On October 26-29, 2016, the 30th Annual Asian Association of Open Universities Conference (AAOU 2016) was held in Manila, Philippines. A delegation of five people headed by deputy Party secretary of the OUC Yang Xiaotang attended the conference.

The conference was undertaken by UP Open University (UPOU), with the theme "Open Education in Asia: Changing Perspectives".

This annual conference coincided with the 30th anniversary of the founding of AAOU. Nearly 500 representatives from different countries in Asia attended the conference. The delegation from China included the OUC, as well as colleagues from Inner Mongolia RTVU and Jiangsu Open University.

The conference had organised five plenary sessions and five sub-themed parallel presentations. At the conference, president and CEO of Common Wealth of Learning Prof. Asha S. Kanwar, Prof. Dragan Gasevic from the University of Edinburgh, Prof. Wang Qiong from Peking University, Prof. Lin Zhibin from the Education University of Hong Kong, Prof. Laura Czerniewicz from the University of Cape Town, chancellor of UPOU Prof. Melinda dP. Bandalaria, president of the Open University of Japan Prof. Yoichi Okabe, and vice president of Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) Prof. Samuel Anbahan Aradurai delivered keynote reports at the five plenary sessions. Several experts offered case analysis and shared research results on MOOCs, ODL, learning analysis, vision of open education, and the challenge of open education. At the five parallel presentations, over 100 papers were announced on eight sub-themes. Through keynote speeches, parallel meetings, and various forms of sharing and discussion, the conference fully demonstrated the new exploration and practice of AAOU in the field of distance education, providing new thoughts and perspectives for the future development of distance education. The thesis entitled Development and Innovation of Distance Learning Instructional Textbooks in OUC written by Zhang Tong from the OUC was shortlisted for the AAOU Young Innovator Award. Papers entitled Research on the Enrollment Scale of the Open University of China in the New Normal and Research on Characteristics of Bachelor's Degree Students in the Open University of China, written by Yan Xiaohui and Guo Zhiyun respectively, from OUC were presented at the parallel sessions.

Additionally, Yang Xiaotang and School of Vocational Education and Training of the OUC Huang Danqing attended the 31st AAOU Executive Committee Session and 30th AAOU Plenary Session. At the conference, 13 topics were discussed and deliberated, reviewing the conventional topics of AAOU, such as reviewing minutes of the 2015 executive committee session and plenary session, the annual report, the accounting statements, the audit report, member fees, and application of new members, scholar exchange programmes of AAOU, the award selection process and results of the 2016 AAOU Best Paper Award, Young Innovator Award, Best Practice Award, Meritorious Service Award, and the 2017 financial budget. During the conference, the participants focused on the following topics: deliberating and approving the proposal of UPOU serving as the chairman unit and secretariat of AAOU for the term 2017-2019, the Open University of Hong Kong completing the work of serving as the chairman and secretariat during the 2014-2016 term; deliberating and approving the proposal for seven open universities (OUC, Allama Iqal Open University Islamabad, Pakistan, Indira Gandhi National Open University, the Open University of Japan, Universitas Terbuka Banten, Indonesia, Wawasan Open University Penang, Malaysia, and the Open University of Hong Kong) to serve as executive committee members for the 2017-2019 term.

A Photo of AAOU Executive Committee Members for the 2017-2019 Term

Since the MOOCs working group of AAOU was founded at the end of 2014, the working group has been investigating market demands. Based on the investigation, the executive committee sets up the programme guidance committee and creates the portal website to link to the MOOCs provided by the member institutions to promote the application of the courses. According to the proposal of the executive committee members, in the future, the working group should put the programme investment into effective training in mobile learning. They also suggested that the executive committee call for the AAOU to hold an "Asia MOOCs Summit Forum" and set up a policy team to provide research reports on MOOCs and distance and open education development for the governments of all countries.

In view of the sound financial performance of AAOU, the executive committee members suggested that it should provide an opportunity for some excellent young scholars to participate in the AAOU annual conference for free in order to promote the enhancement of academic exchanges and the scientific and research level. In addition, publishing of the AAOU journal has been entrusted to a professional publisher, Emerald, to enhance the academic level of the journal and promote the journal both inside and outside of the AAOU system.

By Yan Xiaohui, OUC