Possible solutions for the effective implementation of student support services

The researcher advised the interviewees to only propose solutions that were compatible with their respective environment or regional centre. Most of the regional coordinators acknowledged that many of their students lived far from the regional centres or worked in certain industries such as mines, government agencies in remote areas or at sea, and these tended to prevent them from visiting the centre on a regular basis or having access to the available support services. Regional coordinators seemed to be concerned with how the regional students could get the same support services in the region as those at the main campus without them travelling to Windhoek. In this section, the regional coordinators were considerate of their students’ environmental difficulties and challenges. RC4 had this to say:

Regional coordinators should be involved in decision making considering some unique problems that we experience in the region. Regional coordinator should take some decision in the absence of the necessary resources to provide good customer service. For instance, if a student has lost his/her student card on the day of the examination should not be turned away especially when we cannot print the student card at the centre. I would therefore propose that COLL regional centres should be equipped to print student cards to avoid disappointing students that qualify for exams but may not be allowed because they lost their student card (RC4).

The regional centres are like mini-campuses across the country and with growing student enrolments, the time has come to empower regional coordinators in decision-making in order to minimise the referrals especially during the registration period. RC2 submits that regional coordinators should be trained in all areas of administration such as the functions of the faculty officers and be equipped with current information on curriculum changes for effective advice especially during the registration period.

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Most of the regional coordinators were concerned about the facilities, resources and infrastructure development in the regions. RC7 proposed the following to enhance academic support services and improve service delivery:

Introduce videoconferencing facilities for students in the region to have the same classroom experience as the main campus based students. Videos can be recorded and played later for the students. ICT equipment such as computers at the centre should be fixed regularly to ensure maximum use. The other concern is about the building infrastructures where we are operating from; it is high time that the university construct its own facilities in the regions that are more conducive to learning and examination.

RC7 explained further that regional centres should be equipped with more teaching aids such as projectors and the training of the tutors on the concept of distance education seeing that many of them were not professionally-trained educators. As alluded to in Chapter 3 Section 2.3, modern technologies appear to offer exciting possibilities for overcoming geographical access; hence, videoconferencing can possibly bring regional students closer to the full-time lecturers at the main campus. All the interviewed regional coordinators emphasised the importance of the libraries at the regional centres such as making sources of information and resources accessible to the distance students. However, they appeared to be mostly concerned with the accessibility and availability of resources in the library. RC5 had this to say:

I think we should increase the number of copies (books) in the library especially for core courses. Extend library hours to 22H00 by employing an additional staff member for the library and computer laboratory for internet services.

It is the researcher’s view that the library should be open in the evenings and weekends, just like at the main campus in Windhoek for the students to make use of the resources. Distance students are faced with many other responsibilities such as work and family that prevent them from visiting the library during working hours; hence the need to provide a convenient service to them. Undoubtedly, libraries provide quiet environments for studying and are also conducive for study group

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discussions and collaboration. RC3 brought in another dimension of using technology in providing library services and a trained librarian as follows:

Library should introduce online journals and sources and promote library awareness programmes such as a reading culture to create an atmosphere that is conducive for learning. COLL must appoint librarians for the centres; train them in organizing and interpreting information for the students using the information communication technology. Currently, the four days given to students with the library books are not enough seeing that our students have many other responsibilities besides the academic life.

RC3 reasoned that NUST as a university of science and technology should take the lead in modernising the libraries by extending the services beyond the physical walls of the library buildings. This can be achieved by ensuring that students have access to library resources through electronic means such as internet. It is argued that electronic resources would not only be convenient to students that are far from the libraries, but as an alternative, it would also cut costs in terms of buying enough library copies for the increasing number of students per year. As discussed already (Chapter 3 Section 3.2.3), technology has the potential to transform how and where DE students learn especially those in full-time employment.