GDN News - A Retrospective & Look Forward
GDN Program for October 2024 Convening is Now Live – Register Now
Join us at the GDN Annual Meeting in San Diego, California October 7 to 9, 2024. The program is now live and features an incredible array of speakers from around the world, all of whom are dedicated to advancing learner mobility through credential exchange and digitization. Register now and organize your travel and accommodation quickly as space is limited in San Diego this time of year. We are excited to see and host everyone.
Norway is Next
The GDN leadership, Sikt and the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills were pleased to sign an agreement during the June Norway delegation visit for the October 29 to 31, 2025 GDN Annual Convening in Oslo. Building on our goals for advancing learning and collaborations on the world stage, we are excited to partner with these incredibly capable organizations to advance digitization and credential exchange for learners. The Norwegian model for digital infrastructure and policy is a capstone example of how to build a thoughtful future for learners. We look forward to working with them on the next annual meeting.
Calling for Host Sites for the Future Convenings
The GDN is excited to launch its call for future partners to host its annual convenings and other events beyond 2025. For those keen to bring international thought giants to your region and showcase your work, we invite you to review our online call and submit your Expressions of Interest to our executive director by August 20, 2024 (execdir@groningendeclaration.
The GDN executive committee will review the submissions with consideration for the capacity of the host to financially and practically support an international level convening. Thank you to all those who apply.
Australia Spotlight
A GDN Delegation had the opportunity to visit Australia in April to deepen digitization awareness building and celebrate related activities in the region. From interoperability to important government initiatives including the University Accord and the National Skills Passport, much is happening. Thank you to My eQuals and our patron organization, Parchment, an Instructure Company, for having us join an outstanding seminar day in Sydney. Our executive director, Joanne Duklas, president, Jelger de Boer, and board member, Chen Wenjun (Edward), shared their expertise on microcredentials, research, digitization and governance. Our online case study provides a summary of our outreach and findings, and a series of resources for those keen to explore opportunities in Australia.
Webinars – The GDN Conversation Series
The GDN is pleased to launch a series of webinars to help raise awareness about activities and organizations around the world that are accelerating digital innovations within their regions. Beginning with StudieLink in May, EduNova in June and Educational Credential Evaluators in August, these sessions are truly conversations and not canned presentations. Joanne Duklas will be exploring interesting topics with each colleague to ensure a deeper understanding of what they do, how they do it and the lessons learned. Creating state and national level digital innovations is not easy. These are people projects first and solutions are as unique as the context in which they are created. Register online if you are keen to discover the secrets to their successes.
The GDN Video Library – Knowledge at your Fingertips
Are you working on critical research or interested in exploring best practices in the area of digital governance, AI, technology, credential exchange, policy and more? In the interest of making your search for information easier, become a GDN signatory and subscribe for access to our GDN video library which contains many, many instructional and information sessions from leading thought giants from around the world.
AACRAO Spring Annual Meeting
Our executive director, Joanne Duklas, had the opportunity to present on an international panel at the spring AACRAO Annual Meeting, amplifying the voice of the international activities around the world in the areas of digitization, Conventions and recognition. It was an honour to spread the word about the GDN’s important mission alongside of the key leaders in the field – Dr. Wesley Teter, Deborah Everhart, Dr. Kristi Wold-McCormick, and Julia Funaki. The conference afforded an opportunity to learn from colleagues around the world and also meet with GDN Patrons, Signatories and experts in the field of credentials and digital innovation. The insights learned are helping to shape the next generation of the GDN.
Creating Partnerships that Matter
The GDN was pleased to facilitate an MOU signing between the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills with its longstanding patron and founding organization, the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). Signed at the recent delegation visit of the GDN to Norway, the two organizations have committed to strengthening ties to support recognition and learner mobility.
Groningen – Staying Close to our Roots
The GDN president (Jelger de Boer), vice president (Melanie Gottlieb) and executive director (Duklas) conducted a delegation visit to the Netherlands recently to advance further dialogue on key activities. Groningen is the head office of the GDN so it was wonderful to connect with DUO, one of its founding patrons, and NUFFIC including with Angela Schat-Zeckendorf, the Directeur Registers and Exams, Jan Joost Noorder (Product Owner, International Division, DUO), Johann Schreurs (Enterprise Architect, DUO), Hennie Bulstra (Convenor for the Diplomas and Credentials user group of the European Blockchain Partnership/Business Consultant, Policy, and Strategy at DUO), Evelien Willems (NUFFIC), and many other supporters of the GDN work. We explored the DC4EU project, learned about the wonderful work occurring at the DIT Lab which our signatory member Hennie Bulstra is co-leading, and met with our good colleague at NUFFIC, Evelien Willems. The GDN will be helping NUFFIC and the ENIC NARIC community with the DigiLink project which she is leading to help further advance the causes of recognition and digitization.
New Signatories
The GDN is pleased to welcome new Signatories to the family. Joining us are StudieLink (Netherlands), EduNova, Bardic Systems, ScanTran and more. We look forward to welcoming all of them and celebrating their participation at the October 7-9, 2024 international GDN convening in San Diego. Being a signatory is an important signal to the world that you and your organization are committed to ethical credential and data exchange that is privacy compliant and that enables maximum learner mobility through digital innovation. We take these principles quite seriously and embrace those who seek to converge around these ideas. Governments, higher education and vocational schools, peak associations, industry partners, application centres and more are welcome. For those interested, we invite you to apply to become a GDN signatory online.
Celebrating our Patrons
We are thankful to our wonderful patron organizations for continuing to support the mission of the GDN. Without them, we would not be able to support our thought leadership work, convenings, projects, and collaborations in the learner mobility space.
We collectively need your help, expertise and support if we are able to advance interoperability, promising practices and scalable learner and credential mobility. Your contributions matter. Thank you! For those keen to join the GDN mission as a patron, please contact Joanne Duklas, our executive director, [email protected]
GDN Patron Organizations
