Dr Tony Bates at the ICDE conference in Toronto, October 2017

Toronto is a beautiful city to visit with much to see and do.

I already made you aware of the ICDE conference that will be held in Toronto, Canada from 16 to 19 October 2017 which is the conference to attend if your university or institution is into distance and online teaching and learning and assessment. Although the call for papers closed, early bird registration is still open. 

The theme of this conference is 'Teaching in the digital age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning. One special bonus that is included in the conference fee is the five practical advice exchange sessions by Dr Tony Bates to assist faculty and instructors to design their first online course or to redesign existing online courses. 

The conference will accommodate five tracks:
1) Emerging pedagogies and designs for online learning
2) Expanding access, openness and flexibility
3) Changing models of assessment
4) New delivery tools and resources for learning
5) Re-designed institutional business models

This means that there is something for everyone - from academics to administrators and management staff. The conference only takes place every second year, so be sure not to miss out on the 2017 opportunity to learn, experience and build your network in the Distance and online higher education environment. 

Although all five tracks are important and interesting, I do hope that scholars would take note of the importance of number 3. Assessment is often seen as an add on to teaching or a grading system to compare students and year groups. Assessment should be focused on the students and it must be transformative -   it should change the way the student acts and thinks. It should positively influence his or her perceptions, believes, values and behaviour because only then learning would have the required result: Change. If this is not the case, students do not learn, they just obtain qualifications. And Higher education runs the risk of becoming obsolete.