International Council for Open and Distance Education

ICDE was founded in 1938 in Canada as the International Council for Correspondence Education (ICCE). The first World Conference was held in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada the same year. The idea for holding an international conference came from J. W. Gibson director of high school correspondence instruction for the province of British Columbia, who attended the National Conference on Supervised Correspondence Study in New York in 1936. Gibson shared with other delegates knowledge he had about correspondence education in several countries and then suggested that an international conference be held. Rex Haight, chair of the New York conference, supported the idea and later served as president for the first conference.

At the second conference, held in 1948, the delegates voted unanimously to establish a more permanent international council.

At the third conference, held in 1953 in Christchurch, New Zealand, a committee presented a proposed "Constitution and Rules" for the council that was adopted by the delegates. These rules helped the council became more established and conferences began to follow a more regular schedule.

In 1969 the 8th World Conference was held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris to celebrate the affiliation with UNESCO.

In 1982 during the 12th World Conference held in Vancouver, the organization changed its name to "the International Council for Open and Distance Education" (ICDE).

In 1988 during the 14th ICDE World Conference held in Oslo, the King of Norway His Majesty King Olav V and the Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland both attended. This conference led to the establishment of the permamenent secretariat in Oslo.

ICDE is a membership organization with 10 different types of memberships: Individuals, Students, Associations, Colleges and Universities, Companies, Educational networks, Governmental organizations, Non-Governmental organizations, Secondary Schools.

Since 2000 ICDE World Conference are organized biannually and on a different continent each time. The conference is traditionally organized at the invitation of an ICDE member.

Session	Location	Year	Hosted by	from
29th	Natal	2021	The Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte - UFRN	Brazil
28th	Dublin	2019	The Dublin City University - DCU	Ireland
27th	Toronto	2017	Contact North	Canada
26th	Sun City	2015	The University of South Africa - UNISA	South Africa
25th	Tianjin	2013	The Tianjin Open University	China
24th	Jakarta	2011	The Indonesia Open University (Universitas Terbuka)	Indonesia
23rd	Masstricht	2009	The Open University of the Netherlands	Netherlands
22nd	Rio de Janeiro	2006	The Brazilian Distance Education Association - ABED	Brazil
21st	Hong Kong	2004	The Open University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
20th	Düsseldorf	2001	The FernUniversität	Germany
19th	Hagen	1999	The FernUniversität	Germany
18th	State College	1997	The Pennsylvania State University	United States
17th	Milton Keynes	1994	The Open University UK	United Kingdom
16th	Nonthaburi	1992	The Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University	Thailand
15th	Caracas	1990	Universidad Nacional Abierta	Venezuela
14th	Oslo	1988	The Norwegian Association for Distance Education	Norway
13th	Melbourne	1985	La Trobe University	Australia
12th	Vancouver	1982	The Athabasca University	Canada
11th	New Delhi	1978	The Punjabi University	India
10th	Brighton	1975	The Rapid Results College	United Kingdom
9th	Warrenton	1972		United States
8th	Paris	1969	The UNESCO Headquarter	France
7th	Stockholm	1965		Sweden
6th	Gearhart	1961		United States
5th	Banff	1958	The Banff School of Fine Arts	Canada
4th	State College	1953	The Penn State College	United States
3rd	Christchurch	1950		New Zealand
2nd	Lincoln	1948	The University of Nebraska	United States
1st	Victoria	1938	The Department of Education for British Columbia	Canada

The first 10 years of the council the presidence was led by Rex Haight in Canada who was also the chair of the first ICCE World Conference held in Victoria in 1938.[3] Since 1948 the presidency of the council has been limited to a maximum of 5 years.

Session	from	to	Name	Affiliation	from
23rd	2020	-	Neil Fassina	The Athabasca University	Canada
22nd	2018	2020	Belinda Tynan	The RMIT University	Australia
21st	2015	2018	Mandla Makhanya	The University of South Africa - UNISA	South Africa
20th	2012	2015	Tian Belawati	The Indonesia Open University (Universitas Terbuka)	Indonesia
19th	2008	2012	Fritz Pannekoek	The Athabasca University	Canada
18th	2004	2008	Helmut Hoyer	The FernUniversität	Germany
17th	1999	2004	Molly Corbett-Broad	The University of North Carolina	United States
16th	1995	1999	Armando Rocha-Trindade	Universidad Nacional Abierta	Venezuela
15th	1992	1995	Marian Croft	The Laurentian University	Canada
14th	1988	1992	David Sewart	The Open University UK	United Kingdom
13th	1985	1988	Kevin Smith	The University of New England	Australia
12th	1982	1985	Sir John Daniel	The Athabasca University	Canada
11th	1978	1982	Bakhshish Singh	The Punjabi University	India
10th	1975	1978	David Young	The Rapid Results College	United Kingdom
9th	1972	1975	Börje Holmberg	The Hermods Foundation	Sweden
8th	1969	1972	Charles Wedemeyer	The Open University UK	United Kingdom
7th	1965	1969	Rene Erdos	The University of New South Wales	Australia
6th	1961	1965	Donald Cameron
5th	1958	1961	G.J. Buck	The Banff School of Fine Arts	Canada
4th	1954	1958	William R.Young
3rd	1950	1954	A.G. Butcher	The New Zealand Correspondence School	New Zealand
2nd	1948	1950	Knute O. Broady	The University of Nebraska	United States
1st	1938	1948	Rex Haight	The High School correspondence instruction for the province of British Columbia	Canada

ICDE regularly publishes or contributes to reports, surveys and articles on the following topics: Quality in Education; Online Education; Flexible Education; Elearning; Lifelong Learning; Higher Education; Distance Education; Open Education and OER (Open Educational Resources); Alternative Digital Credentials; Learning Analytics; Education Policies; Research and Innovation in Education; etc.

ICDE publishes the Open Praxis journal, a peer-reviewed open access scholarly journal focusing on research and innovation in open, distance and flexible education.[4]

• ICDE official website