1. Open University of Sudan Announcement of the 5 th ACDE Conference and General Assembly 15 th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

2. Date and Venue : On behalf of the African Council for Distance Education (ACDE), the Open University of Sudan (OUS) wishes to announce the 5 th ACDE Conference and General Assembly, which will take place at the Police Officer’s Club in Khartoum- Sudan from 6 th to 9 th March 2017. 2 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

3. The conference venue: The conference will be held at the Police Officers Club, Khartoum, Khartoum State, Sudan. The venue is conveniently located in terms of accommodation, logistics and personal safety 3 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

4. CONFERENCE THEME: OPEN DISTANCE LEARNING (ODL) IN AFRICA IN THE DIGITAL ERA 4 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

5. The Conference LOGO 5 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

6. The conference rationale: The increase in the population growth and the mounting need for sustainable education for the knowledge economy forces education institutions to find innovative ways of providing relevant education for the digital era 6 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

7. The conference rationale (cont.) There is need to reset ODL human skills and aptitudes in order to guide and steer teaching, learning, training and education to meet the demands of the rapidly changing digital era. 7 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

8. The conference rationale: (cont.) The fifth conference of the African Council for Distance Education (ACDE), will highlight the impact of ODL in the community, developments in ODL best practices, research, capacity building, technology enhanced learning, MOOCs / OERs and quality assurance. 8 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

9. SUB-THEMES: 1. The impact of ODL applications in Africa. 2. Embracing Online technologies, OERs and MOOCs 3.Capacity building and research in ODL 4.Policy development and management for effective implementation of ODL 5.Quality issues in ODL 6.ODL in peace-building and conflict resolution. 9 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

10. Conference objectives: To bring together academics, researchers, administrators, managers and students to discuss and share their experiences and research findings on the impact of ODL across Africa. To promote best practices in ODL. To foster ODL networks with colleagues across the continent. To enhance ODL research in Africa. 10 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

11. Call for abstracts and papers Abstracts and papers are invited on the theme and sub-themes described above. The presentations shall be in the form of:- Theoretical papers Empirical research findings Case studies Practice based projects Poster presentations 11 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

12. Call for abstracts and papers (cont.) Academics, practitioners, managers, administrators and researchers in ODL and related fields are invited to submit abstracts and full papers. Abstracts will be reviewed and authors notified about the acceptance of their papers. Full papers will be peer reviewed before being published in the conference proceedings. Those papers presented at the conference and are found to be valuable for a wider readership will be considered for publication in the ACDE Journal and the Journal of Open University of Sudan 12 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

13. Abstracts and papers should be submitted to: Open University of Sudan, P.O. Box: 13091 Khartoum, Sudan. e-mail: Acde5thcon@ous.edu.sd 13 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

14. IMPORTANT DEADLINES: Submission of abstracts: 4 th June 2016 Notification to authors: 30 July 2016 Submission of full papers: 15 th October 2016. Registration opens: 1 August 2016 – Early bird registration: 1 August – 5 December 2016 – Standard registration: 6 December 2016 to 6 March 2017 14 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

15. Major Events 5 th March, 2017- Arrival 6 th March, 2017- Pre-Conference Workshop & ACDE Board Meetings 7 th - 8 th March, 2017- Conference Proceedings and Presentations 9 th March, 2017 - ACDE General Assembly ( for ACDE members) 10 th March, 2017 - Departure 15 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

16. The Conference will be organized in sessions to include: Opening and keynote address sessions Plenary sessions Parallel sessions Poster presentations 16 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

17. REGISTRATION FEES Early Bird: (Closes 05 th December 2016) ACDE Members : USD 200 Non-Members : USD 250 Students : USD 50 17 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

18. Late Registration: (From 2 nd January 2017) ACDE Members : USD 250 Non Members : USD 300 Students : USD 50 18 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

19. Payment Method Payments should made in cash upon arrival at the conference registration desk. 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly 19

20. The registration fee will cover conference materials, lunches, and tea/coffee breaks. 20 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

21. Accommodation The conference venue is surrounded by a network of convenient and comfortable hotels some of which are: Grand Holiday Villa, Kanon Hotel Group, Paradise Hotel, Corinthia Hotel Khartoum, Al Salam Rotana, Coral Hotel ( Khartoum ), EWA Hotel, all these hotels are located near the junction of the White Nile and the Blue Nile. Accommodation rates between $ 100-350 B&B.Grand Holiday VillaKanon Hotel GroupParadise Hotel Corinthia Hotel Khartoum Al Salam Rotana Coral Hotel ( Khartoum )EWA Hotel 21 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

22. Weather Khartoum, lies in the tropics north of the equator, the weather is quite warm, temperature in March ranges between 35 – 39 o C (95 - 102 o F) during the day and 24 – 26 o C (75 - 97 o F) at night 22 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

23. Travel Information Book your ticket to Khartoum International airport (IATA: KRT, ICAO: HSSS), The popular airlines are Egypt Airways, Kenyan Airways, Qatar airways, Emirates, etc...IATAICAO 23 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

24. Tour packages The Sudan's capital consists of three main cities: Khartoum, Omdurman, and Khartoum North. Khartoum lies on the junction where the Blue and White Nile Rivers merge to form the River Nile. there are many places worth visiting such as Sudan National Museum, Khaleefa Abd Alla Palace, some of these can be done via a river picnic tour. Fees $ 50-100. 24 5th ACDE Conference and General Assembly

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