 Greetings from the Commonwealth of Learning. It's an honour to be virtually present at this conference hosted by the Namibian Open Learning Network Trust or NullNet. The theme, the role of open distance and e-learning in the fourth Industrial Revolution is extremely appropriate and I'm very grateful to the organisers for the opportunity to reflect on it. But first about the Commonwealth of Learning, you know the Commonwealth of Learning or CALL is an inter-governmental organisation that helps Commonwealth Member States and institutions to use technologies for expanding access to education and training. We are very grateful for the consistent support that we receive from the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, Namibia. CALL also enjoys a very productive partnership with NamCALL, NullNet, the Namibian Qualifications Authority and the University of Namibia. In my presentation, I will first look at the evolving role of open and distance learning in the fourth Industrial Revolution and then focus on the opportunities that this revolution offers. Finally, I will look ahead at three concrete steps that we can take to make ODL relevant to the needs of changing times. From mechanisation in the first Industrial Revolution to artificial intelligence and robotics in the fourth Industrial Revolution, we have come a long way. So what has been the impact of these revolutions on ODL? In the first Industrial Revolution, when the steam engine was invented, higher education made a transition from being elite to one which anyone could aspire to. The second Industrial Revolution was marked by the assembly line and mass production when it became possible to produce self-instructional booklets and offer correspondence courses. The rise of the computer and internet in the third Revolution led to the rise of open universities and today in the fourth revolution marked by artificial intelligence and robotics, we have MOOCs and Open Educational Resources or OER. Now, 50 years ago, ODL was a disruptive innovation. Clayton Christensen defines disruptive innovation in business as a process whereby a smaller entity with fewer resources is able to successfully challenge established players and displace big businesses by addressing a specific need that had hitherto not been addressed. If we use Christensen's disruptive innovation model in higher education, we find that open and distance learning was the innovation that challenged mainstream face-to-face higher education and catered to marginalized and unreached constituencies. ODL as an innovation has evolved and served the needs of different contexts and constituencies. It has evolved and grown from face-to-face teaching, blended and flexible approaches to entirely online provision. The philosophy of openness which underpins ODL guides us to be open to people, to places, to methods and to ideas. But have we really reached the unreached, the marginalized and people with disabilities? How can we harness the new developments in technologies to become more open and inclusive? So let us begin with Open Educational Resources or OER. These free resources can be reused and repurposed to suit different needs. One key difference between OER and other educational resources is that OER have an open license which allows adaptation and reuse without having to request the copyright holder. The rise of OER can open up access by providing free content. For example, in Bandar College of Agriculture, Malavi, a lecturer developed a communication skills textbook using 75% OER from the internet. A lecturer in Jaws, Nigeria, who was looking for a similar textbook found this useful resource on the internet and was able to use it for his own students. So you can see how helpful this is. The second is MOOC platforms which allow us to offer free online courses to thousands of students around the world. MOOCs have major implications for both campus-based and ODL institutions. Some institutions allow learners to complete free MOOCs and give credit for those subjects, even towards their formal qualifications. We can use a blended approach for MOOCs by offering the courses offline and online using various devices including mobile phones. So this makes higher education much more affordable. Artificial intelligence is beginning to have a presence in education. Intelligence tutoring systems use AI techniques to simulate one-to-one human tutoring and provide immediate feedback, all without the presence of a human teacher. AI helps to analyze and summarize the discussions in online courses so that a human tutor can guide the students towards fruitful collaboration and problem-solving. Let me give you one example from the Open University of Malaysia which has developed chatbots for tutoring a course on object-oriented programming. So I think AI can help us to personalize learning and to provide immediate feedback to the learner. Let's come to augmented reality and virtual reality technologies which have a great potential to improve learner experience. However, these are so far available in well-resourced urban centers but we can use these technologies to conduct virtual experiments and experience real-life situations without leaving the classroom. These technologies will be particularly relevant for providing skills training at scale. In the fourth industrial revolution, learners have more choices and will demand greater flexibility. They will move back and forth from academia to employment. This will give rise to networks of multiversities. So collaboration will become key. Microqualifications will be as important as degrees and the faculty will have to become lifelong learners to keep pace with these changes. Are we ready to harness emerging technologies to make learning more affordable, interactive, personalized and interesting? So let's look at the road ahead. You know the global community has adopted 17 sustainable development goals of which SDG4 aspires to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all by 2030. So how can we as the ODL community contribute? First, refocus on lifelong learning. From the very beginning, open distance and e-learning has catered to the needs of lifelong learners through its flexible and learner-centric approaches. Lifelong learning includes the whole spectrum of formal, non-formal and informal learning. And as countries need to re-skill and re-skill their workforce, ODL can be a cost-effective option. Second, address the issue of employability for our youth. Youth unemployment is very high in many of our countries. We will need to prepare our youth for livelihoods, whether it's employment or entrepreneurship. This will require a curriculum that addresses the needs of industry and society. To create a higher education system that is responsible to the market needs and future requirements, it's necessary to reimagine our policies and practices. Third, focus on inclusive education. In developing countries, 90% of children with disabilities are out of school. The situation is no better in the tertiary sector. We can integrate principles of universal design in preparing ODL materials. Assistive technologies such as voice recognition, Braille displays, screen magnification and various mobile apps are already available on smartphones. We need to use these technologies to make ODL more disabled-friendly. While technologies are becoming pervasive in the fourth industrial revolution, let us not forget the human, social and moral dimensions. We need to remember the three E's – empathy, equity and ethics. Let me explain. As robots take up cognitive tasks which they can perform much better than us, what is special about human beings is empathy. We need to have empathy for our learners and we need to skill our learners to have empathy with others. The second, the costs of emerging technologies often disadvantages people in remote areas so there's more inequity. What policies and practices do we need to put in place to ensure that we don't widen the existing digital divide? Finally, there's the question of ethics. How can we use these technologies ethically to develop good citizens who are in peace and harmony with the world? I'm sure some of these thoughts will resonate with you and lead to fruitful discussions but not just that, also action plans. So with that, let me thank you very much for your kind attention.