The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) is an intergovernmental organisation
created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and
sharing of open learning/distance education knowledge, resources and
technologies. COL is helping developing nations improve access to quality
education and training.
The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of more than
50 independent sovereign states, which provide support to each other, and work
together toward international goals. The Commonwealth is described as a
"family" of nations, originally linked together in the British Empire, and now
building on their common heritage in language, culture and education, which
enables them to work together in an atmosphere of greater trust and
understanding than generally prevails among nations.
Bringing together some 1.7 billion people of many
faiths, races, languages, traditions and levels of economic development, the
Commonwealth represents almost one-third of the world's population.