The 34th Annual Meeting of the Association of Asian Open Universities (AAOU) was held in Sri Lanka from 1 to 3 June. Due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, the annual meeting was mainly held online, with the participation of open universities from nearly 30 countries and regions. Cui Xinyou, JSOU president, was shortlisted for the AAOU Outstanding Contribution Award (MSA), ranking second among all candidates and first among Chinese candidates. This is the first international award in the related field since the founding of JSOU.
The theme of 2021 annual meeting was Opening Minds for a Sustainable Future: Re-Orienting Open Distance Learning (ODL) to Surmount Challenges, which consisted of 6 parallel forums, namely Promoting Sustainable Development through Lifelong Learning, Innovations in ODL through Smart Technologies, Open Knowledge Movement: Implications for ODL, Learner Engagement and Motivation in Open Distance Education: Challenges and Possibilities, Best Practices in ODL for Education for Sustainable Development and Learning Analytics in ODL: Potential and Challenges.
The annual meeting 2021 was the first event held by AAOU since the outbreak of COVID-19. JSOU Office of International Cooperation and Exchange prepared in advance. The Office communicated with AAOU organizing committee several times on the organization of relevant activities and paper submission, cooperated with JSOU Science and Technology Division for the preparation and selected teachers to participate in the annual meeting online. Three teachers, Zhang Dai, Tang Wen and Dai Yue, were selected for it. Their papers, which were publicized online in parallel forums, achieved good results. Tang Wen won the Silver Award for the Best Paper.
This award not only reflects JSOU’s influence in the field of International Open University, but also enhances JSOU’s international reputation. The Office of International Cooperation and Exchange will further explore the effective ways of education opening up for JSOU in the new era.