Dr. Adnan Qayyum
Professor of Adult Education
Penn State University, State College, USA
Adnan Qayyum, Ph.D., is a professor in the graduate program of Lifelong Learning and Adult Education at the Pennsylvania State University in the United States. He is also a faculty member of Comparative and International Education at Penn State. Previously he was the director of the Distance Education unit at the University of Manitoba, and a researcher and instructional designer of distance education and technology, and adult education, at the University of British Columbia. He has consulted on educational technologies, and online and distance education, for international development agencies, governments, educational institutions, businesses, unions, community groups, and accreditation agencies. He is co-director of the American Center for Distance Education at Penn State, and an associate editor of the American Journal of Distance Education.
Dr. Olaf Zawacki-Richter
Professor of Educational Technology and COER Director
University of Oldenburg, Germany
Olaf Zawacki-Richter was awarded his PhD (The Development of Online Degree Programs) in 2003, and received his habilitation in June 2010 at the University of Mainz, with a focus on further education. He was a Professor of Educational Technology at the Fernuniversität in Hagen (2008-2010) and since October 2010 he has been a Professor of Educational Technology at the University of Oldenburg. He has authored over 120 articles, book contributions, books and editorials, and is an Associate Editor of the journal Distance Education, as well as a member of the Editorial Boards of the journals International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Open Learning, and the Zeitschrift für Hochschulentwicklung. He has given keynote presentations, workshops and lectures at international conferences in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, UK, Columbia, Croatia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Hungary and the USA. Olaf Zawacki-Richter has worked as a consultant for the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the German Science Council, the Swiss National Science Foundation and various accreditation agencies. Currently, Dr Zawacki-Richter is a member of the Council of the Institute for Education at Oldenburg University and the director of Center for Open Education Research.