Academic literature on the topic 'Public open on-line courses'

The investigation of corporate crimes is a key course in public security colleges, which has high application, sociality, practicality and theory. With the rapid development of modern information technology, “Internet + education” has become the main direction of undergraduate teaching reform. It is extremely important to combine massive open online course with the teaching of corporate crime investigation. On the premise of expanding college students' professional knowledge and subject knowledge, general education can shape students' thinking paradigm in line with socialist core values and ensure students to develop scientific three views. Taking the general course “Investigation of Corporate Crime Cases” in public security colleges as an example, this paper discusses the necessity, problems and relevant countermeasures of integrating ideological and political elements into the online teaching of general education courses, and provides reference for the design and practice of ideological and political courses in the online teaching of general education courses.

The analysis platforms massive public online courses (MOOC), identified the advantages and disadvantages MOOC. We propose a way of further development and improvement of MOOC. The role of educational and scientific films in MOOC. A model scheme of the system on-line education with the use of mass open online courses, the implementation of which it is possible to eliminate the inherent disadvantages of massive online courses: a low level of socialization and personal contact students and faculty, low student motivation and excessive fragmentation, fragmented, unsystematic nature of learning within one specialty. The role of educational trajectories in the construction of distance education programs and MOOC in particular. The methods of construction of educational trajectories based on individual characteristics and wishes of the student have been proposed. Attention is given to promising areas: mind-fitness and gamefication. Formulate rules for building online educational systems with MOOC. The basic rules for writing an instructional video and the system as a response to the authors of the course, and for students to be able to improve the video course have been formulated.

Introduction Informatics applied to health sciences has brought cutting-edge solutions to healthcare problems. However, the number of health professionals trained in "Health Informatics" is low. Virtual education, such as massive online open courses, provide the opportunity for training in this field. Objective To estimate the global offer of massive online open biomedical informatics courses and characterize their content. Methods A search for massive online open courses was conducted throughout December 2021 on 25 platforms offering these courses. The search strategy included the terms “health informatics” and “biomedical informatics”. The application areas of biomedical informatics, platform, institution, duration, time required per week, language, and subtitles available for each course were evaluated. Data were analyzed descriptively, reporting absolute and relative frequencies. Results Our search strategy identified 1333 massive online open courses. Of these, only 79 were related to health informatics. Most of these courses (n = 44; 55.7%) were offered through Coursera. More than half (n = 55; 69.6%) were conducted by U.S. institutions in english (n = 76; 96.2%). Most courses focused on areas of translational bioinformatics (n = 27; 34.2%), followed by public health informatics (n = 23; 29.1%), and clinical research informatics (n = 13, 16.5%). Conclusions We found a significant supply of massive online open courses on health informatics. These courses favor the training of more professionals worldwide, mostly addressing competencies to apply informatics in clinical practice, public health, and health research.

Open Online Courses (OOCs) are offered by Peoples-uni at http://ooc.peoples-uni.org to complement the courses run on a separate site for academic credit at http://courses.peoples-uni.org. They provide a wide range of online learning resources beyond those usually found in credit bearing Public Health courses. They are self-paced, and students can enrol themselves at any time and utilise Open Educational Resources free of copyright restrictions. In the two years that courses have been running, 1174 students from 100 countries have registered and among the 1597 enrollments in 15 courses, 15% gained a certificate of completion. Easily accessible and appealing to a wide geographical and professional audience, OOCs have the potential to play a part in establishing global Public Health capacity building programmes.

Open Online Courses (OOCs) are offered by Peoples-uni at http://ooc.peoples-uni.org to complement the courses run on a separate site for academic credit at http://courses.peoples-uni.org. They provide a wide range of online learning resources beyond those usually found in credit bearing Public Health courses. They are self-paced, and students can enrol themselves at any time and utilise Open Educational Resources free of copyright restrictions. In the two years that courses have been running, 1174 students from 100 countries have registered and among the 1597 enrolments in 14 courses, 15% gained a certificate of completion. Easily accessible and appealing to a wide geographical and professional audience, OOCs have the potential to play a part in establishing global Public Health capacity building programmes.

ABSTRACTThis article describes a variant of experiential course design—open inquiry—that has learning-how-to-learn (or metacognition about learning) as a primary course goal. In open-inquiry designs, students first choose the problems that they will study during the course. They then co-create each class period as the semester progresses. They recognize deficiencies in their own content knowledge, skills, and learning processes and take actions to remedy them. By reflecting on their successes and failures, students practice the skill of self-directed learning. This process of metacognitive reflection is a crucial skill that they will need when they face novel problems after graduation. In open-inquiry courses, students have produced high-quality work by learning about substantive policy areas that they choose to study, developing the policy skills that they deem important, and growing in their understanding about how they learn effectively.

The article examines the developers of courses on Ukrainian platforms of mass open online courses Prometheus, EdEra, Open University of Maidan, their quantitative analysis in various thematic areas. It is noted that education remains the main way to acquire new knowledge and form the necessary competencies. The main advantages of open educational resources, their classification, the reasons for the growing popularity in modern society are highlighted. It was found that mass open online courses are a logical continuation of distance learning courses, have their differences and features. However, some problematic issues related to the promotion of mass open online courses that need to be addressed are considered. An analysis of the number of online courses on Ukrainian-language platforms and their thematic areas. As of March 2020, there are 235 online courses on all considered platforms. The same topics for all platforms were law, training, education, media, economics, health. It was found that the most active developers of online courses on the platform of the Open University of Maidan were public and charitable organizations. Educational online platforms and international organizations are most actively involved in the creation of online courses on the EdEra resource. On the Prometheus platform, the largest number of courses was created at the initiative of international organizations, institutions of higher and secondary education

As colleges and universities have adopted course management software such as Blackboard and WebCT, more and more history faculty have added on-line discussion components to their face-to-face classes. There are many reasons for this, not least a perceived need, expressed by many administrators and legislators, for more flexible class schedules, and a desire to fulfill that need by replacing traditional contact hours with hybrid and on-line courses. Some faculty have turned to weblogs, or "blogs," as alternate locations for collaborative classroom assignments. On-line formats can offer rewards, but they also present challenges for both students and faculty. For example, some institutions require that blog assignments be placed on private or password protected domains in order to protect student privacy, whether or not the assignment is deemed to fall under the broader umbrella of FERPA regulation. Others regard blogs as a sort of presentation open to the public, where students learn to write for audiences beyond the classroom. There are advantages to both approaches and ultimately the decision rests in the hands of the institution. Apart from technical and legal issues, using any sort of on-line discussion requires different pedagogical strategies, some of which are addressed below. Despite these challenges, blogging offers ways to engage students and to access and incorporate different media into student presentations that require the same levels of academic rigor as traditional printed and oral presentations.

