Dr. Melinda dela Peña Bandalaria, Chancellor of the UP Open University (UPOU) and current President of the Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU), represented the Philippines to the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) Stakeholder's Meeting on 06 April 2017 at Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Dr. Bandalaria was among the 17 overseas participants from 16 institutions in 10 countries. At the meeting, she presented the Asian MOOCs, a portal that integrates the MOOCs offerings in the Asia Pacific, especially those offered by AAOU member institutions. Asian MOOCs was launched in October 2016, during AAOU's 30th Annual Conference in Manila, Philippines, which UPOU hosted.
According to Dr. Bandalaria, Asian MOOCs was developed with an aim to advance and promote openness and innovation in education; encourage, support and assist AAOU members to offer MOOCs; and promote open education through MOOCs. The Asian MOOCs portal is coordinated by the Asian MOOCs Steering Committee within the AAOU, chaired by the Philippines through the UPOU.
Other initiatives and developments in MOOCs within Asia and Europe were also presented at the Meeting, which aimed to share information and discuss the scope of the ASEM Network of MOOCs program; specify the roles and responsibilities for each project in the program; and discuss directions for each projects in the program. These directions includes the co-development and management of MOOC contents; case collection in quality assurance ; development of quality assurance guidelines for MOOC contents ; and the publication of the collection of best cases in social recognition and usage for MOOCs in ASEM region.
The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) is an intergovernmental process established in 1996 to foster dialogue and cooperation between Asia and Europe. ASEM operates with 53 partnerships from 30 European countries, 21 Asian countries, the European Union and the ASEAN Secretariat. ASEM addresses political, economic, social, cultural, and educational issues of common interest, in a spirit of mutual respect and equal partnership. This ASEM MOOCs Stakeholders' Meeting is hosted by the Ministry of Education of Republic of Korea, and organized by a national-level agency under it, the National Institute for Lifelong Education (NILE).
