Episode 04 was broadcast live on Saturday April 11, at 5:30pm Eastern (USA). The archived video is at the bottom of this blog post!

As this video and UNESCO data show, as of the end of March, 1.5 billion learners are now out of school. As parents and educational systems struggle to meet this challenge, one of the most challenging issues is the lack of access to quality educational resources.

We are fortunate to have one of the potential solution pieces to this puzzle with us this week. Our guests in this show represent the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and their work in developing Open Educational Resources (OER) and reports. Who is the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) you ask? Well, the COL is:

… an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Burnaby, Canada, is committed to promoting learning for sustainable development. It does this through the use of distance learning and online learning technologies. For more than 30 years, COL has used innovative approaches to open the doors of learning not just for formal education but non-formal and informal learning that is accessible, affordable and available to the last person in the queue.

COL is exactly the type of organization that is geared up to help the world; just check out their latest report, it is appropriately titled, Keeping the doors of learning open COVID-19. If you hit that link, you will find an array of high quality free and open educational resources across educational sectors from primary and secondary school to college and university level and beyond. See also COL’s statement on COVID-19. Per that report:

“With an increasing number of states, provinces and even whole countries closing institutions of learning as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, over 80% of the world’s students are not attending school (UNESCO, 2020). COL stands ready to share its expertise and resources to enable stakeholders to keep the doors of learning open for all.”

Also noted in that report:

“Since its establishment in 1987, COL has supported governments and educational institutions in the Commonwealth to establish robust distance teaching institutions and build competencies for quality online learning practices. Over the years, it has created many resources, including courses, policy briefs, how-to toolkits, as well as guidelines on online learning and related areas that are downloadable for use by policymakers, teachers and researchers around the globe.”

Indeed they have! Explore COL links below and you will quickly see how committed the organization is to providing timely and quality reports that address the needs of millions of people spanning the globe.

• COL: https://www.col.org/
• About COL: https://www.col.org/about/what-commonwealth-learning
• Member Countries: https://www.col.org/member-countries
• Tons of Reports and Free Resources: https://www.col.org/resources ***

Our guests are:

Sanjaya Mishra is Education Specialist, eLearning at the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) in Vancouver, Canada since January 2015. Previously, he served COL as Director of the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) from 2012 to 2014. Dr Mishra is one of the leading scholars in open, distance, and online learning. Prior to joining COL, he was Programme Specialist (ICT in Education, Science, and Culture) at UNESCO, Paris. Dr Mishra has over 25 years of experience in design, development, and management of open, distance and online learning programmes and he is a leading advocate of open educational resources.

Tony Mays is Education Specialist for Open Schooling at the Commonwealth of Learning. His work is to conceptualise, develop and manage the Open/Innovative Schooling initiative to promote secondary education using open, distance and technology-based approaches in accordance with COL’s Strategic Plan. He is passionate about contributing to universal access to educational opportunities by using Open Educational Resources (OER), employing Open, Distance and e-Learning (ODeL) methods and working collaboratively through Open Educational Practices (OEP). Tony is a former secondary school teacher and has been involved in teacher and school development through ODL for many years. He holds a DEd in curriculum studies from Unisa.

Frances Ferreira joined the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) as Education Specialist, Basic Education and Open Schooling in January 2007, a position she held for 9 years, after which she was appointed as the Senior Adviser, Women and Girls. Before joining COL, she had a long and successful career in the Namibian education sector. Prior to joining COL, she was the Director of the Namibian College of Open Learning (NAMCOL). As the institution’s first Chief Executive, she facilitated the strategic positioning of NAMCOL, both nationally and internationally. Outside the education sector, Ms. Ferreira has followed the political aspirations that emerged during her student years at the teacher’s training college in South Africa, where she was a student leader and 1993, she was elected as the first female mayor of Grootfontein, Namibia. Her  most significant achievements at COL to date has been her leadership of the multi-county OER4OS  initiative and the COL’s GIRLS Inspire Project.