05. Pan-Commonwealth Forum 5 (PCF5), 2008

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Open Access
Actors for Change – Reflections and Insights
(2008-09) Jha, Chhaya; Parlevliet, Michelle
PCF5 Sub-theme: Governance and social justice // This paper discusses an innovative distance learning course, Actors for Change, which positions human rights work as an integral part of conflict prevention. The four-month course, designed and implemented by UNSSC, OHCHR and Fahamu, builds the knowledge and skills of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) on why they should be involved in conflict prevention and how to mainstream this perspective in their responsibilities. The course has been structured to assist learning by reading, reflecting and doing. The course covers conflict, human rights and a 7-step model of conflict prevention. Since 2005, six courses on conflict prevention were delivered in three languages (English, French and Spanish) to staff of National Institutions in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. This paper is written by the course author and two-time tutor, and the tutor of three courses. // Paper ID 554
Open Access
Commonwealth Education Co-operation: Looking to the Future
(2008-09) Williams, Peter
PCF5 Sub-theme: Cross-cutting Themes // Commonwealth education co-operation in its inter-governmental form effectively began nearly 50 years ago in Oxford at the time of the first Commonwealth Education Conference in 1959. Civil society had of course got there first: through their antecedent bodies today’s Association of Commonwealth Universities, Commonwealth Institute/Commonwealth Education Trust, Royal Commonwealth Society and League for Exchange of Commonwealth Teachers all have histories stretching back more than a hundred years. // The official mechanisms established in 1959 included the Commonwealth Education Liaison Unit, the forerunner of the Education Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat established in 1965; and the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan which will also celebrate its 50th birthday in 2009. In June next year in Kuala Lumpur the seventeenth in the series of education ministers’ conferences, the ‘17CCEM’, will be held and will afford an opportunity to review both past achievements and future possibilities. Paper ID 642
Open Access
Distance Learners and Support Services: Current Trends and Prospects
(2008) Somayajulu, B K; Ramakrishna, Tata
PCF5: Cross-Cutting Themes // As we all know many learners and prospective learners from all walks of life felt that the quality support services should be made available for them to meet their academic requirements in time. Thoughts and ideas should be derived to see that the nature of services has to be transformed from mechanical phase to digital phase to provide learner support services in a better way. The learners also seek more technical support in meeting their requirements rapidly for their academic achievements. Persuasion of higher studies through distance education is the best possible way for the category of children; young people and of course even older people. Any institution may have to plan and design to change the operational scenario in the technical mode in view of the conditions prevailing in the digital era. // Are the DE institutions satisfied with the services offered by them? Can they think for any major transformation of activities in the support-services sector for betterment? To answer these questions, the basic support-staff structure, roles and responsibilities of the staff have to be looked into and accordingly modify the structures technically viable wherever necessary. The roles and responsibilities shall be properly defined suiting the technical environment and allocated to the staff at various levels so as to provide effective services to the distance learners. // This paper analyses the support-staff structures of a DE institution and redesign them accordingly on the basis of Feedback received from the learners. In addition, the paper discusses the Internet-based delivery mechanism, technology-enabled methods, and decentralisation of activities; and thereupon recommends suggestions for ensuring quality services in the near future. // Paper ID 25
Open Access
Guiding Learners in New Higher Education Spaces: What Role for UNESCO?
(2008) Uvalic-Trumbic, Stamenka
The pace of change in higher education is accelerating. Enrolment rates of around 40-50 % of the relevant age group are now thought necessary for a country to function well in a competitive and interdependent world. In 2004, there were 132 million students (including part time students) enrolled in tertiary education globally. A further massive increase in the demand for higher education can be expected as countries understand its role as a driver of development.// Learners are becoming a more diversified group. Traditional learners from the 18-22 age cohorts, who now have different and changing needs for flexibility and diversity in their studies, are being joined by new types of students.// Life-long learners are a steadily growing group. They come not only from adult populations and working professionals but also from degree holders whose diplomas become obsolete and need updating to guarantee employment. // In response to this rapid growth in demand, there is an increasing diversity of providers. Tertiary education is becoming a marketplace with plenty of dubious providers, bogus institutions and degree mills offering fake or low quality degrees. Distance learning is a preferred mode for many of these dubious providers. Are there efficient ways to alert learners to these and help them make informed choices? How will students find their way around in a myriad of competing offerings? Learner protection and empowerment become crucially important. Assessing the quality of this diverse provision becomes a crucial issue.// UNESCO has launched some initiatives aimed at protecting and guiding learners: the Guidelines on Quality Provision in Cross-border Higher Education, the Portal of recognised higher education institutions and other tools aimed at alerting students to bogus institutions. It responds to the theme of protecting young people by providing them access to reliable information to guide their life choices. // As part of the debate on cross-border higher education, the presentation will focus on the development of the Portal of recognized higher education institutions and some challenges it raises as a reliable tool for information sharing. The related challenge of degree mills and bogus institutions will also be addressed: how to develop suggestions for effective international practice as one of the responses to this growing problem, especially from the perspective of developing countries. // Paper ID 329
