[25/10/2007]
The University Network for Innovation (RIU - Red de Innovación Universitaria) will celebrate their first year of existence with a meeting at the Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, with the participation of universities from all of Latin America as well as the Open University of Catalonia (UOC, online university from Spain). The goal is to share experiences and reflections on subjects such as open code educational platforms for virtual education, quality of e-learning, open educational resources and online educational programs, in addition to governance and leadership in the university of the 21st century.
The University Network for Innovation, made up of 20 Latin American universities and the Open University of Catalonia, marks its first anniversary
The meeting will begin on October 31 with opening remarks by the president of the Interamerican University de Puerto Rico, Manuel J. Fernús. The vice president of Academic and Student Affairs and System Planning of the host university, Agustí Echevarría, and the vice rector of Postgraduate and Continuing Education of the UOC, Josep Maria Duart, will inaugurate the sessions. During the three days they will address subjects such as open code platforms for virtual education (led by Llorenç Valverde, vice rector of Technology of the Universitat Oberta) and open educational content (Brian Lamb, Department of Emerging Technologies and Digital Content of the University of British Columbia, Canada). In addition, Alejandro Piscitelli, manager of the portal Educ.ar and advisor to the Ministry of Education in Argentina, will conduct a conference. RIU came into being in 2006 en Lima, made up of 27 universities, as an active platform for reflection and analysis of the challenges faced by the university in the 21st century, for the promotion of institutional advancement and technological innovation and the putting in practice of initiatives for change and continued improvement in the university sphere. Experts and executives of these universities collaborate in an active, solidary and voluntary manner in five work nodes:
- Open code educational platform: a forum space and web have been created in which the latest information from internet is published.
- Open code educational resources: the objective of this node is to create a repository of educational material accessible to the public. Thus far, the translation into Spanish of tutorials from the European research project Open eLearning Content Observatory Services has been carried out.
- Online educational programs: this team works on the elaboration of materials to be shared, on the creation of a free program for disadvantaged populations and on establishing a protocol that permits the mobility of students and teaching personnel.
- Quality in e-learning.
Governance and leadership in the university of the 21st century
The Network is comprised of the following institutions: Universidad Autònoma de Colombia,
Universidad Fray Luca Paccioli (Mexico), Universidad del Norte (Colombia), Instituto Tecnológico de
Las Américas (Dominican Republic), Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Spain), TECSUP (Lima),
Institución Universitaria (CEIPA, Colombia), Universidad Iberoamericana (Dominican Republic),
Universidad del Valle (Colombia), Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (Dominican
Republic), Universidad de Valparaíso (Chile), Universidad Abierta para Adultos (Dominican
Republic), Universidad APEC (Dominican Republic), Instituto Superior Politécnico José Antonio
Echevarría (Cuba), Universidad Politécnica de Puerto Rico, Universidad Interamericana (Dominican
Republic), Educ.AR.S.E (Argentina), Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (Mexico) and
Fundación Universitaria Iberoamericana (Puerto Rico), as well as the host Universidad
Interamericana, from the same country.
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