Regional – MOOCs, OERs, Open and Distance Learning: Past, Present and Future

Opening up education is one of the main global trends in higher education. Open Education Resources (OERs) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can be considered as the consequences of this trend. Over the last couple years we have been reading a lot of ideas about how OERs or MOOCs will revolutionize the higher education systems. These news or ideas led us (educators) think ‘Is it true?’, ‘Are theses MOOCs or OERs new and enduring?’ or ‘Are they just hypes and will be forgotten soon?’, ‘How will all these change the faculty roles and responsibilities?’ and so forth. This presentation tries to answer these questions based-on 30 years of experience in open and distance learning. It will also provide an insight about European and Asian reactions to the MOOCs and OER movements. #TCCPPF

Dr. Cengiz Hakan Aydin is a professor in Anadolu University of Turkey, a dual mode higher education institutions offering distance education to millions in Turkey, Europe and West Asia. Dr. Aydin is currently serving as the Dean at Faculty of Economics, one of the distance teaching schools in Anadolu. He has served as the Director of the Center for Research and Development in Distance Education, the President of International Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), the board member of the International Council for Educational Media (ICEM). He is currently in the steering committee of the OpenUpEd initiative, a MOOCs platform for European universities. Aydin also serves as a member of the Editorial Board of the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL), the Educational Media International. Dr. Aydin’s research interest mainly focuses on social dimension of open and distance learning, learning design for open and distance learners.