COL's Open Schooling Initiative

Abstract

COL is helping to increase access to quality education while increasing student achievement by providing teachers in developing countries with new technologies, tools and skills. COL's Open Schooling initiatives include: • Advocacy. COL works with partners in government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and education institutions to promote Open Schooling. • Development of Open Schools. COL has helped develop policies and proposals for the establishment of open schools in Cameroon, Nigeria, Pakistan and Trinidad & Tobago. • Capacity building. COL works with partners to train educators, administrators and policymakers in the development and operation of open schools. Workshops have focused on materials development, instructional design, radio broadcasting, learner support, eLearning, management of open schools, strategic planning for open schools and quality assurance. • Fostering Collaboration. Funded by a grant from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, COL is working with educators in six countries - Botswana, India, Lesotho, Namibia, Seychelles and Trinidad & Tobago - to develop and share open educational resources (OERs) for secondary education, the professional development of teachers in the effective use of technology in classrooms and creating learner support material for teachers. • Publications. COL has published a number of handbooks and guides to support open schools • Learning materials. COL has assisted with the development of quality learning materials for open schools. • Research. "Open Schooling for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education" explores the provision of secondary level Open Schooling in India and Namibia. COL has also commissioned research into the use of mobile technologies in Africa. • Quality assurance. COL provides training in quality assurance and is developing a QA Toolkit for open schools.