Libing Wang, Chief of EISD, UNESCO Bangkok The 7 th TCU International e-Learning Conference 2016: Disruptive Innovation in Education, July 2016, BITEC Bangna, Bangkok, Thailand Leveraging Technology to Promote Access, Quality and Effective Governance in Higher Education: Perspectives from UNESCO Bangkok

– 2030 New Goals for Development

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. 3 A New Agenda for Education

 Free and equitable primary and secondary education of good quality  Universal pre-primary education  Ensure relevant skills for employment  Universal literacy and numeracy  More qualified teachers  Make higher education more accessible 4

ICT, particularly mobile technology, holds great promise for accelerating progress… 5 A New Framework for Action

6 Qingdao Declaration

7 Widening access to quality HE  Technology is increasingly transforming the face of higher education provision and participation.  Open and distance education (ODL) can provide a cost-effective solution and has become a popular option.  The significant development of ICTs and the expansion of broadband access have led to new avenues for open and e-learning.  Recognize enrollment in quality-assured on-line courses as an alternative or complementary mode to face-to-face study programmes (QD)

8 New models of ODL  Upgrading ODL programmes offered by open university system with MOOCs and other innovative models of delivery  Expanding ODL to traditional brick-and-mortar HEIs (dual-mode of delivery)  Mainstreaming blended learning in the delivery of regular study programmes (undergraduate and postgraduate)  Developing ODL programmes, for non-traditional learners, including adult learners, as well as disadvantaged groups to reach the unreached

9 Technology-pedagogy-content integration  The quality of ODL programmes, including MOOCs, requires close collaboration among experts in technology, pedagogy and content  Demand-driven, learner-centred, overarching conceptual designs  Chief learning architect to provide visions, objectives, domains of learning and supporting strategies for teaching and learning at HEIs  Facilitating technology-pedagogy-content integration through partnerships in the development of ODL programmes

10 Enhancing the quality of HE  To achieve the goal of inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning by 2030, ICTs – including mobile learning – must be harnessed to strengthen education systems, knowledge dissemination, information access, quality and effective learning, and more efficient service provision. - Qingdao Declaration, 2015

11 Enhancing the quality of HE (continued)  Enrich learner’s learning experiences with abundant online learning resources  Allow self-paced learning according to individual learning needs  Enable more interactive learning with peers and other learning partners  Blended learning to combine online and offline learning at traditional HEIs has increasingly been adopted

12 The delivery of open educational resources  2011 UNESCO/COL Guidelines for Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Education  2012 PARIS OER DECLARATION adopted at 2012 World Open Educational Resources Congress held at UNESCO HQs in Paris  MOOCs should be serving as an important way to deliver OER in higher education  Regional stock-taking and capacity building activities are planned to follow up with the above-stated two UNESCO documents

13 MOOCs in favor of OER  As part of their social responsibility, the value of OER should be imbedded into teaching, research and social service of HEIs  HEIs should be encouraged to promote blended learning model to allow more on-line delivery of content and instruction  Institutional strategies for MOOCs should be developed to make more on-line courses open to outside learners  Incentives measures and capacity building programmes for the teaching staff

14 Collective knowledge production  Dominance of developed countries in the knowledge production process, leading to the marginalization of developing countries  Localization and customization of knowledge to the needs of the developing countries  The protection of indigenous knowledge  Capacity building is needed for HEIs in the developing countries at country, institutional, and faculty levels

15 MOOCs and cross-border HE  Foreign MOOCs leading to foreign certifications can be related to cross-border mobility of study programmes, which are subject to the regulation of receiving countries  Foreign MOOCs that are part of the joint study programmes leading to domestic certifications can be encouraged to benefit the developing countries  MOOCs collectively developed according to joint MOUs among HEIs from different countries  Credits transfer and quality assurance arrangements

16 Strengthening governance and effective management  Promote efficiency and effectiveness by leveraging technology, including Information and Knowledge Management Systems  Encourage governments, industry partners and all other education stakeholders to collaborate and co- create dynamic, accountable and sustainable learner-centred digital learning ecosystems  ICTs in education can enhance the management of education systems and ensure accountability in ways that are relevant to the building of sustainable and peaceful societies (Qingdao Declaration, 2015)

17 UNESCO Bangkok’s current activities  Seizing Digital Opportunities in Higher Education: Building staff capacity for ICT-driven innovation in Cambodia and Sri Lanka ( )  Regional Expert Meeting: MOOCs as a catalyst to enhance teaching and learning in Asia and the Pacific, October 2016, Seoul, Republic of Korea  Publications (forthcoming): Blended Learning for Quality Higher Education: Selected Case Studies on Implementation from Asia and the Pacific

Thank you very much for your attention