Objectives

Background

The International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE), an affiliate member of SEAMEO, and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya or the University of Catalonia (UOC) in Spain, which specializes in distance university education through innovative teaching models and the application of multimedia and interactive technologies, invited SEAMEO to develop and participate in a project entitled “Connecting Southeast Asia &Europe e-Learning Models –CAE e-LEARN”. The Project was submitted for funding by the European Commission under the EC’s EuropeAID Asia-Information Technology and Communications (ASIA IT&C) Programme for South and South-East Asia for the year 2002. It would be conducted under one of the six areas of activity called “Liaise With European IT&C Initiatives and Programmes” which supports the identification and establishment of task forces, workshops and/or other events aiming to facilitate and improve contacts, and/or the participation in, and transfer of know-how by Asian IT&C expertise to the development and implementation of existing European IT&C initiatives projects. Other partners in the Project include the ZIFF, or the Central Institute for Distance Education Research of Fern Universitaet in Hagen (University of Hagen) of Germany, the Pole Universitaire Europ้en De Montpellier et du Languedoc Roussillon of France, and the Center for Research on Information Systems and Management (CRISM) of Tilburg University of the Netherlands.

The Project will cover 5 countries in Southeast Asia: Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, and 4 European countries: Spain, France, Germany and the Netherlands. The principle SEAMEO Centres involved will be SEAMEO SEAMOLEC and SEAMEO VOCTECH, with collaboration from all SEAMEO Centres and the Secretariat acting as the regional coordinator. The budget requested from the European Commission was EURO 400,000.

Project Summary

CAE e-LEARN aims to improve the understanding of the Southeast Asian culture and systems in open and distance learning, its values and pedagogical models, as well as its IT&C systems, through European-Southeast Asian partnerships in order to provide added value to the European and Southeast Asian initiatives that are interested in offering suitable e-learning solutions for Southeast Asian countries.

The main activity, which is planned to last two years, is to establish an effective European & Southeast Asian co-operation for the development of a flexible and adaptable Virtual Learning Model based on the needs, priorities and requirements of the Southeast Asian countries involved in the project. The design of this virtual pedagogical model should be defined with the principal objective of overcoming time and space barriers in order to offer to the learning citizens, who should be the central element of this model, a real possibility to have access to a broader life-long learning possibilities needed for sustained participation in the knowledge society.

Objectives

The CAE e-LEARN project intends to be a first step of an effective collaboration between the Southeast Asian and European partners involved, aimed at a future deployment of an online learning platform for open and distance teaching and learning, capable to support all the activities of a distance teaching operator, based on the solutions/products already available in the market or owned by the project partners.

The immediate goal of this project is to contribute to the improvement of co-operation ties in the field of education between Southeast Asia and Europe by jointly reviewing the current elements of the Southeast Asian and EU open and distance learning systems and then, defining a flexible Virtual Learning Model adapted to the needs and values of the Southeast Asian countries involved. This project will open the door for further EU-SEA collaboration based on solid knowledge and analysis of the situation.

The long-term goal of the project is to promote knowledge and skills essential for SEA to participate and integrate in the digital age. In addition, it also aims to promote opportunities for SEA citizens to acquire new skills for alternative employment and career, and also to upgrade existing knowledge and skills of the existing workforce in the public sector, business sector and education circles in the area of information and communication technology. Hence, this proposal will pave the way for the development of new education and training programmes applicable to Southeast Asia environments, following an appropriate methodology and strategy to help to achieve the results expected. It will also aim at bridging the current gap between EU and Southeast Asia open and distance educational models.

More specifically the objectives are: