The scenario related above presents challenges for distance education instructional designers and authors. They need to write self-instructional materials that encourage students’ ability to actively participate in the learning process. These challenges are further magnified when such materials are imported from a country with a different cultural and socio-economic disposition.

The use of instructional activities is one strategy that may be employed to effect successful learning at a distance. Instructional activities encourage learning by doing and can be successfully used to teach in all learning domains; namely, acquisition of knowledge, intellectual skills, motor skills and change of attitude and behaviour, with appropriate modifications. Therefore, the use of instructional activities to promote learning and student self development and actualisation should be viewed as an essential student support in the development of self-instructional materials.

The need to plan effective instruction is imperative for a successful distance teaching repertoire. This is due to the fact that the instructional designer, the tutor, the author (s) and the student are often separated by distance and may never meet in person. This is an increasingly common scenario as more students access international distance education instruction. As much as possible, teaching by distance should stimulate the student’s intellectual motivation and contain all the necessary learning instructional activities that are capable of guiding the student through the course objectives. Therefore, the course / self-instructional material should contain all that which the syllabus prescribes.

The provision of distance education is rapidly becoming international and this trend is increasing. Students do not have to leave their countries to study and obtain foreign qualifications. Foreign universities market their courses vigorously and all is done to create access for the students and vice versa. The Internet is an effective communication medium in this development. Some courses are exclusively taught in this mode. There may be cultural and religious incompatibilities when self-instructional materials are introduced into a foreign country. This situation calls for the modification of instructional activities and illustrations. The use of local examples and instructional activities that exploit students’ prior experience may provide the solution and promote effective learning experience. Therefore, instructional activities may be used to create relevance of self-instructional materials to the student and his socio-cultural environment.

To ensure effective instruction, a number of instructional design ideas are used and these help students to acquire knowledge, intellectual skills, motor skills and necessary attitudinal changes. In this respect, students’ assessment and course evaluation are incorporated in the text. Ideally, instruction should be designed and delivered such that it helps the student to attain expected learning outcomes, which are in the aims of the training programme. Galbraith (1991) recommends that such instructional activities should be incorporated in the planning stages of instruction. The current competency level of students needs to be considered in order to inform the level and type of activities. Instructional activities built into the course are an instrument that can be used to measure the effectiveness of the instruction. Therefore, self-instructional material should be interactive, interesting and relevant.

The nature of instructional activities used in distance education self-instructional materials depends on the domain of learning that they reinforce in the text, that is, the cognitive, psychomotor and affective. These are further interpreted in the acquisition of knowledge, intellectual skills and motor skills. Students may be encouraged to gain, apply and communicate (orally or in writing) the knowledge acquired. Intellectual-skills objectives may be met by designing instruction that makes use of students’ prior knowledge and experiences in the discourse as the foundation on which newly acquired knowledge is built. The provision of exercises in the form of assignments, projects and tutorial feedback is necessary. Instructional activities that teach motor skills need to be graphically demonstrated and the correct practices provided during tutorials. Instructional activities for inculcating change in attitude and behaviour should create interest and demonstrate need and benefits gained by adopting the required change. Information on the adoption and procedures for practise of new attitudes may then be introduced.

There is need, at this point, to define effective instruction and instructional activities in order to place the latter in the process of instructional design. Effective instruction is that which is capable of taking students beyond the knowledge acquisition (rote learning) domain, but develop their intellectual acumen and behavioural change (attitude). Dick and Reiser (1989) defined effective instruction as ‘ instruction that enables students to acquire specific skills, knowledge and attitudes and that students enjoy’ (p.2-3). This definition underlines the fact that instructional activities are but an essential part of an elaborate instructional plan designed to produce effective teaching at a distance. They further suggested that an effective instructional plan should contain the following;

• Instructional goals
• Objectives for each goal
• Test items for each objective
• Instructional activities for each objective or cluster of objectives

- type of instructional activity

- content

- means of presenting instructional activity

This paper explores the importance of instructional activities in distance education self-instructional materials and distance teaching repertoire in general. Investigation is made on how instructional activities may be used to improve the quality of self-instructional materials, tutoring, assessment and general student support. Suggestions are made on how to develop relevant instructional activities when writing materials for distance teaching.

