About the lecturer: Gard Titlestad is secretary general of ICDE (International International Council for Open and Distance Education). He previously worked with the Nordic Council of Ministers where for the last six years he has been head of department and responsible for the secretariat for the ministers for education and research and the ministers for health and social affairs. Before going to Copenhagen and the Nordic co-operation, he served as the Norwegian Counsellor for Research to the EU where he was also in the management group of the Mission of Norway in Brussels. From 1999 he served in the European Commission, DG Information Society, as policy and programme manager. Before joining the EC, he had several positions in Norway. He was for several years the President of the Norwegian Association for Physiochemists. Gard has worked in international co-operation most of his adult life and is committed to knowledge as the key driver for development.

On February 20, 2012, he gave a lecture entitled "Opportunities From a More Open and Online World" during his visit to the Open University of China, which expounded on the significance and social context of open and distance education, challenges faced by conventional universities and the convergence of traditional higher education with online education, open educational resources, trends in open and distance education as well as the future priorities of the ICDE.