Under the theme "Expanded Higher Education: Tensions, Challenges, and Emerging Issues," the UNR will host this seminar on November 19 and 20. Papers can be submitted until May 15.

The Argentine University Distance Education Network (RUEDA) invites experts, researchers, teachers, students, and other stakeholders interested in distance education, technology-mediated educational processes, combinations of pedagogical options, and the construction of mixed or hybrid educational scenarios. This initiative aims to create a space for debate, cooperation, scientific and academic production, and dissemination.

Distance education has a long history in public universities, aimed at democratizing knowledge and expanding educational offerings through technology. While it gained prominence in 2020, it is not simply a continuation of emergency remote learning, but rather a pedagogical and didactic option with well-defined characteristics. 

The seminar seeks to generate a space for debate that fosters collaboration and potentially new questions, thus enriching institutions. Several key questions are raised about the historical and practical role of distance education, its capacity to mitigate adverse socioeconomic conditions in access to higher education, and its contribution to the democratization of education. Emerging challenges in both in-person and remote education are also addressed, as well as the importance of securing financial resources for the future of distance education. 

From 2020 to the present, experience shows that the pedagogical and teaching modality of distance education is not a direct route from emergency remote learning. In this sense, the importance of various strategies to expand the target audiences is highlighted, allowing for more students to be reached with quality programs specifically designed to learn in different realities and contribute to the transformation of new social scenarios.

Given these particularities, whether national, regional, or global, what can distance learning contribute from its historical, theoretical, and practical perspectives? What possible analyses and perspectives can it offer to interpret these new present and future scenarios? What institutional reconfigurations are necessary regarding distance education? 

At the national level, how can it contribute to mitigating the impact of adverse socioeconomic conditions on access to higher education? What role does distance education play in the democratization of public universities and the expansion of higher education? How can it guarantee the flexibility and adaptability necessary to meet the needs of students from diverse backgrounds? What new challenges have emerged in in-person and remote learning as a result of the emergency teaching experience? How can the necessary financial resources be secured to sustain and strengthen distance education in the long term? How can distance education institutional systems adapt to these new realities and challenges? What is the relationship between the financing of educational development projects and the development of long-term strategies for distance education?

These are the questions that guide us to foster spaces for debate, agreements and joint decisions such as this Seminar, which constitutes an environment that promotes collaborative work and provides the appropriate setting to perhaps arrive at new questions that enrich educational institutions that wish to continue learning. 

The RUEDA Organizing Committee is made up of representatives from the following universities: UDC, UNAJ, UNaM, UNCOMA, UNCUYO, UNdeC, UNLa; UNLu, UNNE, UNAS, UNSAdA, UNSAM, UNSE, UNDEC, UNT, UNVM, UBA, and UNPSJB.

Papers may be submitted until May 15, 2025 and registered at https://sid.uncu.edu.ar/eventos/  

Queries: presentationsxseminariorueda@gmail.com

Website: https://10seminariorueda.unt.edu.ar/

Journalist: Victoria Arrabal/Photographer: Camila Casero