This year's Media & Learning Conference taking place on 20-21 June in Leuven, Belgium is packed with opportunities to learn, network and develop for anyone involved in supporting and promoting educational media in all its forms in higher Education. The agenda is now largely in place and tackles topics and issues of significant importance to our target community like scaling XR in Higher Education which continues to be a challenge. In his keynote presentation, Jeremy Nelson, Senior Director of XR, Media Design and Production at the University of Michigan, USA will present how he and his colleagues have built a sustainable XR program across the institution. While Carl Boel from Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, Belgium will talk about his evaluation of the recent Bodyswaps experiments involving over 100 institutions around the globe.

University media centres and centres for teaching & learning are in a continuous process of re-inventing themselves as demands for their services adjust to the post-pandemic reality. Michel Beerens, Head of the NewMedia Centre, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands will talk about his experience and plans while Dr. Alexandra Mihai from Maastricht University, The Netherlands will give her take on the changing role of centres for teaching & learning based on her investigations in Europe and elsewhere. Bart Rienties from the Open University, UK will be talking about where educational media fits within the wider move towards learning design at scale and the ever-increasing use of learning analytics.

Staff training and support is an important topic this year and we will be hearing about different approaches from speakers including Audun Bjerknes, University of Oslo, Norway, Laure Englebert, IHECS, Belgium and Ross Parker, Durham University, UK. Teacher educators and trainers are regular users of video, join this session to hear about the library of best classroom practices provided by Madeleine Murray, Dept Education, Ireland, how Carl Eltervaag, Esben Kamstrup & Peter Mørk, NTNU, Norway are supporting young vloggers and from Ulrich Fahrner, University of Augsburg – Medialab, Germany on the use of enriched 360-degree videos in teacher training.

Rebecca Oldfield & Alex McGaughrin Cross from University of Manchester, UK will run a demonstration and discussion session on how they recorded an immersive 3D virtual twin of the  Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama. You can also learn how to set up your own Digital Educational Escape Room (DEER) during a practical workshop led by Barbora Orlická & Roland Radlinger, University of Graz, Austria.

Dedicated screening sessions will showcase the finalists in the 2023 edition of the MEDEA Awards which recognises excellence in the production of education media. These sessions will be followed in the evening by our reception in Leuven’s historic Town Hall to announce the winners. Other screenings of high value educational media include ‘Tell Me What I See’ presented by Andreas Schille, NTNU, Norway and ‘Migrant Lives in Pandemic Times’ presented by Maggie Perzyna, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada.

AI and its impact in Higher Education will feature in several sessions and demos as speakers share their experience of working with tools like ChatGPT and synthesia in learning settings and platforms.

Our confirmed sponsors, Panopto, Biamp, Kaltura, Ubicast and RapidMOOC will be running hands-on workshops featuring the latest developments in their tools and services and will be on hand throughout the conference to discuss participants requirements and plans.