ICDE World Conference in Toronto: abstracts are still welcomed

Toronto; home of the Blue Jays and one of the best cities to host an international conference will be hosting ICDE 2017

Good news! Submission of abstracts to present at the 27^th  International Council of Distance Education (ICDE) World Conference in Toronto, Canada (October 16-19, 2017) is still open and will only close on 30 June. Although the main conference starts on 17 October, do not miss out on the pre-conference workshops scheduled for 16 October. The conference will be held in the Toronto Seraton Centre Hotel - so if you can, book you accommodation also in this hotel to make life easier in a foreign country. Bad news (for South Africans) is the stiff registration fee of $675.

This year, the theme is Teaching in a Digital Age – Re-Thinking Teaching & Learning and I cannot wait to be part of the re-thinking that is do desperately needed in higher education in order to stay relevant in our changing world. More than 275 presenters are already on the list and names like Alan Tait, Christian Stracke, Terry Anderson, Tony Bates, Cicio Frank, Paul Prinsloo and Norman Vaughan immediately caught my eye when paging through the list. The focus will be on forward-thinking and student-centered, novel ideas structured around five tracks:

• Emerging Pedagogies and Designs for Online Learning
• Expanding Access, Openness and Flexibility
• Changing Models of Assessment
• New Delivery Tools and Resources for Learning
• Re-designing Institutional Business Models

You will remember that the previous world conference was held at Sun City in South Africa in 2015 and it was one of the best conferences I ever attended. The presenters list is showing the names and faces of many colleagues and friends who attended the 2015 conference, which points to yet another extremely interesting and stimulating conference, not to be missed.

The provisional program includes interesting and exciting prospects to look forward to, but just the thought of being able to return to Toronto is enough to get me excited already. Toronto is one of the most beautiful cities I have visited. One of the nice things is that you can walk to all the wonderful places from your hotel. Hope to see you there!