NEWS ITEMS  

Call for Nominations: Excellence in Distance Education Awards

COL is seeking submissions for its 2009-2010 Excellence in Distance Education Awards. These awards, which will be presented at the Sixth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning in Kochi, India in November 2010, recognise excellence in four categories: the overall institutional level, the development of learning materials, a lifetime's work as an educator and student accomplishment. The deadline for submissions is 30 April 2010.
See: www.col.org/edea

UNESCO online discussion

"Gender Equality, Education and Training"
10 January to 7 February 2010
See: www.unesco.org/genderequality/beijing15

PCF6 Call for Abstracts

The deadline for submission of abstracts for COL’s Sixth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF6) is 31 January 2010.

PCF6 will be held from 24 to 28 November 2010 at Le Méridien Cochin Resort & Convention Centre, Kochi, Kerala, India, in partnership with India’s Indira Gandhi National Open University.

The Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning has grown to become one of the world’s leading conferences on open learning and global development. PCF6 in Kochi aims to consider what open and distance learning has done and still can do in terms of success.

Theme: Access & Success in Learning: Global Development Perspectives

www.col.org/pcf6

Connections/EdTech News

Connections/EdTech News, October 2009: Education Ministers: Planning beyond 2015 | UNESCO's World Conference on Higher Education | New Website and Management for VUSSC | 
Supporting a New Open School in Cameroon | NAMCOL Launches Multimedia Learning | IN FOCUS: OERs: The Promise and the Pitfalls | New Resources | People | Events | EDTECH News: The Changing World of Search Engines | Upgrading Your Operating System | Educational Technology Debate | Social Media Misuse a Growing Problem | Mobile Applications Database
www.col.org/connections

Three-year Plan, 2009-2012

COL’s Three-Year Plan for 2009-2012, Learning for Development, was presented to Commonwealth Ministers of Education and received their endorsement at the 17th triennial Conference (CCEM), held in Kuala Lumpur in June 2009.
www.col.org/3yp

New: Perspectives on Distance Education: Open Schooling in the 21st Century

Dominque A.M.X. Abrioux and Frances Ferriera, Editors.
The expansion of secondary education is now the world’s most pressing educational challenge. This carefully prepared and thoroughly researched book should inspire policy-makers and educational planners to explore how open schooling can expand secondary education cost-effectively in their jurisdictions.
www.col.org/PSOpenSchooling

New: Introducing Copyright:
A plain language guide to copyright in the 21st century

By Julien Hofman, published by the Commonwealth of Learning. This book was written for those who want to learn about copyright in the 21st century. It explains copyright protection and what it means for copyright holders and copyright users. It also introduces readers to contemporary topics: digital rights management, open licences, software patents and copyright protection for works of traditional knowledge. A final chapter tries to predict how technology will change the publishing and entertainment industries that depend on copyright.
www.col.org/IntroducingCopyright

The Open Schools Handbook: As resource guide for managers

The latest in a developing series of COL handbooks about open schooling, this book has been developed for practitioners who seek to provide primary, secondary and vocational education for out-of-school learners using open and distance learning (ODL). It will be of particular interest to chief executive officers, managers and other senior staff who work in existing open schools or colleges, are establishing an ODL institution or are transforming a unit in a government structure into an autonomous open school. Touching on all the important issues – from strategic planning and staffing to supporting learners and study materials – it provides practical advice, insight and examples of best practices to guide the management of open schools. By Ed Du Vivier.
www.col.org/OpenSchoolsHandbook
www.col.org/OpenSchooling

Gender micro-site

COL's new Gender micro-site has been designed to provide a one-stop, comprehensive platform to access print and electronic resources on gender and open, distance and technology-mediated learning (ODL) with a special emphasis on information and communication technology (ICT). The main purpose of developing this gender micro-site is to provide knowledge and information on gender and ODL/ICT so as to raise awareness and to provide tools to ODL policymakers and practitioners to help them address gender concerns in their areas of competence.
www.col.org/gender

Excellence in Distance Education Awards (EDEA) 2008

COL is proud to annouce the new EDEA winners for 2008. The award ceremony took place at the Fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF5) in London, UKon 14 and 15 July 2008.
www.col.org/edea

PCF News

More than 700 people from 70 countries, including several Ministers of Education, attended COL's Fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF5) in London, UK  from 13-17 July 2008. Papers and reports from sessions are available online in the Forum 'wiki' and 'blog' at www.wikieducator.org/pcf5 and http://pcf5.wordpress.com; and keynote presentations are available at www.col.org/speeches.

The Forum explored how open and distance learning can help achieve international development goals and education for all.

