CCNC Funding Proposal

Community wiki page for suggestions and ideas for the project

Country/Agency

 * Lead agency: | Commonwealth of Learning. The project has a Pan Commonwealth focus, but content will be freely available for any country to use.

This request for funding is made to supplement COL's existing investment in the project. This funding proposal will cover costs required for technical multimedia development and usability testing, thus ensuring the successful completion of the project.


 * Other participating agencies are invited to add their names here

Details of the lead agency
The Commonwealth of Learning is an international 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.

Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, COL is the only official Commonwealth agency located outside Britain and is the world's only intergovernmental organisation solely concerned with the promotion and development of distance education and open learning. COL is helping to increase the capacities of developing nations to meet the demands for improved access to quality education and training.

In part due to the efforts of COL and its Commonwealth-wide network over the past sixteen years, distance education is now a part of the mainstream of education and training. It enables students to learn at the location, time and pace of their choice, for less money and with improved results. COL's goals include maximising the transfer of information, ideas, innovations and resources to support this rapid evolution of distance education.

Commonwealth Governments financially support COL on a voluntary basis. Major contributors include Canada, India, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa and the United Kingdom. You can access more information on COL [http:www.col.org/about/whatis here]

Programme/Project Title
Commonwealth Computer Navigator's Certificate

Proposal status
Draft - under development

Brief Description
The Commonwealth Computer Navigator's Certificate (CCNC) is a free content project to improve access to computer skills training especially for prospective learners who may not have the financial resources to acquire these skills using proprietary software. The course materials will be made freely available for every country of the Commonwealth to use for ICT skills training in their respective countries. The curriculum will be based on Syllabus (Version 4.0) of the European Computer Driver's License (ECDL) / International Computer Driver's License (ICDL) which is an internationally accepted competency-based curriculum.

The CCNC is unique because it will teach these skills using Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS). The course materials will be based on the Open ICDL project developed by the Go Open Source campaign in South Africa. COL will arrange an array of options for learners to be certified for the CCNC with its extensive network of education providers throughout the Commonwealth. COL's core competence in the design of distance education materials will be applied to reconfigure the materials into formats suitable for distance and eLearning delivery.

Invitation for funding partners
COL will be funding the instructional design and basic reconfiguration of the content for distance education. However we are seeking funding partners to coinvest in this project to extend the potential deliverables which will:


 * enable the development of rich multimedia to improve the quality of the learning experience
 * widen the reach of the project beyond the Commonwealth
 * support the development of a marketing strategy with supporting marketing materials
 * enable the materials to be packaged for eLearning formats using interoperability specifications
 * extend usability testing to incorporate a wider audience
 * enable support for translations and localisations
 * support a pilot offering of the course based on a train-the-trainers model
 * widen the scope of materials to cover a number of Linux distributions and FLOSS alternatives
 * fund the development of elective modules not adequately covered in the Open ICDL, for example, how to create OERs, choosing the right content license, wiki editing etc.
 * Develop quality certification procedures, including: item banks, FLOSS software to administer tests; procedures and guidelines for examination centres; inspection, certification of examiners.
 * support the development of identified FLOSS solutions that will make it easier to adapt the materials and distribute in a variety of formats. For example the Development of a FLOSS Screen Movie Authoring Tool and the capabilities to export Print versions of the study materials from a wiki environment.

Background on the importance of ICT skills
COL believes in the social inclusion and participation of all people in our networked society (Access to ICTs is a fundamental right of knowledge citizens - not an excuse for using old technologies). We also believe in the freedoms of all learners to learn with the technologies and contents of their choice.

The lack of ICT skills should not be a barrier to participating in the global knowledge economy. COL recognises the quality of proprietary software and the wide range of training initiatives supporting these software tools. The CCNC will further widen the options available and allow learners to acquire ICT skills in the tools of their choice.

The Global Software Piracy Study reports that 35% of packaged software installed on personal computers worldwide is illegal, with high concentrations in developing countries. The CCNC aims to provide a high quality alternative for people to acquire ICT skills without being tempted into the illegal use of pirate software for lack of funds.

COLs expertise in distance education methods will add value to the existing Open ICDL materials. This will create more opportunities for all people to acquire the prerequisite ICT skills for participation in the information society, thereby throwing a wide bridge across the digital divide.

Design of the programme/project
This is an international project which will cover the major regions of the Commonwealth including Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific with a special emphasis on small states. The project will use a consultative model using tried and tested wiki technology (see for example Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia) for the collaborative authoring of content based on a consensus model.

The curriculum will be based on the Syllabus V4.0 of the European Computer Drivers License (ECDL)/ International Computer Drivers License (ICDL).

Selected tertiary education institutions will be invited to participate as Module coordinator's for reconfiguring the materials into distance education and eLearning formats. These institutions are required to institute procedures to approve the certificate programme in accordance with local accreditation requirements. Other oranisations and communities with demonstrated experience in key aspects of the development will also be invited to participate. Project management of this distributed development will be coordinated by COL using web-based project management tools. COL will provide the hosting of the wiki environment for the authoring of the content. A pilot offering of the course using a train the trainers approach is planned. The final static version of the content will be made available for free access on a COL server. The dynamic wiki version will be avaiable for ongoing modifications and refinements. COL will also package the materials in a format suitable for delivery in most learning management systems.

