The annual event offers a forum for eLearning experts, experienced users, and new adopters from all over the world to exchange ideas and make contacts. The innovative elements are designed to enhance knowledge transfer between experts and participants, as well as to promote collaborative learning.

The first of these is Learnshops, which will combine expert presentations with intimate discussions that focus on a single topic. Led by one or two experts in the field, the emphasis will be on grappling with the issue in a small group. Participants will be encouraged to voice their own opinions before presenting the main findings before the whole group. This kind of session will get to the heart of the topic, promote debate with experts, and allow participants to develop deeper insights, reach conclusions, and formulate recommendations on the relevant issue.

Gone are the days when conferences meant expert lectures only. Twenty-first century conference goers expect more, and OEB2009's Lab sessions, computer-based workshops consisting of a practical introduction to new tools and applications, will therefore fittingly make their debut this year. Guided by an expert, twenty participants will have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience and to get to grips with the intricacies of selected new applications.

The Learning Cafés are designed to create a continuous thread of dialogue between the participants. In order to encourage the sharing of expertise on a series of topics, each small group will spend fifteen minutes at each table with a moderator, who records the main points of discussion. Each table will focus on a different but interrelated, issue.


As the groups rotate, the table moderator will give a brief summary of the points raised so far, thus allowing the new group to pick up where the previous one left off. Following several rounds of discussions, the key points from each table will be presented to the whole group for a final collective discussion. The goal of these sessions is to maximize group interaction and promote collaborative learning.

With the addition of these new ideas, OEB 2009 will reemphasize the event's excellence as an arena for information exchange and learning for global eLearning experts and practitioners. It promises to be an ideal blend of specialist input and participant involvement.