亚洲远程教育的现状与未来发展前景 ─ 第22届亚洲开放大学协会（AAOU）年会综述

Current Status and Future Visions for Distance Education in Asia：─ Report of the 22nd AAOU Annual Conference

2008年10月14日至16日，第22届亚洲开放大学协会（AAOU）年会在天津召开，本次年会由天津广播电视大学承办。本届年会共有七个主题演讲，这些主题演讲建议和主张我们在建构和运行亚洲乃至世界范围内的开放与远程教育过程中所面临的的重大变革。从中可得出五点结论：（1）为了质量保证，考试应外包给一些跨机构的考试和认证机构；（2）开放教育资源应该是免费的，而且更容易为全球所获取；（3）获取远程教育的途径必须更加灵活，以应付不断变化的人口统计数据和预期增长的年长的、身体受损的学生数量；（4）在课程设计中不应只提供给学生二手信息，而要成为学生学习经验的主要来源；（5）AAOU应该做更多的工作，以促进学生、教师和课程的跨文化交流。第一和第二点一起是指为每个学生提供尽可能多的可付得起的高质量教育机会；第三点提醒我们采用ISO标准；而第四和第五点涉及到的是AAOU的核心内容：即亚洲所有国家和地区唯一的共同特征是多样性，而这种多样性不仅在于会议的丰富和价值，也在于我们的教师和学生。

This Report of the 22nd Asian Association of Open Universities（AAOU）Annual Conference takes a more in─depth look at the proceedings to offer insight to those who attended and to offer more information than is usual in a Conference Report to those who did not. This year， the AAOU Conference was held in Tianjin， China， hosted by Tianjin RTVU 14─16 October. The structure of the conference was new ─there were seven Keynote Speeches， and all regular Participants presented individual Papers in paralled sessions on only one morning on the last day. Fortunately the Keynote Speeches were indeed worthwhile attending. In summary， these Keynote Speeches suggested and advocated some major changes in how we are building and running open and distance education in Asia and in the world generally. Five points can be drawn from them：（1）Examinations should be out─sourced to some supra─institutional examination and accrediting agency for quality assurance；（2）Open educational resources should be made free and more easily accessible to all globally；（3）Access must be more flexible to cope with changing demographics and the expected increasing proportion of older─aged physically─impaired students；（4）Courses should be designed not to give second─hand information but to generate primary sources of learning experiences for the students， and（5）The AAOU should do more to promote cross─cultural exchanges of students， teachers， and our courses. The first and second points go together to provide widest possible access to highest possible quality at affordable cost to each student. The third point reminds us to adopt ISO standards， while the fourth and fifth points related to the heart of the AAOU and Asia：the only characteristic common to all countries and regions in Asian is diversity， and in this diversity lies the richness and value not only of conferencing but of our teachers and students.