PCF5 was hosted by COL in partnership with the University of London, forming a part of the University's celebration of the 150th anniversary of the establishment of its External Degrees initiative. Major sponsorship support for delegate participation from developing countries is being provided by COL, the U.K. Open University, the U.K. Department for International Development, the University of London External Programme and AusAID - the Australian Government's overseas aid programme. Conference Co-Chairs were Sir Graeme Davies, Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, and Sir John Daniel, President and CEO of COL.  www.col.org/pcf5 

The Sixth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF6) will take place in late November 2010, in Kochi (Cochin, Kerala), India, in partnership with India's Indira Gandhi National Open University.  www.col.org/pcf6

Quality Assurance micro-site

COL's Quality Assurance micro-site has been designed to provide a single, convenient access point to existing resources in quality assurance in open and distance learning (ODL).  We hope that it will be of particular use to institutions, researchers and governments seeking to establish benchmarks for quality provision and to all those who are interested in devising effective systems for the review and evaluation of ODL programmes.
www.col.org/quality

Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth (VUSSC)

On behalf of Commonwealth Ministers of Education, COL is co-ordinating the development of a Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth (VUSSC). Twenty six countries are now actively engaged in making the VUSSC a reality. VUSSC countries have chosen to focus on creating postsecondary, skills-related courses in areas such as tourism, entrepreneurship, professional development, disaster management and a range of technical and vocational subjects. These non-proprietary, electronically-held course materials, which can readily be adapted to the specific context of each country, are used in the offering of credit-bearing qualifications in the countries' post-secondary institutions, strengthening their educational capacity and outreach. Small states thus become active contributors to global development and leaders in educational reform through the innovative use of information and communications technologies (ICTs). The VUSSC is throwing a wide bridge across the digital divide.
www.col.org/vussc

NEW RESOURCES

  COL publications:

• Results-Based Monitoring and Evalutation at the Commonwealth of Learning - A Handbook 

• Learning to Live Together: Using Distance Education for Community Peacebuilding

• Qualtity Assurance Toolkit - Higher Education

• Quality Assurance Toolkit - Teacher Education

• Perspectives on Distance Education: Open Schooling in the 21st Century (COL's Perspectives on Distance Education series. 2009)

• Introducing Copyright: A plain language guide to copyright in the 21st century

• Open and Distance Learning in a Changing World: Selected speeches of Sir John Daniel and colleagues,  2007 - 2008

• The Open Schools Handbook: A resource guide for managers

• A Prospective Vision for Universities: The role of the technology transfer units and distance education 

• Handbook on In-house Style for Course Development

• Costs and Financing in Open Schools

• Manual for the Tutors of Learning Centers in Open Schools

• Perspectives on Distance Education: Foreign Providers in the Caribbean: Pillagers or Preceptors? (COL's Perspectives on Distance Education series. Published by COL. 2008)

• Education for a Digital World: Advice, Guidelines, and Effective Practice from around the Globe

• Four new Knowledge Series' titles  

  Consultants' reports:

• Using Mobile Technology for Learner Support in Open Schooling
  Developing Countries
  Europe
  
• Women's Empowerment at the Local Level (WELL) - a study undertaken in the state of Uttarakhand

• Structural Framework for Higher Education Open and Distance Learning in Papua New Guinea
  

• Consultancy for Conducting Workshop with IGNOU and Editing the Modules developed in the Workshop

• A Study of the Development of the State Open Universities in India

• Report of the Visitation Panel to the University of Ghana

• Open Schooling for Secondary & Higher Secondary Education: Costs and Effectiveness in India and Namibia

• Survey of ICT and Education in Africa, Volume 2: 53 Country Reports

• Survey of ICT and Education in Africa

• Commonwealth of Learning Capacity Building workshop: Developing Digital Content

• The NEPAD e-Schools Demonstration Project: A Work in Progress

• Institutional Trial Quality Audit of the University of South Africa (UNISA) 

• Boys' Underachievement in Education: An Exploration in Selected Commonwealth Countries"

• Higher Education Crossing Borders - A Guide to the Implications of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) for Cross-border Education  

        Consultants' reports are available at: www.col.org/consultancies

  Conference reports and papers:

• Forum on Flexible Education: Reaching Nomadic Populations in Africa ( Summary Report)
• Fourth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (Jamaica, October/November 2006):
  Papers | Keynote speeches | Virtual conferences 
  

  Speeches and presentations: www.col.org/speeches

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Further information ...

CD-ROM

COL offers a CD-ROM (updated regularly) that contains our most popular knowledge resources and recent publications and reports, along with a video on COL and its work. It is available upon request from COL: info@col.org

PLEASE NOTE:

The Commonwealth of Learning's focus is in strengthening institutions in developing Commonwealth countries that are striving to provide affordable education to larger numbers of their citizens.

COL IS NOT an educational institution. It does not register students and does not directly offer courses, programmes of study, scholarships or bursaries.

COL DOES NOT provide an accreditation service and does not endorse institutions or programmes. COL is also unable to provide directories of courses available in the Commonwealth.

Please see: About COL for more information.