Every year around this time, the Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) annual conference is held and, this year, as in previous years, OUM is excited to send a sizable contingent to Islamabad, where the 37th annual conference will be hosted by Allama Iqbal Open University. With each AAOU conference, the Asian bonds between AAOU members grow stronger. Solidarities are ritually forged and renewed, and a sense of interconnectedness, of a shared destiny, is apperceived anew by the delegates, undiminished by the fact that ‘Asia’ and ‘Asian’ are constructed solidarities, materially held together by the sheer force of collective will.

This Asian connection augmented annually by the AAOU is the thematic core of Issue 23 of inspired, led by a reflective piece from OUM’s President/ Vice-Chancellor, Prof Dr Ahmad Izanee Awang. In it, he explains why the AAOU Asian connection is deeply valued by OUM and how the themes of the AAOU annual conferences reflect the fascinating evolution of open, distance, and digital education in Asia.

inspired 23 is packed with other illuminating features. It features not one but two guest contributions. The first, by Prof Junhong Xiao, addresses the knotty question of whether artificial intelligence (AI) will, as many hope, give open universities an edge over the conventional universities at a time when all universities seem to be converging on a digital future. The second, by Prof Paul Prinsloo, explores the challenges and opportunities for scholars from the ‘Global South’ (yet another discursive construct) to publish their research in the field of open, distance, and digital education (ODDE). Prof Prinsloo is also, incidentally, scheduled to be one of the keynote speakers at the upcoming AAOU conference in Islamabad. Additionally, inspired 23 features a lively conversation with Prof Maria Rodrigo on the Asian ‘conundrum’ surrounding AI in education.

All these hot topics covered in inspired 23 will, no doubt, be debated in one form or another in Islamabad this October, and beyond, for they constitute some of the most pressing issues confronting ODDE, especially in Asia, today.

Best

Dr David Lim, Editor