Talk:European Association for Distance Learning

Notability
I'm not sure this organization is notable. A Google News archive search turned up 7 references that look like press releases:
 * http://news.google.com/archivesearch?ned=us&hl=en&q=%22European+Association+for+Distance+Learning%22&um=1

Perhaps someone with better language skills could better assess some of these. -- A. B. (talk • contribs) 15:44, 26 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I also question the notability of this organization. The one independent source cited in the article is essentially a directory entry. I can't find any online indications that the organization has had any impact or attracted outside attention. (In contrast, the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities has received independent coverage.) Those Google News links you found mostly appear to be announcements of conferences sponsored by this organization -- as you note, they aren't independent coverage. --Orlady (talk) 04:45, 1 March 2009 (UTC)


 * EADL and Distance Education and Training Council are affiliated, see the EADL page on this, and the official DETC history, p. 16 of the publication, p. 18 of the PDF.. The text in this stub came from the UNESCO document cited in it, which may be more than a "directory entry," since it describes the association and appears to be a reputable confirmation of what the association says about itself. Yes, that may be a bit circular.... except that there is no reason to doubt this information. Is EADL sufficiently notable for a stub? Let me put it this way, it was sufficiently notable for me to observe reference to it and create a stub instead of leaving a redlink. Do I know the guidelines for notability of organizations like this? More to the point, do I care? Not enough to figure it out. It's notable enough to be worth putting up a stub; if someone thinks it worth their time to AfD it, and the time of other editors to comment, they are welcome. I don't have time to comb through what may be references in other languages; my suspicion is that the name gets translated in some of the references, figuring out what idiom might be used in the various languages for "distance learning" would, again, take more time.
 * Okay, http://translate.google.com/translate_s?hl=en&q=European+Association+for+Distance+Learning&sl=en&tl=de returns 4930 ghits. But how many of these are to the specific association? Unclear, probably only a few, would take a lot of work. That was German. The google search by A.B. was in English and turned up what seems to be a German newspaper reference to an EADL conference. But most newspaper notice would, I'd guess, translate the name.... --Abd (talk) 06:30, 1 March 2009 (UTC)
 * One thing does bother me a little. As an article, European Association of Distance Teaching Universities is unsourced, and the lead is a bit peacock-y, so I'm wondering why the heat on this article? Not that it's bad, you know. I didn't find it easy to discover much in the way of independent source, though I did notice a paper delivered at a conference on its structure.
 * Meanwhile, EADL had a different name before 1999, and there is reference to it under that name: Association of European Correspondence Schools. mentions it.  is of interest, but it's a paper by the President of the Association (published 1992, Conference presentation.) Probably the best source I found I can't read:  Open Learning: The Journal of Open and Distance Learning, Volume 2 Issue 1 1987 Association Profile: AECS -- Association of European Correspondence Schools, 54 – 55, DOI: 10.1080/0268051870020114. So there was an article on them.
 * Also found, description of EPISTOLODIDAKTIKA: THE EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION. First published 1963. The journal of the Association of European Correspondence Schools, not always restricted to European coverage nor to the specific concerns of correspondence schools.
 * Tantalizing. Searching for "epistolodidaktika eadl" I got, which was dead, google cache had "Important links - DE Journals":
 * Epistolodidaktika
 * the European Journal of Distance Education comes twice a year. The journal was founded in 1964 and is an responsibility of the European Association for Distance Learning (EADL). Epistolodidaktika is a professional journal with international papers from the distance education field in general. Naturally, there is an emphasis on correspondence education as developed in the European tradition and context. A Network section brings topical news from members of the Association. EADL members receive Epistolodidaktika free as one of the benefits of membership. --Abd (talk) 06:47, 2 March 2009