Project Number: 134388-2007-GRUNTVIG-GMP

1st Trans-National Distance Conference

on Quality in Adult Learning- 2009

17th December 2009

at
EFQUEL
35, Rue des deux Eglises
B-1000 Brussels

- Agenda-
Presentation:

The 1st Trans-National Distance Conference on Quality in Adult Learning 2009 will be carried out
thanks to an innovative way.
This conference belongs to the QUALC Project. www.qualityfoundation.org/qualc
Since two years the QUALC consortium has been developing a quality approach in order to support
the Adult Learning Centres in all Europe to improve the quality of their learning process, resources
and contexts.
The QUALC approach has been drawn on the basis of the experiences of eight European Countries
thanks to a Grundtvig Project of the Lifelong Learning Program.
This partnership project consists of Sweden, Italy, Germany, Romania, U.K., Belgium, France.
After designing the QUALC quality process has been piloted and experimented in the partners’
countries, involved in the QUALC Project.
In order to keep on supporting and developing Quality in Adult Learning we are organizing a
conference for promoting an European prospective among all involved QUALC Adult Learning
Centres sharing knowledge and experiences with important organizations as EAEA, ETUC and
Grundtving Project Office.
The conference consists of two parts: one international and national.
The international and national parts will be in contacts during all day by live streaming and skype.
The international session will be held at the Efquel Office in Bruxelles, where the European Experts
Roundtable will take place and then it will be in contact with all different national workshops by
internet and communication tools.
The national part will consists of workshops in Italy, Germany, Romania, Swede and UK.

Two Topics will be developed and discussed during the day at the international and national levels.

1. The possible best Quality Approach for the Adult Learning: Quality Assurance or Quality
Development? Why a difference? Quality as a certification/award/conformity or Quality as a
performance to improve learning activities and process?
2. An European Network for the Adult Learning Centres: a potential opportunity to share
learning and create innovation in the reality and on the web. What is the idea about it? A
network more useful than the simple exchange of best practices. An ALCs network to create
and share the quality management where ALCs staff, ALCs users and ALCs stakeholders work
together as “free learners”.

Program and time schedule

Introduction: First International Session (9.00-10:30)

1) Introduction 1st Inter-National Distance Conference for Quality in Adult Learning (09:00-
09:05)
Tim Casswell (Facilitator) ( UIA- Union of International Associations) is welcoming the
participants in the Roundtable, the national workshops, in Second Life and further visitors
who are following the live stream and gives an overview about the day.
2) Introduction QUALC project (09:05-09:20)
Claudio Dondi is presenting the reasons for the QUALC project (history, approach) on behalf
of SCIENTER (Project Coordinator) and the partners.
3) National Experiences in the QUALC project (09:20-10:15): connected by live streaming
a.) Sweden (09:20-09:30)
b.) Italy (09:30-09:40)
c.) Romania (09:50-10:00) (10,50-11,00)
d.) Germany (10:00-10:10)
e.) UK (09:40-09:50) (8,40-8,50-GMT)
f.) Second Life (10:10-10:20)
4) Introduction Programme Committee and tasks for the national workshop (10:20-10:30)
The main topics will be presented by the chair of the day and these main topics are the themes
on which the European Experts will answer the national statements/issues.

5) Close the first International Session: Coffee Break (10:30–10:45)

Morning Session:
6) National Workshop (10.45-12.30)
The singular national workshops will adopt different methodologies and strategies to develop
discussion and collect opinions about the two suggested topics.

The ultimate goal of the morning session is to have 2/3 statements from each national workshop.
These statements and question will be sent to Brussels via email.
The Roundtable of experts can then have a first discussion about the visions and compare them
with their own approaches.

Lunch break (13:00-14:00)

Afternoon session: Second International Session (14:00-16:00)

7) Presentation of all national workshop (14:00-15:00):
Each workshop group has around 7 minutes to present the 3 outcome statements (rapporteur).
The Second Life Group could have a bit more time to explain the approach (around 15 minutes).
a.) UK (14:00-14:10) (13,00-13,10-GMT)
b.) Romania (14:10-14:20) (15,10-15,20)
c.) Italy (14:20-14:30)
d.) Germany (14:30-14:40)
e.) Sweden (14:40-14:50)
f.) Second Life (14:50-15:00)

8) Experts answer (15:00-16:00):

The experts will decide who of them will answer to the different statements.
The Roundtable is discussing the statements in several rounds (5 minutes per round). The
Roundtable has to be briefed that everybody has just one minute to comment a statement.
*The experts will be:

Representative of EAEA, (confirmed)-hopefully Gina Ebner, Secretary General EAEA

Hans-Detlev Küller, ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation)


Evita Martina, e-learning course designer, as representative of the major group of Adult
Learners which is not organised in a network. (confirmed)
Conclusion
9) Results of the Conference
Claudio Dondi and Carl Holmberg are closing the Roundtable and summarizing the final results. In
the end, an action plan is decided to serve both the ALC and the Adult Learner community. The
next steps are already announced.
*All sessions should follow the same “rhythm”, which we summarize here below for your
information (all times are CET, GMT+1):