lifelong learning and distance higher education - Asia Pacific Region

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through ICTs (e.g. by phone, fax and/or Internet) and/or by fixing specific tutoringtimes and places. The managing of these processes is an important element inensuring the quality of the learning experience provided. This project aims to providesupport for meeting these challenges and others related to the provision of qualitydistance higher education.BACKGROUND TO THE HEODLKB PROJECTThe Higher Education Open and Distance Learning Knowledge Base was established toprovide decision-makers and practitioners with ready access to information and tools thatwill assist them in more effective policy, planning and management of ODL in highereducation programmes.The project was established as part of UNESCO’s Cross-Cutting Theme (CCT) initiativelaunched by the Director General of UNESCO in 2001. The CCT initiative aimed atfostering intersectoral action pertaining to two cross-cutting themes of UNESCO’sMedium Term Strategy for 2001-2006: (1) the eradication of poverty, especially extremepoverty; (2) the contribution of ICTs to the development of education, science and cultureand the construction of a knowledge society. In this framework, the Director-Generalintroduced an innovative strategy of earmarking a certain amount of regular programmeresources for CCT projects. These projects were selected on the basis of a competitivebidding process at the Secretariat level, involving Headquarters and Field Offices. Theseprojects aimed to make closer linkages between strategic objectives and to test innovativeapproaches and delivery modalities in various areas. The projects were chosen throughan evaluation carried out by UNESCO’s College of Assistant Director-Generals in 2001.After an initial funding period of one UNESCO biennium (2002-2003), funding tocontinue this project has been requested and awarded twice (in 2003 and 2005) throughthe same competitive process for the 2004-2005 and 2006-2007 biennium.This project is linked to the cross-cutting theme 6 “the contribution of ICTs to thedevelopment of education and the construction of a knowledge society”. It is part ofthe main strategic thrust of UNESCO to promote empowerment and participation in theemerging knowledge society through equitable access, capacity building and sharing ofknowledge. The main strategic objective addressed by this project is that of “promotingexperimentation, innovation and the diffusion and sharing of information and bestpractices as well as policy dialogue in education” (UNESCO Medium Term Strategy2001-2007 7 ).The team for this project was established during the first bidding process cycle (2001)mentioned above. The lead unit for the project, the Division of Higher Education,working closely with the Communications Sector, contacted and initiated theestablishment of the project team. The project team members were solicited for theirexpertise in higher education and/or ICTs. As a result of these consultations, a multidisciplinaryteam, covering three UNESCO regions and with expertise in highereducation and ICTs, was established. In order to anchor the project solidly in the regionsand to act as a catalyst for international co-operation, Field partners were encouraged toinvolve regional institutions with ODL expertise in the implementation of the project.As a result of this strategy, the South Africa Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE)in Braamfontein, South Africa and the Malaysian Open University in Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia, became implementing partners in the Africa Region and the Asia and thePacific Region respectively. The Communications and Information Sector of UNESCOassured the technical development of the knowledge base. The International Institute for99
Educational Planning has been responsible for the evaluation of the project. The Divisionof Higher Education, UNESCO Education Sector has been responsible for the contentdevelopment of the knowledge base and the management of the project.In addition, contacts with COL were established to make synergies with the GlobalDistance Education Network (GDENet) project managed by COL and the World Bank.As part of the co-operation with COL, the project has incorporated the COL KnowledgeFinder tool as a search mechanism for the project. Furthermore, the HEODLKB projecthas developed a common taxonomy with the GDENet project in order to facilitate thesharing of resources between the two projects.The project team met three times since 2002 to clarify the project objectives andactivities, and to plan future activities. It also held several telephone meetings andbilateral meetings among project team members. Furthermore an external evaluator forthe project was contracted at the end of the first project phase. Project planning was basedon the evaluation of the first project phase and the monitoring and evaluation strategy ofthe second project phase. These interactions proved to be very important for clarifyingproject activities and goals, and ensuring coherence in the different regional activities.In 2002, the project carried out a needs analysis of the existing ODL decision-makingresources and priority information needs in the target regions. The results of this analysishighlighted the need for information on quality assurance of ODL that responded toregion-specific needs.The first project phase (2002-2003) identified the regional implementing partnersand clarified the role of information processing tools that could be useful to reach theproject objectives. The primary focus of the first phase of the project was the technicaldevelopment of the DST. During this first phase, the project examined existingcomputerised information resources on ODL and reviewed potential knowledgemanagement applications for policy-makers. It looked at a range of software systems thatcould be developed for supporting users in extracting, organising and managing relevantinformation on ODL. From this exercise a first prototype was developed with contentsfocusing on quality assurance of distance higher education. This tool was tested at theTraining Workshop for Policy Makers on the Open and Distance Learning and ExpertSystem (Shanghai, China, November 2003). This event was organised by UNESCOBangkok, a member of the Project Team, and hosted by the Shanghai TV