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Marg Beagley(centre) at the Pacific Distance Education Institute and AADES International Conference, jointly held in September in Adelaide, South Australia, with Saula Koroinivalu (Principal Education Officer) (left) and Aslika Uluilakeba (Distance Education Broadcaster) , both from Fiji. Nine educators from Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands attended the conference on "Connected learning communities", which was supported by COL, the Australian Agency for International Development and the Open Access College. |
Ms. Margaret Beagley won the 2002 Gold Medal from the Australasian Association of Distance Education Schools (AADES). The Gold Medal is AADES's premier national award for excellence, this year recognising Ms. Beagley's significant contribution as Executive Principal of Open Access College (OAC) since 1990.
OAC, based in Marden, South Australia, operates a School of the Air, an R-10 School and a Senior Secondary School of Distance Education, along with outreach and publishing programmes. It has developed an outstanding profile nationally and internationally and has received several national awards for publishing, curriculum programmes, the use of new technology and student achievement.
AADES recognised Marg Beagley's leadership in transforming OAC from being seen as a "second and last choice" to being recognised as a creditable and viable option for not only students in remote areas or students unable to study at a local school for medical, social or religious reasons, but for any student wishing to broaden and enhance their education. Several students have achieved top marks in State examinations and students at both the primary and secondary levels regularly receive recognition for their work well beyond the College. OAC enrolment, retention and achievement have continued to increase at a dramatic rate, particularly in the last few years. http://oac.schools.sa.edu.au and www.aades.edu.au
A Consumer's Guide to E-learning was released in June 2002, providing for the first time in Canada a tool to help distance learners evaluate, in advance, the effectiveness of e-learning programmes that are offered online. The Guide was developed by a consortium of national and community educators in Canada and is available free-of-charge on CD or on the web, in both English and French. The Commonwealth of Learning is a partner in this initiative.
The new Commonwealth Executive Master of Business/Public Administration (CEMBA/CEMPA) programme was officially launched at a ceremony on 1 August 2002, held in conjunction with the Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning in Durban. This programme is the outcome of close collaboration between COL and the national open universities of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and the Open University of Hong Kong. It aims to complement existing MBA/MPA programmes in meeting the growing demands for postgraduate-level education in business and public administration in Commonwealth countries. Designed for part-time study by busy working professionals, the programme can be completed by students at their own pace.
CEMBA/CEMPA Executive Governing Board and Academic Board members (Vice-Chancellors and academic representatives from the five founding member universities of the consortium) participated in the launch ceremony. Dr. H. Ian McDonald, Chairman of the COL Board of Governors and also Chairman of the CEMBA/CEMPA Executive Governing Board presided at the ceremony.
The first four courses in the programme have been available to students in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka since July 2002. www.col.org/cemba