To be able to both understand and subsequently affect change, however, we need practical skills as well as knowledge. This is where OEB’s workshops come in. Taking place on 02 December, thirteen half and full-day interactive workshops will provide a chance to take part in open discussions and activities that will give individuals and organisations the chance to share and learn the skills needed to gain a foothold in today’s eLearning market.

eLearning guru Stephen Downes will present his invaluable expertise in regard to personal learning networks at the "Developing a Personal Learning Infrastructure" session. Outlining the technological infrastructure needed to create such networks, the session will help those interested in the major protocols and third-party applications to create a test-bed technology environment, drawing on technology developed by the National Research Council’s "Learning and Performance Support Systems" programme. The end result of the workshop will be to produce a first-draft map of personal learning infrastructure. Web-technology developers, commercial eLearning technology providers, learning-content providers, and learning-management specialists will find this a fruitful session – a general understanding of internet and eLearning technologies is recommended.

In another session, four academics from the Queen Margaret Universities Centre for Academic Practice and Department of Nursing in Scotland – Susi Peacock, Dr Lindsay Irvine, Dr Kath MacDonald, and Dr Iddo Oberski – will offer a workshop on "Making Sustainable Online Learning a Reality", going to the heart of this year’s theme by outlining the skills needed to "accelerate the shift". Exploring how both new and emerging concepts are driving change in the move from traditional to online master’s degrees, the workshop will widen participants’ conceptual repertoires, drawing on new developments in the Community of Inquiry Framework. Academics in any discipline, educational developers, and learning technologists will find the session particularly useful.

Those looking to gain insight and skills into the latest eLearning practices will find a comprehensive array of sessions, ranging from open badges, with Prof. Dr Ilona Buchem of Berlin’s Beuth University of Applied Sciences, to media education and integration in profession education, with Isabel García-Wülfing, Petra Gohlke, Harry Wiens, and Prof. Dr Dorothee Meister. MOOCs continue to dominate online-learning considerations, and participants will be invited to design their own at a hands-on session with Yishay Mor of PAU Education and Steven Warburton of the University of Surrey. Dick van Dijk of the Waag Society will also lead a creative session, inviting participants to explore new methods of educational story creation through the creation of interactive exhibits.

The sharing of insights is key to OEB workshops, and organisations in similar fields of technology in education will be able to disseminate information and work on potential collaborations and collective solutions at the "e: Knowledge Exchange on Technology for Education" session with Christien Bok and Richard French and the GIZ session entitled "Beyond SMART: Reconsider the Concept of Quality in Times of Collaboration and Simulation in New Media Learning".

Further sessions on ensuring success for all in higher education, technology-enabled course design and delivery, and new approaches to blended learning, mean that there is something for anyone with an interest in the latest eLearning developments and who requires the tools necessary to be a part of this dynamic and important market.