In this case study, I present an interpretive exploration of five open participants' learning experiences in a massive open online course (MOOC), which was offered by a higher education institute in the United States as a general education course in research writing. There were two types of enrolment in the course: formal (students who enrolled in the course for credit, six sections) and informal (open participants). Open participants had access to the public activities of the learning community, but they did not receive any academic certification, evaluation, or grading from the instructors. Blogging was central to all educational activity in the course. Learners and instructors openly blogged during the course and beyond in response to the class assignments and on other areas of interest. In this study, participant blogs are conceptualized as social spaces created by a multitude of interactions (e.g., with content, instructors, other learners, the imagined audience). These spaces were a starting point for the researcher to examine five open participants’ learning activities in the course. Primary data collection methods included interviews, participant observations, and document and artefact analysis. Thematic analysis of data illustrates how open participants participated in the course in multifaceted and unique ways and created third spaces of learning— spaces where the scripts of formal and informal learning intersect and create opportunities for learning to occur in emergent ways (Cronin, 2014; Gutierrez, Rymes, & Larson, 1995). I present two typologies that point to the self-directed and emergent nature of open participation within those spaces: (1) open participants created unique course histories through their blogs, (2) open participants did not follow the formal learning path. These findings suggest that the traditional markers of success in formal education (e.g., sustained engagement, course completion, directly measurable outcome) might be insufficient to frame participants’ involvement in open online courses. The diversity in learner goals and roles calls for a need to shift the focus of open online courses from the end product to the learning process and challenges formal narratives of success and failure in open online courses.

Artikel ini menjelaskan hasil penelitian tentang pengembangan rancangan pembelajaran dalam Massive Open and Online Courses (MOOCs) Public Speaking. Penelitian ini dilatarbelakangi oleh hasil evaluasi yang menunjukan bahwa MOOCs Public Speaking dinilai belum optimal dari sisi rancangan pembelajaran program, materi pembelajarannya, hingga tes kompetensi. Hasil penelitian digunakan untuk menyempurnakan program MOOCs Public Speaking yang telah dikembangkan oleh Universitas Terbuka agar memenuhi aspek keabsahan dan kelayakan. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah kualitatif dengan teknik pengumpulan data melalui wawancara mendalam dengan pakar public speaking, praktisi public speaking, pakar desain instruksional dan dosen UT pengembang MOOCs. Temuan studi menunjukan bahwa secara ideal, pembelajaran Public Speaking secara jarak jauh tetap membutuhkan praktik secara syncrounus dengan jumlah peserta di satu kelas tidak lebih dari 15 untuk mencapai efektivitas program pembelajaran. Apabila diterapkan pada program MOOCs yang sifatnya masif dan self paced, maka dianggap sulit untuk mengakomodasi kebutuhan pembelajaran MOOCs Public Speaking yang ideal. This research aims to develop learning designs in Massive Open and Online Courses (MOOCs) of Public Speaking. This research is compiled based on the previous research results, which show that MOOCs Public Speaking is not yet optimal regarding program learning design, learning materials, and competency evaluation. The results of this study will benefit improving the MOOCs Public Speaking program developed by Universitas Terbuka (UT) to meet the feasibility aspect. This research used the research and development method to design a syllabus or learning strategy for the MOOCs Public Speaking program. Data collection techniques were conducted through in-depth interviews with informants, including public speaking experts, public speaking practitioners, instructional design experts and UT lecturers who developed MOOCs. The study findings show that, ideally, distance learning Public Speaking course still requires synchronous mode with no more than 15 participants in one class to achieve the learning program's effectiveness. On the other side, when applied to the massive and self-paced MOOCs program, it is considered challenging to accommodate the ideal learning needs of MOOCs Public Speaking.

Making Media uncovers what it means and what it takes to make media, focusing on the lived experience of media professionals within the global media, including rich case studies of the main media industries and professions: television, journalism, social media entertainment, advertising and public relations, digital games, and music. This carefully edited volume features 35 authoritative essays by 53 researchers from 14 countries across 6 continents, all of whom are at the cutting edge of media production studies. The book is particularly designed for use in coursework on media production, media work, media management, and media industries. Specific topics highlighted: the history of media industries and production studies; production studies as a field and a research method; changing business models, economics, and management; global concentration and convergence of media industries and professions; the rise and role of startups and entrepreneurship; freelancing in the digital age; the role of creativity and innovation; the emotional quality of media work; diversity and inequality in the media industries. Open Uva Course: the University of Amsterdam has a open course around the book. The course offers a review of the key readings and debates in media production studies. Course slides 2020 Take a look at the Making Media Facebook page here. Take a look at the Table of Contents and Introduction here.

The first completely customisable, open access textbook on Australian politics, Australian Politics and Policy provides a unique, holistic coverage of politics and public topics for use in junior and senior university courses. With an online database of 43 chapters, the book innovatively enables instructors to compile a bespoke edition to suit their teaching needs, or to include individual chapters in course readers. With contributions from Australia’s leading politics and public-policy scholars, the textbook includes material on Australian political history and philosophy, key political institutions, Australian political sociology, public policy making in Australia, and specialised chapters on a range of key policy domains. Each chapter was subject to anonymous and rigorous peer-review to ensure the highest standards. The textbook comes with additional teaching resources including review questions and lecture slides. This second edition contains a number of revisions and new chapters on educational policy, the governance of COVID-19, and political leadership.

The first completely customisable, open access textbook on Australian politics, Australian Politics and Policy provides a unique, holistic coverage of politics and public topics for use in junior and senior university courses. With an online database of 43 chapters, the book innovatively enables instructors to compile a bespoke edition to suit their teaching needs, or to include individual chapters in course readers. With contributions from Australia’s leading politics and public-policy scholars, the textbook includes material on Australian political history and philosophy, key political institutions, Australian political sociology, public policy making in Australia, and specialised chapters on a range of key policy domains. Each chapter was subject to anonymous and rigorous peer-review to ensure the highest standards. The textbook comes with additional teaching resources including review questions and lecture slides. This second edition contains a number of revisions and new chapters on educational policy, the governance of COVID-19, and political leadership.

In the UK, belief, and faith are protected under the legal frame of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) and the Equality Act 2010 (Perfect 2016, 11), in which a person is given the right to hold a religion or belief and the right to change their religion or belief. It also gives them a right to show that belief as long as the display or expression does not interfere with public safety, public order, health or morals, or the rights and freedoms of others (Equality Act 2010). The Equality Act 2010 protects employees from discrimination, harassment and victimisation because of religion or belief. Religion or belief are mainly divided into religion and religious belief, and philosophical belief (Equality Act 2010, chap. 1). The Dialogue Society supports the Equality Act 2010 (Perfect 2016, 11). Consequently, The Dialogue Society believes we have a duty to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations within our organisation and society. The Dialogue Society aims to promote equality and human rights by empowering people and bringing social issues to light. To this end, we have organised many projects, research, courses, scriptural reasoning readings/gatherings, and panel discussions specifically on interfaith dialogue, having open conversations around belief and religion. To encourage dialogue, interaction and cooperation between people working on interreligious dialogue and to demonstrate good interfaith relations and dialogue are integral and essential for peace and social cohesion in our society, the Dialogue Society has been a medium, facilitating a platform to all from faith and non-faith backgrounds. The Dialogue Society thrives on being more inclusive to those who might be overlooked in society as a group. Although women seem to be in the core of society as an essential element, the women who contravene the monotype identity tend to remain in the shadows. The media is not just used to get information but also used as a way of having a sense of belonging by the audience. The media creates collective imaginary identities for public opinion. It gathers the audience under one consensus and creates an identity for the people who share this consensus. Hence, a form of media functions as a medium for identity creation and representation. Therefore, the production and reproduction of stereotypes and a monotype representation of women and women of faith in media content are the primary sources of the public's general attitudes towards women of faith. In the context of this report, the media limits not only women's gender but also their religious identity. The monotype identity of women opposes the plurality of the concept of women. Notably, media outlets are criticised for not recognising the differences in women's identities. Women of faith are susceptible to the lack of representation or misrepresentation and get stuck between the roles constructed for their gender and religion. Women who do not fit in these policies' stereotypes get misrepresented or disregarded by the media. Moreover, policymakers also limit their scope to a single monotype of women's identity when policies are made, creating a public consensus around women of faith. As both these mediums lack representation or have very symbolic and distorted representations of women of faith, we strive to provide a platform for all women from faith and non-faith backgrounds. The Dialogue Society has organised women-only community events for women of faith to have a bottom-up approach, including interfaith knitting, reading, and cooking clubs. Several women-only courses have informed women of the importance of interfaith dialogue, promoting current best practices, and identifying and promoting promising future possibilities. We have hosted panel discussions and held women-only interfaith circles where women from different faith backgrounds came together to discuss boundaries within religion and what they believed to transgress their boundaries. Consequently, we organised a panel series to focus on the roles of women of faith within different areas of society, aiming to highlight their unique individual and shared experiences and bring to light issues of inequality that impact women of faith. Although women of faith exist within all areas of society, we chose to explore women's experiences within three different settings to give a breadth of understanding about women of faith's interactions within society. Therefore, we held a panel series titled 'Women of Faith', including three panels, each focusing on a particular area: Women of Faith in Community, Women of Faith in Public Service, and Women of Faith in Media. In this report, following the content analysis method to systematically sort the information gathered by the panel series, we have written a series of recommendations to address these issues in media and policymaking. This paper has a section on specific policy recommendations for those in decision-making positions in the community, public service, and media, according to the content and findings gathered. This report aims to initiate and provide interactive and transferable advice and guidance to those in a position. The policy paper gives insight to social workers, teachers, council members, liaison officers, academics and relevant stakeholders, policymakers, and people who wish to understand more about empowering women of faith and hearing their experiences. It also aims to inspire ongoing efforts and further action to accelerate the achievement of complete freedom of faith, gender equality in promoting, recommending, and implementing direct top-level policies for faith and gender equality, and ensuring that existing policies are gender-sensitive and practices are safe from gender-based and faith-based discrimination for women of faith. Finally, this report is to engage and illustrate the importance of allyship, the outstanding achievement through dialogue based on real-life experience, and facilitate resilient relationships among people of different religious positions. We call upon every reader of this report to join the efforts of the Dialogue Society in promoting an equal society for women of faith.

