DETC are hosting a Seminar in Oxford on 10-11 September, whilst their
DE workshop will be at Notre Dame University, Indiana, from 10-12 October,
see www.detc.org

Online Learning, organised by the SMI Group and aimed at corporate trainers, is at The Hatton, London, from 25-26 September,
see www. smi-online.co.uk/conferences

The European Corporate Universities Summit will be at Le Meridien, Piccadilly, London from 2-4 October,
see www.corpu.com

Whilst the e-HR conference and exposition will be from 9-11 October at the Commonwealth Institute, London,
see www.linkageinc.com/ehr2000e

NABSE meetings include a re-run of Towards the Virtual College at Solihull College on 26 October, and one on
E-commerce within the Curriculum on 9 November at KPMG Birmingham
- details fromnabse@completesupport.co.uk

Flexible Learning – Edinburgh 2000, organised by BAOL, is on 1 November,
see www.baol.com

The Applied Distance Learning Conference – Europe will be at the Hilton London Metropole on 1-2 November
– see www.itec.co.uk
whilst Online Learning from Conference Partnership will be in London from 7-8 November
– seewww.conferencepartnership.co.uk/online/online.htm

The annual Berlin event, Online Educa Berlin, is from 29 November to 1 December
– see www.online-educa.com

Further ahead, Bill Communications are organising the OnLine Learning 2001 Europe conference and exhibition in London from 13-14 February 2001; similar to events in the USA and Singapore, see www.lakewoodconferences.com

The 13th Gulf Education and Training Exhibition will be in Dubai from 24-27 April 2001, see www.gulfeducation.com

And e-learning will be one of the themes of the 2001 EADL Conference, in Antwerp, Belgium, 30 May to 1 June, see www.eadl.org

Details of WOLCE 2000 are given elsewhere in this newsletter

Organisations

Cambridge Tutorial College International, the ODL QC-accredited distance learning college based in Jersey, is changing its name, from 1st August 2000 to Cambridge International College.

The Campaign for Learning are currently undertaking a survey of attitudes to e-learning – see www.campaign-for-learning.org.uk/questionnaire

Three new sites offer course listings:

The Emplyment NTO has launched a Learning Network for NVQ assessors & verifiers, see www.thelearningnetworkonline.com

Bryan Sanderson, Group MD of BP Amoco will be Chairman of the new Learning and Skills Council, whilst the Chief Executive will be John Harwood, currently Chief Executive of Oxfordshire County Council.

Lists of local LSC chairs are on www.uuy.org.uk/projects/post16/ lsc_members/appoints/localch/all_appointments_list.htm

To keep up-to-date with other LSC news, try the weekly email briefing called Countdown to the LSC launched in July by the Training and Employment Network and the National Training Federation; see www.lscbrief.org.uk

Montessori Centre International, the new joint venture of the London Montessori and Montessori St Nicholas Centres has now been accredited by ODL QC, see www.odlqc.org.uk/odlqc/press.htm

Publications

Number 3 of the CHEA Update on Distance Learning in HE is now out,
see www.chea.org

IES has just published a Review of Adult Learning in England.
– see www.employment-studies.co.uk/summary/369sum.html

A new book one-Moderating is reviewed elsewhere in the newsletter, whilst a new report on Investing in Online Learning is at www.bates.cstudies.ubc.ca/investing.html

Finally, TSC have now published their Chief Inspector's 2nd Annual report, see www.tsc.gov.uk

Review

As Gilly Salmon observes early on in her book, "computers can provide vehicles for learning... but students still need the 'champions' who make the learning come alive - the e-moderators". How you go about creating this new breed of educational 'champion' is the subject of E-Moderating.

Divided into two parts, the book provides an in depth exploration of a wide range of issues including what e-moderating is, the role of the e-moderator, how to implement training, learner experiences and resources for practitioners.

Also included is a short resource section providing the addresses of online journals, virtual campuses, online databases and software systems for computer mediated communication.

Throughout, Salmon brings an enthusiastic, thought-provoking and refreshingly pragmatic approach to what being an e-moderator entails, based on a wealth of experience gained within the Open University Business School.

E-moderating is targeted at a wide audience: form the academic to the "lurker". And while Salmon wisely refrains from portraying becoming a successful e-moderator as ridiculously easy nor does she make it seem impossibly difficult. In part this is achieved through her use of case-studies and extracts from the diaries of e-moderators. The experiences of real people in real e-learning situations is both instructive and reassuring.

I suspect that, as e- learning continues to expand and evolve, E-Moderating will become an indispensible guide for anyone with an interest in online learning. I would even hazard to suggest that E-Moderating bears all the hallmarks of becoming a classic of its kind

Philip Healy joins ODL QC

ODL QC is pleased to announce the election of Philip Healy to the Council.

Philip is a consultant, currently working for the British Council. He completed their report on strategies to develop British distance learning and in-country delivery in March 2000 and is currently helping them find ways to support providers wanting to offer courses off-shore.

His career in higher education began at the Open University, in its early days, then moved to the University of Sheffield. He was Registrar in the Division of Adult and Continuing Education, developed strategies for wider access to the University, and then produced internal policies for developing franchising and validation partnerships with British and foreign institutions, including internal quality assurance systems. He also co-ordinated the conversion of Sheffield's degrees to a uniform modular structure.

In 1997, he opened a University office in Kuala Lumpur, supporting student recruitment and franchising partnerships He was Project Manager for the Asean-Sheffield Medical School, created by Sheffield and a Malaysian consortium to deliver the Sheffield MB ChB locally.

He returned from Malaysia in early 1999, and shortly afterwards left Sheffield to take up the British Council consultancy