OAsis, COL's Open Access Repository
Not a member yet
5676 research outputs found
Sort by
From Hurricanes to Pandemics: The Pivot to Online Education in the Bahamas
No full textPCF10 Sub-theme: Building Resilience // Globally, countries are addressing the unprecedented and dramatic impacts of Covid-19 pandemic on the economy, health, education and society itself. In the Bahamas, an added challenge relates to managing the recovery efforts from the major Hurricane Dorian that devastated the Abacos and Grand Bahama in Fall 2019. This paper describes the efforts of the Bahamas to enhance the workforce-ready skills necessary to address the considerable demands of companies rebuilding the hurricane-ravaged northern islands and simultaneously competing in a post-Covid-19 environment. Specifically, this paper uses as an example the community college system, the Bahamas Technical & Vocational Institute (BTVI), to illustrate advancing workforce skills on-line. In particular, BTVI used resources available through the Commonwealth of Learning including faculty training and open education resources. This COL/BTVI partnership was an instrumental component in a systematic, fact based approach to dealing with the dual impacts of the hurricane and the pandemic. Based, in part, on the faculty training BTVI initiated a series of shorter, stackable, industry certified online courses. // This presentation will describe the application of the online response to quickly address the need to pivot to a different mode of course delivery. // Paper ID 669
When Schools Shut: Child Marriage Start: Impact of Covid-19 on Education of Girl Child in Bangladesh
No full textPCF10 Sub-theme: Promoting Equity and Inclusion // More than 15.5 percent of Bangladeshi girls had been forced into wedlock below the age of 15 whereas the marriage age in Bangladesh during a pandemic. With the recent reopening of Bangladeshi schools, authorities have been alarmed by the number of girls not attending classes. In Khulna district, North of Bangladesh recorded more than 3,000 child marriages in this district. The paper will assess and estimate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the education of young girls. Some case studies will be conducted in the child marriage-prone district of Khulna. Technology is not the only solution to all problems, it needs infrastructure, access to the internet or mobile, and economic solvency to provide necessary things. Since the majority of schools have moved instruction online because of the pandemic, it is now important to give girls the tools to participate in distance learning techniques. Because thousands of girl brides in southern Bangladesh whose classroom seats have remained empty after reopening of school. // Paper ID 311
The Role of Mobile Learning in Supporting Community Health Workers’ Continuous Learning: A Case of a Village Health Teams Training APP
No full textPCF10 Sub-theme: Fostering Lifelong Learning // The purpose of this study is to assess the role of mobile learning in supporting Community Health Workers referred to as Village Health Teams in Uganda. Continuous learning with a smartphone application (App). The study aimed to objectify the concept of using Mobile learning to support CHWs’ training, which is presently considered to be irregular, and underfunded. A Mobile App prototype is used as a study tool to digitize training content on the subject of diseases, reproductive health, sanitation, and family wellbeing. The study involved 41 respondent participants categorized as CHWs, paramedical students, and Community Health Leaders. The variables for the study included the prevalence of smartphone devices, ease of Mobile App use, challenges of the existing approach to training and information delivery, App accessibility issues, and anticipated technical challenges. Despite the conspicuous challenges of mobile technology, the study findings suggest that mobile learning is a favorable alternative to support the training of CHWs. The identified advantages relate to geographic convenience, numerous mobile services, ease of access, update, storage, and sharing of content. However, imminent challenges include the availability of devices among CHWs, lack of electricity, unreliable network, and lack of internet data. Interventions by stakeholders to mitigate challenges are highlighted and mobile learning recommendations are expanded. // Paper ID 334
Commonwealth of Learning: Delivering a Common Future
No full text"Commonwealth of Learning: Delivering a Common Future", presented by Professor Asha Kanwar, COL President & CEO, at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) - Commonwealth Foreign Ministers’ Pre-CHOGM Meeting, Kigali, Rwanda on 23 June 2022
Discourses of Distance Education and Covid-19 in South Korean News between 2019 and 2021: A Topic Modeling Analysis
No full textPCF10 Sub-theme: Promoting Equity and Inclusion // This paper aims to identify dominant discourses of distance education that emerged in Korean society before, during, and after the Covid-19 outbreak in January 2019. To achieve the aim, the authors have conducted a Topic Modeling analysis of 8,865 news articles published by 54 South Korean media outlets between 2019 and 2021. As a result, five key topics and the top 10 keywords associated with each topic have been identified for 2019, 2020, and 2021, respectively—15 topics and 150 keywords in total for the three years. There have been meaningful shifts not only in the quantity of news articles published each year but also in the quality of conversations presented in those articles on distance education. This article carefully analysed and reflected both continuity and discontinuity of distance education discourses in Korean society. Based on the results, we have drawn four discussion points: a) the normality of DE discourses, b) the historicity of DE discourses, c) the maturity of DE discourses, and d) the partiality of DE discourses. Despite the specific cultural context from which the four points were drawn, the discussions offer valuable insights applicable to different cultural contexts. // Paper ID 880
Innovations for Educational Resilience: The Virtual Laboratory as Remedy for the Teaching and Conduct of Practical Work in Science Courses during Unexpected Occurrences
No full textPCF10 Sub-theme: Inspiring Innovations // This paper focuses on the important role virtual laboratories could play in the teaching and learning of practical courses in sciences during unexpected occurrences such as that witnessed during the Corona Virus (Covid-19) pandemic of 2019. Covid-19 swept all over the world and its effect was quite important to the educational system. The whole world locked down and over 100 countries, which translate to over 90% of the world student’s population, had to shut down schools. Governments of most countries and Institutions of learning had to embrace Distance Learning (DL), a method of imparting knowledge, characterised by the separation of the teacher and learner in space and/or time and other forms of eLearning platforms such as Zoom, Google Classroom, Canvas, Blackboard and Microsoft Teams as well as Google Hangouts, Cisco, WebEx and flipped classroom etc. for their populace. This was to forestall a total and imminent collapse of their educational systems. Science courses require hands on practical sessions which are of paramount importance for the understanding/internalisation of concepts and contents but this became impracticable due to the Covid-19 lockdown of schools. A remedy would be the usage of virtual laboratories, which are learning environments in which students convert their theoretical knowledge into practical knowledge by conducting experiments virtually by simulation of real laboratory environment and processes. Conclusively therefore, in the face of such emergencies, a practicable measure to be embraced by institutions, stakeholders in education and the government is the establishment of virtual laboratories, which could even become a permanent feature in the education sector post such emergency eras, especially in the developing countries of the world. // Paper ID 297
