Colombia/OER

Policies Survey notes:

Colombia notes that the Ministry of Education has prepared a document with national and institutional guidelines to promote and strengthen the production and management of OER.

In Colombia, the Ministry of National Education produced a document on state-of-the-art national and international OA (2005–2010), and a document outlining open digital educational resources in Colombia.

There is a new OECD Review of Telecommunication Policy and Regulation in Colombia released in May 2014 with much information on telecommunications in Colombia and the policy environment.

Overview

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia (Spanish: República de Colombia), is a country in northwestern South America. Colombia is bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Atlantic Ocean, through the Caribbean Sea; to the north-west by Panama; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean. Colombia also shares maritime borders with Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

Colombia is the 26th largest nation in the world and the fourth largest in South America (after Brazil, Argentina, and Peru), with an area more than twice that of France. It also has the 29th largest population in the world and the second largest in South America, after Brazil. Colombia has the third largest Spanish-speaking population in the world after Mexico and Spain.

Its population is 43,600,000(2006). Colombia is the third-most populous country in Latin America, after Brazil and Mexico. Its capital is Bogota.

The Government of Colombia takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic as established in the Colombian Constitution of 1991. The Colombian government is divided into three branches of power; the executive, legislative and judicial with special control institutions and electoral institutions. The President of Colombia is the highest representative of the executive branch of government in Colombia and is also the head of state and head of government with supreme administrative authority, followed by the Vice President and the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Colombia.

Colombia's economy is fueled by abundant natural resources, a highly literate population and relatively high-valued currency. After experiencing decades of steady growth (average GDP growth exceeded 4% in the 1970-1998 period), Colombia experienced a recession in 1999 (the first full year of negative growth since 1929), and the recovery from that recession was long and painful. Colombia's economy suffers from weak domestic and foreign demand, austere government budgets, and serious internal armed conflicts.

Movement from rural to urban areas was very heavy in the mid-twentieth century, but has since tapered off. The urban population increased from 31% of the total population in 1938, to 57% in 1951 and about 70% by 1990. Currently the figure is about 77%. Thirty cities have a population of 100,000 or more. The nine eastern lowlands departments, constituting about 54% of Colombia's area, have less than 3% of the population and a density of less than one person per square kilometer (two persons per sq mi.). Colombia's total population in 2015 is projected to be more than 52 million. The country has a diverse population that reflects its colourful history and the peoples that have populated here from ancient times to the present. The historic amalgam of the different main groups forms the basics of Colombia's current demographics: European immigrants, Indigenous Natives, Africans, Asians, Middle Easterners and other recent immigrants. Many of the indigenous peoples were absorbed into the mestizo population, but the remaining 700,000 currently represent over eighty-five distinct cultures.

Further information

For further general information see Wikipedia:Colombia/OER.

Education in Colombia/OER

For a general description of education in Colombia/OER see Education:Colombia/OER.

e-learning

For a description more focussed to e-learning see E-learning:Colombia/OER.

OER Initiatives in Colombia/OER

Through EAFIT University, Colombia is participating in an international project called Oportunidad (Opportunity). Institutions from Latin America and the European Union participate in this project, which seeks to create a common ground in higher education by increasing the use of open educational resources (OERs) and practices (OEPs). Other Colombian institutions are fellow members of this project, including the following:

• Universidad del Magdalena
• Universidad Externado de Colombia
• Universidad de La Sabana
• Institucion Universitaria de Envigado
• Instituto de Tecnologías Abiertas en Educación
• Centro de Comunicación Educativa Audiovisual (CEDAL)
• Fundacion Universitaria del Area Andina
• Universidad del Quindio
• Universidad del Norte
• Universidad Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario
• Universidad Autonoma de Manizales
• Corporacion Politecnico Marco Fidel Suarez

Oportunidad started in January 2012 and ends in June 2014.

References

Reports

1. Leal Fonseca, Diego E. (2010), Open online courses in Colombia: Report of an educational and technological experiment. In Open Ed 2010 Proceedings . Barcelona: UOC, OU, BYU, http://openaccess.uoc.edu/webapps/o2/bitstream/10609/5101/6/Leal.pdf
2. OECD Review of Telecommunication Policy and Regulation in Colombia, May 2014, http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/science-and-technology/oecd-review-of-telecommunication-policy-and-regulation-in-colombia_9789264208131-en

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