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The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) belongs to a new generation of international organisations dedicated to cooperation in the field of education. Established in 1988, by the Commonwealth Heads of Governments to promote the use of distance education in the service of human resource development in member countries, it can claim to be the first intergovernmental institution with a specific mandate to mobilise the vast potential of open and distance learning to the needs of the educational endeavour. The Memorandum of Understanding, signed by the Heads of Government, comprehensively articulates the scope and purpose of the organisation thus:
The purpose of the Agency is to create and widen access to opportunities for learning, by promoting cooperation between universities, colleges and other educational institutions throughout the Commonwealth, making use of the potential offered by distance education and by the application of communication technologies to education. The Agency's activities aim to strengthen member countries' capacities to develop the human resources required for their economic and social development, and will give priority to those developmental needs to which Commonwealth cooperation can be applied.
It is to the credit of the Commonwealth statesmen that they were able to grasp the full implications of the trends of the times in seizing upon the opportunities held out by the distance learning paradigm. For it was since the sixties of this century that distance education attained high salience. Though in existence for nearly a century in less comprehensive forms, open and distance learning assumed the shape, size and stature with which it is presently associated only in the second half of the century, especially in the sixties. While in the West, this period was one of major thrusts in the expansion of higher education, the developing world which, just by then, got liberated from colonial fetters, needed strategies to cope with demands for educational provision for millions of their peoples. There was thus an unprecedented challenge to these societies' abilities to respond with appropriate innovations in education. While the paradigm of distance education had by then come of age, there were still instan
ces when open learning was passed over in major higher education reform. The most striking of these was the Robbins Committee's omission of distance education in its far-reaching proposals for higher education reform in Britain. The irony of this was that the British Open University itself was conceived and established hardly within five years of the Robbins Report.
The point, however, is that open and distance learning gained a place on the educational agenda across the globe over a quarter century ago. The single major cause for this is the range of opportunities that developments in communications technology made available to education. It is not so much a case of necessity being the mother of invention. Indeed, it is a case of 'invention' generating and attracting 'necessity' towards itself. Unprecedented breakthroughs in audio visual communications held out opportunities for sustained educational instruction across vast distances. Indeed, the terms 'communications technology' and 'educational technology' became synonymous. Thus, these new communication vistas changed the prospects for open learning. The earlier image of distance education imminently needed a lift up and this is exactly what technology accomplished. As the Economist wrote rather light-heartedly in a recent article, "new technologies are now dusting down distance learning's fusty image".
Strategic Objectives
It is this interface of open learning with technology that provide COL with its twin purposes: (1) widening access to education by making use of distance education, and (2) the application of communication technologies to education.
For the realisation of these purposes or goals, the organisation articulated appropriate strategic objectives. Six strategic objectives have been laid down:
- to promote the utilisation of communications and information technologies for the purpose of distance learning;
- to facilitate access to affordable, high-quality learning materials and resources in support of formal and informal education;
- to provide access to training in the adoption and use of distance learning techniques and technologies;
- to supply information and advice regarding distance learning systems, programmes and technologies, both to practitioners and developors [sic] alike;
- to work in collaboration with other institutions and groups to foster research activities in the field of distance education; and
- to work in collaboration with other institutions to develop a network for the delivery of specialised teaching in defined areas, and to foster the development of improved student support services for distance learning.
As a Commonwealth organisation, its jurisdiction extends to all parts of the Commonwealth. But the four major developing regions: African, Asian, Caribbean and Southeast Asia-Pacific—are identified as principal theatres of COL's activity. The developed countries of the Commonwealth, like Australia, Britain and Canada are involved mostly as providers of funding and expertise. To this extent, COL also belongs to the familiar genre of agencies servicing North-South cooperation. It should, however be mentioned that some countries of the South also figure prominently as donors and their contribution to the pool of expertise in open learning is significant for reasons highlighted later in the paper.
It is not difficult to appreciate the reasons for identification of either the above mentioned functions or of the specific regions. Those functions are crucial for promotion of open and distance learning, and the specified regions are precisely the areas where the further consolidation of open learning needs to be addressed.
It is not possible to envisage that COL will be capable of realising all the objectives at one go and in all places. Clearly, the understanding is that the requirements of different regions would call for appropriately varying strategies even as the operationalisation of functional priorities would change from period to period.
Thrust Areas
A brief survey of the nature and extent of COL's role will be in order. For reasons of space this can only highlight major thrusts and categories of programmes in different parts of the Commonwealth.
Communications Technologies
In the sector of communications technologies, the organisation's tasks are directed towards advising on appropriate technologies for different contexts, model building in techniques of developing electronic media materials and playing the general advocacy role. Occasional response to requests for equipment from institutions was also undertaken. But this could only be marginal as COL is not a funding agency for infrastructural development in distance education. Some significant examples of COL's promotional strategies in this sector will figure at other places in the paper.
Course Materials
On the issue of course materials, in the initial years there was the need to transfer materials developed by one institution to another and COL plays the facilitator's role both in acquiring such materials and in devising the necessary copyright and licensing modalities. Alongside this practice, the strategy of strengthening the capabilities of individual institutions to develop their own course material is pursued through funding consultancy services and workshops in countries and regions. The task of training distance education personnel constitutes a good part of its programmes. Here again a mix of methods has been used. Funding training consultancies and intensive workshop sessions using expertise both from within and outside particular regions is one component. More important is support for the establishment of comprehensive training institutions attached to apex level distance education institutions. A good example is the creation of the Staff Training and Research Institute in Distance Education (ST
RIDE) by the Indira Gandhi National Open University in India. COL has partly contributed to the process and STRIDE will not only be catering to the training needs of open learning bodies in that country but would address the region's needs too.
