EXCELLENCE IN DISTANCE EDUCATION PROGRAMME

COL announces Award winners, March 1999 CONGRATULATIONS ! EDEP award recipients on stage at the COL Awards Banquet at the Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning Left to right:  Ian Macdonald (COL Chairman), Afzal Mohammad (for Ram Reddy), Jenny Glennie (for Don Swift), Ros Morpeth (for Lord Young), Irene Paulsen, Kulandai Swamy, Madeleine Wooley, Abdul Khan, Maxim Jean-Louis, Mohan Menon, Tam Sheung-wai, and Gajaraj Dhanarajan (COL President) The Awards Banquet took place on 4 March 1999 at the Centrepoint Hotel, Gadong, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam

COL Anniversary Honours: Recognising institutional achievements

• Contact North/Contact Nord, Canada - presented to Mr. Maxim Jean-Louis, President & CEO
• National Open School, India - presented to Professor Mohan B. Menon, Chairman
• The Open University of Hong Kong - presented to Professor Tam Sheung-wai, President

Certificates of Merit:   Adelaide Institute of TAFE, Australia; Charles Sturt University, Australia; and African Medical and Research Foundation, Kenya

Within its 10th Anniversary Excellence in Distance Education Programme, The Commonwealth of Learning invited nominations for Awards acknowledging Institutional Achievement in Distance Education. These Awards were to recognise the achievement of up to three Commonwealth educational institutions from the public sector in their use of innovative and effective applications of learning technologies to reach students who might otherwise have been excluded from participation in education or training.

An Adjudication Committee, comprising Professor B.N. Koul, Director of Distance Education, Distance Education Centre (UWIDEC), University of the West Indies, Barbados, Dr. J. Colin Yerbury, Dean, Continuing Studies and Director, Centre for Distance Education, Simon Fraser University, Canada, and myself, reviewed applications received from Commonwealth countries in four continents and covering all education sectors from basic education to postgraduate studies. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my fellow adjudicators and also those who made nominations and prepared submissions on behalf of their institutions. The high overall quality of these submissions strongly endorses The Commonwealth of Learning's confidence in the professionalism and resourcefulness shown by distance educators in meeting the needs of disadvantaged students in all parts of the Commonwealth.        -Patrick Guiton, Chair, Adjudication Committee

COL President's Awards: Recognising excellent distance education materials

• Indira Gandhi National Open University, India  - presented to Professor Abdul W. Khan, Vice-Chancellor
• Adelaide Institute of TAFE, South Australia - presented to Ms. Madeleine Woolley, Director

Certificates of Merit:   Grant MacEwan Community College, Alberta, Canada; and Mauritius College of the Air, Mauritius

The President's Awards were established to recognise excellence in distance education materials. The materials submitted for these awards were to be in any of the following sectors: open schooling, technical/vocational, non-formal, higher education and continuing professional education.

An Adjudication Committee was established to make recommendations to the President of COL on the recipients for the awards. It was comprised of Professor M. U. Deshpande, Director, Distance Education Council, India; Ms. May Maskow, Director of Open College, CJRT-FM; and myself. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my fellow panel members for their hard work and the professional expertise demonstrated when serving on the committee.

The Committee initially reviewed all submissions for completeness as outlined in the Call for Submissions brochure. The qualifying submissions were divided into two categories, one of single courses, and the second, of sets of courses comprising a programme or certificate. Each entry in the two categories was then reviewed for its excellence with respect to the criteria as outlined.

A number of course materials which demonstrated excellence remained for consideration after the review, so in order to take a final decision, the Committee, recognising the theme of the Pan-Commonwealth Forum, recommended to the President that the winning entries should be ones which addressed the theme, Empowerment through Knowledge and Technology.         -Susan Phillips, Chair, Adjudication Committee

COL Learning Experience Award: Recognising learners' experiences

• Ms. Irene Paulsen, Solomon Islands

Distance education from the student's point of view can be an enlightening experience - one in which the rewards and satisfaction can be great if one is willing to persevere. Distance Education works - most of the time. There have been numerous research papers focusing on the problems of isolation, motivation, and drop out rates of distance education students. Tutorial support, delivery systems and teaching strategies all come to mind as areas that researchers have focused upon as being vital to the success or failure of a student's distance learning experience.

The Adjudication Committee comprised Ms. Solvig Norman, Co-ordinator of Instructional Development for the Open School, Open Learning Agency of British Columbia, Canada, Dr. Howard Van Trease, Director, University Extension, University of the South Pacific, and myself as Chair. We were impressed with the experiences that the candidates for this award described.

We saw a general theme, that despite the problems that distance learners encounter, these candidates would be role models to others encouraging them to use distance learning as an avenue to a new career or upgrading their own skills. It is from this theme we choose one student experience from many other worthy candidates.              -David Walker, Chair, Adjudication Committee

Honorary Fellows of COL: Recognising individual achievements

• Professor V.C. Kulandai Swamy, India
• Lord Young of Dartington, UK - accepted on behalf of Lord Young by Dr. Ros Morpeth, Executive Director
  National Extension College, UK
• Professor G. Ram Reddy (posthumous), India - accepted on behalf of the family by Professor Afzal Mohammad, Vice-Chancellor of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University, India
• Professor Donald F. Swift (posthumous), UK - accepted on behalf of the family by  Ms. Jenny Glennie, Director South African Institute for Distance Education, South Africa