"I'VE JUST SEEN THE KNOWLEDGE SERIES 'UP CLOSE.' I'LL BE RECOMMENDING IT TO FOLK HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE."
Setting up and maintaining a distance education (DE) programme can be a protracted exercise in trial and error. COL's Knowledge Series is designed to help educators, administrators and just about anyone involved with DE minimise the trial and lessen the error as much as possible.
The expert-authored series is a topical overview of DE theory and practice. Each title is a reader friendly six pages that include a representative list of additional resources and bibliography. The content is just detailed enough for introductory use by, and for, trainers - whether educational, vocational or corporate.
Each guide tackles topical developments in distance learning and is selected by COL's Publications Standing Committee from an annually revised "most wanted" short list of DE-related queries from field workers. About five titles are published at a time. Fifteen titles are currently available, profiling a wide variety of topics including support groups, library services and online learning.
The Series is free and may be copied for non-commercial use provided users acknowledge both the author and COL. Electronic versions are downloadable from the COL web site or available as a set on CD-ROM. Print copies can be ordered individually through COL or obtained through COL-affiliated projects and institutions.
The Series remains a popular online destination, registering several thousand downloads from the COL web site. Individuals, educational institutions, non-governmental organisations and epublications (such as the International Distance Learning Course Finder, dlcoursefinder.com and NETWORKING, theNode.org) have requested print versions and notification of upcoming titles or have featured the Series as a news and current affairs item. Institutions that have used the Series for staff training or orientation programmes include Mount Saint Vincent University in Nova Scotia, Canada, and the Botswana College of Distance and Open Learning.
A member of the University of New Brunswick's Faculty of Education remarked in correspondence with COL that "I've just seen the Knowledge Series 'up close.' I'll be recommending it to folk here, there and everywhere."
A little Knowledge goes a long way.