Continuing Education
Mention should be made of COL's commitment to continuing professional education and technical education programmes. These have since led to generation of material in areas like continuing legal education and material for upgradation of some types of professional skills. Materials on environmental education also form part of the agency's output. Concern with women's issues figure prominently. A volume on theoretical perspectives on gender development and gender bias are in the process of preparation.
In countries of South Asia with low levels of literacy, distance education is being mobilised and COL is actively involved in some of the open schools programmes. In such ventures it collaborates with other international agencies like UNESCO.
Regional and Inter-Regional Networks
Co-operative efforts through consultancies and seminars may be regarded as ad hoc-type inputs. For long range purposes, the building of networks to address national and regional needs assumes higher priority in COL's endeavours. In the educational media sector, COL has established in Delhi a Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia and replication of such set-ups in other regions is in the offing. South Asia open universities are also getting linked through an audio-conferencing system with COL providing the equipment and technical services for the installation. The organisation has also created an informal forum for the vice chancellors of the open universities of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to meet periodically to initiate and review common programmes for regional cooperation.
In the Caribbean and Pacific regions, which are characterised by configurations of island states and endemic problems relating to communication networks suitable for open learning, COL has been responsible for generating networks linking the region's countries. The existing potential in the Universities of the West Indies and the South Pacific is mobilised for this purpose. In this connection one important thrust in COL's activity should be mentioned. The promotion of distance education component in the conventional universities, thus consolidating the dual mode capabilities of institutions, goes hand in hand in with extending support to exclusively distance mode agencies like open universities. In Southern Africa, COL provided consultancy support in the planning and establishment of an open university in Tanzania and is simultaneously helping build distance education infrastructures of existing educational institutions in that region as also in West Africa. Equally noteworthy is COL's potential involvemen
t in the newly emerged multi-racial South Africa's stupendous effort in human resource development as part of its Reconstruction and Development Programme. In this context, COL was invited to participate in the International Donors Conference held recently and is actively involved in further rounds of discussions on helping with the country's open learning network.
A major innovation in cooperation through inter-regional programmes of open learning is the Rajiv Gandhi Fellowships Scheme under which COL has instituted fellowships to students from various parts of the Commonwealth to study for graduate level programmes offered by IGNOU. Conceived as a pilot programme, this scheme will further contribute to the pool of distance learning expertise through the Commonwealth.
Thus the efforts to promote international cooperation in the area of distance learning comprise a number of approaches ranging from projects in individual countries to pan-Commonwealth programmes. In this regard, COL occupies a unique place among international agencies. Not only are its efforts directed towards evolving alternative policies in its advocacy role for open learning, it also partakes the character of an executive and implementing agency insofar as it helps client institutions evolve policy agenda and also undertakes followup activities. It also differs from other Commonwealth agencies in that its mandate affords both an intensive and extensive focus on the mega field of human resource development through the distance mode. It should be remembered that most of the other Commonwealth sponsored programmes are far more limited in scope being of the nature of promoting cooperation among professional organisations. No doubt, instances like the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation, are importa
nt initiatives taken with a functional focus. The ambit of COL's concerns are wider in scope. Yet another distinct feature is that as a body involved in facilitating North-South cooperation, the context of this endeavour is such that there is far less of asymmetry in the interface of nations in the domain of open learning. The countries of the South in the Commonwealth are endowed with vast experience in open learning having passed through generations of this paradigm. The Asian region, in particular, has been the theatre where for over three decades correspondence education and open universities have grown. In all these countries the emphasis now is not confined to adopting distance education to supplement conventional formal education. The new paradigm has increasingly become the vehicle for human resource development in general. Therefore, the contribution of the South in terms of expertise, appropriate technologies in multi-media resources and human resources in open learning, is as rich and forthcoming a
s that from the developed part of the Commonwealth. Even in terms of funding COL, voluntary contribution from the developing world has not been nominal as some of these countries have been in the category of major donors.
A limitation needs to be acknowledged. Because of budgetary constraints, COL's outlays cannot but be modest in nature.
The Impact
While in one sense true, still it would be misleading, to describe the impact of COL's contribution in fostering awareness of the techniques of open learning, addressing critical sectors in the field and bringing the distance education communities together as being only catalytic in nature. For, during the six years of its existence, so far it is able to accomplish far more than what a catalytic agent does. The expectations of client institutions always tend to exceed the modest resources of an organisation of this kind. Yet considered from the stand point of it wide mandate, COL's achievements are considerable. These can best be summarised in the words of the Report of the committee which reviewed COL's progress in 1993.
"...five years ago it started from nothing to institutional terms. There were no staff, no premises, no operational plans, few precedents, no record of accomplishment and accordingly, no reputation in Education Ministries or in distance education institutions in Commonwealth countries. In short, COL started from scratch to become an organisation which has effectively supplied course material, established training programmes, provided key items of equipment in a number of countries, and established a reputation as a valuable source of technical advice.
The first two years were necessarily devoted largely to developing the infrastructure of policies, plans and people which would permit the delivery of services to clients in Commonwealth countries. This was a formidable task. In hindsight, the Agency may have raised expectations too high, and inevitably, the reality has led to disappointment on some occasions. On the other hand, COL was under great pressure to provide the expected services, and the latter part of the period under review may consequently be characterised as learning by experience.
Our review indicates that great progress has been made. After the initial planning stage, COL has delivered services which are highly valued by clients in most countries of the Commonwealth. Since the clients typically invest much more in any joint activity than does COL, their very positive responses to our inquiries, and their clear expectations for the future, are perhaps the best single indication of the current achievements of the organisation."
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