127
Staff who have found it difficult to prepare their teaching in the distance mode are given close support from the IEDE coordinators, who have been trained in distance education. To this end, therefore, the IEDE coordinators have always tried to treat writers with respect and courtesy by sharing with them their concerns and encouraging them to pick up from where they left off. In this way, the coordinators provide not only guidance in content, style, and format but also give moral support while urging them to make time to write — despite their heavy teaching workloads. The IEDE coordinators also ensure that writers are provided with regular feedback on the progress of writing to the respective course teams. Course writers are encouraged to meet regularly with the coordinators to discuss their units.
Realising that a good team can exert pressure to achieve deadlines and equally ensure quality output, the IEDE coordinating team instituted departmental academic editorial boards of committed and dedicated writers trained in the editing of distance education material to help more specifically with the content editing of materials. During the editorial training, emphasis was laid on the basic principles of distance education material writing procedures.
This step has to some extent speeded up the writing process even though much is still left to be done. At one time it became clear that one reason writers could not deliver the materials on time was that they managed their time poorly. A workshop on time management was organised to enable writers to make the optimum use of their time.
Future plans
To facilitate the production of the course materials on time, it is important that the UCEW establish realistic workloads and, if possible, set up staff support networks to maintain the writers’ morale. There is also the need to consider involving a wider development team by contracting external writers and staff from other institutions. Plans are afoot for a series of short one- to three-day writers’ workshops to encourage faster planning, drafting, and reviewing of course materials A
‘writers’ surgery’ session will likely evolve to give writers the opportunity to bring and share their difficulties with their more experienced and successful colleagues.
128
Education of Sri Lanka. The main objective of the programme is to provide professional training for graduate teachers employed in government schools, pirtvenas (community schools) private schools, and teachers’ colleges. A few years ago selection to the programme was based on teachers’ seniority and the marks obtained in the qualifying test. Now it is open to all graduates of recognised universities.
The curriculum of the programme consists of nine components: eight theory subjects and one practical component. Students complete four theory subjects in each academic year as shown in the following table.
Teaching practice, which is the only practical component of the programme, is arranged under the supervision of master teachers and carried out for eight to 10 weeks at the end of the second academic year.
The main medium of imparting instruction is print material. They are supported by occasional day schools, tutorials and a few audio and video programmes. In 1995–96, 3,200 students were enrolled in both Parts I and II of the programme. Several studies have been carried out by OUSL academics with the view of improving the quality of material and instruction, minimising drop-out rates, and increasing the effectiveness of the programme.
PGDE Programme — Part I Courses
PGDE Programme — Part II Courses
ESP 1305 — ‘Principles of Education’
ESP 2305 — ‘Teaching Practice’
ESP 1306 — ‘Educational Psychology’
ESP 2306 — ‘Techniques of Teaching’
ESP 1307 — ‘Evaluation of Educational Outcomes’
ESP 2207 — ‘Curriculum, School and
Society’
ESP 1308 — ‘Student
Adjustment and Counselling’
ESP 2208 — ‘Comparative Education and Educational Problems’
ESP 2209 — ‘Educational Administration and Management’
Problems encountered
129
Planning and managing distance education
• Monitoring and coordination of master teachers’ activities is difficult because of the large numbers involved (250 master teachers) and their placement in dispersed locations.
• Meeting schedules is difficult: even though the PGDE is a two-year programme, academic activities last for six months in each year. Therefore marking assignments and giving eligibility have always been delayed.
Implementing quality assurance
• Because of the involvement of large numbers and pressure put on meeting eligibility schedules, it is difficult to maintain quality in marking assignments. Discrepancies among marking examiners are noted.
• Updating material is not economical.
Using and integrating media in distance education
• Audio-visual programmes are not popular among teacher trainees.
They prefer face-to-face instructors to audio-visual programmes.
• Academic staff is heavily burdened with other activities (planning, management, and writing, marking, and conducting day schools), so it is very difficult to find time to produce good quality audio-visual material.
Instructional design and production for distance education
• It is difficult to simplify material while maintaining the quality of teacher training.
• Academics who have worked in the conventional university system have little faith in distance methods.
Learner support systems
• Participation in day schools and tutorials has been limited due to personal difficulties and geographical barriers.
• Decentralisation of academic and other support is difficult due to lack of facilities.
130
The most important issue: Monitoring and coordinating teaching practice
The OUSL recruits nearly 250 master teachers from all over the country to conduct teaching practice during the second year of the programme.
They are full-time employees of other institutions like government schools, teachers’ colleges, training colleges, or technical colleges.
Therefore they tend to maintain their own schedule of involvement in the distance education programme so that it will not affect their day- to-day activities. Due to the enrolment of large numbers and geographical barriers, proper monitoring and co-ordination procedures cannot be maintained. This situation has led to the following problems:
• variability in guidance;
• difficulty in meeting deadlines;
• poor quality of supervision and guidance;
• practical difficulties faced by the students; and
• negligence of the supervisory role (they tend to act as evaluators but not as supervisors).
Solutions
On the basis of recent research findings and the experience of academic staff of the Department of Education, the following procedures were launched as solutions to the above problems:
• conduct workshops and seminars for master teachers;
• conduct demonstration lessons for student teachers in small groups; and the significance accorded master teachers’ evaluation was reduced from 50 percent to 30 percent and a decision was made to consider it a continuous assessment of teaching practice.
Suggestions were also made to allocate 10 to 15 master teachers to each academic member of the Department of Education to monitor their activities. However, many problems remain unsettled.