The Sub-forum 4 of the 2022 GMOEC was successfully held by UNESCO-ICHEI and SUSTech
2022.12.09
The International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI) and Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) successfully held the Sub-forum 4 of the Global MOOC and Online Education Conference (GMOEC) on 8 December 2022, themed "The Era of Higher Education Digital Transformation: Improving Digital Literacy for University Teachers". Sub-forum 4 revolves around keynote speeches,discussion, and roundtable forums and aims to build a communication platform for multiple organizations and institutions to share academic research in related fields and localization experience.
Opening Remarks
Prof. Zhao Jianhua, from the Center for Future Education Research, SUSTech presided over the conference. Ms. CUI Ying, Deputy Secretary-General of National Commission of the People's Republic of China for UNESCO, Mr. REN Youqun, Director of Department of Teacher Education, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Mr. Shahbaz Khan, Director of UNESCO Beijing and Rep to China, DPRK, Japan, Mongolia and Republic of Korea and Prof. XUE Qikun, President of Southern University of Science and Technology attended the meeting and delivered the opening speech.
Guest speakers delivering opening remarks
Mr. REN Youqun emphasized that in the strategic action of education digitalization, teachers are the bridge and key link of "two-way attachment" between education and digital technology. We need to promote teachers to share high-quality educational resources in an all-round way, and jointly build a community of shared future for mankind that meets the needs of the digital transformation of higher education and is also oriented to global university teachers.
Ms. CUI Ying said in her speech that, in order to promote the digital transformation of higher education and the improvement of teachers' digital literacy, China adheres to the principle of co-construction and sharing and vigorously promotes international cooperation. On the one hand, all relevant parties in the country are deeply involved in promoting the digital transformation of education to empower teachers to cooperate extensively; on the other hand, they have extensive policy dialogues with the international community, actively share plans and experiences, and cooperate in research and capacity building.
Mr. Shahbaz Khan pointed out that university teachers must be at the core of digital transformation and the revolution of higher education institutions. Developing university faculty with the necessary digital skills and core competencies is critical to our goals of modernizing and transforming higher education, teaching and learning systems and processes.
Prof. XUE Qikun introduced the practice of SUSTech to actively promote the construction of digital teaching in recent years, emphasizing that the digital ability and literacy of university teachers is a qualitative change in the breakthrough of digital reform in colleges and universities. The next ten years will be a crucial decade for the integration of higher education and other educational stages to create a new educational ecology.
Keynote Speech
In the Keynote Speech session, Prof. Diana Laurillard, from Learning with Digital Technologies, UCL Knowledge Lab and Dr. Ethel Agnes P Valenzuela, Director of the The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) Secretariat delivered keynote speeches on the digital transformation of higher education and the local practice of improving the digital literacy of university teachers, and provided unique insights on the digital transformation of higher education and university teachers.
Guest speakers delivering keynote speeches
Prof. Diana Laurillard introduced the online tool "Learning Designer" developed by UCL, which supports teachers designing a series of hybrid and online teaching activities. At the same time, Prof. Diana Laurillard also emphasized the four advantages of digital learning: supporting active learning, providing meaningful feedback to students, allowing teachers and students to explore and use various alternative representations, and supporting creative expression.
Dr. Ethel Agnes P Valenzuela pointed out that inclusive learning faces many challenges, including the epidemic environment, teachers' literacy, and teaching methods. To this end, SEAMEO and its partners jointly developed special training courses, developed literacy resources, and promoted smart classrooms to ensure the inclusiveness of education, and achieved fruitful results in East Timor, Thailand, Cambodia and other places.
Themed Discussion
The Discussion session revolved around the theme of "Leveraging Technology to Improve Teachers’ Digital Capacity for Teaching and Learning". Representatives of universities from Africa and Asia, and the director of IIOE National Center gathered together to share their regional research findings on the digital transformation of university faculty.
Guest speakers in the Themed Discussion session
Prof. Mona Abdel-Aal Elzahry, Executive Director of Education Strategy Administration, Ain Shams University (Egypt) Director of IIOE Egypt National Centre emphasized that educators need evidence-based guidance to select appropriate concepts to incorporate into online learning models to achieve their desired educational outcomes. Educators need to plan and implement online/blended learning more broadly, supported by dedicated applied science research and shared resources. To achieve this goal, more national support for system networking may be needed.