Education for all is a bold, audacious statement. But that is the very goal of open education. Can you imagine a world where access to education materials is free? Where teachers and learners have the right to reuse, revise, remix, localize and translate those materials? Where copies of textbooks and course materials can be retained without cost? Can you imagine a world where teachers and learners co-create education together? A world where learners engage in assignments that generate global public goods benefiting everyone? You may say this isn’t possible, but open educators around the world have been doing this for years. Building on the work of luminaries such as those featured in this book, open education has grown into a global movement transforming education. Each year, Open Education Global opens up nominations for awards to the entire global open education community. As part of the 10th anniversary of these awards, OEGlobal is publishing this Education For All book, collecting all ten years of award winners into a single volume. This book is a celebration of their achievements.

This book serves as both a textbook and reference for faculty and students in LIS courses on storytelling and a professional guide for practicing librarians, particularly youth services librarians in public and school libraries. Storytelling: Art and Techniqueserves professors, students, and practitioners alike as a textbook, reference, and professional guide. It provides practical instruction and concrete examples of how to use the power of story to build literacy and presentation skills, as well as to create community in those same educational spaces. This text illustrates the value of storytelling, covers the history of storytelling in libraries, and offers valuable guidance for bringing stories to contemporary listeners, with detailed instructions on the selection, preparation, and presentation of stories. It also provides guidance around the planning and administration of a storytelling program. Topics include digital storytelling, open mics and slams, and the neuroscience of storytelling. An extensive and helpful section of resources for the storyteller is included in an expanded Part V of this edition.

Libraries are public places—open to anyone and everyone. This book contains invaluable, practical tips for library staff who sometimes must deal with difficult or even dangerous individuals and situations. Every library experiences difficult patrons. Thorough preparation is the best defense: it's always much better to be proactive than reactive. The authors ofCrash Course in Dealing with Difficult Library Customersrealized that these kinds of situations are more universal than unique, despite the great variations in library environments and customer bases, and pooled their more than 100 years of experience to offer practical advice that will help library staff prepare for the many kinds of "worst case scenarios"—before they arise. The book identifies the basic types of problem-causing individuals, thoroughly overviews effective strategies for offsetting their actions, and explains how to successfully manage the stressful, emotionally charged situations that can arise. Drawing on their extensive real-world experience, the authors provide instructions for "last resort" options when dealing with illegal activities, acknowledge the rights of employees in difficult situations, and present strategies that will minimize staff members' stress levels when dealing with patrons. While this book will be extremely valuable to public library staff, it addresses common situations that can happen in public service at any type of library. Administrators who need to develop policies to protect their staff and their users will also find this unique work essential reading.

Abstract On election day, citizens typically place a mark beside a party or candidate on a ballot paper. The right to cast this mark has been a historic conquest and today, voting is among the most frequent political acts citizens perform. But what does that mark mean to them? This book explores the diverse conceptualizations of voting among citizens in 13 countries across Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania. This book presents empirical evidence based on nearly a million words about voting from over 25,000 people through an open-ended survey and both qualitative and quantitative methods. The book’s innovative approach includes conceptual, theoretical, and empirical advancements and provides a comprehensive understanding of what voting means to citizens and how these meanings influence political engagement. This book challenges assumptions about universal views on democracy and reveals how meanings of voting vary among individuals and across both liberal democracies and electoral autocracies. The book also examines the implications of these meanings for political behaviour and election reforms. The Meanings of Voting for Citizens is a critical reference for scholars of public opinion, behaviour, and democratization, as well as a valuable resource for undergraduate and graduate courses in comparative political behaviour, empirical methods, and survey research. Practitioners working on election reforms will find it particularly relevant via its insights into how citizens’ meanings of voting impact the effectiveness of electoral reforms.

This long-awaited second edition of Practical Psychiatric Epidemiology covers all of the considerable new developments in psychiatric epidemiology that have occurred since the first edition was published in 2003. It includes new content on key topics such as life course epidemiology, gene–environment interactions, bioethics, patient and public involvement in research, mixed methods research, new statistical methods, case registers, policy, and implementation. Looking to the future of this rapidly evolving scientific discipline and how it will respond to the emerging opportunities and challenges posed by ‘big data’, new technologies, open science, and globalization, this new edition will serve as an invaluable reference for clinicians in practice and in training. It will also be of interest to researchers in mental health and people studying or teaching psychiatric epidemiology at undergraduate or postgraduate level.

