What part should international agencies and the funds they provide play in the development of distance education?

Few international agencies deal specifically with distance education. But many have embraced distance education as a means of encouraging speedy, broad-based development-including the World Bank, the UK Department for International Development, and the Canadian International Development Agency.

And recently, two development-oriented distance education agencies were established:

• Commonwealth of Learning (COL), based in Vancouver as the distance education agency for the British Commonwealth
• Consortium international francophone de formation...distance (CIFFAD), based in Bordeaux as the distance education agency for la Francophonie.

These agencies need to consider such issues as these:

• Should they be reactive or proactive?
• Should they develop and deliver programs or serve merely as facilitators?
• Should projects be government to government, government to institution, or institution to institution and funded by an agency-or should they follow some other structure?
• What part should national governments play in regulating development projects?

More on international agencies and funding

 

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