On February 20, 2012, Secretary General of the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) Gard Titlestad visited the OUC Wukesong Distance Education Building in Beijing and had a meeting with OUC President and ICDE Executive Committee member Doctor Yang Zhijian.

Doctor Yang shared with Mr. Titlestad

the OUC's construction philosophy, application of IT and achievements in Open Educational Resources (OER). Mr. Titlestad highly acknowledged the achievements in OER construction and hoped the OUC could share its experience with other ICDE members so as to encourage the governments of other countries to increase support for OER construction.

During his visit, Mr. Titlestad was impressed by the modern technology integrated into the OUC's teaching and administration facilities. On February 20, he also gave a lecture entitled "Opportunities From a More Open and Online World" to all OUC staff, which expounded on the significance and social context of open and distance education, challenges faced by conventional universities and the convergence of traditional higher education with online education, open educational resources, trends in open and distance education as well as the future priorities of the ICDE.

On the 23rd, Mr. Titlestad went to Tianjin Open University (Tianjin OU) and signed an agreement on behalf of the ICDE to host the 25th ICDE World Conference at Tianjin OU. He made a personal inspection of the meeting venue and was informed of the preparation progress for the conference.

The 24th ICDE World Conference was held October 2-5, 2011, in Bali, Indonesia. At the meeting, Tianjin OU was announced as the host for the 25th ICDE World Conference in 2013.

Gard Titlestad meets with President of the OUC

Gard Titlestad briefed on latest developments in informationization at the OUC

Gard Titlestad visits the digital library of the OUC

By Niu Ben, the OUC