AbstractThis chapter analyzes the instructional quality and learning design of different categories of online courses and their history, with a special focus on massive open online courses (MOOCs). Online courses have a long tradition that has gained public attention, broad interest, and huge numbers of participants thanks to the introduction of free MOOCs accessible online for all interested learners worldwide. In this chapter, we first define MOOCs, their characteristics, and history. Afterward, theoretical frameworks and practical instruments and tools based on scientific research are presented. From the beginning, the quality of MOOCs (and of online courses in general) has been debated. That led to discussions about the learning design and outcomes of MOOCs, which we introduce in the next section. Key research findings and practical validated instruments for designing and evaluating MOOCs (and online courses in general) are presented. Then following, the key benefits of MOOCs and the main arguments and scenarios for their usage are summarized. Based on our analysis of the research results, practices, and standards, a framework for categories and types of (massive open) online courses is proposed, called the typologies of online courses (TOC) framework. As part of the global community for open educational resources (OER) and in combination with the UNESCO recommendation on OER, MOOCs can play a significant role in achieving the SDG4 of the United Nations: inclusive and equitable quality education for all. This is true in particular during times of public lockdowns, such as during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

AbstractThis chapter analyzes the instructional quality and learning design of different categories of online courses and their history, with a special focus on massive open online courses (MOOCs). Online courses have a long tradition that has gained public attention, broad interest, and huge numbers of participants thanks to the introduction of free MOOCs accessible online for all interested learners worldwide. In this chapter, we first define MOOCs, their characteristics, and history. Afterward, theoretical frameworks and practical instruments and tools based on scientific research are presented. From the beginning, the quality of MOOCs (and of online courses in general) has been debated. That led to discussions about the learning design and outcomes of MOOCs, which we introduce in the next section. Key research findings and practical validated instruments for designing and evaluating MOOCs (and online courses in general) are presented. Then following, the key benefits of MOOCs and the main arguments and scenarios for their usage are summarized. Based on our analysis of the research results, practices, and standards, a framework for categories and types of (massive open) online courses is proposed, called the typologies of online courses (TOC) framework. As part of the global community for open educational resources (OER) and in combination with the UNESCO recommendation on OER, MOOCs can play a significant role in achieving the SDG4 of the United Nations: inclusive and equitable quality education for all. This is true in particular during times of public lockdowns, such as during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

AbstractDistance learning accelerated and diversified during the Covid-19 pandemic, with the result that individual teachers working with their normal classroom groups now account for most of the courses offered online. However, this provision of “closed distance learning” will not suffice for the needs of the hundreds of millions of people who will seek secondary schooling, degree studies, and continuing education in the next 20 years. We describe how open distance learning can be conducted at scale through open universities, open schools, and MOOCs, which are all designed to cope with mass demand. Our focus is on how these organizations are run. This embraces institutional design and organization, governance, management and administration, and leadership. The three types of providers have various corporate and governance structures: public open universities, open schools under the aegis of government, and commercial MOOCs companies. However, the challenges of management and administration, which are to sustain operations at scale around the clock worldwide, are rather similar. Their leadership requires a genuine commitment to serving the disadvantaged, an ability to secure the trust of governments, understanding of the opportunities that emerging technology offers for distance education, and thorough familiarity with the institutional dynamics of open and distance teaching and learning systems.

AbstractDistance learning accelerated and diversified during the Covid-19 pandemic, with the result that individual teachers working with their normal classroom groups now account for most of the courses offered online. However, this provision of “closed distance learning” will not suffice for the needs of the hundreds of millions of people who will seek secondary schooling, degree studies, and continuing education in the next 20 years. We describe how open distance learning can be conducted at scale through open universities, open schools, and MOOCs, which are all designed to cope with mass demand. Our focus is on how these organizations are run. This embraces institutional design and organization, governance, management and administration, and leadership. The three types of providers have various corporate and governance structures: public open universities, open schools under the aegis of government, and commercial MOOCs companies. However, the challenges of management and administration, which are to sustain operations at scale around the clock worldwide, are rather similar. Their leadership requires a genuine commitment to serving the disadvantaged, an ability to secure the trust of governments, understanding of the opportunities that emerging technology offers for distance education, and thorough familiarity with the institutional dynamics of open and distance teaching and learning systems.

Bergson’s reflection on labour is significantly present in his courses, public speeches and major published works. During the Second Industrial Revolution, he identifies the technical division of labour as the starting point of a long process of social transformation toward the “open society”. As I show in this article, Bergson, however, does not want the change of labour as such, but only the preservation of the intelligent one. Therefore, it is not possible to extrapolate from his position an alternative proposal to the simple appeal to the utopian dimension of a society that remains divided into classes. A conflict that much of the intellectual class of his time, at least those of liberal orientation, was still unwilling to resolve.

AbstractThis chapter details FGV’s contributions to basic education during the pandemic. FGV created in 2003 an accessible tool that addresses the managerial gaps that schools and education departments face to evaluate and assess its students, called FGV High School. Since March 2020, when school closures took place, the rapid demand for digital education tools placed FGV High School in an advantageous position to establish partnerships with education departments across Brazil, benefiting millions of high school students. In the state of São Paulo alone, the FGV High School platform gives access to approximately 3.5 million students. In 2008, FGV became a member of Open Education Global (OEG), a consortium of educational institutions from different countries that provide online content and teaching materials free of charge. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for FGV’s online courses has substantially increased. In March 2020 alone, the program’s website registered more than 1.6 million hits, and the number has since then consistently increased. Additionally, FGV has recently created two policy centers that focus on basic education: The Center for Excellence and Innovation in Education Policy (CEIPE), created in 2016, and the Center for the Development of Public Management and Educational Policy (DGPE), in 2018. Since the beginning of the pandemic, both centers have organized a series of webinars and publications to support policymakers in the education sector to make better decisions regarding reopening of schools, online and digital education options, curriculum, etc. The high number of views and engagement that the FGV webinars attract reflects the desire for reliable information that education professionals have been seeking, despite the overwhelming number of online events that have surfaced with the pandemic.

AbstractThis chapter details FGV’s contributions to basic education during the pandemic. FGV created in 2003 an accessible tool that addresses the managerial gaps that schools and education departments face to evaluate and assess its students, called FGV High School. Since March 2020, when school closures took place, the rapid demand for digital education tools placed FGV High School in an advantageous position to establish partnerships with education departments across Brazil, benefiting millions of high school students. In the state of São Paulo alone, the FGV High School platform gives access to approximately 3.5 million students. In 2008, FGV became a member of Open Education Global (OEG), a consortium of educational institutions from different countries that provide online content and teaching materials free of charge. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for FGV’s online courses has substantially increased. In March 2020 alone, the program’s website registered more than 1.6 million hits, and the number has since then consistently increased. Additionally, FGV has recently created two policy centers that focus on basic education: The Center for Excellence and Innovation in Education Policy (CEIPE), created in 2016, and the Center for the Development of Public Management and Educational Policy (DGPE), in 2018. Since the beginning of the pandemic, both centers have organized a series of webinars and publications to support policymakers in the education sector to make better decisions regarding reopening of schools, online and digital education options, curriculum, etc. The high number of views and engagement that the FGV webinars attract reflects the desire for reliable information that education professionals have been seeking, despite the overwhelming number of online events that have surfaced with the pandemic.

Abstract Over the past 25 years, computerized process controllers have become more sophisticated in optimizing production. With increased understanding of the "process" of cooling water chemistry, it is now possible to apply the same computerized techniques to the control of open recirculating cooling water systems. This paper describes an integrated expert system for the monitoring and process control of cooling water systems based on the real-time input of on-line, as well as off-line, data and parameters. This single computer program is capable of gathering and storing water quality and system operating data, analyzing trends and changes in operation, and recommending courses of action to maintain optimum cooling tower performance. A description is given of the information needed by such a program and the techniques by which computerized analysis is performed on the data. The statistical process control (SPC) factors and expert systems decision matrix which lead to recommended actions are also addressed.

