We are happy to announce our second guest keynote speaker - Professor Mark Brown, Dublin City University, who will be leading discussions on our conference theme Transformational Change.

Professor Brown is Ireland's first professor of Digital Learning and Director of the National Institute for Digital Learning (NIDL).

He is a fellow and Executive Committee Member of the European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN) and serves on the supervisory Board of the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU). He has also been chair for the past four years of the Teaching and Learning Steering Committee for the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU). 

Mark was previously Director of the National Centre for Teaching and Learning at Massey University where he was also President of the New Zealand Association for Open, Flexible and Distance Learning (DEANZ). He has played key leadership roles in the University wide implementation of new models of teaching and learning and has published extensively in the fields of Blended, On-line and Digital (BOLD) education. Mark is Chair of the ICDE World Conference on Online Learning which will be held in Dublin in November 2019.

Mark's main research interests are in the areas of digital learning, blended education, online delivery models, including MOOCs, learning design, effective pedagogy, academic development, higher education, quality enhancement, the nature of the student learning experience, and educational policy and leadership. Mark helps to coordinate the Digital Learning Research Network and leads the Policy and Strategy Expert Group as part of the EMPOWER programme, and was an active member of both the HOME and Score2020 European funded projects. In 2015, Mark was a co-author of the report funded by the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) on Quality Models in Online and Open Education Around the Globe. In the Irish context, Mark was a member of both the Y1 Feedback and Student Success Toolbox projects funded by the National Forum. A notable feature of Mark's research is a deliberate effort to ensure his work is critical, globally connected and locally relevant, with a strong emphasis on transforming lives and societies anchored in the concept of turnaround leadership.

Call for Papers Presentation or Proposal for Workshops

How to submit your proposals:

• Paper presentations - please submit a short version of your paper, of 1000 words, including an abstract of between 50 - 100 words. Those accepted to present papers will be invited to submit a full paper for consideration for publication in a special issue of the journal Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning (Open University)

• Workshops - please send an abstract of between 250 - 300 words detailing the aims of our workshop and the ways in which you will engage participants in interaction

The deadline to send all abstracts and proposals is 11th January 2019. Please send them and any queries you may have to [email protected]

Alice Reynolds