Keynote Speakers
-
Click each photo to see information on speakers.
Prof. Un Shil CHOI Chairperson of the KCEF (Korean Community Education Foundation) -
Click each photo to see information on speakers.
Prof. Asha Singh Kanwar President and Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) -
Click each photo to see information on speakers.
Dr. Duk-Hoon KWAK Vice chair of i-Scream Media -
Click each photo to see information on speakers.
Dr. MELINDA DELA PEÑA BANDALARIA Chancellor and Professor
University of the Philippines Open University -
Click each photo to see information on speakers.
Dr. Neil Fassina President of ICDE & President of Okanagan College -
Click each photo to see information on speakers.
Dr. Torunn Gjelsvik Secretary General of ICDE
Prof. Un Shil CHOI
Choi Un Shil is a chairperson of the KCEF(Korean Community Education
Foundation), professor emeritus of Lifelong Learning at the Ajou University and
chaired professor of Seowon Unversity.
She also take the role of Chair of the KFLE(Korea Foundation for Lifelong
Education) and UNESCO EAC(Expert Advisory Committee) for Lifelong Learning
Cities, and also served as a Vice-Chair of Governing Board of UIL(UNESCO
Institute for Lifelong Learning) and during several years as the member of the
International Jury for the UNESCO Literacy Prize.
She served as a President of NILE(National Institute for Lifelong Education) ,
also Chair of the Korean Academic Society of Lifelong Education and President of
Korean Association of Lifelong Education.
She also served as a member of variety of the Presidential Commission for
Innovative Education, Gender equality, Rural Community Development etc. and
member of the Commission for Policy Evaluation of Prime Minister’s Office, and
Research fellow of Department of Higher and Adult Education at the University of
Missouri Columbia.
Currently, more than 8 years, she served as a representative CEO publisher of
internet newspaper ‘Lifelong Learning Times’.
Prof. Asha Singh Kanwar
Professor Asha Singh Kanwar, President and Chief Executive Officer of the
Commonwealth of Learning (COL), is one of the world’s leading advocates of
learning for sustainable development. Throughout a career spanning 35-plus
years, Professor Kanwar has made outstanding contributions in the areas of
teaching, research and international development.
Professor Kanwar received her undergraduate, Master's and MPhil degrees from the
Panjab University in India and a DPhil from the University of Sussex, UK. Her
areas of expertise and experience include open distance and technology-enabled
learning, open educational resources, quality assurance, gender and
organizational development. Professor Kanwar has written and edited a dozen
books, published over 100 papers and articles, and delivered numerous keynote
addresses at various prestigious international conferences.
Prior to joining COL, Professor Kanwar was a senior consultant in open and
distance learning at UNESCO's Regional Office for Education in Africa (BREDA).
She has also served as Director, School of Humanities and as Pro-Vice Chancellor
at the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in New Delhi, India. She
was a Fulbright Fellow for post-doctoral research at Iowa State University in
the U.S., where she was later invited to teach. Currently, she serves on the
boards of several international organizations, including the Governing Board of
the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies and Education (IITE).
Professor Kanwar is the recipient of several international awards, including the
International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) Prize of Excellence
and the Meritorious Service Award for outstanding contributions in open and
distance education from the Asian Association of Open Universities. She has been
conferred nine honorary doctorates from universities in Asia, Africa, Europe and
North America.
Dr. Duk-Hoon KWAK
Dr. Duk-Hoon Kwak is currently the vice chair of i-Screammedia, which creates
something new to the world with the spirit of challenge, creativity, and passion
as a global advanced digital educational company, an advisor to the Smart
Education Society, and an emeritus professor at KNOU (Korea National Open
University). As a scholar in the field of computer science and EdTech, he was
the president of the e-Learning Society and the co-chair of the Korea EdTech
Forum and is one of the most respected experts in computer science, e-learning,
and EdTech.
He served as a professor at KNOU, the president of KERIS (Korea Education and
Research Information Service), the president of EBS (Korea Educational
Broadcasting System), and the Chair of the Korea mirror committee of ISO/IEC
JTC1 SC36, which is leading the development of truly international standards of
EdTech. Also, he has authored dozens of books and journals in the field of
computer science and EdTech. In particular, Dr. Kwak played an important role in
establishing and settling Korean cyber universities as the head of Korea's Cyber
University Establishment Review Board and Operational Evaluation Committee in
the early days of cyber universities.