Abstract The Massachusetts Highway Department and Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, under the auspices of the United States Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, are nearing the completion of the construction of a 7.5 mile urban highway corridor which will replace Boston’s elevated Central Artery (Interstate 93) with a new eight to ten lane underground expressway, and a new four lane tunnel (Interstate 90) beneath Boston Harbor connecting South Boston to Logan International Airport. The existing Elevated Artery, a deteriorated six-lane highway built in the 1950’s, traverses downtown Boston through a densely populated urban setting comprised of historical tourist attractions, financial/business districts, and residential neighborhoods. The Dewey Square Tunnel, built at the same time, is a _ mile tunnel directly connecting the Elevated Artery to Interstate 93. Once the northbound of the underground expressway is opened for traffic to the general public in early 2003 and the southbound in 2004, the elevated portion of the Central Artery will be demolished and will be replaced by 27 acres of new open spaces. Dewey Square Tunnel will also undergo extensive reconstruction in order to mesh with the newly constructed underground expressway. The Elevated Artery and Dewey Square Tunnel are constructed of structural steel and concrete. The structural steel is coated with multiple layers of lead based paint containing approximately 20-35 percent lead. Due to the age of the structure and weathering, paint delamination has occurred on numerous areas of the structural steel. Preparation has been underway to abate the lead-based paint prior to demolition/reconstruction. Given the densely populated urban setting, The Project has adopted a comprehensive approach in managing the lead-paint abatement, with ambient air monitoring at the fence line for the protection of public health as the main component of the management program. The driving force behind this approach is the Threshold Exposure Limit (TEL), established by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MADEP) specifically for the CA/T project. The TEL is 0.14 ug/m3 of lead averaged over a 24-hour period, significantly more stringent than the NAAQS standard of 1.5 ug/m3 of lead averaged over a 90-day period. This paper focuses on the results of the ambient air-monitoring program, the specific LBP removal methods that are required to keep ambient air levels below the TEL, and the corrective actions taken when an exceedance of the TEL is encountered.

Abstract NSRP SP&C Panel’s mission is to reduce coatings cost of Navy ships. The Panel’s Specifications to Deck-Plate Application approach; research, evaluate, develop, and sustain current and emerging technologies, enables this effort to reduce cost and maintain / enhance quality of coatings and corrosion control of Naval and commercial ships. This summary is a look at implementable work and a gage of the value of future work. The strategic implementation of Surface Preparation and Coatings Automation, Standardization and Digitization of Visual Inspection, and Surface Preparation and Coatings Training Certification Program could provide cost and schedule savings. Optimizing Power Tool Surface Preparation potentially will increase Shipbuilders safety, while reducing material and labor costs. The Panel is a collaboration of SP&C professionals from Shipyards, Industry, Coatings Manufacturers, Subcontractors, Academia, and NAVSEA. NAVSEA’s involvement includes the SP&C Technical Warrant Holder (TWH). The Panel’s partnership with NAVSEA provide a vehicle for sharing ideas, addressing issues, and implementing research and development outcomes. These efforts; technical data, implementation guidelines, procedures, cost savings ideas, and specification clarification / revisions are presented to NAVSEA. Projects outcomes are submitted to SSRAC annually for review, consideration, and acceptance relative to 009.32. The Panel is open to the public and can be accessed on line at www.nsrp.org. Meetings information and presentations are posted / will be made available through this site. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Demonstrate the implementation of effective work practices on the deck plate through solid research Describe the benefits of a solid working relationship with NAVSEA SP&C Technical Warrant Holder (TWH) Discuss the benefits of a collaborative relationship across the greater Coatings Community Discuss the mitigation of Shipbuilding cost during construction, maintenance, and repairs

MOOC Camps have been used as a successful blended alternative to more traditional MOOCs (totally online). A “camp” here means “an informal gathering of learners working together to discuss new ideas and concepts” (Sowell, 2019). MOOC Camps combine the positive aspects of MOOCs, such as high-quality of professional development and low cost for participants with the advantages of using the “camps”, such as adaptation to the local context and a simpler way of promoting interaction among participants, who consequently feel highly motivated to complete the online course (Cardoso, 2020). The aim of this presentation is to consider the effects of the physical distance imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic in the MOOC Camps been offered by an extension and research project developed at a public university in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (CEALD/UERJ) in partnership with the American Government (RELO-Brazil) since 2019. The main objectives of these MOOC camps are: (a) to promote language and methodology development; and (b) to build stronger communities of teachers and teachers-to-be, by giving them the opportunity of sharing their experiences. However, in 2020, due to the pandemic, the camp had to be adapted to a remote mode, using a web-conference platform. Therefore, this action-research study compares and contrasts the MOOC Camp participants’ feedback given before the pandemic with their responses to the activities developed during the pandemic. In this way, the idea is to understand how the adaptations we were forced to make have influenced the development of the camps and possibly affected participants’ interest. The discussion considers some of the advantages and drawbacks of adopting the remote mode for the camps, and a better understanding of some theoretical concepts, such as: blended learning (Gruba et al., 2016); blended MOOCs (Albó et al., 2015; Orsini-Jones, 2018, 2019), online interaction (Silva, 2014), and education in the pandemic context (Liberali, 2020).

This article will try to answer the following question: How can public libraries capitalize on and integrate the Open Science agenda into the list of library services according to the needs and informational behavior of users? What could be those innovative library services, based on the principles of Open Science, that would be the best investment in libraries? There are two proposed solutions. The first is to invest in human resources in public libraries, through programs and courses conducted at national or regional level, for the librarian to develop skills specific to Open Science, which involve the manipulation of the latest technologies, digitization, support in the use of data, creating specific sites or applications and so on Second, to create innovative services for Open Science, to rebuild or build from scratch a strong, reliable information network with a strong emphasis on lifelong learning. An example would be the creation of STEAM type workshops, replicable in any library, to complete the formal education received by students in schools in Romania or the Republic of Moldova.

As part of the African Data Initiative, this poster focusses on the procurement menu of R- Instat, a tailored product of R-Instat designed specifically to analyse datasets on public procurement. The menu, initially tailored around an online-available dataset of World Bank funded public procurement tenders awarded across 171 countries, implements a new, objective methodology for measuring corruption risks. By specifying recognised procurement variables in their dataset, such as number of bidders, users can allow R-Instat to suggest appropriate analyses of their data. Experience using this data in a hands-on workshop for mathematical science MSc students in Tanzania demonstrated the educational value of this tool. The menu has also been used to teach Public Procurement Management Masters students in Italy about corruption risks methodology using European procurement datasets. There is a growing movement towards more data becoming open, with initiatives such as the Open Contracting Partnership. Open data has exciting consequences for training statisticians and public procurement students. However, being able to fully take advantage of the open data movement requires tools that enable users to easily carry out appropriate analyses. Trainings using R-Instat have shown this has the potential to fill this gap. Future development of the procurement menu to support more varied datasets could make it easier for trainers to incorporate more real- world data into courses.

The increasing number of cyber attacks has become a global problem for companies, public institutions, even for governments and for each particular user. Cyber crime causes damage of about 750 billion EUR every year in Europe alone. Thus, ICT security is nowadays a major concern, increasing the demand for specialists in this domain. Currently, universities do not produce enough graduates with strong network security skills able to defend against complex cyber attacks. Recently new EU approved ERASMUS+ project (DECAMP) addresses innovatively this educational aspect. DECAMP brings together within a framework of an international partnership 6 EU universities and 3 associated partners. The project is set up to create 6 online courses with integrated heterogeneous virtual hands-on lab environments covering ICT Security issues of various application areas. Each partner creates a course corresponding to its expertise. These courses can be accessed by all the students, professors and researchers of the universities within the DECAMP consortium as well as from other EU universities. The core of the DECAMP project is an online distributed virtual campus. The paper describes the procedure developed for controlling a secure access of various type of users to the platform of eLearning course materials. The solution complies on one hand with all the differences of enrollment procedures installed at each particular EU university to verify the type of user (student, teacher, researcher, etc) requiring access to the institution's resources. On the other hand the developed mechanism allows the users to obtain a single sign on (SSO) account which support their accesses to all distributed modules of the platform, placed at the corresponding universities which create and maintain them. A prototype system that has been deployed for testing the proposed solutions is also presented.

