12-08-2025
OUM CELEBRATES 25 YEARS WITH GLOBAL THOUGHT LEADERS
(Clockwise from left) Prof Emeritus Paul Prinsloo, Prof Olaf Zawacki-Richter, Prof Emeritus Junhong Xiao, Prof Insung Jung and Prof Melinda dela Peña Bandalaria were part of OUM's public lecture series on Aug 6.
EDUCATION is being reshaped by artificial intelligence in ways that do not always affirm the human at the heart of teaching and learning.
In response, Open University Malaysia (OUM) offered a timely intervention through a public lecture series titled 'Visionary Leadership: Charting the Futures of Digital Education'.
The event, held on Aug 6 at the Seri Pacific Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, was officiated by Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir, bringing together five OUM Global Fellows to reimagine digital education as a technology-mediated practice.
Prof Emeritus Paul Prinsloo opened with '(Re)discovering the Human in Algorithmic-Informed Open, Distance, and Digital Learning', urging educators to examine algorithmic threats to care and connection while reclaiming open education's core values of access and inclusion.
Prof Emeritus Junhong Xiao followed with 'Humanising Digital Education or Digitalising Human Education: That is the Question', cautioning against overvaluing automation over relational and instructional core.
In 'Rethinking Institutional Leadership Through the Lens of the University of the Future', Prof Melinda dela Peña Bandalaria reflected on how universities can remain adaptive and inclusive while grounded in their traditional roles, emphasising leadership capable of navigating volatility and disruption.
Prof Olaf Zawacki-Richter's lecture, 'What Can Open, Distance, and Digital Education (ODDE) Contribute to a Sustainable Future?' highlighted ODDE's potential to support environmental, social and financial sustainability while cautioning that unchecked technological growth threatens equity and the planet.
He called for the use of sustainable technology and 'digital sufficiency' to keep the human element at the centre of education.
The public lecture series concluded with Prof Insung Jung's 'Education for All or for the Few? The Promise and Perils of Going Digital', which addressed how unequal access and design bias can entrench disparities, calling for strategies to ensure that technology broadens opportunity rather than narrows it.
The closing roundtable affirmed that the future of digital education depends on leadership that is both institutional and radically distributed.
This requires university leaders, educators, academics, learners and communities to actively co-shape education, rather than wait for solutions to be handed down.
Such leadership must ensure that digital education remains anchored in its human core amid competing futures.
OUM president and vice-chancellor Prof Ahmad Izanee Awang described the public lecture series as a milestone, reinforcing OUM's leadership in open, distance and digital education.
He highlighted that the Centre for Digital Education Futures (CENDEF), OUM's newly established think tank, plays a key role in guiding the university into the future of digital education.
Since 2000, OUM has enrolled over 250,000 learners and produced more than 100,000 alumni.
Its innovations, including the Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning, demonstrate its commitment to inclusion, flexibility and lifelong learning.
OUM's 25th anniversary event further affirms that digital education, when critically guided, can remain expansive, ethical and deeply human.
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