There are multiple roles required in this development including:


 * Learning designers
 * Content experts
 * Graphic designers
 * IT specialists
 * Editors
 * Translators
 * Content reviewers.

Using this professional course-team approach will result in high quality learning materials.

Importance to Country / Region
ICT skills development is a universal challenge for the Commonwealth, subsequently Module coordinators for the reconfiguration and development of the materials will be selected from all the regions of the Commonwealth, namely:


 * Asia
 * Europe
 * Pacific
 * Caribbean

We are also exploring the potential to secure funding for participation of countries outside the Commonwealth framework, for example:


 * South America
 * North America

Potential Partners

 * Commonwealth education providers who will offer the CCNC for certification
 * Education providers outside the Commonwealth
 * Existing support communities of the FLOSS technologies used for teaching ICT skills in the CCNC
 * Secondary schools who teach IT skills
 * Technology partners for the development of multimedia components

Funding partners

 * to be listed here

Anticipated outputs and outcomes
Assuming adequate financial support from cofunders, the project will deliver the following:


 * 1) Course materials for the CCNC in distance education and eLearning formats that can be used by any training  and/or education institution in the world.
 * 2) Web-based multimedia to support the teaching of the materials, for example Screen Movies, Short Video inserts etc.
 * 3) Materials packaged in a format to facilitate delivery in IMS/SCORM compliant LMSs
 * 4) At least 7 institutions arround the Commowealth who agree to offer the Certificate during foundation phase of the project. However, the CCNC is open for any institution around the world to participate and we welcome additional members to join the initiative.
 * 5) Promotional materials for the CCNC
 * 6) Wide access to ICT skills training at both secondary and tertiary levels
 * 7) Notable increases in the levels of ICT skills in all countries.

Risk assessment

 * Wiki software not reliable or scalable: Very low risk. COL will be using Mediawiki software, the same software used by Wikipedia. Mediawiki is based on well-tested open source components that operate in a high traffic environment (up to 15,000 page requests per second as of September 2006 on the Wikimedia service network)
 * Curriculum relevance: Very low risk. The CCNC is based on the Syllabus V4.0 of the ECDL/ICDL which is an internationally reconised curriculm.
 * Limited alternatives for certification: Low risk. Institutions invited by COL to participate in the development of the CCNC are required to approve the Certificate programme in accordance with local accreditation requirements. Instutions teaching the certificate could consider becoming official examining agencies of the ECDL/ICDL.
 * Prospective students not aware of the existence of FLOSS office software: Medium risk, Notwithstanding the reliability and effeciency of FLOSS tools, prospective students may not be aware of free software tools. This risk will be managed through the development of promotional materials. They will be developed under a CC-BY-SA license and made available in electronic formats for use free use by providers of the CCNC.
 * Countries with unrealiable Internet connectivity may not have access to the software: Medium risk. A digital image of the required software tools will be made available for duplication on CDROM.
 * Local technical support for FLOSS tools: Low risk there are active support communities for all the software that will be used in the CCNC, and all participants will be able to interact with these communities for technical support. Moreover, the course is designed for desktop users, which have lower support requirements than large server-based installations.

Budget line items
Breakdown:

Schedule and Milestones
Project duration: 46 Weeks

Alignment with National Strategies
The project is well aligned with the majority of national strategies associated with ICTs for development in the Commonwealth.

Priority
This is a high priority project for the Commonwealth as ICT skills are a major barrier to participation in the knowledge society.

Long term sustainability
The project is scalable and has been purposefully designed for sustainability.


 * The open content approach removes traditional barriers that limit ongoing reuse and adaptation of the resource to changing needs
 * The inclusion of the share-alike requirement in the Creative Commons license will promote an exponential return on investment as the resource will always open for utilisation in a wide variety of contexts
 * The project will be developed in a way to facilitate localisations in different languages thus promoting psychological ownership in local contexts

Future prospects
The sustainability of the project is closely linked with the potential to add significant value to the core CCNC. COL will actively pursue additional funding from the international community to extend the potential deliverables which will:
 * widen the reach of the project beyond the Commonwealth
 * extend usability testing to incorporate a wider audience
 * enable support for translations and localisations
 * support a pilot offering of the course based on a train-the-trainers model
 * widen the scope of materials to cover a number of Linux distributions and FLOSS alternatives
 * fund the development of elective modules not adequately covered in the Open ICDL, for example, how to create OERs, choosing the right content license, wiki editing etc.
 * Develop quality certification procedures, including: item banks, FLOSS software to administer tests; procedures and guidelines for examination centres; inspection, certification of examiners.
 * support the development of identified FLOSS solutions that will make it easier to adapt the materials and distribute in a variety of formats. For example the Development of a FLOSS Screen Movie Authoring Tool and the capabilities to export Print versions of the study materials from a wiki environment.