The Sustainable Development Goal 6 targets are all dependent on capacity development as outlined in SDG 6a “Expand international cooperation and capacity-building support to developing countries in water- and sanitation related activities and programmes “. Massive Open On-line Courses (MOOCs) and distance learning in general have a significant role to play in this expansion. This report examines the role that MOOCs and similar courses could play in capacity development in the water sector. The appearance of MOOCs in 2010/11 led within 4 years to a huge increase in this type of course and in student enrollment. Some problems with student dropout rates, over-estimating the transformational and disruptive nature of MOOCs and uncertain business models remain, but less “massive” MOOCs with more engaged students are overcoming these problems. There are many existing distance learning courses and programmes in the water sector designed to train and/ or educate professionals, operators, graduate and undergraduate students and, to a lesser extent, members of communities dealing with water issues. There are few existing true MOOCs in the water sector. MOOCs could supply significant numbers of qualified practitioners for the water sector. A suite of programmes on water-related topics would allow anyone to try the courses and determine whether they were appropriate and useful. If they were, the students could officially enroll in the course or programme to gain a meaningful qualification or simply to upgrade their qualifications. To make MOOCs more relevant to education and training in the water sector an analysis of the requirements in the sector and the potential demand for such courses is required. Cooperation between institutions preparing MOOCs would be desirable given the substantial time and funding required to produce excellent quality courses. One attractive model for cooperation would be to produce modules on all aspects of water and sanitation dealing with technical, scientific, social, legal and management topics. These should be produced by recognized experts in each field and should be “stand-alone” or complete in themselves. If all modules were made freely available, users or mentors could assemble different MOOCs by linking relevant modules. Then extracts, simplified or less technical versions of the modules could then be used to produce presentations to encourage public participation and for other training purposes. Adaptive learning, where course materials are more tailored to individual students based on their test results and reactions to the material, can be an integral part of MOOCs. MOOCs efficiently provide access to quality courses at low or no cost to students around the world, they enable students to try courses at their convenience, they can be tailored to both professional and technical aspects, and they are very suitable to provide adaptive learning courses. Cooperation between institutions would provide many course modules for the water sector that collectively could provide excellent programmes to address the challenges of capacity development for SDG 6 and other issues within the water sector.

This paper analyzes the impact of public investment on private investment in 116 developing countries between 1980 and 2006. It finds a strong crowding-out effect that seems to be the norm rather than the exception, both across regions and over time. This effect is dampened (or even reversed) in countries with better institutions that are more open to international trade and financial flows. These results confirm that while public infrastructure may complement private capital, distortions associated with the public investment process might crowd out private investment in the course of building public capital stocks. These distortions are more prevalent in countries with weak institutions or closed economies.

This didactic unit is aimed at the fifth semester students of the Business Administration, Marketing and International Business program, who have already completed the four basic levels of the Open Lingua program. This proposal seeks to develop skills and competencies that allow them to perform in different fields related to private, public and solidarity economy companies, and in various mediation and negotiation processes at national and international levels. The instructional design of this unit contains real-life situations, focused on the world of business, that allow students to interact in various types of business events. The grammatical and lexical concepts, necessary to interact successfully in these types of communicative situations, are introduced and applied. The educational activities are designed to offer opportunities to interact in business conferences, international exhibitions, and seminars, among others. The contents are framed in natural and meaningful contexts. This leads to a greater understanding of the type of language used in business and the way it is used to communicate. The contents are structured in three lessons in which the level of complexity of the topics, tasks, texts and transitions (4Ts) have been considered. Also, various types of activities that activate and reinforce previous knowledge and that, subsequently, evaluate the progress of the students, are included.

In 2020, ARL’s Advocacy and Public Policy Committee launched a digital rights initiative focused on understanding and safeguarding the full stack of research libraries’ rights: to acquire and lend digital content to fulfill libraries’ functions in research, teaching, and learning; to provide accessible works to people with print disabilities; and to fulfill libraries’ collective preservation function for enduring access to scholarly and cultural works. Our objective is to make sure that these rights are well understood by research libraries, by Congress, by the US Copyright Office, and by the courts. This report discusses licenses and contracts for digital content in the context of the US Copyright Act. The report presents advocacy and public policy strategies, such as rights-saving clauses, open access, state strategies, and federal exemptions. The report concludes with next steps, including a test case and ARL strategies.

Integration of ICT significantly increases the possibilities of the educational process and extends the boundaries of the educational sphere as a whole. Publicly available resources, such as e-mail, blogs, forums, online applications, video hosting sites, can serve as the basis for building open learning and education. Informational educational technologies of learning foreign languages are in the focus of this study. The article represents the results of theoretical analysis of content on the subject of its personal- and didactic-definite orientation, as well as some aspects of the practical use of commonly used YouTube video materials in the process of teaching German as the first or second foreign language in higher education, namely at the pedagogical university. Taking into account the practical experience of using the materials of several relevant thematic YouTube channels with a fairly wide constant audience, a concise didactic analysis of their product is presented and recommendations on converting video content into methodological material in the framework of practical course of German language by future teachers are offered. Due to the suggested recommendations, the following tasks can be solved: enrichment of the vocabulary; semantization of phraseological units, constant figures of speech, cliché; development of pronunciation skills; expansion of linguistic competence; improving listening and speaking skills; increasing motivation to learn, etc.

Monoecious species such as melon and cucumber develop separate male and female (or bisexual) flowers on the same plant individual. They display complex genetic and hormonal regulation of sex patterns along the plant. Ethylene is known to play an important role in promoting femaleness and inhibiting male development, but many questions regarding critical sites of ethylene production versus perception, the relationship between ethylene and the sex determining loci, and the possible differences between melon and cucumber in this respect are still open. The general goal of the project was to elucidate the role of ethylene in determining flower sex in Cucumis species, melon and cucumber. The specific Objectives were: 1. Clone and characterize expression patterns of cucumber genes involved in ethylene biosynthesis and perception. 2. Genetic mapping of cloned genes and markers with respect to sex loci in melon and cucumber. 3. Produce and analyze transgenic melons altered in ethylene production or perception. In the course of the project, some modifications/adjustments were made: under Objective 2 (genetic mapping) a set of new mapping populations had to be developed, to allow better detection of polymorphism. Under Objective 3, cucumber transformation systems became available to us and we included this second model species in our plan. The main findings of our study support the pivotal role of ethylene in cucumber and melon sex determination and later stages of reproductive development. Modifying ethylene production resulted in profound alteration of sex patterns in melon: femaleness increased, and also flower maturation and fruit set were enhanced, resulting in earlier, more concentrated fruit yield in the field. Such effect was previously unknown and could have agronomic value. Our results also demonstrate the great importance of ethylene sensitivity in sex expression. Ethylene perception genes are expressed in sex-related patterns, e.g., gynoecious lines express higher levels of receptor-transcripts, and copper treatments that activate the receptor can increase femaleness. Transgenic cucumbers with increased expression of an ethylene receptor showed enhanced femaleness. Melons that expressed a defective receptor produced fewer hermaphrodite flowers and were insensitive to exogenous ethylene. When the expression of defective receptor was restricted to specific floral whorls, we saw that pistils were not inhibited by the blocked perception at the fourth whorl. Such unexpected findings suggest an indirect effect of ethylene on the affected whorl; it also points at interesting differences between melon and cucumber regarding the mode of action of ethylene. Such effects will require further study. Finally, our project also generated and tested a set of novel genetic tools for finer identification of sex determining genes in the two species and for efficient breeding for these characters. Populations that will allow easier linkage analysis of candidate genes with each sex locus were developed. Moreover, effects of modifier genes on the major femaleness trait were resolved. QTL analysis of femaleness and related developmental traits was conducted, and a comprehensive set of Near Isogenic Lines that differ in specific QTLs were prepared and made available for the private and public research. Marker assisted selection (MAS) of femaleness and fruit yield components was directly compared with phenotypic selection in field trials, and the relative efficiency of MAS was demonstrated. Such level of genetic resolution and such advanced tools were not used before to study these traits, that act as primary yield components to determine economic yields of cucurbits. In addition, this project resulted in the establishment of workable transformation procedures in our laboratories and these can be further utilized to study the function of sex-related genes in detail.

