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| EXCELLENCE IN DISTANCE EDUCATION PROGRAMME |
| COL announces Award winners CONGRATULATIONS ! |
EDEP award recipients on stage at the COL Awards Banquet atthe Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning
Left to right: Ian Macdonald (COL Chairman), Afzal Mohammad(for Ram Reddy), Jenny Glennie (for Don Swift),
Ros Morpeth (for Lord Young), Irene Paulsen, Kulandai Swamy,Madeleine Wooley, Abdul Khan, MaximJean-Louis,
Mohan Menon, Tam Sheung-wai, and Gajaraj Dhanarajan (COLPresident)
The Awards Banquet took place on 4 March at the Centrepoint Hotel, Gadong, BandarSeri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam
COL Anniversary Honours: Recognising institutionalachievements
Certificates of Merit: Adelaide Institute of TAFE, Australia; Charles Sturt University, Australia; and African Medical and Research Foundation, Kenya
Within its 10th Anniversary Excellence in Distance Education Programme,The Commonwealth of Learning invited nominations for Awards acknowledging InstitutionalAchievement in Distance Education. These Awards were to recognise the achievement of up tothree Commonwealth educational institutions from the public sector in their use ofinnovative and effective applications of learning technologies to reach students who mightotherwise have been excluded from participation in education or training.
An Adjudication Committee, comprising Professor B.N. Koul, Director of DistanceEducation, Distance Education Centre (UWIDEC), University of the West Indies, Barbados,Dr. J. Colin Yerbury, Dean, Continuing Studies and Director, Centre for DistanceEducation, Simon Fraser University, Canada, and myself, reviewed applications receivedfrom Commonwealth countries in four continents and covering all education sectors frombasic education to postgraduate studies. I would like to take this opportunity to thank myfellow adjudicators and also those who made nominations and prepared submissions on behalfof their institutions. The high overall quality of these submissions strongly endorses TheCommonwealth of Learning’s confidence in the professionalism and resourcefulnessshown by distance educators in meeting the needs of disadvantaged students in all parts ofthe Commonwealth. -Patrick Guiton, Chair,Adjudication Committee
COL President’s Awards: Recognising excellent distanceeducation materials
Certificates of Merit: Grant MacEwan Community College, Alberta, Canada; and Mauritius College of the Air, Mauritius
The President’s Awards were established to recognise excellence in distanceeducation materials. The materials submitted for these awards were to be in any of thefollowing sectors: open schooling, technical/vocational, non-formal, higher education andcontinuing professional education.
An Adjudication Committee was established to make recommendations to the President ofCOL on the recipients for the awards. It was comprised of Professor M. U. Deshpande,Director, Distance Education Council, India; Ms. May Maskow, Director of Open College,CJRT-FM; and myself. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my fellow panelmembers for their hard work and the professional expertise demonstrated when serving onthe committee.
The Committee initially reviewed all submissions for completeness as outlined in theCall for Submissions brochure. The qualifying submissions were divided into twocategories, one of single courses, and the second, of sets of courses comprising aprogramme or certificate. Each entry in the two categories was then reviewed for itsexcellence with respect to the criteria as outlined.
A number of course materials which demonstrated excellence remained for considerationafter the review, so in order to take a final decision, the Committee, recognising thetheme of the Pan-Commonwealth Forum, recommended to the President that the winning entriesshould be ones which addressed the theme, Empowerment through Knowledge and Technology. -Susan Phillips, Chair, AdjudicationCommittee
COL Learning Experience Award: Recognising learners’ experiences
Distance education from the student's point of view can be an enlightening experience -one in which the rewards and satisfaction can be great if one is willing to persevere.Distance Education works - most of the time. There have been numerous research papersfocusing on the problems of isolation, motivation, and drop out rates of distanceeducation students. Tutorial support, delivery systems and teaching strategies all come tomind as areas that researchers have focused upon as being vital to the success or failureof a student's distance learning experience.
The Adjudication Committee comprised Ms. Solvig Norman, Co-ordinator of InstructionalDevelopment for the Open School, Open Learning Agency of British Columbia, Canada, Dr.Howard Van Trease, Director, University Extension, University of the South Pacific, andmyself as Chair. We were impressed with the experiences that the candidates for this awarddescribed.
We saw a general theme, that despite the problems that distance learners encounter,these candidates would be role models to others encouraging them to use distance learningas an avenue to a new career or upgrading their own skills. It is from this theme wechoose one student experience from many other worthy candidates. -DavidWalker, Chair, Adjudication Committee
Honorary Fellows of COL: Recognising individual achievements