01. Research & Publications

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Open Access
Academic Silver Linings in a Philippine State University Amid the Early Stages of Pandemic Cases
(2021-07-20) Toquero, Cathy Mae; Panda, Santosh
The primary role of the academe is knowledge building, however, due to the prevailing digital divide, some institutions of higher learning were not able to offer even Emergency Online Teaching (EOT) for continuous formal education during the early stages of the pandemic. This article highlights diversified ways that a state university from a developing country (Philippines) responded to the crisis to offer assistance towards the social development of the stakeholders amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Open Access
Achieving Community Development through an Agricultural Extension Programme: Technology Dissemination for Mushroom Farmers
(2021-07-20) De Silva, Nilantha; Wijeratne, Mahinda; Panda, Santosh
Mushroom production is a small-scale business unit in rural areas. The Life Long Learning for Farmers (L3F) Programme aims to enhance the socio-economic conditions for them, increasing their access to and use of knowledge and technology. This study evaluates the outcomes of the L3F Programme at the community level. Data were collected through a pre-tested questionnaire survey. The sample consisted of 30 L3F farmers. Farmers’ achievement was assessed by the Farmer Performance Index (FPI). Results indicate that mushroom farmers have scaled up their production; have improved their productivity; designed new experiments to minimise the impact of pests and diseases; focused on environmental sustainability and scientific mushroom production; and improved the quality of packaging. The mobile app Bimmal Govi, blended with Information and Communication Technology, helped them to move with the latest technological advancements. The L3F Programme has increased the standards of mushroom production, helping the farmers become promising entrepreneurs.
Open Access
Addressing the Learning Needs of Out-of-School Children and Youths through the Expansion of Open Schooling
(2020-12) Mays, Tony; Singh, Rajiv Kumar
At any one time, about 300 million children of school going age are not in school. Experience indicates that when schooling is disrupted, whether by a pandemic, a natural disaster or other reasons, not all children return to the classroom. In addition, most countries have growing numbers of young people who have not completed schooling, or not well enough to progress, and who find themselves neither in employment nor in further education and training. Open schooling can create learning opportunities for those not in school, those who left school and those who are in school but not learning effectively. // There is no single model for open schooling provision which might offer a complementary or alternative curriculum, or both. However, all models can benefit from greater use of open educational resources; open, distance and flexible methods and open educational practices. In this way it is possible to address issues of access, quality and affordability in a sustainable way. // Addressing the Learning Needs of Out-of-School Children and Youths through the Expansion of Open Schooling makes a case for open schooling to be an integral part of future-looking education systems that will be more resilient to changing contexts and needs. // The nine chapters in Part A of the book explore the need for and nature of open schooling as well as cross-cutting issues related to curriculum, open educational resources, technology enabled learning, monitoring and evaluation, finance, open and distance learning methods and open educational practices, as well as gender and policy. The first four chapters in Part B then explore open schooling practice in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Pacific. In the final chapter, the editors summarise the key issues which policy and practice need to address. // This book offers guidelines and examples that will be of use to teachers, managers, policy-makers and education leaders interested to ensure that the education system meets the needs of all children and youths.
Open Access
Agriculture MOOCs: Learnings from Five AgMOOCs
(2016) Mishra, Gaurav
IIT Kanpur and the Commonwealth of Learning delivered five agriculture based massive open online courses (MOOCs). This report provides insights on learners’ feedback on the course pedagogy and its relevance, content, convenience and ease of use of the technological medium, and overall perceptions of learners towards the delivered courses.
Open Access
An Off-the-Shelf Mobile App Portfolio for Distance Education
(2015) Abeywardena, Ishan
Mobile technology has become a near-necessity in our modern lives, be it professional, personal and social. It is then not surprising to see mobile technology play a key role in how we are educated as well. To this extent, Mobile Learning (mLearning) has gained much significance over the past few years. With the design of new pedagogies and paradigm shifts, mLearning has become a new academic discipline on its own with a focus on the use of bespoke mobile technologies such as purpose built mobile apps to achieve the set learning outcomes. However, the design, development and implementation of such bespoke technologies require a substantial investmentboth monetarily and time wise. Many Distance Education (DE) practitioners would not have this privilege in terms of delivering their courses. In contrast, there are thousands of mobile applications available for free which can be leveraged to deliver a DE course more effectively and efficiently. In this light, this brief paper introduces how these off-the-shelf applications can be systematically incorporated into each stage of the learning process. // The remaining sections of this paper will explore how DE has evolved from paper based, to plastic to virtual; the divide between digital natives and immigrants; the current mobile application landscape; and 95 free off-the-shelf mobile apps for the Android platform which could form a rich portfolio for teaching and learning in DE.
