“Policy and Strategy Considerations Using Developing Country Case Studies”

[Keep in mind, for national policy setting – international and regional bodies often provide important sources of information on policies, existing institutions and structures, methodologies, technologies, learning material and other resources, research findings and experiences, sources of funding and possibilities of international cooperation. For example, The International Center for Distance Learning (ICDL) based at the British Open University is a good source of information.]

3. Policies that are sanctioned from a national level help to promote the credibility of qualifications obtained through distance education from the students’ perspective and promotes national awareness throughout the government system enhancing integration and planning, for instance funding policy for distance education.

4. Consider what new types of partnerships and alliances might be possible, since existing institutions need to develop new types of partnerships and alliances in order to meet the needs of society in more effective ways than most do today.

– Partner with similar institutions beyond your own educational institution’s sphere of influence to share resources and use products in a larger market.

– Form alliances with different forms of institutions to widen their range of services an achieve synergy and increase impact in the market. In other words, an educational organization might cooperate with transnational companies with efficient and advanced private communication networks, which might create added value for education and training purposes. This could be particularly useful for developing countries with weak communications infrastructures.

5. When developing policy a holistic and integrated approach is recommended. This means:

– Consider the requirements of different sectors of society such as governance, health, agriculture, telecommunications, and education.

– Consider the needs of different educational levels, that is primary, secondary and tertiary levels. – Consider the support needs of teachers and learners.

– Consider the technological infrastructure needed.

6. The question of sustainability and cost-effectiveness must be carefully addressed by national planners. Just because there is a large potential group of students does not mean distance education is neces- sarily the most cost-effective solution. You need to develop a distance education system that is ap- propriate for the country concerned in conjunction with criteria such as: language; cultural identity; and learning styles.

7. Additional issues that must be considered are:

– How can you make the best use of resources in a cost-effective way. (This does not necessarily mean this will be the one with the lowest total cost.)

– Will your distance educational institution have sufficient resources to be able to react quickly to meet new demands?

8. Keep in mind there are barriers to the effective implementation of distance education (of course, the examples listed do not only apply to developing countries).

To identify a few of the most important ones:

– Lack of funding and lack of continued, sustained support are likely the most critical. (Many assume distance education is a low cost alternative and fail to provide the funds needed to keep quality programs going. This, of course, negatively impacts learning outcomes.)

– Lack of human resources who are competent and motivated, particularly concerning distance education methodology and technology.

– Lack of technological infrastructure.

– Lack of strategic planning and coordination, including a fully detailed plan of goals and priorities.

Policy Issues in Practice in Distance Education

9. Finally, you will need to think about the following aspects: – Bridging the Digital Divide (we’ve discussed this previously).

– Accreditation, this is, recognition, by a regulatory agency or governmental Ministry, of the education provided at a distance. Existing legislation in some countries may pose obstacles to the accreditation of distance education programs, while in other countries, legislation may be more accommodating regarding the accreditation of distance education.

– Prerequisite qualifications required of distance educators and policies for professional development. (In some countries, a formal requirement may be established, such as official certification by qualified teacher-training programs. In others, this may not be necessary, notwithstanding the unique requirements of distance teaching.)

– Program evaluation and quality standards, which are usually determined by Ministries of Education, or various boards that perform assessment (some of which might be worldwide and others national or regional).

– Faculty-related issues such as authorship/copyright, faculty remuneration (in the case of dual mode – explain what you mean) and part-time versus full-time staff proportion in the organization. (Needs more explaining, in the US for example, intellectual property rights are dealt with differently than many other countries - again we are mixing macro and micro policy issues.)

[As used here, authorship refers to the intellectual property of materials developed. If faculty members produce materials, are those materials theirs or the property of the institution where they work? Do institutions pay for the hours instructors expend interacting through e-mail with learners, an item that is commonly very time-consuming? In the case of dual-mode institutions, these are especially delicate issues, since faculty are often working both at a distance and with face-to-face courses.

In distance education, it is possible to employ part-time personnel extensively. Tutors, instructors, content experts, instructional designers and technology experts may be hired part-time of even temporarily as consultants. However, what are the implications of this for the organizational climate and morale? What is the correct balance between full-time versus part-time personnel? Of course, each case is going to be unique when making those decisions. The availability of funds and the best arrangement to guarantee superior quality are probably the most important factors to support decision-making.]

Assignment 1

From the general list of factors adapted from Tait (as presented above), select the 5 most important considerations for your own context. Also, rank these according to importance and explain why.

To summarize, the policymaking processes, you need to consider many questions. First at a meta-level, the historical, political, socio-economic, educational, and technological contexts must be examined. The global trends and policy considerations identified in this unit serve as a good example.

