Planning for 2012-2015
Current drafts of COL’s Three-Year Plan 2012-2015 and related Logic Model are now available on COL’s website for review by stakeholders. The drafts benefit from wide consultation and results of surveys and evaluations. Further input from all stakeholders is very welcome. www.col.org/Draft3YP
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM)
Perth, Australia: 24 - 30 October 2011 (www.chogm2011.org).
COL's report to CHOGM looked like this. The documentation is this wrap-around to a brochure on "COL and the Millennium Development Goals" which is available at www.col.org/MDG.
COL also provided Foreign Ministers with preliminary versions of the individual Country Reports for 2009-2012 that COL will be presenting to Commonwealth Education Ministers when they meet in Mauritius in August 2012.
October 26: Presentation to Foreign Ministers by Board Chair, the Honourable Burchell Whiteman, O.J. and President and C.E.O., Sir John Daniel.
October 26: Following the COL presentation to Foreign Ministers, Australian Foreign Minister, the Honourable Kevin Rudd, announced that Australia would be re-joining as a financial partner of COL: News release.
He also included this in his speech later in the evening.
Media? Please see www.col.org/news/media
PCF7 to be held in Nigeria
COL’s Seventh Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF7) will be held in Abuja, Nigeria in November 2013, co-hosted by the Federal Ministry of Education. The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) is the lead partner institution.
www.col.org/pcf
Connections/EdTech News
Connections/EdTech News, October 2011:
Caribbean Teachers Embrace ICT | COL Leads Global Push for OER | Introducing COL's New Instructional Design Tool | TVET in Africa: Innovating to Meet Demand | Child-Friendly Schools for Nomads | IN FOCUS: Mission Accomplished: OER for Open Schools | Profile: WAWASAN Open University | New Resources | People | Events | EDTECH NEWS: Trials in Social Networking for eLearning | Open Access For Research Documents | Making Sense of HTML5
www.col.org/connections
New resources
Guidelines for OER in Higher Education
Stemming from the open educational resources (OER) policy forum last December and wide consultation, UNESCO and COL have developed Guidelines for OER in Higher Education. The guidelines are intended to help key stakeholder groups (governments, higher education institutions, teaching staff, student bodies, quality assurance/accreditation bodies and academic recognition bodies) as they assess the implications of OER for their future policies and actions. Sir John Daniel and UNESCO Director-General Ms. Irina Bokova will launch the publication at the UNESCO General Conference on 1 November.
www.col.org/oerGuidelines
A Basic Guide to Open Educational Resources (OER)
Prepared by Neil Butcher for the Commonwealth of Learning & UNESCO
Edited by Asha Kanwar (COL) and Stamenka Uvalić-Trumbić (UNESCO)
A summary of the key issues as FAQs: to provide readers with a quick and user-friendly introduction to Open Educational Resources (OER) and some of the key issues to think about when exploring how to use OER most effectively.
Plus: A comprehensive analysis of these issues.
And: A set of appendices, containing more detail.
www.col.org/oerBasicGuide
Instructional Design Tool
Developing quality course materials requires a specific set of skills. COL’s new Instructional Design Tool is a rigorous, yet simple resource that supports the development of quality courses and learning materials. Through this tool, COL is encouraging institutions to maximise the effectiveness, efficiency and appeal of the learning experience.
www.col.org/IDtool
The Commonwealth of Learning Review and Improvement Model (COL RIM) for Higher Education Institutions
Teacher Education Through Open and Distance Learning
Patrick Alan Danaher and Abdurrahman Umar, Editors
The global need for teacher education is greater now than ever before. Half of the world’s countries will have to expand their stock of teachers significantly–some by tens of thousands–if the Dakar Framework for Action goal of Universal Primary Education is to be met by 2015. It is widely accepted that conventional face-to-face teacher training cannot meet this huge demand for new teachers and that open and distance learning (ODL) offers the potential of large-scale educational provision. www.col.org/PSTeacherEd
Quality Assurance Toolkit for Open Schools
Open schooling must mean access to quality education, otherwise its introduction becomes counterproductive. In our view, the quality of the education is as important as the quantity offered. This carefully prepared toolkit is one way of providing support as open schools develop quality assurance systems that will be the foundation of a culture of continual improvement in open schooling. We hope it will benefit open schooling by making institutions’ quality assurance practices as explicit and systematised as possible, with quality assurance policies clearly communicated amongst institutional stakeholders. www.col.org/QAToolkit_OS
COL blog
COL’s new blog is encouraging interaction, discussion and knowledge sharing on issues related to education for development. The blog explores areas such as e-learning, gender, educational technology, livelihoods, best practices, news and book reviews. COL’s Educational Specialists will also contribute podcasts to help expand dialogue on relevant issues.
www.col.org/blog
Three-year Plan, 2009-2012
COL’s Three-Year Plan for 2009-2012, Learning for Development, was presented to Commonwealth Ministers of Education and received their endorsement at the 17th triennial Conference (CCEM), held in Kuala Lumpur in June 2009.
www.col.org/3yp
Gender micro-site
COL's new Gender micro-site has been designed to provide a one-stop, comprehensive platform to access print and electronic resources on gender and open, distance and technology-mediated learning (ODL) with a special emphasis on information and communication technology (ICT). The main purpose of developing this gender micro-site is to provide knowledge and information on gender and ODL/ICT so as to raise awareness and to provide tools to ODL policymakers and practitioners to help them address gender concerns in their areas of competence.
www.col.org/genderMS
Quality Assurance micro-site
COL's Quality Assurance micro-site has been designed to provide a single, convenient access point to existing resources in quality assurance in open and distance learning (ODL). We hope that it will be of particular use to institutions, researchers and governments seeking to establish benchmarks for quality provision and to all those who are interested in devising effective systems for the review and evaluation of ODL programmes.
www.col.org/qualityMS
Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth (VUSSC)
On behalf of Commonwealth Ministers of Education, COL is co-ordinating the development of a Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth (VUSSC). Twenty six countries are now actively engaged in making the VUSSC a reality. VUSSC countries have chosen to focus on creating postsecondary, skills-related courses in areas such as tourism, entrepreneurship, professional development, disaster management and a range of technical and vocational subjects. These non-proprietary, electronically-held course materials, which can readily be adapted to the specific context of each country, are used in the offering of credit-bearing qualifications in the countries' post-secondary institutions, strengthening their educational capacity and outreach. Small states thus become active contributors to global development and leaders in educational reform through the innovative use of information and communications technologies (ICTs). The VUSSC is throwing a wide bridge across the digital divide.
www.col.org/vussc
NEW RESOURCES
COL publications:
Consultants' reports:
Speeches and presentations: www.col.org/speeches
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Further information ...
CD-ROM
COL offers a CD-ROM (updated regularly) that contains our most popular knowledge resources and recent publications and reports, along with a video on COL and its work. It is available upon request from COL: info@col.org
PLEASE NOTE:
The Commonwealth of Learning's focus is in strengthening institutions in developing Commonwealth countries that are striving to provide affordable education to larger numbers of their citizens.
COL IS NOT an educational institution. It does not register students and does not directly offer courses, programmes of study, scholarships or bursaries.
COL DOES NOT provide an accreditation service and does not endorse institutions or programmes. COL is also unable to provide directories of courses available in the Commonwealth.
Please see: About COL for more information. |