Progress in education is smooth and enduring, yet carries long-term significance in quiet. The six-year journey of the International Institute of Online Education (IIOE) stands as the best testament to this statement. Since its launch in late 2019, IIOE has established over 10 National Centres worldwide. Each National Centre utilises its unique regional advantages and local resources to build diverse, high-quality educational repositories, organise localised capacity-building programmes. These endeavours aim to nurture higher education workforces with innovative mindsets and excellent teaching practices.

Looking back on six years of development, the IIOE has embodied a distinctive value in practice under an era calling for the application of digital technologies and AI. It promotes the integration of educational resources with local characteristics into global networks. In 2025, the IIOE ecosystem has reached a new milestone: IIOE Ghana National Centre has been established in University of Cape Coast, IIOE Serbia National Centre has been launched at the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Education. Meanwhile, IIOE Singapore Training Centre and IIOE Kyrgyzstan National Centre are officially established. All these achievements allow IIOE to make positive progress in regional cooperation, promoting educational equity and digital transformation.

West Africa | Ghana National Centre

The 13th IIOE National Centre, the IIOE Ghana National Centre, was established at the University of Cape Coast (UCC). As the top-ranked higher education institution in Ghana and West Africa for last five years according to Times Higher Education (THE), UCC is translating its academic excellence into a driving force for leading the region toward a digital education future.

On July 31, 2025, the Smart Classroom jointly established by IIOE, SUSTech, UCC, and two other partners was officially inaugurated, marking the establishment of the IIOE Ghana National Centre on the same day. This milestone not only extends the IIOE ecosystem's global footprint but also supports UCC in playing a pivotal role in the digital transformation of higher education in Ghana.

Equipped with advanced facilities and supported by IIOE's extensive digital resources, the Smart Classroom provides dual support in technology and content, injecting fresh momentum into the modernisation of higher education across the nation. Moving forward, the IIOE Ghana National Centre will focus on building university networks, enhancing faculty capacity, and fostering policy dialogue, working collectively to cultivate a modern and sustainable higher education ecosystem. The Ghana Ministry of Education has also expressed its strong support for its development.

This milestone reflects IIOE's deeper conviction: the true value of global collaboration and regional empowerment lies in sharing a common educational ecosystem. What IIOE treasures, and what partners like UCC undertake, is the belief that technology becomes a force of warmth and humanity in education when it operates in a equal and open collaboration.

IIOE: Beyond Connection, an Invitation Forward

Born from the shared aspiration of developing countries for inclusive global public goods in education, IIOE has grown through the collective wisdom of its partner institutions. As a network for knowledge sharing and capacity building, joining IIOE means more than accessing a wealth of courses and digital platforms. It means becoming a part of the global community of practice, learning from pioneers, and avoiding repetitive exploration. Every newly established national centre empowers local higher education workforces and administrators with new tools, while their best practices in turn enrich the collective vision of the alliance. This is a story of mutual growth, shared achievement, and the very source of IIOE's vitality.

For example, IIOE's National Centre mechanism is helping universities in Africa build an organic collaborative ecosystem. When the IIOE Ghana National Centre was established, the IIOE Nigeria National Centre at Ahmadu Bello University and the IIOE Zambia National Centre at Mulungushi University took the initiative to share their experiences, including organising national policy dialogues to conducting faculty digital training and planning new initiatives such as women's empowerment programs in Africa. This kind of interaction among alliance partners aims to build their individual practices into a unified network of digital education innovation, planning and implementing projects to turn cooperation from a concept into joint action.

Central and Eastern Europe | Serbia National Centre

Positioned as a hub for higher education innovation in Central and Eastern Europe, this IIOE National Centre will focus on several key areas: building a regional university network to integrate digital and AI technologies into higher education; exploring future learning paradigms with an emphasis on AI and robotics education; facilitating national dialogues and professional exchanges to advance talent development; coordinating the co-creation and sharing of IIOE online course resources; and promoting flexible, context-sensitive training models for educators and learners.

This initiative also demonstrates the maturity of the IIOE ecosystem: each National Centre operates deeply within its local cultural and educational context, advancing educational innovation through targeted university network building, capacity enhancement, and outcome-driven dialogue. Together, these efforts establish both regional and global benchmarks for collaborative, technology-enabled higher education transformation.

Southeast Asia | Singapore Training Centre

The establishment of the Singapore Training Centre also offers a new lens through which to understand a more flexible and diversified IIOE. By extending its reach to developed regions and emphasising the practical value and commercial sustainability of course resources, the centre injects new vitality and possibilities into the IIOE ecosystem.

Central Asia | Kyrgyzstan National Centre

In November 2025, the 15th IIOE National Centre was formally established at Kyrgyz National University (KNU), marking a new anchor point for the initiative across the Russian-speaking world and opening a fresh chapter for digital education cooperation in Central Asia. The creation of this Centre builds not only on UNESCO-ICHEI's long-standing partnerships in the region, but also on the continued engagement of Kyrgyz higher education institutions in UNESCO-related initiatives. Their active participation in policy localisation, advisory work and the development of smart learning environments has laid foundations for collaboration. The Kyrgyz Smart Classroom, launched on campus in September 2025, stands as a tangible expression of this shared vision.

KNU Smart Classroom Launch Ceremony