COL is holding a series of regional consultations to gather information and opinions on the programmes and activities that we should consider in our new Three-year Plan (2006-2009). Led by our Programme Director, Rod Tyrer, these consultations are also helping us to assess our current activities and regional needs.

To date, 260 people have participated in consultations held in six regions/countries and with one international organisation. Reports on those meetings are available at www.col.org/3yp06-09_consult.htm and readers of Connections are invited to send in their comments as well. Further consultations will take place in other regions and with other international organisations and donor governments.

The views from these regions will be analysed to create a comprehensive picture of needs throughout the Commonwealth in light of the contribution that open and distance learning can make to education, the fulfillment of a country's needs and contributions to achieving Millennium Development Goals. It is expected that the new Three-Year Plan will be prepared by the end of 2005.

COL's current Three-Year Plan (2003-2006) focuses on three programmes:

• Open and distance learning policy
• Open and distance learning systems development
• Open and distance learning applications

The plan integrates the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and Education for All priorities while also being guided by Commonwealth priorities. It has been implemented along with a Results Based Management (RBM) framework for planning and evaluation.

PARTICIPANTS IN COL'S YOUNG PROFESSIONALS ATTACHMENT PROGRAMME

COL's Young Professionals Attachment Programme has almost doubled in size since it was introduced in 2000. The programme offers young Canadians an opportunity to gain international work experience through a six- to twelve-month attachment with a Commonwealth or international agency. This year there are 14 young professionals in 9 to 12-month placements, up from eight interns in six-month placements when the programme was introduced. The positions are with COL partners who actively employ open, distance and technology mediated learning strategies and resources to implement their programmes.

Participants are recent graduates from arts and science programmes from colleges, universities and technical institutes. This attachment provides them with their first paid, career related international experience and, most likely, their first overseas experience. Working with a variety of organisations in, or on behalf of, developing Commonwealth countries, the young professionals learn about the challenges facing the developing world and gain skills that can be transferable to other employment upon their return to Canada and/or to other international opportunities. The host organisations, in turn, have an opportunity to complete special projects.

To date, interns have found placements everywhere from Britain to Guyana, and India to New Zealand. The programme is administered by COL and funded by Foreign Affairs Canada through the Youth Employment Strategy (YES) Career Focus Program.
http://64.114.230.137/colweb/site/pid/2897

In collaboration with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation in India, COL has created a course on Writing Business English for staff at non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The materials, which help middle managers apply "plain English" principles to writing clear and succinct documents, have been pilot tested by staff at several NGOs.

The materials are available at no charge from COL. Contact Susan Phillips, Education Specialist, at sphillips

COL, in collaboration with eight Sub-Saharan countries, recently completed a set of modules covering the junior secondary level syllabus in Science and English. The materials, which were piloted in open schools in Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, are available on CD from COL. Partner countries report that the materials are also being used in secondary schools.

The materials are also available at no charge from COL. For more information, contact Susan Phillips, Education Specialist, at sphillips

Asia is rich with experience and expertise, home to countries that are powerhouses in the knowledge society and the use of technologies for education and training. But it is also a region faced with massive developmental challenges, many of which can be addressed through the more intensive and effective use of innovative means of delivering education. The Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) has been assisting countries and institutions to capitalise on educational media to address these challenges. It will now broaden its focus to provide even greater help.

A COL regional agency, CEMCA previously worked exclusively in the highly focused field of educational media exchange and training. After an external evaluation and extensive consultation among stakeholders, CEMCA is now moving towards becoming a regional centre for collaboration and networking in all aspects of open and distance learning (ODL). Its core activities will remain in the area of building capacity in educational media and all aspects of e-learning and computer-based delivery, through training and developing knowledge resources for wide distribution. CEMCA will now also help increase regional collaboration among those with knowledge and skills across the full range of ODL methodologies and those requiring such skills. In addition, it will continue to be a conduit for many of COL's activities, especially within India.
www.cemca.org

COL has taken on the role of monitoring and evaluating the e-Schools Demonstration Project of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). This NEPAD e-Schools Demo is gathering knowledge based on real-life experiences of the implementation of information and communications technology (ICT) in schools across Africa. It will support the introduction of a broader e-Schools Initiative that seeks to use ICT to improve the provision of education in schools. The end goal is to implement this initiative in more than half a million African schools and provide the majority of the African population with ICT skills within 20 years.

The e-Schools Initiative is an unprecedented undertaking. There are many complexities in implementing the programme due to its being a multi-country, multi-stakeholder continental undertaking. The NEPAD e-Schools Demo is a key step in the lead up to the effective rollout of the e-Schools Initiative. The demo will take place in six schools that provide a reasonable reflection of the spectrum of African school environments.

Managing monitoring and evaluation for the demo on behalf of the NEPAD e-African Commission, COL has developed an evaluation framework and implementation plan, which is now being put into place. Next steps include developing data collection strategies, preparing reports and providing recommendations regarding the next phases of the NEPAD e-Schools project.

COL has invited small states to participate in the creation of a Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth (VUSSC).

This initiative envisages the formation of a consortium of institutions - using appropriate information and communications technology applications - working together to plan programmes, develop content and ensure delivery of the programmes to learners. The VUSSC will cater mostly to adults, including those who may not have completed secondary school.

The invitation, sent in mid-December 2004 to education ministers and academic institutions, also requests that the national representatives indicate the results they seek to achieve for their country.

"The whole point of the VUSSC is to help these countries, which have small populations and a narrow economic base, to master learning technologies themselves and create their own locally relevant learning materials," said Sir John Daniel, President and Chief Executive Officer of COL. "They do not want to be completely dependent on imported course content."

Commonwealth education ministers conceived the idea of a VUSSC at their meeting in Halifax, Canada in 2000 when they asked COL to study the feasibility of such an institution. The focus of the initiative now is to enable small states to work together to develop courses suited to their specific needs.

"COL is helping these countries to build the Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth from the bottom up, starting from where each now is in its use of educational technology and advancing towards its own objectives," Sir John explained. "As common aims emerge between groups of states, either for learning content or for using particular technologies, we will be able to help them to reach their goals by facilitating collaboration and providing practical support."

Based on the response to its invitation, which has a 28 February 2005 deadline, COL hopes to determine the scope and scale of the VUSSC by identifying which states wish to participate and what each seeks to achieve. COL will then list the most widely shared objectives, both regionally and globally. Local institutions in the small states will eventually offer courses and programmes using teaching systems developed through the project. COL hopes to complete this phase by June 2005.