The papers at ECER 2003 were organised into the following three themes: “Policy, ethics and pedagogy in open and distance education”, “Participants and communities in online pedagogic contexts” and “Dialogue, learning and change in online distance education courses”.
The papers on the first theme were “Learning Management Systems as SuperPanoptikon: Some ethical considerations” by Yngve Troye Nordkvelle and Randi Beate Tosterud Lillehammer College, Norway and “Constructivism and E-learning: Complexities, Possibilities and Limitations” by Mohammadreza Nili Ahmadabadi and Baktiar Shabani Varaki, Ferdowsi University of Mashad, Iran.
Papers on the second theme included “Making the invisible visible: on participation and communication in a web-based programme” by Madeleine Abrandt Dahlgren and Staffan Larsson, University of Linköping and Shirley Walters, University of Western Cape, South Africa; “Cyberspace, Open Education, Learning Communities: Basic principles for the design of a learning context for school mathematics” by Anna Chronaki, University of Thessaly, Greece and “Working on Educational Research Methods with Masters Students in an International Online Learning Community”, by Brian Hudson and David Owen, Sheffield Hallam University, UK and Klaas van Veen, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
The third theme papers included “Stimulating Dialogue Online in Cross Cultural Learning Communities” by Kristen Snyder, Mid Sweden University and “The use of open and distance education in facilitating changes in managerial development” by Jose Vargas, University of Guadalajara, Mexico.
The Network meeting considered the development of the OPENnet web site and communication platform and a prototype developed at the University of Thessaly was demonstrated and discussed. The meeting welcomed this development and looked forward to implementation in early 2004. It was agreed that the network meeting at the 2004 conference would be organised in conjunction with a social event.
