| Venue:- Le Meridien Kochi, India |
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| Official Conference Manager |
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Introduction to COL
Learning for Development:
The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) is an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning/distance education knowledge, resources and technologies. COL is helping developing nations improve access to quality education and training. Through its own resources and its extensive network, the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) provides a wealth of services and collaborative opportunities for policy makers, institutions and distance education practitioners to encourage the development of, and help enhance, the use of open and distance learning (ODL) policies, systems and applications.
COL's mission focuses on helping Commonwealth member states to use technology as a means of increasing the scope, scale, quality and impact of their education and training systems. The application of technology through ODL techniques has shown its power and value in many countries and for many purposes.
The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of more than 50 independent sovereign states, which provide support to each other, and work together toward international goals. The Commonwealth is described as a "family" of nations, originally linked together in the British Empire, and now building on their common heritage in language, culture and education, which enables them to work together in an atmosphere of greater trust and understanding than generally prevails among nations. Bringing together some 1.7 billion people of many faiths, races, languages, traditions and levels of economic development, the Commonwealth represents almost one-third of the world's population.
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)
The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), established by an Act of Parliament in 1985, is the national resource centre for Open and Distance Learning with international recognition and presence, provides seamless access to sustainable and learner-centric quality education, skill up gradation and training to all by using innovative technologies and methodologies, ensuring convergence of existing systems for massive human resource required for promoting integrated national development and global understanding. IGNOU has emerged as the largest mega university in the democratic world.
The University's Act states that, the University shall:
impart education and knowledge through various means suited to the Open and Distance Education Mode.
provide not only higher education to large sections of the population, but particularly disadvantaged segments of society.
encourage, coordinate and assist Open Universities and Distance Education systems while determining standards in such systems in the country.
provide national integration and strengthen the natural and human resources of the country through the medium of education.
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