Prof. Muhammed Bashir Mu'azu, Head of the Department of Computer Engineering, Ahmadu Bello University Director of IIOE Nigeria National Centre pointed out that an important strategy adopted by universities in the aspect of teachers' ICT ability training is the education model of Train-the-Trainers. University partnerships with international organisations, corporations etc. provide a platform for universities to address the challenges of necessary ICT capabilities and infrastructure, providing additional opportunities within some of the financing and educational management constraints within the university system.
Based on her own research, Prof. Habibah Ab Jalil, Deputy Dean of Graduate Studies and International, Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia Director of IIOE Malaysia National Centre, emphasized the need to pay attention to three aspects of construction in the future learning ecosystem, namely curriculum, space and technology, and suggested the integration of smart technologies into the future learning ecosystem of higher education around the world.
Roundtable
In the Roundtable Forum, Prof. Xiu Cravens, from the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations, Peabody College of Education, Vanderbilt University, Ms. LlU Ti, President of Gao Xiao Bang Digital Technology and Mr. Eric DENG, Chairman of Seewo had an in-depth discussion on the topic of capacity building of digital teaching for university teachers. Starting from their own work experience and practical experience, they have carried out rich thinking on how to build the digital teaching capacity of university teachers, and have discussed the impact of digital technology development on the higher education ecology based on specific cases and data.
Guest speakers in the Roundtable session
Prof. Xiu Cravens shared her own scientific research results, emphasizing that online courses should be learner-centered and pay attention to the diversity of students, and proposed five program structures that need to be emphasized in the design and delivery of online courses, namely, promoting point-to-point interaction and establishing norms and expectations , distinguishing learning preferences, explaining technology strengths and limitations, and supporting student-driven initiatives.
Based on Gao Xiao Bang Digital Technology's experience in developing industry-university cooperation, Ms. LlU Ti analyzed the impact of digital technology on teaching scenarios with the title "Practice of Digital Transformation of University Course Teaching", and shared the reconstruction of curriculum development by digital tools and the digital transformation of teaching design and implementation. Regarding the development of teachers' digital capabilities, LlU Ti emphasized that cross-departmental cooperation between universities and enterprises can help teachers quickly understand the latest industry experience, and assist universities to provide teachers with systematic teaching resources, thereby empowering teachers' digital development.
Mr. Eric DENG introduced Seewo's cooperation with Chinese education departments and UNESCO-ICHEI in promoting the digital transformation of universities and empowering teachers, and creating the digital education environment using "changes brought about by one screen and one network cable" in the roundtable forum. He believes that building support for relevant resource environments, providing professional information literacy training, and changing the way teachers are evaluated can greatly promote the improvement of teachers' information literacy.
Closing Remarks
At the closing ceremony, Ms. HAN Wei, Executive Deputy Director of International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO, made a concluding speech. She fully affirmed the significance of the successful holding of this conference, and expressed her heartfelt thanks to all the guests who participated in this conference for their support and help. She pointed out that this forum conducted an in-depth discussion on the theme of "Improving Digital Literacy for University Teachers". The guests at the forum jointly explored the way to improve the digital literacy of university teachers through equal exchanges, and further provided an important reference for the practice of digital transformation in higher education.
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital technology continues to facilitate the transformation and reform of higher education, and popularizing digital literacy, cultivating and supporting teachers to use technology effectively is a key step. This forum provided practical references for the improvement of teachers' digital literacy, and facilitated the process of digital transformation of higher education centered on teacher empowerment.
The Global MOOC and Online Education Conference is a international platform that focuses on online and digital education jointly organised by the Global MOOC and Online Education Alliance and the UNESCO IITE. This is the third year that UNESCO-ICHEI and Southern University of Science and Technology have hosted the sub-forum of the conference. More than 20 representatives from UNESCO, SUSTech, UNESCO-ICHEI, higher education institutions and higher education officials attended the forum and shared their experience and ideas on improving the digital literacy of university teachers under the trend of digital transformation in higher education. A total of more than 1,200 people registered on the online platform and watched the sub-forum.
The International Centre for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO (UNESCO-ICHEI) and Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) successfully held the Sub-forum 4 of the Global MOOC and Online Education Conference (GMOEC) on 8 December 2022, themed "The Era of Higher Education Digital Transformation: Improving Digital Literacy for University Teachers". Sub-forum 4 r
