The University of the Roller Coaster
Date Friday, Nov 25 Time – RoomPotsdam I
How can Higher Education function in a world struggling to save itself from climate change, pandemics and war? How can it drive innovation and shape the future as the pace of technological change constantly increases? How can it re-invent itself to respond imaginatively to the new challenges facing humanity?
We are living in an uncertain, unpredictable world with no “back to normal” any more. So, how can we re-imagine higher education when nothing can be taken for granted? What kind of technologies can help universities to adapt? What lessons can we learn from recent successes and failures? What 'best practice' examples point the way into the future? How can we shape the development of institutions, so that they are neither “ivory towers” nor “competence factories"? How can we encourage future-oriented universities in which both pedagogy and research are fit for the challenges ahead?
In the Academic Plenary, our experts will examine the threats and opportunities facing higher education today and ask how we can design new approaches that prepare staff and students to thrive in the University of the Roller Coaster.
Clare Walsh
Head of Education, Institute of Analytics, United Kingdom
Dr Clare Walsh is the head of education at the global Institute of Analytics. She has written over 20 educational books, and advised governments nationally and internationally on assessment design. She re-trained in the field of modern analytics with the Web Science Institute at Southampton University, where they prepare researchers for the socio-technical 21st century, able to combine domain expertise with advanced technical skills.
Bart Rienties
Professor of Learning Analytics, Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University, UK, United Kingdom
Bart has over twenty years of experience in designing, researching and evaluating blended and online learning programmes in higher education and professional learning.
Bart is Professor of Learning Analytics and programme director of the learning analytics and learning design research programme at the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University UK. As programme director he leads a group of academics who provide university-wide learning analytics and learning design solutions and conduct evidence-based research of how students and professionals learn. Over the last 20 years he has successfully led a range of institutional/national/European projects, and has received a range of awards for his educational innovation projects. These projects include a range of EU projects (AIT, Evaluate, LACE, LEAP, Teach 4.0), ESRC IDEAS, Leverhulme Open World Learning, and OFS Learning Gains, which focussed on learning analytics, evidence-based evaluations, and large-scale adoptions of innovation. Furthermore, he is programme lead of the learning analytics and learning design research theme within IET.
Bart conducts multi-disciplinary research on work-based and collaborative learning environments and focuses on the role of social interaction in learning, which is published in leading academic journals and books. His primary research interests are focussed on Learning Analytics, Professional Development, and the role of motivation in learning. Furthermore, Bart is interested in broader internationalisation aspects of higher education. He has published over 200 academic outputs, and is the 4th most cited author and contributor in Learning Analytics in the period 2011-2018 (Adeniji, 2019), the 5th most published author on internationalisation in the period 1900-2018 (Jing et al. 2020), the 7th most published author on social network analysis in social sciences in the period 1999-2018 (Su et al. 2020), and the 14th most published author on educational technology in the period 2015-2018 (West & Bodily, 2020).
He is Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and is visiting professor at University of Dundee.
Links
Rikke Toft Nørgård
Associate Professor, School of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark
Rikke is associate professor at the School of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark. She is coordinator for the MA in ICT-based educational design, member of the Academic Council, Arts and steering group member at the Centre for Higher Education Futures (CHEF), AU.
She is also board member of the Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education Society (PaTHES) and is participating and leading projects on the future of higher education with a focus on the humanities as well as emerging technological fields and their impact on teaching and learning across the educational sector.
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Moderator
Gila Kurtz
Dean, Holon Institute of Technology (HIT), Israel
Gila Kurtz is the Dean of the Instructional Technologies Faculty at Holon Institute of Technology (HIT) in Israel. For serval years she was the Academic VP of a company that provided e-Learning solutions for the corporate industry. Gila has been a visiting scholar at the University of Maryland University College, University of California Berkeley, Syracuse University and University Roma, TRE.