01. Research & Publications

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Open Access
Access and Affordability in Higher Education (Pre-print)
(2018-06) Kanwar, Asha; Mishra, Sanjaya
The demand for Higher education continues to rise. A key driver of this demand, according to a recent World Bank working paper, is the steady return on investment. The average rate of return on investment for private and social costs is estimated at 15.8% and 10.5% respectively. The returns are higher in lower-income countries relative to higher-income countries (Psacharopoulos & Patrinos, 2018). A study from the London School of Economics revealed that doubling the number of universities is associated with over 4% higher GDP per capita in a region (Valero & Reenen, 2016). The estimated global enrolment in tertiary education is expected to rise to 262 million by 2025 (Maslen, 2012) and 522 million by 2035 (Calderon, 2012). In real terms it means that if we are to accommodate the children who will reach enrolment age between now and 2025, we will need to build four new universities with a capacity of 30,000, every single week. // This item is published as "Staying Ahead: Open Learning in the Commonwealth" in the ACU Bulletin, no. 194, August 2018, pages 22-23 .
Open Access
Administrative Structures for Distance Education
(1991) Perraton, Hilary
The purpose of this book is to help anyone considering the use of distance education and trying to decide how it should be organised. The acclaimed success of the world's 25+ open universities gives the impression that learning at a distance demands the establishment of an open university. But, in practice, there are many different ways in which governments, universities, or private bodies can teach students at a distance. The book explores and compares the options that may be possible.
Open Access
Advanced Cybersecurity Training for Teachers (ACTT) 2
(2021-09) Commonwealth of Learning
The shift to online learning and teaching has drawn increasing attention to the cyber risks likely to be faced in a learning institution. In recent times, cybercriminals have disrupted learning using various attacks, including ransomware, Zoombombing, denial of service, and data theft. It is, therefore, crucial for educators to be cognisant of these threats and be equipped to defend against them. The Advanced Cybersecurity Training for Teachers (ACTT) course is designed to provide teachers, teacher educators and education practitioners with superior knowledge necessary to protect themselves and their students online, as well as create awareness for parents and other stakeholders in digital learning. The course enables participants to proactively protect the digital spaces they use to engage with learners and also adopt good practice for a safe and effective online learning experience.
Open Access
Advanced Cybersecurity Training for Teachers (ACTT) 3
(2022-12) Commonwealth of Learning (COL)
Brochure for Advanced Cybersecurity Training for Teachers (ACTT) 3 // The shift to online learning and teaching has drawn increasing attention to the cyber risks likely to be faced in a learning institution. In recent times, cybercriminals have disrupted learning using various attacks, including ransomware, Zoombombing, denial of service, and data theft. It is, therefore, crucial for educators to be cognisant of these threats and be equipped to defend against them. The Advanced Cybersecurity Training for Teachers (ACTT) course is designed to provide teachers, teacher educators and education practitioners with superior knowledge necessary to protect themselves and their students online, as well as create awareness for parents and other stakeholders in digital learning. The course enables participants to proactively protect the digital spaces they use to engage with learners and also adopt good practice for a safe and effective online learning experience.
Open Access
Advanced ICT Skills Development Project
(2019-08) Commonwealth of Learning
With 60 per cent of the Commonwealth’s population under 30 years of age, the skilling of youth is a top priority for governments. The Commonwealth of Learning’s (COL) current focus includes course and programme development for information and communication technologies (ICT) and media skills that lead to employability and livelihoods. The Advanced ICT Skills Development project aims to reach 30,000 learners (of whom at least 50 per cent are to be women) through 60 innovative courses developed in partner institutions as open educational resources (OER).
Open Access
Advanced Mobile Learning with Multimedia (AMLM)
(2021-10) Commonwealth of Learning
The Advanced Mobile Learning with Multimedia MOOC builds upon the introductory Mobile Learning with Multimedia MOOC. It targets primary and secondary school teachers as well as other practitioners in education and is designed to provide advanced knowledge in authoring multimedia based OER learning materials. // Participants will gain practical skills in creating infographics, synchronous and asynchronous video-based learning resources, creating accessible multimedia, as well as identify the opportunities presented by Augmented and Virtual Reality. // The key focus is for the teachers to gain familiarity with and choose from a wide range of tools and resources to apply in their different contexts, for effective teaching and learning.
Open Access
Benchmarking Toolkit for Technology-Enabled Learning
(2019-08) Sankey, Michael; Mishra, Sanjaya
This toolkit helps educational institutions implementing TEL to assess and benchmark their practices in comparison to other institutions. It provides a framework for self-assessment and reporting based on 10 areas and detailed indicators to measure quality.
