Manual for the Tutors of Learning Centers in Open Schools . Written by Dr. Sushmita Mitra. This is a manual for all those who would like to take up the challenging task of acting as a Tutor in an educational programme following Open and Distance Learning (ODL) methodologies. Published by Commonwealth of Learning, 2008.
Costs and Financing in Open Schools. Written by Ed Du Vivier. These self-instructional resources have their origins in a workshop on the Costs and Financing of Open & Distance Learning which took place from 6-10 August 2007 in Gabarone, Botswana. The workshop was sponsored by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) with the overall aim of building capacity to plan, negotiate and manage appropriate financial arrangements for the development and maintenance of ODL in member states.
Knowledge Series , start-up guides for practitioners on different aspects of open and distance education. New titles are published each year.
Training Handbooks , a series of handbooks that cover the key roles and functions of open and distance learning (ODL) systems from the practitioner perspective. 2004
PREST materials : The Practitioner Research and Evaluation Skills Training (PREST) series is published by COL in collaboration with the International Research Foundation for Open Learning (IRFOL). The PREST training resources provide practitioners working in open and distance learning (ODL) with convenient access to basic knowledge on how to conduct research and evaluation in their everyday work.
Copyright & Distance Education: A trainer's toolkit. Prepared by Christine Swales. This toolkit provides a variety of resources designed to assist trainers in preparing and offering a workshop that introduces participants to copyright as it relates to distance education. It describes the basic features of copyright, identifies institutional issues and concerns, and outlines ways to deal with them. It is appropriate for academic staff involved in writing and presenting course materials; administrative staff involved in publishing, purchasing, selling, and presenting courses and course materials; and institutional staff involved in setting up procedures and policies on courses and course materials through central administration, the library, or a learning resources centre. The Commonwealth of Learning, 2000 (79 pages)
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Training Toolkits. In co-operation with the Asian Development Bank and the International Extension College in the UK, COL has produced six comprehensive manuals for use in training distance educators. The training "toolkits" include a set of case studies that are used for all six topics:
*published with funding from the Asian Development Bank's Training for Capacity Building in Distance Education for Primary Teacher Training programme.
The toolkits are available for a nominal $12.00 each, plus shipping, for non-commercial use. Please contact COL directly re Training Toolkits. Unfortunately, VISA transactions are not available for purchasing Toolkits.
COL can also provide complete training services on a fee-for-service basis.
E-Learning: A Guidebook of Principles, Procedures and Practices , by Dr. Som Naidu. This guidebook will help readers to systematically approach their engagement with e-learning, irrespective of the educational sector or level within which they may be working. Divided into nine chapters, it discusses issues related to attributes of e-learning, contemporary trends and practices, e-learning management systems, collaborative designs for e-learning, assessing learning outcomes, e-moderation, and evaluation of e-learning environments. Published by the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia, June 2003
Schoolnet Toolkit : This is a guidebook for the use of ICTs to improve the value and quality of education. Prepared jointly by the Asia and the Pacific Regional Bureau for Education (UNESCO Bangkok) and COL, it is targeted towards policy- and decision-makers in education, school managers, practitioners, teachers and principals in Southeast Asian countries. 2004
African Schoolnet Toolkit : COL and SchoolNet Africa (SNA) have developed a toolkit for developing schoolnets in Africa. Similar to a resource developed last year by UNESCO (Bangkok) and COL, the African Schoolnet Toolkit is designed to support education policy-makers and practitioners in their use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to improve the value and quality of education. 2005