The International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) has appointed me as ICDE Chair in Open Educational Resources (OER). This appointment from such a leading international association is a great honour which I am delighted to accept in recognition of my activities and achievements for Open Education. For the past 2 years, I have been working as Associate Professor for Open Education in the Open University’s Welten Institute.

Throughout my career, I have started many successful international projects to open up education and to facilitate and improve the application and impact of Open Education. The main focus of my work is on the quality of Open Education. I set-up and coordinate MOOQ, a European Alliance for the Quality of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) which aims to foster and improve the quality in Open Learning and Education particularly in MOOCs leading to a new era of learning experiences. Its main outcome will be to establish a Quality Reference Framework (QRF) for MOOCs in close collaboration with a range of interested parties worldwide.

I am looking forward to exploring new opportunities in my new role as one of the 8 International ICDE chairs in OER and I’m already planning new initiatives for Open Education policies and OER authoring systems in close cooperation with ICDE.

About ICDE: The International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) is the leading global membership organization for online, open, flexible and technology enhanced education, and draws its membership from institutions, educational authorities, commercial actors, and individuals. This year 2017, ICDE has appointed two new ICDE Chairs in OER, Dr. Christian M. Stracke from the Open University of the Netherlands and Dr. Jane-Frances Obiageli Agbu from the National Open University of Nigeria, to sum up to eight international ICDE Chairs in OER in total. All ICDE Chairs in OER are available here.

About MOOQ: MOOQ (www.mooc-quality.eu) is the European Alliance for Quality of Massive Open Online Courses, called MOOCs. The vision of MOOQ is to foster and improve the quality in Open Learning and Education and in particular in MOOCs leading to a new era of learning experiences. Long-term objective is the development and application of a Quality Reference Framework for MOOCs with quality indicators and tools for the benefits of all MOOC stakeholders: designers, facilitators, providers and in particular for the MOOC learners.