Strategies for cooperation and collaboration
One of the principal features of the Internet is the concept of sharing – every web site published is an attempt in this direction to make known what is available whether for commerce or otherwise. Educational institutions offering programmes or courses of study on the web provide a wide choice to those who desire to enhance their educational qualifications. A combination of course offerings on the Web by different institutions may be the most obvious choice to the students. To provide a suitable award to the candidates who take courses on the web a certain degree of collaboration amongst the institutions would be necessary and desirable. In this, academic autonomy, which is widely touted and fiercely defended by educational institutions would have to be reconciled with the overall demands of students, and educational institutions should consciously collaborate and cooperate to benefit their student clientele in myriad ways.
Various patterns of collaboration can be envisaged. The range from individuals voluntarily sharing resources to institutionalized collaboration in course and credit sharing.
In a paper by Nick Bowskill, Steve McCarty and others titled “Cultural Sensitivity in Voluntary Virtual Professional Development Communities” published in Sept 2000 issue of IJOL, reference is made to the World Association for Online Education ( WAOE), as under:-
The WAOE is a voluntary mutually supportive virtual organisation that seeks to promote and develop a cross-cultural view of learning within virtual environments. Respect and sensitivity to difference is at the heart of the activities of WAOE in recognition of the highly distributed and optional nature of the membership. The WAOE came into being as a non-profit public benefit corporation registered in the State of California as a result of private initiative. Membership of WAOE spans five continents without being dominated by any geographical region. The WAOE is mostly a virtual association serving the needs of academics and educators concerned with turning on line education into a professional discipline. The WAOE focuses on combining dedication to online learning with social and cultural exchange.
The objectives and purposes of the WAOE explicitly promote humanistic ethics and global collaboration ( emphasis added) in online education specifically.
i) To maintain a global perspective as a world organisation, supporting multilingualism and multiculturalism in online education, preserving human rights to diversity and mutual respect despite differences, and encouraging inter cultural sensitivity and world reconciliation through intercultural communication among global citizens.
ii) To be as inclusive as possible in scope serving the aspirations of all members and working for equitable access to on line education and membership.
The reference to WAOE has been made to highlight voluntary collaboration for offering professional development courses online, with a concern for multilingualism and multiculturalism in online education. The success of the WAOE as a voluntary organisation would suggest that similar organisations with like objectives be multiplied for deeper collaboration amongst educationists for offering online courses of study, training or professional development.
Sir John Daniel in his paper titled “ Open Learning at a point of Turning” presented at the Asian Regional Conference of the ICDE, Nov. 2000 , has observed that thanks to e-learning, all universities have their potential to operate globally. He has also predicted that open universities may find themselves at the forefront of these global development as traditional universities that seek to offer a few of their programmes around the world look to open universities for help with the necessary infrastructure ( an example of institutional collaboration). “ There may also be some exciting opportunities for open universities of the world to work together in providing a world wide infrastructure and tutorial services twenty four hours a day, seven days a week”. He concludes his paper stating that open universities and open learning will have a central role in higher education in the new century. Social, economic, political and technological forces are all pulling open and distance education to the centre of the policy stage. While stating that the first duty of any university is to its students,
Sir John goes on to state “ We have a democratic educational mission to reach and enthuse an enormously diverse student population; to insist that critical, informed,reflective engagement with the human condition is not a matter for elites or professional experts alone. By urging students always to sceptical, always to ask questions and never to take things for granted, we aspire to lead them beyond information and knowledge to understanding. This understanding then illuminates their actions as they fulfil their roles in a complex democratic society.That is how we will change the world.”