The African Virtual University (AVU) will hold its 2^nd International Conference from July 2^nd to the 3^rd 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya at Crowne Plaza.

In 2013 participants came mainly from the AVU network of Partner Institutions in more than 30 African countries from other African institutions, and from institutions in Europe, Asia, and America. Some of the speakers from the 2013 conference included: the AVU Rector; Ms. Fenny W. S. Mwakisha, the Director of Higher Education at the Ministry of Education, Kenya; Dr Beatrice Njenga from the African Union Commission (AUC); Daphne Koller, a Stanford University Professor of Computer Science and a co-Founder and co-CEO of Coursera; and Professor Chiedu Mafiana of the Nigerian University Commission. The AVU advisory committee, made up of Deputy Vice-Chancellors (DVCs), academics, and national coordinators from member country ministries of education were also part of the conference, as well as AVU strategic partners.

The 2^nd International AVU conference will bring together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to make sense of the challenges and explore emerging opportunities afforded by ICTs and open, distance, and e-learning (ODeL) in addressing issues of access, equity, and quality of higher education and training in Africa.

The theme this year will be “Linking Open Education and eLearning Research to Practice” with a focus on MOOCs, OERs, and Mobile Learning. Speakers at the 2015 conference will include Prof. Peck Cho (Center for Teaching and Learning, Dongguk University,Korea); Prof. Cheryl Hodgkinson- Williams (Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching at University of Cape Town, South Africa); Larry Cooperman (Associate Dean at University of California, Irvine, USA), Sophie Touze (Board member of the Open Education Consortium, France), Stavros Panagiotis Xantthopoylos (Vice Dean, Executive Educational Unit at Fundacao Getulio Vargas, Brazil).

More information here.