The COL Review and Improvement Model (COL RIM) for effective institutional quality audits was introduced to educators from 11 African countries, including the Association of African Universities, in October 2009. The three-day workshop in Abuja, Nigeria, organised in collaboration with the National Open University of Nigeria, outlined the features of COL RIM and included a presentation by the University of Technology, Jamaica, which was the first institution to trial the model.

COL RIM provides higher education institutions with a “do-it-yourself” approach to institutional quality audits. After leading audits of UNISA and the University of Ghana in 2007, COL concluded that the high cost of using external teams would deter many institutions from conducting quality assurance audits. COL developed COL RIM as a more cost-effective approach that focuses on self-assessment and helps institutions improve internal quality assurance, planning and systematic institutional improvement.

The COL RIM package, consisting of a conceptual framework and handbook, is freely available from COL. COL plans to support the efforts of institutions to conduct institutional quality audits using COL RIM. For more information, contact Ms. Ruvani Ameresekere, Programme Assistant at rameresekere.

CASE WRITING WORKSHOP IN BANGLADESH

In partnership with the nine institutions licensed to offer the Executive Master of Business Administration (CEMBA) and Master of Public Administration (CEMPA) degrees, COL conducted a five-day case-writing workshop. Twenty-one delegates from open universities in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean attended the workshop at the BRAC Centre for Development Management in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The case study method – which outlines real life situations and lessons learned – is a popular teaching approach in business education. The focus of the workshop was building capacity in writing academically sound case studies. The goal is to create a bank of current, international case studies for use in the CEMBA/CEMPA programmes. Under the leadership of facilitator Professor Adele Thomas from the University of Johannesburg, delegates worked on case study ideas that they brought to the workshop for development and refinement. They committed to continuing to develop materials and share their new skills with colleagues.

Developed initially through a collaboration between COL and four open universities, the CEMBA/CEMPA programmes are designed for part-time study by busy working professionals, in response to the growing demands for post-graduate level education in business and public administration.

www.col.org/cemba

HARNESSING THE POTENTIAL OF MEDIA FOR LEARNING

Media and community development organisations in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Pacific took part in a workshop about educational media programming hosted by COL in partnership with UNESCO in October 2009. Participants from the Caribbean Institute for Media and Communication (Jamaica), the Maraa media collective (India), the Media Training Centre for Health (South Africa), Story Workshop (Malawi) and non-governmental organisations in Kenya and Solomon Islands attended the four-day meeting in Vancouver, Canada.

They began development of a Toolkit for Community Learning Programmes, a resource that will help community groups create non-formal educational programmes using local media and other information and communication technologies. The Toolkit for Community Learning Programmes is currently being used to develop community-based learning programmes focused on health. Once testing is complete, COL will make the toolkit freely available online.

www.wikieducator.org/Community_Media

COPYRIGHT AND OERS

COL hosted a workshop on copyright and open educational resources (OERs) in Delhi, India in conjunction with the launch of the Commonwealth Open Schooling Association (see page 5) in November 2009. Attending the workshop were 35 people from open schools and allied institutions in Australia, Belize, Botswana, Cameroon, Canada, Ghana, Guyana, India, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles, South Africa, the South Pacific, Swaziland and Trinidad & Tobago.

The objective of the workshop was to explain how copyright issues affect OERs and to explore alternative copyright licenses for OERs.

The workshop also benefited from a presentation by Ms. Nirmita Narasimhan, Programme Manager at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, who spoke about the benefits of OERs for people with a visual disability. As someone with a visual disability herself, Ms. Narasimhan provided a compelling argument about the importance of making OERs “open” to people with disabilities. She also inspired participants to make OERs accessible to learners of all abilities.

A background document explaining issues relating to copyright and OERs is available on COL’s website.

www.col.org/OpenSchooling

UPCOMING EVENTS