Open Access
Blending Innovative Pedagogy and Technology for Capacity Development of Educators during the Pandemic
(2023-03-20) Karunanayaka, Shironica Priyanthi; Panda, Santosh
The increased use of digital learning environments augments the adoption of open practices in education which contributes to SDG4. The Covid-19 pandemic has compelled an accelerated move towards technology-enhanced learning, prompting educators to re-think and re-design learning environments grounded in innovative pedagogy and technology. In the current scenario it is imperative that educators are offered capacity development opportunities to meaningfully engage in digital and open practices. This paper presents a case study of an online capacity development intervention in OER-integrated technology-enhanced learning (TEL) material creation, implemented with a group of 15 educators selected using the purposive sampling method. It focused on the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of OER-integrated TEL materials by the educators. The intervention comprised a carefully designed learning experience with intensive hands-on activities in a Moodle online learning environment, supplemented with a series of ZOOM-based interactive workshops. The study explored the design strategies that enhanced the creation of OER-integrated TEL materials by the educators, challenges encountered by them and how those were managed, and the effects of the intervention on changing their thinking and practices. Multiple data gathering occurred via questionnaires, discussion forums, reflective journals, and focus group interviews. Primarily, an in-depth content analysis of the qualitative data gathered was conducted. The findings revealed that the systematic learning experience design, which adopted a ‘learning by designing’ approach harnessing the affordances of both technology and pedagogy, empowered educators to become active creators of OER-integrated TEL materials and to take leadership in integrating digital and open practices into teaching-learning processes.
Open Access
A Blueprint and Toolkit for School-Based Teacher Development: Secondary
(2019-08) Moon, Bob; Minay, Rachel
Developed by Bob Moon, this Blueprint and Toolkit provides the guidance and supporting resources for a programme of around 12–15 weeks’ duration and includes a detailed framework that can be adapted to the context of a particular country, region, district or school. It targets institutions wishing to implement school-based teacher development (SBTD) more rigorously to improve the performance of schools and raise the achievement of children and young people. The resource is available as OER and is, therefore, accessible to policy makers and other implementers of teacher development systems.
Open Access
Book Review: Essential Skills for Highly Successful Youths
(2020-03-20) West, Paul
This is a book written for young people who are about to leave school and enter the world of tertiary education, an internship or work. It provides many useful lessons from a variety of sources. The author has reached into her personal experiences and attempted to provide young people with an encyclopaedia of useful how-to information.
Open Access
Book Review: Guide to Blended Learning by M. Cleveland-Innes with D. Wilton
(2019-07) Ferreira-Meyers, Karen
This compact yet complete Guide to Blended Learning is a welcome addition to the arsenal of useful resources published every year by the Commonwealth of Learning. Eight chapters, a reference list and two appendices (one is entitled Community of Inquiry Blended Learning Evaluation and the second one is COL's Blended Learning Design Template) open up the world of blended learning to both newcomers in the field, researchers and other private and public stakeholders such as teachers and lecturers who have already been implementing blended learning in their respective professional fields (first and foremost in the field of teaching and learning), but want to improve their skills.
Open Access
Book Review: Guidelines on Open and Distance Learning for Youth and Adult Literacy
(2022-07-19) Beukes-Amiss, Catherine Margaret; Panda, Santosh
The publication highlights the progression of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) for youth and adult learners as an alternative to traditional education delivery, reinforcing the importance of change, and updating and reimagining existing practices taking cognisance of the context and needs of youth and adult learners, especially after the significant disruptions of COVID-19 on the education system. It further elaborates on the existing literature regarding adult literacy programmes and educational provision employing ODL, but asserts that “no specific guidelines for planning, designing, developing, implementing and evaluating youth and adult literacy programmes using ODL have been published to date” (p. 2). It is estimated that 773 million youth and adults, the majority being women, lack literacy skills, which are fundamental for growth. The recommendations contained within these guidelines are critical for institutions and literacy training providers, focus on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through socio-economic transformation and ensure the right to education. The aim of this book in the form of guidelines is to “offer an introduction to and guidance on the design of ODL programmes for youth and adults who lack basic literacy and numeracy skills” (p. 3), featuring issues that youth and adult learners face. The book is organised into, two key parts: Part 1 focuses on the four key steps for planning and implementing ODL programmes for youth and adult literacy, and Part 2 focuses on media and technologies for literacy.
