COL helps countries increase access to education of quality at all levels by
focusing on quality assurance, teacher development, alternative forms of
schooling, new approaches to higher education, and the creation of expertise
in eLearning.
Impacts:
Policy: All governments are now emphasising quality as they strive to
broaden access. COL helps them formulate policies for quality assurance,
notably in the areas of teacher education, alternative schooling and higher
education (with a special focus on eLearning). COL's participation in the
evaluation of the NEPAD eSchools Pilot Project will yield policy
recommendations for the use of ICTs in schools in Africa that will address
concerns about the digital divide. Policies for adding distance education
programmes to conventional teacher education establishments are a vital
response to the chronic shortage of teachers.
Systems: There is a major need for training to help institutions convert to
dual-mode operations and address the skills deficit amongst the staff of open
schools and the NGOs that work with them to bring education to marginalised
groups. COL will place special emphasis on integrating vocational skills
training into alternative schooling. COL is also building capacity to meet the
high demand for training in eLearning, notably in support of the Virtual
University for Small States of the Commonwealth, which will be an important
bridge over the digital divide. In empowering educators with ICT skills COL
will help them use technologies for online collaboration to share open
educational learning content and resources.
Models and Materials: The successful model of the open university has
already been widely replicated. The model of the dual-mode institution, which
teaches both face-to-face and at a distance, is less straightforward to apply
and COL is working with institutions around the Commonwealth to share good
practice. COL is now helping to refine the model for open schools, because
such schools are a vital response to the rapidly increasing demand for
secondary education. An important new model, which holds enormous promise for
developing countries, is the collaborative production of open educational
resources for eLearning. COL will remain in the forefront of these
developments.
COL is successfully sharing learning materials. For example, quality
assurance materials for teacher education jointly developed for Asia and
Africa will be introduced around the Commonwealth.
Partnerships: COL's education sector partners are numerous. Its
collaboration with UNESCO supports COL's work on teacher training in Africa.
The two organisations are also working together on quality assurance systems
for eLearning, cross-border education and higher education generally. In
Africa, COL provides some funding to two regional centres: the SADC Centre for
Distance Education (SADC-CDE) based in Botswana and the Regional Training and
Research Institute for Open and Distance Learning (RETRIDOL) serving West
Africa from the National Open University of Nigeria. COL is also developing
stronger relationships in education with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the
Association of Commonwealth Universities. In developing eLearning, COL is
working with The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and building a link with
the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on copyright matters.
