COL's online virtual conferences are designed, in part, to help "realise the virtual," in keeping with its mandate to foster affordable, Commonwealth-wide open and distance learning (ODL) development through collaboration. Topics covered are timely, have broad appeal and focus on issues affecting developing countries. Web access is not required as the conferences are entirely e-mail based.
Participation is global, representing a wide range of sectors and interests. Virtual conferences are reliable and cost-effective for ODL communities because of rapid advances in information and communication technology (ICT) and corresponding economies of scale. A face-to-face conference costing $250,000 benefits maybe 200 people, while the same amount invested in Internet technology can benefit 200,000 people. COL has sponsored several virtual conferences, with a series of monthly topics leading up to both its first (1999) and second (2002) Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning. The six-month series in 2002 was co-sponsored by the Federation of Commonwealth Open and Distance Learning Associations (FOCODLA), with a representative selected from six different member associations moderating different topics.
Early in 2003, COL organised a very active and hotly debated three-week conference on Copyright and the Web, relating to educational use of web-posted documents, and in early 2004 another suite of virtual conferences will lead into COL's third Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning to be held in Dunedin, New Zealand.
COL provides technical support, and the asynchronous, e-mail conferencing format means anyone in any time zone with a computer and e-mail can participate. Some participants find the occasional heavy daily message volume onerous, but very few opt out. Indeed, the usual 50 per cent participation rate (those who actually post messages) is high compared with most large group face-to-face meetings.
The 2002 conferences drew 125 to 300 participants each, with 100 to 300 postings per topic. A common element was acknowledgement of the need for broader recognition and acceptance of ICT as an integrated part of ODL. In addition, participants emphasised the importance of effective collaboration and implementation of quality standards and pedagogical best practice regardless of medium, while identifying obstacles to greater ICT implementation.
The 550 participants in the 2003 copyright virtual conference managed some 600 postings in three weeks. There was some consensus that current copyright legislation can restrict educational use of freely available (non-password protected) Internet materials, and that something needs to be done about it. Some participants advocated open source software and materials; most considered international and inter-institutional collaboration, especially between developed and developing countries, crucial to establishing equitable Internet copyright standards and legislation. The closing comments of several participants posed a series of questions that can be used to focus future work on educational use of copyright material on the Internet.
Bob Schad and Wanda Noel, moderators of the 2003 conference, said the discussions "clarified some issues, raised others, and provided a wealth of commentary and information." And a 2002 conference participant noted in closing that the discussions "set the stage for us to plan long-term on how to produce a learning society. Many thanks."
(COL Clippings article - October 2003)
