The Strengthening Urban Engagement of Universities in Asia and Africa (SUEUAA) project team were delighted to welcome Professor Caroline Knowles, Programme Director of the British Academy’s Cities and Infrastructure Programme, this week for a meeting in the School of Education at the University of Glasgow. This year, the British Academy’s Global Challenge Research Fund (Cities and Infrastructure) funded 17 projects across the UK, all of which looking at aspects of how to create and maintain sustainable and resilient cities in developing countries, of which SUEUAA is one*.

Libraries are making online education more accessible and interactive by adopting "learning circles", librarian-facilitated study groups for people who want to take online courses together and in person. This November, 15 public library systems in the US and Canada will run free learning circles for hundreds of library members who will learn together for 6 to 8 weeks. Topics reflect a broad range of interests, including refugee rights, healthy eating, public speaking, and computer science.

Using mobile devices in learning activities has become popular since it provides diverse channels in which students can learn, communicate and collaborate: creating an M-learning environment has become an important trend. The value of mobile devices as a teaching tool has been shown in many research studies, and creating a large-scale M-learning environment has been found not only to be feasible and usable, but it also satisfies society’s needs and challenges.

Please find featured below and attached the Spring 2017 issue of the newsletter Ripples, from the Australian Learning Communities Network (ALCN):