Access to ICT Infrastructure and Devices in the South Pacific
No full textPCF10 Sub-theme: Inspiring Innovations // The South Pacific region spreads over more than 30 million square kilometres of the Pacific Ocean. The region comprises more than a dozen island nations ranging from small volcanic islands to even smaller coral atolls. Population masses in the island nations vary from around 2,000 in Tokelau to a little more than 800,000 in the Republic of Fiji. Access to information and communications technologies and internet connectivity in the region is varied. This project involves the design and conduct of a desktop study into access to ICT infrastructure, connectivity and devices and their use by students and teachers in the Pacific. Outcomes of this study will enable COL to make informed decisions about what access and delivery technologies to employ in the Partnership for Open Distance and Flexible Learning project in the Pacific. The study will address issues of access to hardware, software, connectivity and skills, as well as examples of ways in which teachers, institutions or Ministries have found ways to address the challenges in low bandwidth/limited access environments, especially in the nine developing countries of the Commonwealth in the region. // Paper ID 350
English Language Teachers' Professional Competencies Enhanced through Online Gamified Learning using Classcraft
No full textPCF10 Sub-theme: Inspiring Innovations // We live in the digital century with a rapid pace of technological innovation fascinated globally with Internet being the dominating call. It has resulted in integrating technologies using online learning which has evolved in recent years. Online learning has become popular because of its potential in providing more flexible access to content and instruction at any time, and any place. In tandem with the growth of online learning in teacher training and teacher education, the focus of this research is therefore, to highlight a fully online learning mode using an online gamified learning platform (Classcraft) to enhance teachers’ proficiency. The research question addresses to design and develop an online gamified learning for English language teachers. English language teachers need a certain level of proficiency in the language to serve as models for our students and provide them with valuable language input that can help them learn. Thus, the framework conceptualises the issue of proficiency being at the forefront for English language teachers, the Roadmap and professional competencies. According to The Roadmap 2015-2025, the current requirement of a minimum CEFR Level C1 for English language teachers in Malaysia is aimed at ensuring that teachers are able to teach effectively in the language classroom. For this reason, there is a need for all English language teachers to initiate their own learning. The method employed is design and development research design. The findings have portrayed online gamified learning has enhanced teachers’ competencies using Classcraft. // Paper ID 985
Promoting Equity and Inclusion: The Dire State of Out-of-School-Children in African Commonwealth Countries
Get PDFPCF10 Sub-theme: Promoting Equity and Inclusion // As part of Commonwealth of Learning’s (COL) strategic plan from 2021 to 2027, its open schooling portfolio focuses on children/youths in need of schooling opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa. This category of children is referred to as Out-of-School-Children (OOSC), depicting children/youth excluded from education, which makes up about one-sixth of the global population of this age group. This study reports on COL's commissioned project in the African Commonwealth countries, with a special emphasis on girls to help it to better focus its efforts. The study was undertaken in two phases. Data analysis involved simple descriptive statistics and transcription of recorded interviews, the identification of themes and sub-themes and coding. Both findings were triangulated. Generally, the findings show common threads, for instance, gender inequality that pervades the data, with the female gender being at a disadvantage in most of the countries. Given the multi-layered challenge of OOSC, recommendations were made on school enrolments and persistence among primary and secondary school children, ICT-in-education, disabilities, the marginalised, teenage pregnancy, and climate change education. In collaboration with education experts, COL looks forward to developing interventions to address the matter of OOSC in member countries. // Paper ID 540
Promoting Educational Resilience through Effective Strategic Planning of Students Learning Outcomes by Educational Institutions
Get PDFPCF10 Sub-theme: Building Resilience // The paper examined the ways of promoting educational resilience through strategic planning of students learning outcomes by educational institutions management. Specifically, it investigated the extent management strategic planning operations can improve students learning outcomes, and promote educational resilience. Descriptive survey research design was used for the study, and it was carried out in National Open University of Nigeria with a population of 600 facilitators/ lectures in eight faculties. A sample of 60 lectures was purposefully selected from five faculties. A 16- items questionnaire and secondary data were used for data collection. The questionnaire was validated and trial tested to determine the reliability coefficient, which was 0.80. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the two research questions. The findings revealed that management strategic planning operations can improve students learning outcomes to a high extent, such as: the institutions’ mission, vision, aspirations and objectives, core values, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats; strategies and operational tactics; evaluation and funding streams. It was also revealed that effective strategic planning of students learning outcomes can promote educational resilience to a very high extent, such as: creating an inclusive process (collaboration); having expectation for shared responsibility, taking ownership in managing, storing and securing data, consistency in motivating and building staff capacities, and commitment to making changes in organization for better options. The study gave the importance of Strategic planning in education amidst the past Covid-19 experiences; and the limitations of strategic planning in building educational resilience, these ranges from cultural, structural, managerial values, environmental, human resource capacity, management style, to inadequate strategy formulation and implementation of plans. // Paper ID 462