "Building Higher Education Back Better: An Institutional Ecosystem that Drives and Supports Online and Blended Learning".
The keynote speaker will present IIOE Quality Assurance 2.0, followed by a panel composed of quality assurance experts from Africa and the Asia-Pacific. The panel will discuss IIOE Quality Assurance 2.0 and the current state of quality assurance of online and blended learning worldwide. Subsequently, IIOE partners will participate in roundtables under two themes: "Leveraging online education to ensure educational continuity and quality" and "Strengthening capacities of higher education workforce to achieve higher education digital transformation". IIOE partner HEIs and enterprises will present their experience and promising practices of leading university and national higher education digital transformation, and deliberate upon issues vital to the future development of IIOE.
Objectives
• Map the current state of implementing quality assurance of online and blended learning on the partner HEIs' level and national level, as well as challenges facing online and blended learning.
• Share IIOE partner HEIs and partner enterprises' experience, promising practices and vision of building IIOE as a supportive ecosystem to drive online and blended learning.
• Discuss ways to operationalise IIOE Quality Assurance 2.0 to support IIOE partner HEIs in building ecosystems for online and blended learning, and to assist them in implementing online and blended learning.
Expected Outcomes
• Develop a meeting report including key viewpoints and promising practices of IIOE partner HEIs and partner enterprises.
• Formulate an updated IIOE Quality Assurance 2.0 after consultation with IIOE partner HEIs and experts. The outcome will be jointly launched by all participating IIOE partner HEIs and UNESCO-ICHEI at a later date after the meeting.
• Initiate knowledge products under the theme of Quality Assurance of online and blended higher education, as a contribution to the III World Higher Education Conference (WHEC) to be held in 2022.
Participants
All IIOE partner universities, enterprises, UNESCO system partners and other key stakeholders will be invited to attend the meeting.
Organiser
This meeting is jointly organised by the International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI) and the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore (Pakistan).
When and Where
• Meeting time: 16:00 - 18:00 (UTC+8), 29 July, 2021
• Onsite meeting venue: Convention Centre, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
• Online meeting: Zoom platform
Working Languages
The meeting will be conducted in Chinese, English, and French. Simultaneous translations will be provided.
Concept Note and Agenda