Open Access
Asian Leaders in Open and Distance Education
(2017-11) Panda, Santosh; Gaskell, Anne
The Asian distance education system is probably the largest in the world. No other continent has seen such a serious policy discourse, as well as determined efforts in its practice, as Asia, since the focus invariably has been democratisation of education, access and equity, cost of education, and socio-cultural and political legitimacy through education as empowerment. Technology, which has taken centre stage in the Asian countries today, was a major consideration for such educational endeavours and could pave the way for successful implementation of earlier correspondence education, followed by distance, online and blended learning. This continent has seen great leaders who have contributed not only to their own system of education but also to the world, especially the Commonwealth. It may not be out of place to note that Asian leaders have risen to become vice president of the COL (G. Ram Reddy), president of COL (Gajaraj Dhanarajan and Asha S. Kanwar), president of ICDE, under whom the ICCE was rechristened as ICDE (Bakhshish Singh), and president of ICDE (Tian Belawati). It has been very difficult to select leaders of distance education as profiled in this article, and the utmost attempt has been made to avoid any subjectivity or personal bias. It has been a challenge to cover the entire spectrum of Asian countries to identify leaders and despite efforts this may not have been very comprehensive due to the enormity of activity and personnel involved in Asian distance education.
Open Access
Baseline Study of Technology-Enabled Learning at the National Institute of Education, Maldives
(2023-07) Rizwan, Shuhudha; Azeema, Fathimath
This report presents the results of a baseline survey conducted at the National Institute of Education (NIE) to assess the institution’s readiness for technology-enabled learning (TEL), with the ultimate goal of creating a TEL policy and implementing it with the assistance of the Commonwealth of Learning. NIE being the mandated body for in-service teacher education, the report summarises the findings and recommendations resulting from a self-evaluation of its technological facilities and policies, and the preparedness of both teacher educators and in-service teachers to utilise technology in the context of teaching and learning at NIE.
Open Access
A Baseline Study on Technology-Enabled Learning in the Asian Commonwealth
(2015-08)
This report presents the findings of a study of technology-enabled learning in Commonwealth Asia to identify the basic mileposts in these countries’ vision and mission regarding ICT in education policies. The study looked into institutional framework and mechanisms of implementing ICT in education initiatives, including donor agencies and their contributions in this field. Online learning was a special area of focus in this study, and this included identifying institutions that offer online courses. Open educational resources (OER) and repositories are important developments in education that enhance learning choices and access to quality learning resources. This study made efforts to document OER policies and repositories in the selected eight countries. The study looked at three different issues related to human resources in ICT in education: the number of students enrolled in ICT and media-related courses as an indicator of future manpower in the field. Access to ICT in education, especially in the teaching–learning process, is dependent upon teachers. Hence, an effort has been made, although with limited success, to figure out the number of teachers needed to be trained in ICT in education.
Open Access
Baseline-Endline Report: Reaching the Unreached (RtU) through Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan
(2018-01) Ferreira, Frances; Cruz, Charisse; Smith, Kristina
This report documents the baseline–endline study by the GIRLS Inspire team’s Reaching the Unreached project to examine the implications of skills training and education for women’s and girls’ empowerment and sustainable livelihoods in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. // It is based on data collected from quarterly reports mirrored against the project outcomes, meeting reports and surveys from March 2016 to March 2017. The quarterly and meeting reports documented the activities undertaken to provide training for unreached women and girls in the selected countries. While the actual training was offered exclusively to women and girls, the reports and surveys also captured the input of men and boys in terms of their participation in various community events and as staff members of the partner organisations.
Open Access
Baseline–Endline Report: Preventing Child, Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) through Open, Distance and Technology- Based Education in Bangladesh, Mozambique, Pakistan and Tanzania
(2019-08) Smith, Kristina
This report explores the results of the Baseline-Endline study conducted throughout the project to capture its long-term impacts, and was conceptualised through the Performance Measurement Framework (PMF). Surveys were created to measure changes in attitudes and behaviours from before and after participation in the project among the women and girls, employers, community members and organisational partners. This report unpacks the results of these surveys and draws on supporting qualitative data, drawn from open-ended questions, case studies and partner reports, to highlight changes that occurred during the project.
Open Access
Benchmarking of Technology-Enabled Learning at MIER College of Education
(2024-05) Uys, Philip
This report presents the findings of the TEL benchmarking carried out at the MIER College of Education (MCE) during March -April 2024. It provides an overview of the methodology, the validated self-study report and an action plan developed by the MCE team.
