LEARNING FOR DEVELOPMENT is the theme of the Commonwealth of Learning's Three-Year Plan for 2009-2012. This plan expresses a vision that reaches beyond formal education to embrace areas of learning that are vital for better livelihoods, greater prosperity and a safer environment. Understanding development as the process of increasing the freedoms that people can enjoy, COL pursues this vision operationally within the framework of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the campaign for Education for All and Commonwealth values.
COL's two programme sectors, Education and Livelihoods & Health, embrace eight initiatives that will help governments pursue the twin goals of expanding access to learning and using public funds cost-effectively.
www.col.org/3yp
COL helps developing nations improve access to quality education and training using distance education and appropriate technologies. Attaining the Millennium Development Goals and the Education for All targets are major challenges in South Asia. All Commonwealth countries in the region are faced with limited resources of some kind. While several countries have well developed facilities for distance higher education, there is a need to transfer knowledge, skills and capabilities from the higher education sector to areas such as literacy, elementary and secondary education, teacher training and continuing professional education.
COL applies its expertise in open and distance learning (ODL) and information and communication technology (ICT) to help address Asia's diverse needs. To meet the enormous information needs related to agriculture, food security and health, the region must use mass education and training strategies. At the same time, quality must not be compromised. COL has introduced several initiatives to support quality improvement in learning for development.
The Commonwealth Education Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) is COL's regional agency. CEMCA implements COL's mandate in the eight countries of Commonwealth Asia. Based in New Delhi, India, CEMCA's mandate is to promote the meaningful, relevant and appropriate use of ICT to serve the educational and training needs of Commonwealth member states in Asia. Working in partnership with COL, other international agencies, educational institutions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), CEMCA is effectively expanding the use of ODL for development.
www.cemca.org
Education
Open Schooling: Open/alternative schooling has proven to be a successful and cost-effective means of increasing access to basic and secondary schooling. To meet the growing demand for secondary schooling resulting from the success of the Universal Primary Education campaign, COL works closely with the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), the apex organisation for open schools in India. COL commissioned a report that provides a plan to create a Department of Capacity Building within NIOS to provide training and support for open schools. COL's activities also include:
- The establishment of the Commonwealth Open Schooling Association (COMOSA), a consortium of open schools that is headquartered at NIOS and includes 13 open schools in South Asia.
- Leading Open Educational Resources for Open Schools, a pan-Commonwealth initiative that is improving capacity in materials development among open school teachers and faculty members, and creating a library of OERs that are freely available to teachers and students.
- Supporting improved quality in open schooling through the development of a Quality Assurance Toolkit for Open Schools.
- Hosting a capacity building workshop on monitoring and evaluation for the Asia region.
- CEMCA works closely with NIOS and the Assam State Open School (ASOS) to conduct capacity building exercises and providing technical assistance for the development of self-instructional learning materials for the secondary and senior secondary levels.
www.col.org/OpenSchooling
Teacher Education: COL is working with institutions in Asia to strengthen teacher development programmes. In partnership with India's Centre for Environment Education, COL supported development of the one-year Diploma in Environmental Education for teachers and educators. Offered by distance mode, this continuing learning course teaches in-service teachers how to increase learning about environmental issues. COL's Quality Assurance Toolkit for Teacher Education is freely available to teacher training institutions.
www.col.org/TeacherEducation
Higher Education: COL is working to improve access to quality higher education in Asia. Specific initiatives include:
- CEMCA's quality assurance in multimedia learning materials (QAMLM) framework promotes quality in multimedia-based learning materials.
- Allama Iqbal Open University (Pakistan), Bangladesh Open University, the Open University of Sri Lanka and Wawasan Open University (Malaysia) are part of the Commonwealth Executive Master of Business Administration (CEMBA) and Master of Public Administration (CEMPA) programme consortium, which offers working professionals the opportunity to study part-time through ODL.
- Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) offers COL's Graduate Diploma in Legislative Drafting, which builds capacity in planning and writing laws and policies through distance learning.
- CEMCA provided technical assistance for IGNOU's Certificate Programme on Community Radio Management and is sponsoring 100 fellowships for this programme.
- CEMCA is working with IGNOU's School of Journalism and New Media Studies to develop a Community Media Diploma Programme.
- IGNOU is building capacity in ODL internationally through its Master of Arts in Distance Education (MADE) programme. A group of students from Nigeria is enrolled in MADE through the Rajiv Gandhi Fellowship Scheme, which is funded by COL.
- The COL Review and Improvement Model (COL RIM) for effective institutional quality audits provides a cost-effective approach to quality assurance and is freely available. Planning has begun on a COL RIM implementation at the Open University of Sri Lanka.
- COL is using its expertise in ODL to help the Open University Malaysia develop its online Master of Instruction Design and Technology programme.
www.col.org/HigherEducation
Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth: Brunei Darussalam and Maldives are members of a collaborative network of 32 small states that are part of the Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth (VUSSC). Two Asian countries - Maldives and Singapore - have hosted VUSSC training workshops, also known as "boot camps".
