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Connections/EdTech News, October 2005
| Connections OCtober 2005 HTML version
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VUSSC meeting delegates in Singapore
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VUSSC moves ahead with course development
COL and the Commonwealth's small states have agreed on the education and training needs that need to be addressed by the proposed Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth (VUSSC). The next step is to begin planning for course development to meet these needs. To facilitate this process, COL and the Government of Singapore hosted an orientation and planning meeting in Singapore in September with the representatives from the Ministries of Education in the 21 small states of the Commonwealth.
The Singapore meeting focused on four objectives:
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Introduce the small states' contact people to eLearning, its application to post secondary education and training, and the use of Reusable Learning Objects for course creation and development,
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Provide participants with hands-on experience using Learning Objects to construct components of a course,
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Develop plans for constructing courses that are needed by small states and that can be delivered by national/regional institutions, and.
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Identify the roles of the VUSSC, individual countries and COL in executing these activities and sign a Letter of Intent in this regard.
In his keynote speech at the Singapore meeting, the President of COL, Sir John Daniel, shared his vision for the VUSSC.
"I suggest that it will be a network rather than an institution - a network with multiple nodes of activity," Sir John told representatives from the small states. "We are not trying to create a new institution with its own brand name but to find ways to reinforce the institutions and the developments that are already taking place in your countries."
The 25 participants at the VUSSC meeting agreed to form a consortium to develop capacity, develop and share learning content and courses, and work toward establishing a standards and credit transfer mechanism.
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Pan-Commonwealth Forum to focus on Development Goals
COL's fourth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning, to be held in Jamaica next year, will focus on "Achieving Development Goals: Innovation, Learning, Collaboration and Foundations".
The biennial conference, taking place from 30 October to 3 November 2006 in Ocho Rios, will bring together COL's partners and stakeholders from governments and institutions around the Commonwealth to set an agenda for using open and distance learning to advance international development and to examine how new developments in connecting technology to teaching and learning can help the world's poor.
The Forum is being organised by COL and University of the West Indies' Distance Education Centre (UWIDEC) in co-operation with local partners including the Caribbean Association for Distance and Open Learning; the Jamaican Association for Distance and Open Learning; the Trinidad & Tobago Distance Learning Association and the Office of Continuing Education and Distance Learning at the University of Technology, Jamaica.
Further programme details, a call for papers and registration information will soon be available at
www.col.org/pcf4
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Do more to achieve MDG , nations urged
The limited success in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) five years after the Millennium Declaration should shock into action nations that can do more to bring about greater progress, said Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon to the High-Level Plenary Meeting of the 60th United Nations General Assembly in New York in September.
"Those with the means must be more committed and more generous to those in the statistical spotlight," he stated in a speech delivered on his behalf by the Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Florence Mugasha.
The Secretary-General applauded the initiatives of G8 states who pledged increased aid and debt cancellation for low-income countries during their summit meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland in July this year.
"This is the sort of concrete action required. It was of a level of ambition and scale that needs to be repeated again and again until the MDGs are securely and sustainably achieved," he said. "We need to go beyond the target of halving income poverty and reach the Goal - the total eradication of extreme poverty and hunger - and to ensure that the funds made available are spent with wisdom, responsibility, accountability and effectiveness."
Mr. McKinnon said the Commonwealth not only has an interest in achieving the MDGs but also a responsibility to do so. He noted with concern that only 11 of the Commonwealth's 53 member countries have recorded significant progress on the MDGs, with 31 countries making slow progress while some are going backwards. The Secretary-General stressed that the Commonwealth will have to redouble its efforts to achieve the MDGs.
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New training for senior ODL managers
The U.K. Open University (UKOU), in collaboration with COL, is developing a programme for senior managers implementing open and distance learning (ODL). Senior staff from the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), the ACIPOL Police Academy in Mozambique and one other African institution are being invited to attend the programme at the UKOU.
In addition to learning about the critical functions of ODL, participants will be able to see firsthand how the UKOU functions. An additional benefit is that this core group of staff will have the opportunity to discuss ODL for their institution off-site, away from day-to-day issues. Through this programme, COL and the UKOU are working to share best practices and build a community of practice for ODL.
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UKOU gets highest grades
Students at the U.K. Open University (UKOU) have the highest rates of satisfaction, according to a recent survey by the Higher Education Funding Council for England of 170,000 final year students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Overall satisfaction ranges from 4.5 (on a scale of 1 to 5) at the Open University down to 3.5 at the University of the Arts London. UKOU students also rated their institution highest for teaching quality at 4.3. The UKOU is one of the world's largest universities, with 150,000 undergraduate and 30,000 postgraduate students - nearly all are studying part-time. It is the United Kingdom's only university dedicated to distance learning.
www.hefce.ac.uk
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Supporting vulnerable
children in Africa
COL recently released a learning series for caregivers of orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) in Africa. The first draft module, developed by a pan-Africa group of writers in 2004, helps caregivers improve their knowledge and skills in the area of counselling. COL provided instructional design expertise during the writing process, oversaw the editing and desktop publishing of the materials and has now sent it to pilot sites in Zambia. The goal is to provide the materials to publicly funded institutions working with OVCs, such as day-care centres, orphanages and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) after the pilot phase.
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