Open Access
Best Practices in Open and Distance Education: Case Studies from Commonwealth Countries
(2021) Panigrahi, Manas Ranjan; Mishra, Sudarshan
The diversity of population with respect to age, qualifi cations, locality and social and economic status cannot be addressed through a single and traditional mode of education. Secondly, growing need for continuous upgradation of knowledge and skills and technological advances mean that traditional ways of organising education and learning systems need to be augmented with innovative, fl exible and technology-driven methods, so as to universalise education as a fundamental right of all people. It is well accepted that Open and Distance Learning is an indispensable part of mainstream education both in developed and developing countries due to widespread use of web-based multimedia technologies. It has become a powerful force for social and economic development. // During the last two decades, many institutions have undergone profound changes in their organisational structures, governance and modes of operation. ICT has been used in every sphere of institutional and teaching learning activities. Traditional universities are transforming themselves to dual mode universities and providing students with the best possible learning resources. More and more open universities and dual mode institutions are being established across the world.
Open Access
Best Practices of Community Radio and Sustainable Development Goals: A Handbook
(2021) Vemraju, D Rukmini
Community radios as a third tier of broadcasting in addition to commercial and public radios, cover relatively smaller geographic areas but cater to a wider range of communities of interest. The hyper local and participatory nature of content creation in community radio has great potential to reduce the gap between the content creators and listeners making communities - especially the marginalized and vulnerable – active partners in the development process. Thus, community radios are well suited for providing new and unexplored opportunities for more inclusive sustainable development. In the time of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, community radio stations (CRS) have once again proved their mettle as sources of timely and dependable information and guidance, increased their listenership, and grown in stature as a valuable community asset. Time and again, the role of community radios has been lauded in making critical public information accessible to people be it about various government provisions that they can benefit from, national campaigns on health, mobilizing people to participate in the democratic process by exercising their right to vote, or providing life and livelihood saving information in times of disasters and natural calamities. That community radios can, and do, play a vital role in engaging people in the development process is no longer in doubt, even if this is in small numbers in pockets of their immediate reach. Hence, community radios can be an integral part of the task force of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – a blueprint for achieving a better and more sustainable future for all socially, economically, and environmentally.
Open Access
Book Review: Higher Education and Open Distance Learning Trajectory in India: Reflections of an Insider
(2018-12) Pulist, S K; Gaskell, Anne
The volume provides a critique on the functionalities of the ODL system, especially the open universities, with plausible arguments, and touches upon all the crucial aspects of the system broadly. The author takes advantage of being a witness of the system as an insider, which not only lets him analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the system minutely but also to present issue-based solutions with a futuristic approach focusing on the important aspects of relevance and quality. The aspect of quality flows as an under-current throughout the discussion by the author in the volume. The arguments framed by him are convincing and bring the readers on to the same page as the author. Though some typos can be noticed in the text here and there, the effort of the author in writing down the current and future scenario of the distance higher education system in India, with a focus on larger issues confronting the system, deserves appreciation. I do hope that the book will give food for thought to all – the policy makers, the practitioners and the novice users of the ODL system, i.e., the learners at large.
Open Access
Book Review: Promoting Use and Contribution of Open Educational Resources
(2017-11) Panda, Santosh; Gaskell, Anne
The current movement toward Open Educational Resources (OER) has a long historical precedence in the open education movements including that of the provision of equality of educational opportunity, recognising, though, that two individuals, not even twins, learn the same way. This later became a more contentious issue for the designers of OER as well as the planners with regard to, respectively: how best to serve the individual learning styles of learners, and what could be the cost-efficiency of alternative learning resources, including OERs. // The above unresolved issues notwithstanding, the promise of OER (and subsequently MOOCs as a part of OER and the OER movement), starting from UNESCO’s coinage of the term and MIT’s opening up of large numbers of courses for free, and subsequent initiatives by UKOU, IGNOU, COL, EdX, Corsera, Udacity, Khan Academy and many others, has generated considerable enthusiasm in policy makers as well as academic leaders and teachers. ‘Open sharing’ has been a foundational issue for large-scale use of OER; and it is as much personal as systemic. Therefore, it is imperative that these and a multitude of dimensions need to be rigorously examined through research for its effective / productive use of OER. The now-recognised debate on adoption and use of ICT through the “dominant diffusion model of the past, and the social shaping model of the recent times” may help us appreciate how best OER can be leveraged to derive the most utility. The end-user is the key to OER theory and practice.
