Report of the Ninth Council Meeting of the
International Consortium for Educational Development (ICED)
Wednesday, 3 July 2002
The University of Western Australia, Perth
0 Members Present
National networks represented:
Arbeitsgemeinschaft fŸr Hochschuldidaktik e.V. (AHD), Germany
Represented by Johannes Wildt (Universitat Dortmund)
All Ireland Society for Higher Education (AISHE)
Represented by John Panter (Trinity College Dublin)
Association for Study and Professional Development in Higher Education (CgHO), Belgium
Represented by Cis Van Den Bogaert (University of Antwerp)
Contactgroep Research Wetenchappelijk Onderwijs (CRWO), The Netherlands
Represented by Peter Bouhuijs (University of Maastricht)
Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA), Australasia
Represented by Angela Brew (University of Sydney)
Professional and Organisational Development Network in Higher Education (POD), USA
Represented by Lynn Sorenson(Brigham Young University)
The Norwegian Network for Higher Education (PEDNETT), Norway
Represented by Kirsten Lycke (University of Oslo)
Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA), UK
Represented Liz Beaty (Coventry University) and Ranald Macdonald (Sheffield Hallam University)
Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE), Canada
Represented by Gary Poole (University of British Columbia)
Swedish Network for Educational Developers (SwED-net), Sweden
Represented by Torgny Roxa (Lund Universitet)
Universitas, Croatia
Represented by Marija Bratanic (University of Zagreb)
Officers present:
Chair of the Consortium: Pat Rogers (University of Windsor, Canada)
Co-editors of the International Journal for Academic Development: David Baume (The Open University, UK) and Angela Brew (University of Sydney)
2002 ICED Conference Convenor: Owen Hicks (University of Western Australia)
Regrets:
Suki Ekaratne (University of Colombo), Sri Lanka
Chris Knapper (QueenÕs University, Canada), Co-editor of IJAD
Graham Gibbs (The Open University, UK), Convenor
Vesna Kovac (University of Rijeka), Universitas
Karen Juul-Olsen (Aarhus University), DUN
Carmen Vizcarro (University Autonomy of Madrid), RED-U
Eva Falk Nilsson, SwED-net
Carla Nelissen, CgHO
Laura Border (University of Colorado at Boulder), POD
Absent:
Association Internationale de Pedagogie Universitaire (AIPU), Belgium
The Finnish Network for Developing University Teaching (PEDA-forum), Finland
1 Introductions
1.1 Pat Rogers, out-going Chair of the Consortium, welcomed members to the ninth annual Council Meeting and thanked Owen Hicks for his work in organising and hosting the meeting and the Conference. Members introduced themselves.
1.2 Pat reminded members of the aims of ICED:
To help partner organisations to develop their capacity for educational development in higher education through sharing of good practice, problems and solutions.
To increase the number of partner organisations of ICED.
To help educational developers in countries where no national network exists to form such a network.
To support educational development in higher education in developing countries.
To link with other related national and international organisations.
1.3 Gary Poole volunteered to take minutes of the meeting.
2 Individual Network Reports from Partner Organisations
(See also handout of individual reports)
Netherlands (CRWO):
A 35-year-old network of centres representing all Dutch universities. A number of mergers among units are occurring (e.g., with library).
UK (SEDA):
A complex organization with a large number of sub-groups engaged in a wide range of activities. The current climate has fostered the development of ÒLearning and Teaching StrategiesÓ and those working in educational development have begun to play a larger role in policy development. There has been an emergence of other national-level organizations that have taken on educational development responsibilities, working in partnership with SEDA.
Belgium (CgHO):
6 universities in Flanders and all are involved in the network. There is not a tradition of having educational development centres in the universities. Rather, individuals working at the level of director generate much activity. Growth in educational development activities should be experienced as a consequence of the Bologna Declaration (Europe-wide).
Canada (STLHE):
The strategic planning exercise is hoping to foster considerable growth in the Society. Also, the awards sponsored by the Society (3M Teaching Fellowships, Alan Blizzard Award [for Collaboration in Higher Education], Chris Knapper Lifetime Achievement Award) have spawned a good deal of constructive interest and activity in educational development across the country.