Open Access
Parliamentary Strengthening Programs: Improving Access, Availability and Governance Through a Self-Paced Learning Program
(2008-09) Stapenhurst, Rick; Prater, Brooke
PCF5 Sub-theme: Governance and social justice // After two attempts to develop a parliamentary staff training course in the late 1990s and early 2000’s, the World Bank Institute’s (WBI) Parliamentary Strengthening Program requested guidance from its Evaluation Unit and the Quality Enhancement Group (QEG) to revise and help make more effective its course. The resulting team was comprised of pedagogical and subject area experts1 who examined the program’s goals, objectives and delivery options and suggested a framework for web-based training which has subsequently been developed by WBI in collaboration with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), with guidance on program content provided by the CPA’s earlier Study Group on Parliamentary Staff Training. // The course, now largely developed and in the pilot phase, comprises a series of thirteen learning modules aimed to support parliaments in fulfilling their role in the governance process. It responds to the unique and evolving needs of parliamentary staff who seek to advance democracy by enhancing good governance, strengthening budget oversight, reducing poverty, improving public participation in the policy process, and reducing corruption, among other goals. As it is publicly available on the internet, the program aims to reach a greater share of the world parliamentary and development communities than those who participate in the more traditional face-to-face and moderated web courses alone. // This paper aims to explain the background, rationale and future of the parliamentary strengthening learning program and to evaluate its effectiveness by considering early versions of the course, the evolution towards the current learning program, the pedagogy of computer-based learning, current course content, recent and planned course deliveries, and proposed mechanisms for long term program assessment. // Paper ID 727
Open Access
The Role of Open and Distance Education in Providing Access to Learning for Children and Young People
(2008-07-14) Bellamy, Carol
Transcript of speech presented at PCF5 Conference: Access to Learning in Development, July 14, 2008. Presented by Carol Bellamy, President and CEO, World Learning.
Open Access
The Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour and Poverty Alleviation through Distance Education
(2008-09) Mia, Kabir
PCF5 Sub-theme: Governance and social justice // The objective of this paper is to identify and to frame a strategy on how to eliminate the worst forms of child labour and to alleviate poverty using distance mode of education especially in the low incoming countries. Distance and technology based education have focused mainly on adult and higher education rather than child education as well as child labour related issues. The child labour issue is one of the great-concerns thought the world. Due to child labour the achievement of millennium development goals (MGDs) and education for all (EFA) is hampered greatly. Several governments and UN International Labour Organization (ILO) have invested their endeavour to eliminate child labour as well as elimination of poverty. Strategies like non-formal education (NFE), skill development training (SDT) youth employment service (YES), supervised apprentice and work place improvement programme have been adopted to address child labour (CL) generally, and the worst forms of child labour (WFCL) specifically. Using traditional way, these strategies are being implemented. The technology mediated open and distance learning is not yet adopted any where to address CL/ WFCL. There is ample scope to work on this issue. Probably no any contributions on child labour education in the field of distance education. By this paper attempts should be made to identify the existing situation of worst forms of child labour, their education attempts and preparation to employment that will ultimately lead to poverty alleviation. By this paper/presentation two types of outcomes would be derived. One is in the field of advocacy and consensus among the policy makers and implementers and another is in the field of strategy and modality formation. Policy makers and implementers will adopt proper measures to eliminate child labour and poverty alleviation using technology mediated distance education in their respective areas/ countries. They will work and think about appropriate technology, innovation in curriculum and assessment including credit transfer policies and frameworks, networks and resources for learner support, research, global best practice (if any) and capacity building. // Paper ID 538
Open Access
Usage of OSS in Multimedia Courses
(2008) Satar, Nurhizam S M
The paper will share the experience of using the Open Source Software (OSS) in teaching and learning multimedia technology in an open and distance learning environment. OSS has been introduced because of costing, technology and legal implication factors in which these aspects assists in reducing the digital divide gap among learners particularly in rural area. Three multimedia courses namely Audio Technology in Multimedia, Video Technology in Multimedia and 3D Animation had adapted the use of the Open Source Software (OSS). Audacity, Kino and Blender are the software integrated in the multimedia courses. The institution had integrated these multimedia software to its own LiveCD which was developed on Ubuntu platform. Issues and challenges such as the OSS function capability, comparison of OSS and proprietary software, costing, tutors expertise, technology variety and mindset change among instructors and learners will be discussed in this paper. // Paper ID 302

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