COL's staff and Board of Governors, with input from stakeholders and partners, are currently developing a Three-Year Plan, 2003-2006, for which it will seek the endorsement of Commonwealth Ministers of Education later this year.
The organisation is moving from a project-based to a programme-based approach to fulfill its mandate, implementing a Results Based Management (RBM) frame-work for its planning and evaluation methodology and further integrating UN Millennium Development Goals and Education for All priorities into its programmes.
COL's programmes will also continue to be influenced by Commonwealth priorities (such as good governance, gender equality and the needs of small states) and in-country and in-region assessments.
For the next three years, COL has identified three priority programmes to support its overriding purpose of Building Capacity in Open and Distance Learning (ODL):
. ODL Policies, with the objective of fostering the adoption and implementation of open and distance learning policies within the broader educational and human resource development strategies and policies of member nations.
. ODL Systems Development, with the objective of assisting in the development of open and distance learning systems that build on existing capacity or assist in creating new capacity appropriate for the contexts of member states.
. ODL Applications, with the objective of demonstrating how open and distance learning applications can benefit individual learners, institutions and member states by accelerating human resource development.
The plan is also based upon six areas of operation:
. Research
. Advisory
. Advocacy
. Fostering networks and partnerships
. Capacity-building
. Knowledge management
While the three programmes would seem to be all-encompassing, the activities within each programme will be focussed on a limited number of planned outcomes: e.g., working in small states, teacher education, and assisting institutions to move to dual-mode delivery.
COL's work will be more tightly focussed, will have longer timeframes and will be scaled up towards larger and more substantial activities. COL will continue to work in partnership with governments, institutions and other international organisations.
Better focussing of COL's efforts will enable the agency to continue to grow and extend its reach and influence.
www.col.org/programmes/reporting
www.unesco.org/education/efa
www.developmentgoals.org
COL has responded to a request by Commonwealth Ministers of Education that it explore the creation of a virtual university to support higher education in small states. After technical collaboration and wide consultation, COL will be presenting a report on the purpose, design and economics of establishing such a virtual university to Commonwealth Ministers of Education when they meet in Edinburgh in October 2003. The initial report, by a Technical Advisory Committee that met last year, was re-shaped in March with advice, agreement and endorsement from a representative group of Commonwealth Education Ministers from small states, meeting in Victoria, Seychelles.
The university, as conceived, would function on the basis of collaboration among a consortium of existing educational providers.
The final report, executive summary, and communiqué from the Seychelles meeting, prepared through facilitation and expertise provided by Dr. Glen Farrell, a senior COL consultant, are available on COL's web site.
COL has been awarded several new externally funded contracts. These are often executed in partnership with other organisations. New contracts since January 2003 include:
. Project Preparation Technical Assistance (PPTA) in "Teaching Quality Improvement in Secondary Education Project in Bangladesh" - in partnership with the EDC Consortium, funded by the Asian Development Bank
. A review of learner support for vocational courses at the Botswana College of Distance and Open Learning (BOCODOL) - in partnership with consultants Barbara Spronk (Canada) and Joshua Mallet (University College of Education of Winneba, Ghana), funded by the British Department for International Development through the British Council
. "Training and capacity building in distance education in Mozambique"- in partnership with the South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE), funded by the World Bank
. Adapting and delivering the distance learning course, Writing Effectively for UNHCR, for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and its global staff - in partnership with consultants Rachel Welch (U.K.) and Kate Hand (Canada)
. Knowledge development/knowledge finding ("data-mining") for both the Asian Development Bank and the South Pacific Regional Office of the World Health Organization - in partnership with 3waynet Inc.
On 14 March 2003, enrolment at the world's largest open university, India's Indira Gandhi National Open University, surpassed the one-million mark.
In congratulating IGNOU, COL's President and CEO, Professor Gajaraj Dhanarajan, noted that "when IGNOU was established 17 years ago, questions were raised about its utility and viability; however, conscious efforts by IGNOU, and its successes, have brought results and helped to create a firm base for growth of distance education in India."