Norway (PEDNETT):
Looking to recruit more people to what has been a very good group for some time. An emerging focus on research in higher education might be pulling people away from more practically based educational development work. Policy is already being developed in response to the Bologna Declaration. Concern re the amount of educational development activity this is going to generate, given the number of developers who are currently available to engage in this activity.
2.1 Possible action for European networks: How about a conference (or some other significant event) for educational development on the implications of the Bologna Declaration? Note that we have identified this as the theme for our 2003 conference in Belgium.
Australasia (HERDSA):
Celebrating its 30th birthday here in Perth. A key theme is sustainability. Many important issues are to be discussed over the next two weeks. HERDSA has branches in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. South African network has asked to join HERDSA. Physical distance is a significant challenge in terms of meetings, workshops and conferences.
USA (POD):
NCSPOD is another American organization that we should consider inviting to ICED. These people work in two-year colleges. 2002 POD conference will be in Atlanta. Brigham Young University interested in hosting ICED in the future. POD consists of approximately 1000 members, most of whom work in educational development (with a turnover rate of about 30% annually). Will new funding policies affect these numbers? Increasing the cultural diversity of POD is an objective, with important gains being made in this regard.
Croatia (Universitas):
Two successful workshops conducted with ICED support. Much work has been done in Croatia to establish this network, which is centred at the University of Rijeka. ICED is invited to provide further support to help the network grow to enjoy greater involvement from other Croatian universities.
Sweden (SwED-net):
Refocusing on those working in educational development as more centres are established. Competition among institutions for best students motivates some activity. Also, there is re-organization of some centres, for example, to include instructional technology units. Some attempts have been initiated to co-ordinate things among the Nordic countries.
Germany (AHD)
Increasing importance placed on teaching in the last few years. As a result, there has been an increase in staffing of staff development centres. Over the next 5 years, 50% of the AHD membership will retire, so there is now a younger committee in place. This has resulted in increased pragmatism and less conflict with institutional management. AHD now offers workshops for educational developers, as well as a graduate school for educational development (in Dortmund). ÒTrying a new politicÓ to recruit younger people to educational development and research. Funding is provided by Volkswagen.
All Ireland network (AISHE)
John Panter gave a brief chronology of educational development in Ireland. The first educational developer was hired in 1995. The first 2-day colloquium on educational development was held in 1998. Unanimous support was given to the establishment of a network. The Society was officially established in 2000. The name of the Society, which was a challenge to settle on, is the All Ireland Society for Higher Education. There are currently 120 members, mostly from the Republic of Ireland, all individuals interested in higher education.
There are 2 universities in Northern Ireland and 7 in the Republic of Ireland. There are also institutes of technology. At Trinity, a small staff has responsibility for all staff development (academic or otherwise). A wide range of models exists at other institutions, from no centre in place to those with centres consisting of staff developers, and/or instructional developers.
Governmental involvement in higher education in the Republic of Ireland is increasing. This might result in reduced funding and increased governmental involvement in evaluation (as in UK and Australia).
2.2 Identification of common themes for discussion
Two themes emerged for more discussion
Sustainability of networks and their activities
The Bologna Declaration
3 Review of the year and action points from last Council Meeting
3.1 Election of new Chair of ICED - Peter Bouhuijs
Peter reported that the search committee met in Spain at the end of the 2001 meeting. Two people were identified at that time. One candidate chose not to run, leaving one excellent candidate. Overwhelming support has been provided for Kirsten Lycke (University of Oslo) to become ICEDÕs next Chair. She has accepted, thanking council for their confidence and inviting our continued help and support.
3.2 ICED 2002 report - Owen Hicks
Owen offered thanks to those who helped with identification of theme and the reviewing of papers. More than 170 people have registered, from about 20 countries. About 100 presentations will be given this year. Some conference resources were made available to some individuals (4) who otherwise would not have been able to attend. A profit is hoped for to pass along to the organizers of the 2004 conference. On that note, remember that the long-sleeved t-shirts are for sale! Display boards and booths also organized for this yearÕs conference (on the Friday).
3.3 Pat thanked Owen on behalf of ICED for all his fine work, and that of his team, on this yearÕs conference.
3.4 ACTION: Owen was asked to create a list of recommendations for those who will organize future conference. Someone from UWA should be invited to attend the next ICED council meeting. Evaluation survey summaries will also be provided for next conference organizers.
