Responding to the global COVID-19 crisis and with a view to mitigate the disruption of activities at various institutions, COL announces a series of webinars on online learning. There will be nine technical webinar sessions, covering: taxonomy and anatomy of MOOCs, instructional design, technology options, quality assurance, learning analytics and ethics, and research on MOOCs. The webinars will be offered between April 16 to May 28, 2020, and they are open to anyone interested in the topic.

Registration is here.

COL has been able to garner voluntary support of experts from around the world to deliver the webinar series:

Professor Curtis J. Bonk, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA

Professor Allison Littlejohn, University College London, United Kingdom

Dr Wayne Mackintosh, OER Foundation, New Zealand

Dr Sanjaya Mishra, Commonwealth of Learning, Canada

Dr Nathaniel Ostashewski, Athabasca University, Canada

Professor Paul Prinsloo, University of South Africa

Dr Meina Zhu, Wayne State University, USA

Announcing the series, Dr. Mishra said: “We are grateful to the experts for supporting COL in organising these webinars. COL has been a leader in open distance and online learning, and we believe that appropriate use of technology can improve both access to and quality of learning. The current crisis challenges us to demonstrate that our conviction is right, and we are doing our best to provide the assistance needed by our stakeholders.”

Initially, the series aimed to assist Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) in designing, developing and delivering high-quality, effective massive open learning courses (MOOCs), but its scope has been widened. Following the webinar sessions, participants from UMS will be engaged in specifically designed activities, which will be mentored by COL Education Specialist: eLearning, Dr. Sanjaya Mishra.