The Commonwealth of Learning

Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim.

Your Excellency, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Commonwealth Secretary-General, Dr. Ian Macdonald, Chairman of The Commonwealth of Learning, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me real pleasure to be with you all this afternoon. Though I would have very much liked to participate in this important Forum during the last few days, unfortunately I was physically prevented by this code of dress that I had no choice but to put it on religiously [neck brace].

I have received very positive feedback on the progress of the Forum as well as the pre-Forum sessions. I am indeed glad to be able to join you, albeit at this closing session. Pessimists are likely to say that "All good things must come to an end, and there’s nothing we can do about it". Optimists, on the other hand, might say that "All good things must come to an end, in order that better things would follow".

We need to adopt, not only an optimistic stance, but also a realistic approach to the issues of empowerment through knowledge and technology. In the case of knowledge, more than fourteen hundred years ago, the Prophet of Islam – may peace be upon him – had predicted that it could be abused when he suggested that "We seek refuge in God from useless knowledge". At the same time, he emphasised that "The knowledge from which no benefit is derived is like a treasure from which no charity is given". In his inaugural address, His Excellency, Chief Emeka Anyaoku alluded to a 1934 quotation from T.S. Elliot, which suggests that discrete information needs to be organised and consolidated into useful knowledge but that wisdom is necessary in order to ensure that knowledge is not misused or abused.

While acknowledging the value of traditional school-based education, which continues to be the prevailing and predominant mode for basic education, it is encouraging that alternative non-formal avenues are being sought for those who are unable to benefit optimally from the formal school system. Even for those who have profited from formal schooling, alternative or additional modes of delivery of education would be valuable in fostering continuing life-long learning.

It is probably unnecessary for me to underscore the value of life-long learning. With the accelerating pace of technological advances and the rapid globalisation of knowledge, no one can possibly escape the process of re-skilling and de-skilling in the next millennium. As a matter of fact, flexible multi-skilling would become a norm for everyone who hopes to remain employable and not be saddled with obsolescent skills.

I have little doubt that what agencies like The Commonwealth of Learning are trying to do, in applying cutting edge technology to provide open learning opportunities on a global scale, will take on new meanings in human resource development. Let me however express some reservations regarding the free, undifferentiated acceptance of all open learning qualifications. As Chairman of the National Accreditation Council in Brunei Darussalam, I am sometimes confronted with having to decide whether or not a distance learning qualification is acceptable. I am afraid that, in terms of the cases we have scrutinised, very few, if any, have demonstrated that the curriculum content, processes and products are superior, or comparable, to those associated with the more conventional forms of higher education. Let me hasten to say that the sample of cases we have encountered is by no means representative of what some of the excellent open learning institutions are capable of.

Nevertheless, the onus should be for the award granting institution to provide incontrovertible evidence that the degree or diploma concerned not only involves as rigorous a preparation as the in-campus programme, but that its distance learning graduates are performing as well as those who follow the normal route. No amount of rhetoric would substitute the demonstrated credibility of the qualifications in terms of the soundness of the distance learning programme and the acceptability of its graduates by potential employers.

I realise that one of the Virtual Conferences organised by The Commonwealth of Learning is on Accreditation, Quality Assurance and Credit Banking. I understand that you have continued to discuss this important topic especially during the Pre-Forum Roundtable. However, I am not sure if you have been able to establish a set of guidelines or criteria that would be acceptable and implementable by most, if not all, countries in the Commonwealth. Until and unless we can be assured of the quality of a particular qualification, it would be misleading, if not wasteful, for prospective candidates to undertake distance learning programmes, under the impression that these would be automatically recognised.

Just as the use of technology in the classroom does not automatically enhance teaching and learning, it cannot be assumed that the use of technology, however sophisticated, in facilitating open learning would automatically be more effective or efficient than the limited use or non-use, of technology. The proliferation of distance learning programmes of dubious quality, as a result of the commercialisation of higher education, is therefore a worrying trend. I therefore hope that, as a follow-up of the conference, serious efforts, perhaps co-ordinated by The Commonwealth of Learning, would address the urgent issue of developing unequivocal criteria for assessing the quality of open learning programmes.

I am glad that one of the conclusions arrived at by the Virtual Conference on Distance Education and Challenged Communities is that "in delivering knowledge it is good pedagogy that makes the difference not technology". A crucial pedagogical principle is that teaching and learning should, as far as possible, be adaptive. In adaptive teaching, we adapt the methods of teaching to the individual differences of students, such as differences in learning styles, past experiences and a variety of attributes. In adaptive learning, on the other hand, we equip students with cognitive and metalearning strategies in order that they would be able to adapt to variations in teaching styles.

It seems to me that, in the preoccupation with fulfilling logistic and technical requirements in open and distance learning, insufficient attention has been paid to both adaptive teaching and adaptive learning. Without many, or any, face-to-face encounters, the teachers would need to develop creative ways of getting to know their students better so as to apply appropriate adaptive teaching strategies. At the same time, special attention needs to be paid to developing adaptive learning strategies, such as how to learn, in students of open and distance learning. The kind of adaptiveness in bridging cultures that was referred to by Professor Wang Gungwu in the Asa Briggs Lecture is equally applicable to open and distance learning teachers and students if effective, efficient and equitable teaching and learning are to take place.

Good pedagogy also employs a variety of motivational strategies. When the teacher is dull and lacks a sense of humour, the students will also lose interest in learning. In the absence of personal contact, teachers of open and distance learning are challenged to explore innovative ways of engaging their students. Again, it is the pedagogical ways of utilising humour and other forms of motivation, rather than the use of elaborate and expensive technology, that really matter.

"The body consists of three parts – the brainium, the borax, and the abominable cavity. The brainium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abominable cavity contains the bowels, of which there are five – a, e, i, o and u."

On this note, may I wish you every success in meeting the many challenges ahead, especially those of a pedagogical kind. I now have the great pleasure in declaring the First Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning closed.