Artificial intelligence (AI) is a major force driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It will have a profound impact not only on new technological advances, but also on how education and research are taken into the future.
This is why the UNESCO Chair for Multimodal Learning and Open Educational Resources from the Research Unit for Self-Directed Learning at the North-West University (NWU) is celebrating this year’s Open Education Week by hosting a prestige lecture on expanding education through AI.
The Open Education Week celebrations take place from 1 to 5 March and include a webinar about open licensing and copyright in open education for NWU staff.
AI takes open education into the future
Prof Jako Olivier holds the Chair for Multimodal Learning and Open Education Resources at the NWU. He says the prestige lecture that takes place on 2 March should not be missed.
“We are fortunate to have Dr Mitja Jermol, a renowned expert in the field of AI, presenting the lecture. It promises to be an informative and enlightening event.”
The title of Dr Jermol’s lecture is Opening up education with AI. It will take place via the Zoom platform. Everyone who is interested should register at https://forms.gle/NKjJKCKAUTVbfTpe9 before 1 March.
Dr Jermol holds the UNESCO Chair for Open Technologies for Open Education Resources and Open Learning. He is the head of the Centre for Knowledge Transfer at the Jozef Stefan Institute, the national research institute in Slovenia.
He is also chief project officer at the International Research Centre for AI in Slovenia. His responsibilities include heading projects that address global challenges relating to sustainable development goals through AI. These include AI in smart cities, circular economy, environment, intelligent transport, smart energy grids, factories of the future, cyber security, technology-enhanced learning, knowledge management and business intelligence.
Dr Jermol has a long track record of setting up and managing large projects like videolectures.NET, Science Atlas, an analytics framework for fighting against corruption, and more.
Webinar focuses on open licensing and copyright
The webinar is held in conjunction with the NWU’s Centre for Teaching and Learning and is titled Introduction to open licensing and copyright for open pedagogy. The aim of this webinar is to show lecturers how to use open-licensed content and empower them to publish and share their own content as well.
The webinar will take place on 3 March. Staff who would like to attend must register at https://ctl-nwu.libcal.com/event/7535688.
Open Education Week promotes accessibility
The Open Education Week is an annual event promoting open education and open educational resources worldwide. At a time when the cost of learning resources is very high, higher education should consider embracing open educational resources that are cost-effective and also allow for customisation in order to make the content relevant to South African students.
The event is the ideal opportunity for actively sharing and learning about the latest achievements and developments in open education worldwide.
For more information about Open Education Week, visit https://www.openeducationweek.org/page/what-is-open-education-week.