Banco de la República is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2023. This is a very significant anniversary and one that provides an opportunity to highlight the contribution the Bank has made to the country’s development. Its track record as guarantor of monetary stability has established it as the one independent state institution that generates the greatest confidence among Colombians due to its transparency, management capabilities, and effective compliance with the central banking and cultural responsibilities entrusted to it by the Constitution and the Law. On a date as important as this, the Board of Directors of Banco de la República (BDBR) pays tribute to the generations of governors and officers whose commitment and dedication have contributed to the growth of this institution.1 Banco de la República’s mandate was confirmed in the National Constitutional Assembly of 1991 where the citizens had the opportunity to elect the seventy people who would have the task of drafting a new constitution. The leaders of the three political movements with the most votes were elected as chairs to the Assembly, and this tripartite presidency reflected the plurality and the need for consensus among the different political groups to move the reform forward. Among the issues considered, the National Constitutional Assembly gave special importance to monetary stability. That is why they decided to include central banking and to provide Banco de la República with the necessary autonomy to use the instruments for which they are responsible without interference from other authorities. The constituent members understood that ensuring price stability is a state duty and that the entity responsible for this task must be enshrined in the Constitution and have the technical capability and institutional autonomy necessary to adopt the decisions they deem appropriate to achieve this fundamental objective in coordination with the general economic policy. In particular, Article 373 established that “the State, through Banco de la República, shall ensure the maintenance of the purchasing power of the currency,” a provision that coincided with the central banking system adopted by countries that have been successful in controlling inflation. In 1999, in Ruling 481, the Constitutional Court stated that “the duty to maintain the purchasing power of the currency applies to not only the monetary, credit, and exchange authority, i.e., the Board of Banco de la República, but also those who have responsibilities in the formulation and implementation of the general economic policy of the country” and that “the basic constitutional purpose of Banco de la República is the protection of a sound currency. However, this authority must take the other economic objectives of state intervention such as full employment into consideration in their decisions since these functions must be coordinated with the general economic policy.” The reforms to Banco de la República agreed upon in the Constitutional Assembly of 1991 and in Act 31/1992 can be summarized in the following aspects: i) the Bank was assigned a specific mandate: to maintain the purchasing power of the currency in coordination with the general economic policy; ii) the BDBR was designatedas the monetary, foreign exchange, and credit authority; iii) the Bank and its Board of Directors were granted a significant degree of independence from the government; iv) the Bank was prohibited from granting credit to the private sector except in the case of the financial sector; v) established that in order to grant credit to the government, the unanimous vote of its Board of Directors was required except in the case of open market transactions; vi) determined that the legislature may, in no case, order credit quotas in favor of the State or individuals; vii) Congress was appointed, on behalf of society, as the main addressee of the Bank’s reporting exercise; and viii) the responsibility for inspection, surveillance, and control over Banco de la República was delegated to the President of the Republic. The members of the National Constitutional Assembly clearly understood that the benefits of low and stable inflation extend to the whole of society and contribute mto the smooth functioning of the economic system. Among the most important of these is that low inflation promotes the efficient use of productive resources by allowing relative prices to better guide the allocation of resources since this promotes economic growth and increases the welfare of the population. Likewise, low inflation reduces uncertainty about the expected return on investment and future asset prices. This increases the confidence of economic agents, facilitates long-term financing, and stimulates investment. Since the low-income population is unable to protect itself from inflation by diversifying its assets, and a high proportion of its income is concentrated in the purchase of food and other basic goods that are generally the most affected by inflationary shocks, low inflation avoids arbitrary redistribution of income and wealth.2 Moreover, low inflation facilitates wage negotiations, creates a good labor climate, and reduces the volatility of employment levels. Finally, low inflation helps to make the tax system more transparent and equitable by avoiding the distortions that inflation introduces into the value of assets and income that make up the tax base. From the monetary authority’s point of view, one of the most relevant benefits of low inflation is the credibility that economic agents acquire in inflation targeting, which turns it into an effective nominal anchor on price levels. Upon receiving its mandate, and using its autonomy, Banco de la República began to announce specific annual inflation targets as of 1992. Although the proposed inflation targets were not met precisely during this first stage, a downward trend in inflation was achieved that took it from 32.4% in 1990 to 16.7% in 1998. At that time, the exchange rate was kept within a band. This limited the effectiveness of monetary policy, which simultaneously sought to meet an inflation target and an exchange rate target. The Asian crisis spread to emerging economies and significantly affected the Colombian economy. The exchange rate came under strong pressure to depreciate as access to foreign financing was cut off under conditions of a high foreign imbalance. This, together with the lack of exchange rate flexibility, prevented a countercyclical monetary policy and led to a 4.2% contraction in GDP that year. In this context of economic slowdown, annual inflation fell to 9.2% at the end of 1999, thus falling below the 15% target set for that year. This episode fully revealed how costly it could be, in terms of economic activity, to have inflation and exchange rate targets simultaneously. Towards the end of 1999, Banco de la República announced the adoption of a new monetary policy regime called the Inflation Targeting Plan. This regime, known internationally as ‘Inflation Targeting,’ has been gaining increasing acceptance in developed countries, having been adopted in 1991 by New Zealand, Canada, and England, among others, and has achieved significant advances in the management of inflation without incurring costs in terms of economic activity. In Latin America, Brazil and Chile also adopted it in 1999. In the case of Colombia, the last remaining requirement to be fulfilled in order to adopt said policy was exchange rate flexibility. This was realized around September 1999, when the BDBR decided to abandon the exchange-rate bands to allow the exchange rate to be freely determined in the market.Consistent with the constitutional mandate, the fundamental objective of this new policy approach was “the achievement of an inflation target that contributes to maintaining output growth around its potential.”3 This potential capacity was understood as the GDP growth that the economy can obtain if it fully utilizes its productive resources. To meet this objective, monetary policy must of necessity play a countercyclical role in the economy. This is because when economic activity is below its potential and there are idle resources, the monetary authority can reduce the interest rate in the absence of inflationary pressure to stimulate the economy and, when output exceeds its potential capacity, raise it. This policy principle, which is immersed in the models for guiding the monetary policy stance, makes the following two objectives fully compatible in the medium term: meeting the inflation target and achieving a level of economic activity that is consistent with its productive capacity. To achieve this purpose, the inflation targeting system uses the money market interest rate (at which the central bank supplies primary liquidity to commercial banks) as the primary policy instrument. This replaced the quantity of money as an intermediate monetary policy target that Banco de la República, like several other central banks, had used for a long time. In the case of Colombia, the objective of the new monetary policy approach implied, in practical terms, that the recovery of the economy after the 1999 contraction should be achieved while complying with the decreasing inflation targets established by the BDBR. The accomplishment of this purpose was remarkable. In