Teaching and learning at a distance eliminates interactive communication cues, such as, pauses, intonation and gestures, associated with the face-to-face method of teaching. This is particularly so with the exclusive use of print media. Instructional activities built into the instructional repertoire provide this missing interaction between the student and the teacher. Therefore, the use of instructional activities to effect better distance teaching is not optional, but mandatory. Successful writers of distance education self-instructional material and tutors need to master the design and application of this useful teaching and communication tool. Instructional activities should be varied in order to assess the different facets of the domains of learning.

Distance education teaching repertoire involves extensive use of self-instructional materials, be they print or otherwise. These materials are designed to achieve certain pre-determined learning outcomes, namely, goals and objectives that are contained in an instructional plan. Since the teaching process is effected over a distance, there is need to ensure that students actively participate in their learning by performing specific tasks that help them to understand the relevant concepts. Therefore, a set of exercises is built into the teaching repertoire in order to link what students and tutors do in the framework of the course outline. These could be in the form of students’ assignments, a research project or a science practical exercise. Examples of instructional activities in distance education are too numerous to list. Instructional activities, when used in this context, help to motivate students, guide and measure students’ performance (continuous assessment).

Appropriate use of instructional activities in learning situations encourages learning by doing as opposed to the memorisation of facts. The interactivity between the learner and instruction often takes the form of the learner being asked questions or given assignments or a set of procedures to perform and then provided with appropriate responses and helped to work through alternative responses (Schieman, 1990). In addition, Schieman (1990) is of the opinion that interactive instruction is a superior philosophy of teaching at a distance, compared to teacher centred pedagogues, in that it ‘ ... can release them (students) from a situation of dependence to one of individual initiative’ (p.74). Schieman went on to list advantages of interactive instruction as the ability to encourage learners to be more self-directed, being problem-centred and its ability to address the social needs of students. Instructional activities also provide immediate feedback on the students’ learning progress. They keep the students interested in the learning process and elicit active participation from students. In addition, they allow students to share their experience with their tutors in the learning process. Therefore, the learning process becomes a co-operative endeavour that is also student centred.

Galbraith (1991) is of the view that adults do not only interact with instruction but other resources in the learning environment such as; other learners, new ideas and values and knowledge sources. He considers adult learning to be an "active, challenging, collaborative, critically reflective, a transforming educational encounter and a transactional process" (p.1). These ideas could be extended to distance education practise, particularly when an interactive instructional approach is used to write self-instructional materials.

Self-instructional material

The proliferation and internationalisation of distance education courses has led to intense competition among institutions. In the management by objectives (MBO) approach, there is need for institutions to insist on the assessment of the attainment of knowledge and skills due to the training intervention, as part of their quality control exercise. Quality being defined as "fitness for purpose".

This scenario presents distance education institutions with the challenge to consciously build quality control initiatives into the writing of self-instructional materials, administration and teaching repertoire. Therefore, there is need for quality assurance as an integral component in the design of courses and their delivery in distance education. Instructional activities may be a tool that is used to improve the quality of self-instructional materials. They can act as quality control measures in that they help the institution to improve quality of instruction while they also assist the students to measure their progress. Therefore, instructional activities are programme evaluation and student assessment tools, to measure how these accomplish tasks outlined in course objectives.

Instructional activities and students’ assessment

The distance and time separation between students and tutors calls for effective dialogue between these parties. Instructional activities provide the vehicle for the dialogue. The dialogue could take the form of the tutor’s responses to instructional activities set for the student (e.g., assignments or research project) or need for clarification from the student regarding a given topic or problem. This kind of feedback provides the assurance and cultivates confidence in the student as evidence for the successful acquisition of knowledge and the application thereof. The resulting confidence may translate to increased productivity at the student’s workplace.

Students enrol in distance education programmes for self-actualisation or to gain skills that are of immediate need. Therefore, there is need for students to measure their progress. This process is facilitated by the tutor who provides feedback responses, in the form of assistance in tackling assignments or general counselling. As a result, instructional activities set in the module in the form of assignments could also be viewed as part of students’ support. As students work through assignments, they gain knowledge and ability to work on their own. Therefore, successful use of instructional activities assists learners to take charge of their learning and to attain some self-directedness. The major part of success in distance education depends on the student’s ability to study independently.