Open Access
Book Review: Skills Development for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth in Developing Asia-Pacific
(2016) George, Nancy
This publication is a collection of articles compiled from papers presented at a forum convened by the Asia Development Bank in Manila in December 2011. The forum brought together a diverse group of international experts, CEOs of companies and institutions engaged in skills and workforce development, and representatives of multilateral agencies, government, and the private sector to address the challenges of skills development in South Asian and Pacific countries. The targets of the publication include educators, employers and policy makers in the developing Asia-Pacific countries. Available in Open Access at http://goo.gl/7dG56F
Open Access
Building an Efficient and Effective Test Management System in an ODL Institution
(2017-07) Yusof, Safiah M; Lim, Tick M; Png, Leo; Khatab, Zainuriyah A; Singh, Harvinder K D
Open University Malaysia (OUM) is progressively moving towards implementing assessment on demand and online assessment. This move is deemed necessary for OUM to continue to be the leading provider of flexible learning. OUM serves a very large number of students each semester and these students are vastly distributed throughout the country. As the number of learners keeps growing, the task of managing and administering examinations every semester has become increasingly laborious, time consuming and costly. In trying to deal with this situation and improve the assessment processes, OUM has embarked on the development and employment of a test management system. This test management system is named OUM QBank. The initial objectives of QBank development were aimed at enabling the systematic classification and storage of test items, as well as the auto-generation of test papers based on the required criteria. However, it was later agreed that the QBank should be a more comprehensive test management system that manages not just all assessment items but also includes the features to facilitate quality control and flexibility of use. These include the functionality to perform item analyses and also online examination. This paper identifies the key elements and the important theoretical basis in ensuring the design and development of an effective and efficient system.
Open Access
Case-Based Learning Method in Learning: Is it Effective to Improve Teaching Skills of Madrasa Teachers in Indonesia?
(2024-03-23) Tambak , Syahraini; Sukenti, Desi; Panda, Santosh
This research aims to analyse whether the increasing use of case-based learning (CBL) by madrasa aliyah teachers in Indonesia improves their teaching skills in the field of education. This study employed a quasi-experimental technique and data from a CBL intervention programme to investigate how CBL is connected with teachers' hybrid teaching skill. The data was analysed using the difference-in-difference design. In general, the teaching skill of madrasa teachers is solely treated as a predictor of the practice of teaching Islamic religious education. Still, we discovered that the greater use of CBL in hybrid learning can favorably affect the teaching skill of madrasa teachers. CBL is positively associated with student involvement and teaching in learning among the madrasa teacher teaching skill subscales. However, according to our data analysis, students' favourable responses to Islamic religious education, and hybrid learning practices can moderate the link between CBL and the teaching skill of madrasa teachers. This study has significance for the CBL model's growth in strengthening the teaching skill of madrasa teachers in distance learning Islamic religious education.
Open Access
Changes in Instructional Formats: Which Learning Format is More Convenient for Postgraduate Students?
(2024-03-23) Syahbrudin, Johan; Andriyanti , Erna; Purbani, Widyastuti; Panda, Santosh
Changes in learning format between face-to-face, online, and blended learning impact learning convenience. Based on changes in learning formats, this research aims to reveal and explore information regarding the learning formats that postgraduate students feel is most convenient based on their experiences and conditions. This research used a phenomenological design to obtain comprehensive and in-depth data regarding the convenience of various learning formats and that are at the beginning of the transition between various instructional formats. Data sources were obtained from postgraduate study participants at various universities in Jawa, Indonesia, who had experienced changes in learning formats during their studies. Data was collected through direct observation and in-depth face-to-face and online interviews of 13 participants to capture real experiences and feelings. The data was then analysed using thematic qualitative analysis techniques with the help of the Atlas.Ti programme. The research results showed that all learning formats can optimise learning success if the resources are available and students are serious and focused on learning. For postgraduate students with good internet access, online learning was the most desired and convenient, both for those who were very busy and those who were just focused on studying. Ultimately, the choice of learning format should be based on carefully examining all available options to maximise their success in achieving their educational goals.
Metadata only
A Collaborative Approach to OER Policy and Guidelines Development in the Commonwealth: The Case of Botswana, Cameroon, and Sri Lanka
(2018-04) Abeywardena, Ishan S; Karunanayaka, Shironica P; Nkwenti, Michael N; Tladi, Lekopanye; McGreal, Rory; Conrad, Dianne
Access to relevant learning resources is an important aspect in ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all as outlined in the sustainable development goal 4 (SDG4). The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) has identified the development of open educational resources (OER) as a potential answer to these challenges. A total of 29 provincial/regional OER policies and guidelines were developed in Sri Lanka, Botswana, and Cameroon closely involving 608 provincial/regional policymakers from the general education system. The innovation of this project lies in the collaborative approach adopted for OER policy/guideline development where a maximum number of policymakers at the provincial/regional level have been included in the policy development process. Key applications of the approach are mass-sensitization of policymakers, identification of champions in each province or region to drive the OER agenda forward, and the development of policies/guidelines tailored to the specific needs of a particular jurisdiction. The paper will also highlight the success factors, challenges, and the follow-up activities of the project.

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