Open Access
Book Review: Handbook of Distance Education
(2019-11-19) Neal, Terry
The self-identified purpose of the Handbook of Distance Education, (4th ed.) is the same as that of the three earlier editions, i.e., to provide access to a broad selection of the scholarly and research literature, organized in a way that will enable students and practitioners to identify sources relevant to their particular needs, as the first step leading to their personal, in-depth, follow-up literature research. The first edition was produced in 2003 and this fourth edition was produced six years after the third edition. Readers of earlier editions will note a similar thematic structure, but in this edition the sections on learning and teaching have been combined. In many chapters, authors reference earlier versions, briefly summarising how they have built upon the previous work to include more recent research, and in some cases referring readers to specific aspects of previous reviews which they do not repeat.
Open Access
Book Review: Transforming Universities with Digital Distance Education: The Future of Formal Learning
(2020-11-20) Olcott Jr, Don; Panda, Santosh
"Transforming universities with digital distance education: The future of formal learning" arrives at a timely demarcation point to consider the future for digital universities. The author provides an insightful and occasionally provocative analysis of how universities might reframe what they do, how they do it, and most importantly how they can best serve students using digital distance education in both traditional higher education and vocational and technical education.
Open Access
Boys' Underperformance in Education: Revisiting the Issue in the Commonwealth
(2017-11) Jha, Jyotsna; Menon, Niveditha; Chatterjee, Debanita; Cameron, Lesley
Every child, regardless of gender, has the right to an education that offers not only academic learning but also training in the skills they will need to be successful in their particular environment. However, as recent statistics indicate, a significant percentage of children are still unable to access good quality education and so are denied its associated benefits. While a majority of these children are girls, concerns about boys’ underperformance in schools have also been raised. This report follows up on a 2006 report that addressed the factors that are crucial to understanding boys’ underperformance in Commonwealth countries (Jha & Kelleher, 2006), and aims to: document the changes in participation and performance of boys in Commonwealth countries since 2006, examine factors that continue to contribute to boys’ underperformance, and summarise lessons learned from various interventions in different countries during the past ten years.
Open Access
Can e-Authentication Raise the Confidence of Both Students and Teachers in Qualifications Granted Through the e-Assessment Process?
(2020-03-20) Whitelock, Denise; Edwards, Chris; Okada, Alexandra
The EU-funded TeSLA project - Adaptive Trust-based e-Assessment System for Learning (http://tesla-project.eu) has developed a suite of instruments for e-Authentication. These include face recognition, voice recognition, keystroke dynamics, forensic analysis and plagiarism detection were designed for integration within a university's virtual learning environment. These tools were trialed across the seven partner institutions: 4,058 participating students, including 330 Students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND); 54 teaching staff. // This paper describes the findings of this large-scale study where over 50% of students gave a positive response to the use of these tools. In addition, over 70% agreed that these tools were 'to ensure that my examination results are trusted' and 'to prove that my essay is my own original work'. Teaching staff also reported positive experiences of TeSLA: the figure reaching 100% in one institution. We show there is evidence that a suite of e-authentication tools such as TeSLA can potentially be acceptable to students and staff and be used to increase trust in online assessment. Also, that whilst not yet perfected for SEND students it can still enrich their experience of assessment. We find that care is needed when introducing such technologies to ensure the building of the layers of trust required for their successful adoption.
Open Access
Challenges, Opportunities and Worries – the Responsible Use of Generative AI
(2023-06) Commonwealth of Learning (COL)
Promotional brochure for COL Online Panel Discussion on "Challenges, Opportunities and Worries – the Responsible Use of Generative AI."
Open Access
ChatGPT: Implications for Teaching and Teacher Training
(2023-06) Commonwealth of Learning (COL)
Promotional brochure for a webinar on "ChatGPT: Implications for Teaching and Teacher Training."
Open Access
COL Website Accessibilities
(2022-09) Commonwealth of Learning (COL)
Promotional brochure describing assistive technologies on COL's website and various online services.
Open Access
COL-Coursera Workforce Recovery Programme
(2020) Commonwealth of Learning
Recognising the catastrophic effects of COVID-19 on millions of people who have become unemployed, or are on the verge of losing their jobs, Coursera, one of the world’s leading eLearning providers, has recently announced the Coursera Workforce Recovery Initiative as an immediate solution to these challenges. As an intergovernmental organisation committed to improving livelihood conditions of people across the Commonwealth, COL has entered into this partnership to make a difference to the lives of thousands of people whose immediate need is to acquire skills for regaining employment.