Dear Colleague,

ON-LINE COURSE FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION POLICY MAKERS

Welcome to the first Online Course for Distance Education Policy Makers in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). You have been selected by your Government and Ministry of Education to participate in this course designed to enable you to develop effective policy environments for distance education, either in your country or institution. 

The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) is pleased to be able to mount such a course and contribute to the building of greater skills, knowledge and understanding on distance education policy. I am also pleased that we are working with the South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE), who has been responsible, together with other leading distance educators in the region, for the development of this course. You may also wish to note that the course is adapted from the one that COL developed for the Asian Development Bank. I am certain that the course will offer you clear perspectives, processes and skills to develop appropriate policies that are relevant to your context. 

In offering this course, COL is convinced that the design of the model, i.e. an online course together with a face-to-face workshop, will better enable policy makers to gain a working knowledge of the Internet and its potential application to distance education. The course also provides a conceptual platform to policy makers that should foster a greater understanding of the implications of different policy choices for distance education.  It is anticipated that this course will especially benefit those participants from SADC countries charged with creating and implementing appropriate policies for distance education. 

As with any professional development course, its value is based on the time, effort and involvement of the course participants. I urge you to make full use of the course, the tutors and workshop facilitators, so that you gain the maximum possible from it. 

Many other organisations have expressed an interest in using this model for professional development courses.  Your participation in the course and the evaluation thereof will be of utmost importance to COL and its partners as they adapt this model to their needs. 

I welcome your participation in this course and look forward to seeing the results in your work over the next few years. 

Yours sincerely, 

Dato Gajaraj Dhanarajan

President & CEO 

Further acknowledgements