University.Participants included policy-makers at the institutional and governmental level from18 countries in the Asia and Pacific Region. The participants found the prototype tooprescriptive and called for support that focused more closely on their region-specificneeds with links to the regional databases. In addition the need for user-friendliness washighlighted.An important step for the project was to make a clear distinction between the twodifferent roles of ICTs for education: (1) to support decision-making in education; (2) todeliver educational content. Once this distinction was explicitly made, the responsibilityfor the development of the DST was split between the Educational and Communicationand Information specialists.In the second phase of the project (2004-2005), the project team decided that the DSTwould be tied integrally to the regional information databases. The technical and contentaspects of the DST were completely separately in the second phase. For the technicaldevelopment, the prototype was revised taking into account the recommendationsof the Shanghai 2003 evaluation. This technical development was undertaken by theimplementing partner in the Africa Region, SAIDE. The content aspect of the DST was100
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PERSPECTIVES ONDISTANCE EDUCATIONLi
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The Commonwealth of Learning (COL)
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSIn addition to the
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These are some of the issues that a
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What are the trends and issues in l
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of policy implications relating to
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evince important differences that c
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inequitable regulations governing t
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associations and groups of countrie
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THE CONTRIBUTORChristopher McIntosh
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INTRODUCTIONIn his 1996 report to U
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Lastly, our analysis of the situati
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diploma or similar certificates of
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force of the undertaking. Here agai
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RELEVANT INTERNET SITESUNESCO Task
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Notes1. This phrasing has been used
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goals (Daniel, 1996). Lifelong lear
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eported that group activity had red
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NEW AREAS FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION:WO
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targets systematically for the use
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Rausch, A.S. (2003). A case study o
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correspondence teaching systems tha
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significant differences between syn
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In distance flexible- and blended-e
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STATE-FUNDED DUAL-MODE SYSTEMS ATUN
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Table 4.2: Fundable elements in dis
Page 53 and 54: sciences in 21 countries of the reg
Page 55 and 56: How a system is funded depends in p
Page 57 and 58: Litto, Fredric M. (2004). Digital l
Page 59 and 60: CHAPTER 5LIFELONG LEARNING IN THE A
Page 61 and 62: education, which was initiated by C
Page 63 and 64: So the virtual classroom acted as a
Page 65 and 66: In June 2002, when the course came
Page 67 and 68: RELEVANT INTERNET SITESFORCIIR proj
Page 69 and 70: 11. The approximate rate for 1€ w
Page 71 and 72: The term modern distance education
Page 73 and 74: the National Networked Consortium f
Page 75 and 76: important resource for undeveloped
Page 77 and 78: standards have been proposed for th
Page 79 and 80: The development of e-learning withi
Page 81 and 82: RELEVANT INTERNET SITESCCRTVU Onlin
Page 83 and 84: MoE (2004b) The Notice on Running N
Page 85 and 86: CHAPTER 7QUALITY ASSURANCE SURVEYOF
Page 87 and 88: (Paris, France, 28-29 June 2004) in
Page 89 and 90: Examples of elaborated QA policies:
Page 91 and 92: plans and produces its conventional
Page 93 and 94: SHTVU (China)• Teaching• Teachi
Page 95 and 96: offers its programmes to Turkish ci
Page 97 and 98: mega universities apply a set of st
Page 99 and 100: RELEVANT INTERNET SITESThe Commonwe
Page 101 and 102: 2. QA initiatives or publications b
Page 103: assurance of ODL. This DST will be
Page 107 and 108: A system of weighting of the key qu
Page 109 and 110: RELEVANT INTERNET SITESHigher Educa
Page 111 and 112: CHAPTER 9THE FINNISH VIRTUAL UNIVER
Page 113 and 114: foreign providers. In Finland, the
Page 115 and 116: to make the best use of new educati
Page 117 and 118: The foremost task for the Service U
Page 119 and 120: part of quality management. The aim
Page 121 and 122: online courses; an educational tech
Page 123 and 124: polytechnics, research institutions
Page 125 and 126: CHAPTER 10PROMOTING CROSS-BORDERREC
Page 127 and 128: The Bologna Declaration was followe
Page 129 and 130: indicators currently being used for
Page 131 and 132: the qualification resulting from th
Page 133 and 134: Table 9.1: Outline of the portfolio
Page 135 and 136: • Make sure that incoming student
Page 137 and 138: CHAPTER 11CHARTING THE EVOLUTIONOF
Page 139 and 140: Another common characteristic was t
Page 141 and 142: the current capacity of the educati
Page 143 and 144: conditions for success. Conditions
Page 145 and 146: Cultural and ethical issues in inte
Page 147 and 148: the cost and maintenance of learnin
Page 149 and 150: Research can be a useful tool for c
Page 151 and 152: REFERENCESBates, A. (1995). Technol
Page 153 and 154: Twigg, C. (2001). Quality Assurance
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y, for example, entering into partn
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and even greater steps, and the dec
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