The European Distance and E-Learning Network, abbreviated EDEN and originally named the European Distance Education Network, established in 1991, is an international educational association open to institutions and individuals dealing with e-learning, Open education, open and distance education. Providing versatile expertise, the Association embraces all levels of formal and non-formal education and training. EDEN is a not-for-profit organisation, registered as a limited Company under English law.
The organisation exists to share knowledge and improve understanding for professionals in distance and e-learning across the whole of Europe and beyond, and to promote policy and practice for this field of endeavour. With more than 200 institutional members and over 1100 members in the Network of Academics and Professionals, EDEN holds annual conferences attracting more than 550 participants; holds additional conferences on research and on the schools sector every two years; has launched and supports the European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning (EURODL); and provides support and advice for a range of projects in the European sphere - EDEN is the smart network for the professional community, and a professional community for smart learning.
Since 1997 the Secretariat of the Association has been hosted by the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary.
Strategic contributions on a European level
Members and senior officers of EDEN have frequently been contributing to policy initiatives, important publications, comprehensive European actions during the past years. A selection of relevant achievements can be read below.
The book "E-Learning in Europe – Learning Europe: How new media contributed to the development of higher education?", published in 2005 in the series "Medien in der Wissenschaft" gives a survey about the past present and future of e-learning in twelve European countries. EDEN representatives have contributed with different chapters, including the concluding one about "European E-learning from Supranational Perspectives", by Claudio Dondi, Andras Szucs and Erwin Wagner.
The developments in different European countries were discussed at the conference "New Educational Benefits of ICT in Higher Education", in Rotterdam in 2002. The national cases were included in the book "The Use of ICT in Higher Education – A Mirror of Europe". EDEN contributed with a thought-provoking paper on the expectations, opportunities, achievements and realities regarding ICT, e-learning and ODL in Central and Eastern Europe.
The 2004 Annual Conference in Budapest "New Challenges and Partnerships in an Enlarged European Union" put in focus the issue of efficient and beneficial European integration and the core question: how distance and e-learning can best play a role in capacity building and support modernisation.
The topic of the Third EDEN Research Workshop in Oldenburg, in 2004, inspired the publication on "Learner Support in Open distance and Online Learning Environments", in the ASF Series on Distance Education, addressing the latest in theory, practice, research and evaluation in the field.
The Second EDEN Research Workshop, organised in Hildesheim in 2002, was entitled "Research and Policy in Open and Distance Learning". The Workshop dealt with the relation of research and comprehensive aspects of Open and Distance Learning and e-learning, focusing on policy and strategy issues.
An interesting collaboration with UNESCO Information Society Division resulted the project, entitled "Higher Education Open and Distance Learning Knowledge Base for Decision Makers". EDEN has also taken an active part in the Socrates Minerva ODL project "How to build up European ODL Networks", a comparative analysis of the different distance education networks in the European countries.
In co-operation with EADTU, a well-received study was prepared, entitled "The Role of Advanced Information Technology in the Development of Distance Education Networks in Central and Eastern Europe".
EDEN representatives were invited to co-ordinate two important policy studies: The Relationship between Distance and Mainstream Education, for the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century (UNESCO), and a Policy Paper on Open and Distance Learning. Feasibility studies were realised by EDEN for Distance Education in the Czech and Slovak Republic, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and an important paper on the Development of a Regional Distance Education Network in Central and Eastern Europe, using TEMPUS and PHARE funds, and in co-operation with EADTU.