With respect to policy, studying real situations is a way to learn what happens as a result of making and applying various policies. Therefore, the remainder of this Unit presents three distance education case studies from developing countries. In each case, we will attempt to identify key aspects that have been responsible for their respective successes, and consider how these can inform future policy in distance education in your own situation. At the same time, we must also consider the respective barriers and challenges that these organizations have faced in the past, and extrapolate ideas for distance education policy specially designed to avoid repeating these problems in your own country.

Our first case study is Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). IGNOU is one of India’s single- mode distance education universities. Apart from dealing with an overwhelming demand for tertiary education in India, IGNOU is driven by the vision of targeting disadvantaged groups, who very often reside in remote locations with limited ICT infrastructure. IGNOU is committed to enhancing the use of

“Policy and Strategy Considerations Using Developing Country Case Studies”

appropriate ICTs in its delivery model and strives to find ways of continually improving the quality of its delivery system.

Assignment 2

Read the following interview with Abdul Khan (the previous Vice-Chancellor of IGNOU and currently the Assistant Director General for Communication and Information of UNESCO) – Khan, A. (2001). Indira Gandhi National Open University and the Distance Education Council: Institution and System Building in India. In C. Latchem & D. E. Hanna. (pp. 147-156). Leadership for 21st_{Century Learning. London: Kogan Page. Then}

answer the respective questions:

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Our second case study focuses on the experience of the African Virtual University. This initiative is predominantly a distributed classroom model that uses satellite technology. Lectures from participating universities in North America are relayed to a number of sites throughout Africa.

Assignment 3

Read Juma, M. N. (2001). From Traditional Distance Learning to Virtual Distance Learning in Higher Education in Africa: Trends and Challenges. In F. T. Tschang & T. D. Senta. (Eds.), Issues in Higher Education: Access to Knowledge – New Information Technologies and the Emergence of the Virtual University (pp. 289-312). Amsterdam: The United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies. Then respond to the following questions:

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[Please note: To avoid potential misunderstandings that may originate because of discrepancies between the paper by Juma and your course material, the following comments are necessary: Juma begins her paper with a historical overview of correspondence study and distance education in Africa, which documents the diverse experience of distance education on the Continent. In this section on p. 292, UNISA is reported to have become a single mode provider in 1964. This is incorrect. UNISA began with it distance education initiative in 1946. The error has arisen from an erratum in the primary source published by Roberts and Associates. Furthermore, intra-mural courses cannot be classified as distance education as suggested by the typology used in this paper because they are taught using conventional face-to-face lectures.]

A last case study is in fact a series of mini-case studies documenting the Asian experience of technology enhanced distance learning. Yoshida (2002) uses the concept “Virtual University” which is defined broadly by Yoshida as “computer-based distance higher education”. Therefore these case studies focus on the implementation and integration of digital ICTs in distance education.

Assignment 4

Read the following article – Yoshida, A. (2001). Distance Higher Education and a New Trend of Virtual Universities in Asia. In F. T. Tschang & T. D. Senta. (Eds.), Issues in Higher Education: Access to Knowledge – New Information Technologies and the Emergence of the Virtual University (pp. 371-398). Amsterdam: The United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies. Then answer the questions which follow:

Policy Issues in Practice in Distance Education

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Unit Closing

To summarize in the second unit of Module 6 you have:

– With respect to policy, considered a general list of factors adapted from Tait and selected the five most important considerations for your own context and ranked these according to importance.

– Read a 2001 interview with Professor Abdul Khan (the previous Vice-Chancellor of IGNOU and currently the Assistant Director General for Communication and Information of UNESCO). Then listed the policy implications for distance education relating to the three aspects of access to technology that Khan has identified; addressed what ICTs IGNOU implemented to widen for learners residing in remote locations; and listed the policy implications of the major barriers and stumbling blocks with regards to rolling out ICT access in India.

– Read “From Traditional Distance Learning to Virtual Distance Learning in Higher Education in Africa: Trends and Challenges” by Juma (2001) and the listed the policy implications you would recommend for your country based on your assessment of what Juma believes to be the shortcomings of distance education in Africa; described the African Virtual University delivery system using the four distance teaching functions presented in Module 2; listed the strengths and weaknesses of the African Virtual University project; and then described the policy implications of your analysis with particular emphasis on the successful implementation of digital ICTs in your own country.

– Read “Distance Higher Education and a New Trend of Virtual Universities in Asia” by Yoshida (2001) and then summarized the distance education delivery systems used in Asia; explained the extent to which the complications with using digital technologies in Asia correspond with you local distance education situation; identified which forms of technology enhanced distance education would be most appropriate for your situation.

– Listed the policy recommendations you would make to support the technology-enhanced distance education solutions you have identified.

“Policy and Strategy Considerations Using Developing Country Case Studies”

Glossary

Appendix A