Institute of Change Management

"Or else your hearts must have the courage for the changing of the guards" - Bob Dylan

The University of Brighton Business School has announced a formal launch for the Institute of Change Management ™.

When: 18th June 2008
Where: University of Brighton, Sallis Benney Theatre, Grand Parade, Brighton
What time: 5.30pm onwards

This gathering will be the first in a series of networking events, where change management practitioners will be able to mix, exchange experiences, renew old friendships and make new ones. A varied programme of guest speakers, information about the role and activity of the Institute and facilitated networking will be buoyed along by food and refreshments.

If you would like to attend the event from 5.00pm 18 June, please respond to Business.Services@brighton.ac.uk or telephone + 44 (0)1273 643222.

Special issue of Quality Assurance in Education on Assuring Quality in E-Learning

The Editor of Quality Assurance in Education invites submissions for a special issue of the journal on Assuring Quality in E-Learning, guest Edited by Dr Alistair Inglis.

With growth in the capability of Internet, interest in e-learning amongst education and training providers, and national accreditation and quality agencies has grown exponentially. Delivery of courses is a multi-faceted activity. Consequently, the process of measuring quality in education relies on addressing the range of factors that impact the learner’s experience and measuring those appropriately. While in many countries, moves to measure quality are often controversial, in the developing nations particular difficulties are experienced because of the relative lack of sophistication of governmental and institutional administrative infrastructure.

Over the years, Quality Assurance in Education has carried a number of articles dealing with particular aspects of e-learning. The aim of this special issue is to present in one volume, perspectives on a variety of matters faced by education providers in relation to quality assurance in electronic delivery of education.


Articles are sought on any of the following topics:

• Pedagogical and assessment strategies for quality in electronic educational delivery,
  
• Effective strategies for incorporating e-learning into campus-based courses,
  
• Monitoring and improving quality of education in an electronic environment,
  
• Benchmarking for electronic educational delivery,
  
• Optimising systems for electronic educational delivery,
  
• Developing and validating quality frameworks for electronic education, and
  
• Transnational issues and policy development for electronic educational delivery and accreditation.
  

Articles submitted for consideration should be research-based looking at different aspects of, and approaches to quality in e-learning. An article may take a critical look at the issues from an institutional perspective or in terms of some aspect of educational theory, or alternatively may examine the social and national policy issues involved in developing/monitoring quality assurance systems.

Submissions should preferably be sent as email attachments to jqae@rmit.edu to arrive no later than 15th December 2008. For a general submission guidelines see: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/info/journals/qae/notes.jsp. Manuscripts will be reviewed and a decision on acceptance will be made within 12 weeks of receipt of a submission.

Village Records News Blog

"Eight miles high ... and when you touch down" - The Byrds

This is off topic but ... Village Records, who are the best online source of CDs for educational technologists of a certain age, now have a blog: http://villagerecordsnews.blogspot.com/. It is a great place to find news about music like that pictured on the right. I just bought some great live albums from them by Gene Clark, Tift Merrit, Southside Johnny and Tom Russell. Plus a great disc of Tom Russell obscurities. Go treat yourselves!

Campus-Wide Information Systems- Special Issue on ePortfolios, employability and lifelong learning in the knowledge society

This year CWIS will publish a special issue with the highest ranking academic papers from the ePortfolio conference 2007, which was held in October 2007. (cf. http://events.eife-l.org/ep2007). ePortfolio is the key international event for the growing community of professionals interested in, and working with, ePortfolios. It brings together policy-makers, researchers, teachers, trainers, human resource managers and technologists. As a thematic event devoted to one domain, it allows an in-depth and broad exploration of the issues - and results in real outcomes. The special issue will be guest-edited by Professor Rob Koper and Dr Steven Verjans (click here for Steven's blog).

I am managing the issue for CWIS and having seen the papers I know this will be another excellent issue.