3.5 Re funding for other representatives: Peter Bouhuijs has tried to secure funding for others (e.g., South Africa) but there are problems with this. For example, conferences outside Europe are not always eligible for funding.
3.6 It was agreed that individuals from networks not represented within ICED and from places without networks will be able to get information from consortium members during the poster session on Friday afternoon of the Perth conference. An ÒICED tableÓ will be set up for this purpose.
4 The 2003 Council Meeting and Workshop in Belgium
4.1 Cis Van Den Bogaert reported that CgHO will host the next Council meeting and Workshop from Saturday, 5 April to Monday, 7 April, 2003, probably in Antwerp. A local network event will be planned for Friday, 4 April, 2003, probably in Brussels. (See 9.2 below for a possible theme)
4.2 ACTION: Council members to send ideas to Cis Van Den Bogaert for possible workshops at the Belgium Council meeting.
5 The 2004 ICED Conference in Canada
5.1 Gary Poole reported that the plan is to place ICED and STLHE conferences in close proximity, as is the case this year. The STLHE conference will be in Central Canada, and so ICED will probably be in either Montreal, Toronto, or Ottawa. ICED would probably be scheduled before STLHE (for example: ICED June 7 - 10; STLHE June 11 - 14). However, this might not suit those from the Southern Hemisphere. So, we might have ICED after STLHE (June 16 - 19)?
5.2 ACTION: STLHE will finalize the location and dates by the end of November, 2002
6 Future Council meetings and Conferences
6.1 A variety of potential sites were discussed for the 2005 Council meeting and Workshop and the 2006 Conference, among them Hong Kong, Singapore, Salt Lake City, Ireland and Croatia. Members were reminded that we try to provide opportunities for emergent networks to become involved by hosting a Council meeting, given that this would be more comfortable than organizing an entire conference. With this in mind, it was suggested that Hong Kong would be a better venue for the 2006 conference, leaving the 2005 Council meeting for an emerging network. The All Irish and Croatian networks expressed interest in hosting a Council meeting. Lynn Sorensonoffered to organise the 2010 conference in Salt Lake City.
6.2 ACTION: Angela Brew will discuss with the HERDSA Hong Kong branch the possibility of hosting the conference in 2006.
6.3 ACTION: Maria will discuss with her colleagues the feasibility of hosting the Council meeting in Croatia in 2005.
6.6 ACTION: Peter Bouhuijs agreed to put together a description of the nature, structure, and goals of ICED Council meetings, to assist those networks considering hosting one of these meetings.
6.7 ACTION: A representative, preferably the conference organiser, from the hosting network, will be invited to attend the preceding conference and Council meeting.
BREAK FOR LUNCH AND TOUR OF THE CAMPUS
6.8 Language of the Conference and meetings: Recognizing that English is the operative language of ICED, it was agreed that we should send out invitations to the conference in a range of languages. This has been discussed several times. Peter recommends that we maintain this recognition, but that those who speak English well should take on the responsibility to help those whose first language is not English and who would like some help with comprehension or translation. We were reminded that, in Bielefeld, there were sessions offered in German, which were attractive for local participants.
8 IJAD Report - David Baume and Angela Brew
8.1 David welcomed Angela to the editorial team and reminded Council of the importance of being able to call upon members and others to review papers. Circulation figures are more or less stable. Next issue is Volume 7, No. 1. Note: the 2001 Council meeting minutes (pages 6 - 7) were inaccurate in stating that 7(1) had been published - this should be 6(1).
8.2 Angela reported that Taylor and Francis has established software that will help manage elements of the editing/review process. This should smooth the process and help establish a consistent location for submissions. This journal is truly international, as evidenced by issue 7(1). Submissions from non-English speaking countries are down in recent issues. Most of the reviewers come from English-speaking countries.
8.3 Council members thanked the editors for their fine work. It was noted that a previous attempt to attract other reviewers had been unsuccessful. Council agreed that this must be an international journal in the truest sense. Should we have an associate editor from non-English speaking network? We must make clear our support for those who would offer their expertise to ICED in this area. Joint authoring of papers might help. We should have summaries written in languages in addition to English. Johannes offers to find reviewers in Germany. People who make good presentations at the conference should be encouraged to submit papers to IJAD. Council members must help with this. Remember that IJAD is happy to receive expressions of interest in the form of proposals and outlines to explore feasibility. The electronic version needs attention.