As a top-level advisor to the Korean government’s digital education policies,
Dr. Kwak has played a dynamic and future-oriented role in the development of
Korean education.
Dr. MELINDA DELA PEÑA BANDALARIA
University of the Philippines Open University
Dr. MELINDA DELA PEÑA BANDALARIA is a full professor at the University of the
Philippines Open University (UPOU) and has been serving as its Chancellor since
2016. She is also an Ambassador for Open Educational Resources (OERs)
(2021-2022) and member of the Executive Board (2022-2025) of the International
Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE). She served as the President of
the Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) for the term 2017-2019 and
continues to be an active member of the Association’s Executive Committee to
date. She has been teaching and doing research and development works on
technology-enabled education for more than 25 years and has assumed a leadership
role in the articulation and implementation of open, flexible and distance
elearning (OFDeL) in the Philippines for the last 10 years. She spearheaded the
development of the model where OERs and MOOCs correspond to the content of
credit courses offered by various higher education institutions (HEIs) in the
Philippines and the “MOOCs as OERs Model” to contribute to the efforts of
continued improvement in the quality of education in the country. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, she developed the “Open Online Training Model” which provided
an inclusive training opportunity to help the education sector immediately shift
to remote instruction and continuously improve the practice from thereon. The
model consists of Webinar+MOOC+Capstone Requirement. The webinar, which is open
to all, provides the synchronous lecture session, the recording of which is
uploaded in the MOOC site for those who want to review the discussions and those
who were not able to listen to the actual webinar. The MOOC is where the
participants do the learning activities and interact with fellow training
participants; and the capstone requirement, usually in the form of Re-Entry
Action Project (ReAPro) is for the assessment-driven certification of training
completion to ensure the quality of the training program.
For her initiatives and contributions to the field of OFDeL, Dr. Bandalaria was
conferred the 2021 Meritorious Service Award by the AAOU and the 2021 Individual
Prize of Excellence by the ICDE. Her works during the time of the COVID-19
pandemic, under the banner program #OpenFight” was also recognized through the
Gawad Pangulo ( University President’s Award) for Public Service.
Dr. Neil Fassina
Dr. Neil Fassina became Okanagan College's President in April 2021, drawn to the
institution for its reputation for transforming lives and communities.
Fassina holds a PhD in Management from the Rotman School of Business at the
University of
Toronto, a BSc in Psychology from the University of Calgary and is a chartered
professional in
human resources (CPHR), and a chartered director through the Institute of
Chartered Directors
(ICD.D). As an active researcher, he has authored or co-authored a number of
refereed articles,
a Canadian Human Resource Management text, and pursues research interests in
negotiations,
applied decision making, and the role of education in shaping societies.
Prior to joining OC, Fassina was the President of Athabasca University
(2016-21). He served
previously as Provost and Vice President Academic at the Northern Alberta
Institute of
Technology (NAIT) and the Dean of the JR Shaw School of Business and School of
Hospitality
and Culinary Arts. He has taught as part of his academic career at the
University of Toronto, the
University of Calgary, the University of Manitoba, and in executive
environments.
Dr. Torunn Gjelsvik
Torunn Gjelsvik is an educational expert and leader with specialization in open,
distance and online education. Since she assumed the position as Secretary
General of International Council for Open and Distance Education – ICDE - in
2020, she has been a strong advocate for inclusive access to quality education
through flexible learning provisions. ICDE is the leading and oldest global
membership association for Open, Flexible and Distance Learning. The association
is a non-profit NGO, hosted by Norway since 1988, and holds members from more
than 70 countries in all world regions.
Gjelsvik holds a Masters’ degree in Nordic languages and literature and her
education background includes French, history, management and communication. She
has over 20 years of experience from leadership, development and quality
assurance of online and distance education within secondary and tertiary
education in Norway, and she was the Director for the membership association
Flexible Education Norway from 2018-2020. Her international experience covers
policy development, international networks and partnerships, global events and
cross-country project management related to the global field of open, flexible,
distance and online education.