the first half of the first decade of the 2000s, economic activity recovered significantly and reached a growth rate of 6.8% in 2006. Meanwhile, inflation gradually declined in line with inflation targets. That was how the inflation rate went from 9.2% in 1999 to 4.5% in 2006, thus meeting the inflation target established for that year while GDP reached its potential level. After this balance was achieved in 2006, inflation rebounded to 5.7% in 2007, above the 4.0% target for that year due to the fact that the 7.5% GDP growth exceeded the potential capacity of the economy.4 After proving the effectiveness of the inflation targeting system in its first years of operation, this policy regime continued to consolidate as the BDBR and the technical staff gained experience in its management and state-of-the-art economic models were incorporated to diagnose the present and future state of the economy and to assess the persistence of inflation deviations and expectations with respect to the inflation target. Beginning in 2010, the BDBR established the long-term 3.0% annual inflation target, which remains in effect today. Lower inflation has contributed to making the macroeconomic environment more stable, and this has favored sustained economic growth, financial stability, capital market development, and the functioning of payment systems. As a result, reductions in the inflationary risk premia and lower TES and credit interest rates were achieved. At the same time, the duration of public domestic debt increased significantly going from 2.27 years in December 2002 to 5.86 years in December 2022, and financial deepening, measured as the level of the portfolio as a percentage of GDP, went from around 20% in the mid-1990s to values above 45% in recent years in a healthy context for credit institutions.Having been granted autonomy by the Constitution to fulfill the mandate of preserving the purchasing power of the currency, the tangible achievements made by Banco de la República in managing inflation together with the significant benefits derived from the process of bringing inflation to its long-term target, make the BDBR’s current challenge to return inflation to the 3.0% target even more demanding and pressing. As is well known, starting in 2021, and especially in 2022, inflation in Colombia once again became a serious economic problem with high welfare costs. The inflationary phenomenon has not been exclusive to Colombia and many other developed and emerging countries have seen their inflation rates move away from the targets proposed by their central banks.5 The reasons for this phenomenon have been analyzed in recent Reports to Congress, and this new edition delves deeper into the subject with updated information. The solid institutional and technical base that supports the inflation targeting approach under which the monetary policy strategy operates gives the BDBR the necessary elements to face this difficult challenge with confidence. In this regard, the BDBR reiterated its commitment to the 3.0% inflation target in its November 25 communiqué and expects it to be reached by the end of 2024.6 Monetary policy will continue to focus on meeting this objective while ensuring the sustainability of economic activity, as mandated by the Constitution. Analyst surveys done in March showed a significant increase (from 32.3% in January to 48.5% in March) in the percentage of responses placing inflation expectations two years or more ahead in a range between 3.0% and 4.0%. This is a clear indication of the recovery of credibility in the medium-term inflation target and is consistent with the BDBR’s announcement made in November 2022. The moderation of the upward trend in inflation seen in January, and especially in February, will help to reinforce this revision of inflation expectations and will help to meet the proposed targets. After reaching 5.6% at the end of 2021, inflation maintained an upward trend throughout 2022 due to inflationary pressures from both external sources, associated with the aftermath of the pandemic and the consequences of the war in Ukraine, and domestic sources, resulting from: strengthening of local demand; price indexation processes stimulated by the increase in inflation expectations; the impact on food production caused by the mid-2021 strike; and the pass-through of depreciation to prices. The 10% increase in the minimum wage in 2021 and the 16% increase in 2022, both of which exceeded the actual inflation and the increase in productivity, accentuated the indexation processes by establishing a high nominal adjustment benchmark. Thus, total inflation went to 13.1% by the end of 2022. The annual change in food prices, which went from 17.2% to 27.8% between those two years, was the most influential factor in the surge in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Another segment that contributed significantly to price increases was regulated products, which saw the annual change go from 7.1% in December 2021 to 11.8% by the end of 2022. The measure of core inflation excluding food and regulated items, in turn, went from 2.5% to 9.5% between the end of 2021 and the end of 2022. The substantial increase in core inflation shows that inflationary pressure has spread to most of the items in the household basket, which is characteristic of inflationary processes with generalized price indexation as is the case in Colombia. Monetary policy began to react early to this inflationary pressure. Thus, starting with its September 2021 session, the BDBR began a progressive change in the monetary policy stance moving away from the historical low of a 1.75% policy rate that had intended to stimulate the recovery of the economy. This adjustment process continued without interruption throughout 2022 and into the beginning of 2023 when the monetary policy rate reached 12.75% last January, thus accumulating an increase of 11 percentage points (pp). The public and the markets have been surprised that inflation continued to rise despite significant interest rate increases. However, as the BDBR has explained in its various communiqués, monetary policy works with a lag. Just as in 2022 economic activity recovered to a level above the pre-pandemic level, driven, along with other factors, by the monetary stimulus granted during the pandemic period and subsequent months, so too the effects of the current restrictive monetary policy will gradually take effect. This will allow us to expect the inflation rate to converge to 3.0% by the end of 2024 as is the BDBR’s purpose.Inflation results for January and February of this year showed declining marginal increases (13 bp and 3 bp respectively) compared to the change seen in December (59 bp). This suggests that a turning point in the inflation trend is approaching. In other Latin American countries such as Chile, Brazil, Perú, and Mexico, inflation has peaked and has begun to decline slowly, albeit with some ups and downs. It is to be expected that a similar process will take place in Colombia in the coming months. The expected decline in inflation in 2023 will be due, along with other factors, to lower cost pressure from abroad as a result of the gradual normalization of supply chains, the overcoming of supply shocks caused by the weather, and road blockades in previous years. This will be reflected in lower adjustments in food prices, as has already been seen in the first two months of the year and, of course, the lagged effect of monetary policy. The process of inflation convergence to the target will be gradual and will extend beyond 2023. This process will be facilitated if devaluation pressure is reversed. To this end, it is essential to continue consolidating fiscal sustainability and avoid messages on different public policy fronts that generate uncertainty and distrust. 1 This Report to Congress includes Box 1, which summarizes the trajectory of Banco de la República over the past 100 years. In addition, under the Bank’s auspices, several books that delve into various aspects of the history of this institution have been published in recent years. See, for example: Historia del Banco de la República 1923-2015; Tres banqueros centrales; Junta Directiva del Banco de la República: grandes episodios en 30 años de historia; Banco de la República: 90 años de la banca central en Colombia. 2 This is why lower inflation has been reflected in a reduction of income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient that went from 58.7 in 1998 to 51.3 in the year prior to the pandemic. 3 See Gómez Javier, Uribe José Darío, Vargas Hernando (2002). “The Implementation of Inflation Targeting in Colombia”. Borradores de Economía, No. 202, March, available at: https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/5220 4 See López-Enciso Enrique A.; Vargas-Herrera Hernando and Rodríguez-Niño Norberto (2016). “The inflation targeting strategy in Colombia. An historical view.” Borradores de Economía, No. 952. https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/6263 5 According to the IMF, the percentage change in consumer prices between 2021 and 2022 went from 3.1% to 7.3% for advanced economies, and from 5.9% to 9.9% for emerging market and developing economies. 6 https://www.banrep.gov.co/es/noticias/junta-directiva-banco-republica-reitera-meta-inflacion-3