News Releases

Making Education Accessible to ALL UNESCO Chair Professor Rory McGreal leads UWI’s OER Lecture

For Release Upon Receipt - January 4, 2024

St. Augustine


 

 

 Professor Rory McGreal, Professor in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies at Athabasca University (AU), Alberta Canada

St. Augustine, January 4, 2023 –   Education stands as an inherent human right, yet millions worldwide confront obstacles in accessing high-quality learning. Open Educational Resources (OER) makes education accessible to ALL and offers educational practices and resources that present a solution that is reshaping the landscape of knowledge and learning, breaking down traditional barriers of geography and economy. By OFFERING FREELY ACCESSIBLE LEARNING MATERIALS RELEASED UNDER OPEN LICENSES, one can imagine a world where the gates of knowledge are flung wide open, inviting every curious mind to partake in the rich banquet of education. OERs therefore ensure that teachers, students, parents and all members of the public can access, share, and engage with information.

 For this reason, The University of the West Indies (The UWI) St. Augustine Campus is proud to host an informative Open Lecture featuring Professor Rory McGreal, an advocate of OER. His lecture, titled "The Power of Open: How OER Can Transform Education for the 21st Century," is FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC and will explore the potential of OER in democratizing education. The event will be held on Thursday, January 11th, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. at The UWI Teaching and Learning Complex, The UWI St. Augustine Campus.

 The lecture is expected to highlight how OER revolutionizes education, offering knowledge universally, irrespective of geographical or economic constraints. Professor McGreal, affiliated with Athabasca University in Alberta, Canada, stands as an eminent academic and UNESCO Chair in Open Educational Resources. His pioneering contributions have propelled OER into a global movement for accessible education.

 Your coverage will not only highlight this shift but also be a part of a movement that champions free and open access to knowledge for all. Do not miss this opportunity to engage in this enlightening dialogue and we look forward to welcoming you to this landmark event.

 Interested persons can register now at: https://uwi.jotform.com/233332736662053

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 Biography- Rory McGreal is a Professor in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies at Athabasca University (AU), Alberta Canada. He is also the UNESCO/International Council for Open and Distance Education Chair in Open Educational Resources and Director of the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute (TEKRI). In addition, he is the Editor-in-Chief of Canada's first open access journal, The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (IRRODL). As part of his work as a Chair in OER, he has been responsible for creating the OER Knowledge Cloud, a database of scholarly articles and reports related to OER. From 2001 to 2011, he was the Associate Vice President, Research at AU. 

  Previously, he was the executive director of TeleEducation New Brunswick , a province-wide bilingual (French/English) distributed distance learning network. Before that, he was responsible for the expansion of Contact North (a distance education network in Northern Ontario ) into the high schools of the region. His Ph.D. degree (1999) in Computer Technology in Education at Nova Southeastern University 's School for Computer and Information Science was taken at a distance using the Internet. 

  Rory was the founder of the world's first e-learning website and one of the world's first metadata learning object repositories, the TeleCampus. In the past, he has worked in Canada as a teacher and teacher representative, and abroad in the Seychelles, the Middle East and Europe in various capacities. 

About The University of the West Indies

 The UWI has been and continues to be a pivotal force in every aspect of Caribbean development; residing at the centre of all efforts to improve the well-being of people across the region for the past 75 years.

 From a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948, The UWI is today an internationally respected, global university with near 50,000 students and five campuses: Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda and its Open Campus, and global centres in partnership with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe.

 The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Culture, Creative and Performing Arts, Food and Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities and Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology, Social Sciences, and Sport. As the Caribbean’s leading university, it possesses the largest pool of Caribbean intellect and expertise committed to confronting the critical issues of our region and wider world.

 The UWI has been consistently ranked among the top universities globally by the most reputable ranking agency, Times Higher Education (THE). The UWI is the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists since its debut in the rankings in 2018. In addition to its leading position in the Caribbean in the World University Rankings, it is also in the top 25 for Latin America and the Caribbean and the top 100 global Golden Age universities (between 50 and 80 years old).  The UWI is also featured among the leading universities on THE’s Impact Rankings for its response to the world’s biggest concerns, outlined in the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Good Health and Wellbeing; Gender Equality and Climate Action.

 2023 marks The UWI’s 75th anniversary. The Diamond jubilee milestone themed “UWI at 75. Rooted. Ready. Rising.” features initiatives purposely designed and aligned to reflect on the past, confront the present, and articulate plans for the future of the regional University.

 Learn more at www.uwi.edu  

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