Tuesday, 22 June, 16.00-18.00, Room 2

EUROpace 2000 will hold the workshop: "VirtUE, a Virtual University for Europe".

In conjunction with the 19th World Conference on Open Learning and Distance Education in Vienna from 20 to 24 June1999, EuroPACE will organise an extention event

"VIRTUE - A VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY FOR EUROPE"

Based on different experiences and various evaluations and studies, in particular results obtained through analysis and experimentation in the framework of the THETA project, EuroPACE 2000 and the Coimbra Group came to the conclusion that the implementation of ICT in the teaching/learning structures of universities can only be successful through the establishment of a strategic alliance of universities, a core-group of
some five to eight universities who combine the wealth of varying expertise and experience, and would be ready to take the determined strategic decisions at the university level to fully implement the new technologies in their major processes.

At the same time EuroPACE 2000, the Coimbra Group and others have the ambition to create a service organisation for ODL in education, called VirtUE (Virtual University for Europe)-services. This umbrella organisation would offer technical, logistical, pedagogical and administrative services to users from, in the first place, the world of higher education, in areas where it is more effective and efficient to perform tasks on a supra-institutional level.

The aim of the extension event is to generate a panel discussion with active involvement of the participants to the events, to disseminate our views and check our own ideas regarding this strategic alliance group of European universities on one hand, and the establishment of a transnational service network for the use and implementation of ICT in education on the other hand, to the needs in the participants' universities and the ODL developments planned and or realised.

Members of the panel will be

• Prof. G. Van der Perre
• J. Van den Branden
• C. Claeys
• P. Floor

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