Proposals are invited from academics, including research scholars and graduate students, technology innovators, development practitioners, administrators, COL stakeholders and partner institutions for presentations within the scope of the theme and sub-themes of PCF11.
The Forum will consist of the following types of sessions:
| Paper Presentations: | These will be research papers, case studies, etc., that will be presented in parallel sessions. Several papers are offered during a 60-minute parallel session. |
| Poster Presentations: | There will be one 60-minute poster session, during which the authors will display and present all the Forum posters. |
| Workshops: | These are 60 or 120-minute sessions, where presenters demonstrate the findings of a key research project or guide the participants to develop specific skills. These would be participant-proposed sessions, which will be decided based on the relevance of the proposals to the Forum theme and sub-themes. These workshops are included as part of the core programme. |
| Panel Discussions: | These are 60-minute sessions, where 3-4 experts make presentations facilitated by a moderator for questions and answers. Proposals are welcome from the participants, who will also take responsibility for identifying speakers. |
| Marketplace: | This is a place for one-to-one conversation with Forum participants, where technology, OER or innovative services and practices are demonstrated and discussed. |
Guidelines for submission
The Programme Committee of PCF11 invites you to submit your abstract or proposal for the Forum as early as possible. The last date for proposal submissions is 30 January 2025. Proposals should be written concisely and clearly in English, the official language of the event. Submissions for single papers/posters should not exceed 200 words. Submissions for workshops/panels/demonstrations should not exceed 400 words. Interested individuals can submit more than one.
You must have an EasyChair account to submit a proposal.
If you do not have an EasyChair account, go to the EasyChair website, click on Log in and then click on Create an account.
Proposals are to be submitted online at submissions.
Please read and follow the instructions below before submitting to the online platform.
Before submission
Before submitting your abstract or proposal, please ensure that you have carefully read and adhered to the Criteria and Instructions for Abstracts and Proposals Submission and Selection. This includes reviewing the theme and sub-theme descriptions and submitting each proposal only once. Please indicate one sub-theme. The proposal must convey the importance and relevance of the topic to the Forum theme and sub-theme as selected and consider the three Special Focus Areas. The same proposals submitted more than once will not be considered. You will be asked to indicate:
- your chosen sub-theme and the link to the three Special Focus Areas, if any, at the proposal submission stage.
- if you plan to attend PCF11 in person or virtually (limited availability) to make your presentation at a session if accepted
- the category of your submission: paper, poster, workshop, panel or marketplace
Some indicative topics covered in different sub-themes are in the table below:
| Sub-theme | Description | Recommended areas | Special focus themes: Emerging technologies for education and training |
Special focus themes: Education for girls and women and youth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Changing mindsets for inclusive open education | Focus on underpinning philosophies/pedagogies/approaches for inclusion, access and success through ODL provision – the ‘why’ of learning. | Innovative pedagogies; new theories; innovations to reduce the carbon footprint in education; Open Educational Practices (OEP). | Other areas of interest include the deployment of flipped classrooms, MOOCs, blended learning, virtual learning; GenAI; micro-credentials; OER/OEP. | Innovations that promote inclusive education (specialised lifelong learning environment and opportunities for women, girls and people with disabilities (PWD) as well as youths are also encouraged. |
| Gender, technology and innovation in open education | Focus on issues of gender, technology and open educational practices – the ‘how’ of learning. | Innovative programmes and structures for improving equity and inclusion in education; quality assurance frameworks, accreditation, certification, benchmarking, rankings, etc. for equity and inclusion; analyses of how consideration for issues related to equity and inclusion helps improve economic growth; new experiments with the use of technology in education. | Using emerging technologies (e.g. games, mobile learning, AI, virtual reality, chatbots) to support and improve the goals of equity and inclusion; technology solutions, services and innovations (e.g. assistive technologies) to close learning gaps. Accreditation, certification in terms of digital credentials and micro-credentials. | Digital skills – coding, design, network management; enabling policies to incentivise girls’ entry to the ICT industry and ICT-enabled industries; identifying and reforming policies and practices that discourage entry; enabling online safety for girl learners, youth and people with disabilities. |
| Skills development through lifelong open education | Focus on skills/TVET development for more people and more flexibility for sustainable development – part of the ‘what’ of learning. | Lifelong learning frameworks; policy reviews and best practices; curricular interventions for skills development; micro-credentials; recognition of prior learning, etc. | Emerging skills requirements for the future of work (industry 4.0), namely in data science and AI-enabled industries; platform economy and learning platforms; transferability of skills through platform work. | Gender in digital learning strategies and innovations for gender-inclusive learning design; gender-responsive learning technologies; gender-inclusive courses. |
| Sustaining communities of learning and practice in innovative open education | Focus on resilience and working, sharing and learning together in local communities and as a pan-Commonwealth community – the ‘who’ of open learning practice. | Building and sustaining communities of practice; collaborations; public-private partnerships, revisiting the role of parents and siblings, peer support and interaction. | Technologies which support OEP | ODL approaches, strategies and practices that address the digital gender divide; using technology tools that increase girl’s and women’s, including PWD’s, access to and participation in education. |
