In this episode, we discuss the challenges faced by the education system due to the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically the lack of access to quality educational resources. Our guests represent the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), an inter-governmental organization based in Canada that is committed to promoting sustainable development through distance and online learning technologies. They share their work on developing Open Educational Resources (OER) and reports that are accessible, affordable, and available to the last person in the queue. They discuss their latest report, "Keeping the doors of learning open COVID-19" which includes an array of high-quality free and open educational resources across educational sectors from primary and secondary school to college and university level and beyond. They also talk about the organization's commitment to providing timely and quality reports that address the needs of millions of people spanning the globe.

Our guests are:

Sanjaya Mishra is Education Specialist, eLearning at the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) in Vancouver, Canada since January 2015. Previously, he served COL as Director of the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) from 2012 to 2014. Dr Mishra is one of the leading scholars in open, distance, and online learning. Prior to joining COL, he was Programme Specialist (ICT in Education, Science, and Culture) at UNESCO, Paris. Dr Mishra has over 25 years of experience in design, development, and management of open, distance and online learning programmes and he is a leading advocate of open educational resources.

Tony Mays is Education Specialist for Open Schooling at the Commonwealth of Learning. His work is to conceptualise, develop and manage the Open/Innovative Schooling initiative to promote secondary education using open, distance and technology-based approaches in accordance with COL’s Strategic Plan. He is passionate about contributing to universal access to educational opportunities by using Open Educational Resources (OER), employing Open, Distance and e-Learning (ODeL) methods and working collaboratively through Open Educational Practices (OEP). Tony is a former secondary school teacher and has been involved in teacher and school development through ODL for many years. He holds a DEd in curriculum studies from Unisa.

Frances Ferreira joined the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) as Education Specialist, Basic Education and Open Schooling in January 2007, a position she held for 9 years, after which she was appointed as the Senior Adviser, Women and Girls. Before joining COL, she had a long and successful career in the Namibian education sector. Prior to joining COL, she was the Director of the Namibian College of Open Learning (NAMCOL). As the institution’s first Chief Executive, she facilitated the strategic positioning of NAMCOL, both nationally and internationally. Outside the education sector, Ms. Ferreira has followed the political aspirations that emerged during her student years at the teacher’s training college in South Africa, where she was a student leader and 1993, she was elected as the first female mayor of Grootfontein, Namibia. Her most significant achievements at COL to date has been her leadership of the multi-county OER4OS initiative and the COL’s GIRLS Inspire Project.

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