Initiated by COL and now led by an independent Management Committee, VUSSC is creating OERs for post-secondary, skills-related courses in areas such as disaster management, entrepreneurship, sustainable agriculture and tourism. These non-proprietary, electronically-held course materials are freely available for download, use and adaptation, strengthening the educational capacity and outreach of tertiary education institutions in small states.
www.col.org/VUSSC
Livelihoods and Health
Skills Development: COL helps countries scale up skills development through ODL. CEMCA is working closely with the Government of India to help expand community radio nation-wide. CEMCA has hosted 20 consultation workshops where more than 2,000 organisations have learned about the potential of community radio, how successful stations function and how to submit license applications. As a result of these workshops, more than 400 applications have been made and 80 community radio stations have been launched. CEMCA is supporting the expansion of community radio in Bangladesh by providing community radio training workshops, supporting community radio license applicants and facilitating a study tour of community radio in India for a group from Bangladesh. COL and CEMCA work with institutional partners to design and deliver quality ODL courses, make materials freely available as OERs, create needs-based ODL training materials for skills development and foster partnerships among Commonwealth institutions, with a focus on south-south co-operation.
www.col.org/SkillsDevelopment
Learning for Farming: COL helps countries harness the potential of ICT to build capacity in the agricultural sector. COL's successful Lifelong Learning for Farmers (L3 Farmers) programme was launched in the Tamil Nadu region of India in 2003. Established in Sri Lanka in 2007 and now successfully replicated in all regions of the Commonwealth, L3 Farmers continues to grow in India. This powerful partnership of farmers, educational institutions, banks and ICT providers promotes learning for sustained improvement of livelihoods. A recent enhancement is the introduction of the use of mobile phones for learning among farmers.
www.col.org/L3Farmers
Healthy Communities: Working collaboratively with health and development experts, media and technology groups, community networks and public health authorities, COL helps build knowledge and skills to use non-formal ODL to address health issues at the community level. Experts provide knowledge; media provide scale and animation; community networks provide learner support. COL's approach to community learning is low-cost and participatory, and prioritises local ownership and story-based learning.
- CEMCA's Science for Women's Health and Nutrition programme provides illiterate women in resource-poor settings with access to learning about important health issues through community radio. The 15- to 30-minute broadcasts reach an estimated 12,000 women daily. In addition to providing valuable health and nutrition information, Science for Women's Health and Nutrition is creating a repository of audio content that can be re-used and teaching radio production skills to women.
- COL provides training in participatory content development to community media groups. In partnership with the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), COL hosted a workshop in Bangalore, India that featured facilitators from India and Nepal - an example of south-south co-operation.
- COL/CEMCA supported the development of Internet radio at the Educational Development Centre (EDC) in Maldives and the Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET/ NCERT) in India. The Internet radio services offer online educational programmes at no cost.
www.col.org/HealthyCommunities
Integrating eLearning: COL helps countries and institutions to understand and implement eLearning. CEMCA's EasyNow platform enables teachers to create learning materials in a variety of delivery modes from a single electronic source. CEMCA has delivered EasyNow training workshops in India, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. A number of educators in Asia have learned to convert learning materials into "wiki" format through Learning4Content, a global training initiative originally launched by COL.
www.col.org/eLearning
eLearning for International Organisations:
COL's custom ODL programmes help to build skills and knowledge among staff at international agencies such as the Commonwealth Secretariat, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Labour Organization, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Bank and World Health Organization. Headquarters staff and field-based workers located throughout the world can access COL's eLearning for International Organisations programmes in areas such as communications, data management and debt management.
www.col.org/COLeLIO
Regional Presence
COL's regional agency, the Commonwealth Education Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), is a resource for the region that organises training activities, and provides ODL expertise and resources using its own staff and local experts.
COL maintains strong relationships with many stakeholders in Asia including member governments, partner institutions, donors and individuals. COL's Honorary Advisors, a network of eminent ODL professionals, includes a repre-sentative from Asia. The region is also represented by a COL Chair and a network of individuals, selected by member Governments, who liaise directly with COL as Focal Points. COL creates specific country action plans and country reports to ensure the region's needs are addressed.
Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning: COL's Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF) has become one of the world's top international conferences on learning and global development. Each biennial conference is co-hosted with a partner in a different region of the Commonwealth. Indira Gandhi National Open University is the co-host of PCF6 in Kochi, Kerala, India in November 2010.
PCF's five-day programme is designed to address ODL's role in widening educational access, bridging the digital divide and advancing the social and economic development of communities and nations at large. Thanks to an active sponsorship programme and low registration fees, most participants come from developing countries, including many from Asia. COL presents its Excellence in Distance Education Awards and confers Honorary Fellowships at each Forum. A number of Asians are among the past award winners and COL Fellows.
www.col.org/pcf
Knowledge Resources and Communications Media: COL employs a variety of media to communicate with and provide resources for stakeholders and the wider public. COL's website, newsletter (Connections/EdTech News) and electronic resources are among the world's foremost sources of knowledge on ODL. Most of COL's recent publications are available on a CD-ROM; all are available on the COL website.
CEMCA publishes an annual newsletter, EduComm Asia, and produces knowledge resources on various applications of ICT in education. In partnership with regional and international donor agencies, CEMCA has produced training resources such as Quality Assurance of Multimedia Learning Materials; eLearning: A Guidebook of Principles, Procedures and Practices; Educational Multimedia: A Handbook for Teacher-Developers; and Women's Literacy and ICT. CEMCA serves as a regional networking and collaborating centre for ODL and technology-enabled learning services.
COL's Information Resource Centre maintains an extensive online library of documents about ODL and international development from quality-assessed external sources. More than one million documents are freely available through COL's Knowledge Finder search facilities.
www.col.org
www.col.org/connections
www.col.org/kf
www.col.org/blog
Last updated September 2010