The aim of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) UNESCO Chair in Elearning is to foster an intergrated research, learning, information and documentation system on the positive effects that the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) represents for universities.

The promotion of equal opportunities in access to ICTs is the central aim upon which the activity of the Chair is structured, becoming the integrating element that provides coherence to its main activities.

Following this, the International Seminar has been conceived as a framework for dissemination and exchange of knowledge and experiences linked to the relationship between University and Elearning. Its aim is to look deeply into the knowledge and analysis of the main elements and challenges that the twenty-first century university faces.

The III International Seminar, held in Barcelona from 22nd to 24th November 2006, offered a change from the two previous seminars, as it specifically tackled one of the central elements that form part of the current debate in the field of Elearning: that of the challenges faced by higher education institutions as a result of the creation, introduction, use and dissemination of Open Educational Resources.

The UOC UNESCO Chair International Seminar has, therefore, evolved from a generic focus which, in the past, had covered the fundamental challenges faced during the initial years of Elearning introduction into university, towards a much more defined focus, which, over the years, will revise the central elements of the development of e-learning and its implications for the institutional dynamics of universities and centres of higher education.

The Seminar was addressed to:

• Senior managers on university governing boards: rectors, vice rectors and executive managers or administrators.
• Academics who are working on research projects about the challenges posed by the development of Open Educational Resources.
• Managers of the processes for introduction and use of Elearning at higher education institutions where the creation, use and publication of Open Educational Resources play a leading role: the rector's representative for the Implementation and use of new technologies, Elearning directors, Faculty deans, innovation centre directors, etc.