In most cases, distance education students have formal employment. It stands to reason that their assessment should, in some way, appraise their performance at work. In this setting, instructional activities should be relevant to students’ normal occupational tasks. Such instructional activities may be identified by writers of self-instructional materials or tutors, in consultation with line managers at places of work. Obviously, this task is more difficult when students do not come from the same organisation or have diverse occupational needs. However, this approach should be vigorously pursued in order to add quality to instruction. If the course is generic, for example mathematics or communication and study skills, instructional activities set for students should be modified to suit their specific needs. This may necessitate tailoring assignments for some students.

Assessing the effectiveness of instructional activities at the workplace should assist the tutor to know how well skills and competencies gained are utilised. Therefore, student assessment should be a joint effort by the tutor and the line manager. A learning contract may be signed among the three parties in order to formalise the students’ learning process. Learning contracts have the advantage of introducing the student’s responsibilities and obligations into the training process. However, successful application of learning contracts requires discretion. Galbraith and Zelenak (1991) have cautioned against indiscriminate use of learning contracts by highlighting their limitations in interpersonal skills training.

Instructional activities should be informed by the course objectives and prerequisites in order for them to facilitate effective learning. Course objectives assist students to understand the scope and relevance of instructional activities that are assigned to them. They also help writers to develop activities aimed at achieving a specific level of competency and to accurately determine prior knowledge base of students. It is imperative that instructional activities be designed with students’ prior learning experience and the learning environment so that relevant illustrations and inferences may be incorporated into the teaching. Therefore, it can be reasonably assumed that they will be able to execute assignments given, with minimal assistance.

Dick and Reiser (1989) recommend the adoption of an instructional plan to inform the genesis of instructional activities. The process involves generating instructional activities that ensure and maintain students’ motivation, clarification of learning objectives and prerequisites, information and examples, practice and feedback, students’ evaluation and remediation. This approach is summarised in the following paragraph.

The writer of distance education self-instructional materials should provide instructional activities that generate interest in the students to learn the course (motivation). Therefore, instructional activities that elicit students’ curiosity may be presented to achieve this objective. Equally interesting media, for example computer graphics with special effects, can capture and maintain students’ attention throughout the learning process. Students’ prior learning experience forms the foundation which enables students to perform instructional activities assigned while course objectives help students to focus on central themes and principles that form the basis of the curriculum (objectives and prerequisites). Instructional activities should relate to the information and knowledge of the particular section in which they occur. In short, students should be assigned relevant instructional activities. These instructional activities should be illustrated with examples from their immediate environment (information and examples). Instructional activities should ensure that students perform certain tangible procedures in order to illustrate principles covered in the study. Learning by doing is the major emphasis of the recommended instructional plan in order for such instructional activities to ensure the transfer of knowledge (practice and feedback). The success with which students perform their assignments should be determined so that they can be better assisted. In addition, this approach provides information that assists in the revision of self-instructional materials in distance education (students’ evaluation and remediation).

Students’ motivation and interest may be maintained by setting activities from or relevant to the student’s work and social situations. They could be in the form of tests, assignments or work related projects. Students need to see relevance of the course (or training programme) in as far as the knowledge gathered and skills learnt enhance their performance and productivity in their professional assignments and duties at work. These types of activities should be followed with appropriate responses in the text. Tutors may give further elaboration when necessary.

Students should be requested to comment on the suitability and success of instructional activities in their work situations. This input can be considered during the review of self-instructional materials. Instructional activities should be extensively used in students’ continuous assessment and tutors should provide assistance by supplementing the role of activities. These skills should be congruent to course objectives and broad goals. The feedback obtained from tutors should be provided soon thereafter. Lengthy turn around periods for activities may demotivate students, as they often require prompt feedback in order to proceed from one section of the module to another. Remediation exercises may be set in the form of tutorials, which should ideally be conducted on one to one basis in order that each student receives individual attention.

The duration that each activity should take must be stipulated in the module. Equally, the length of a response should be given if it is not clear from the question itself. Instructional activities should be varied (in type and length) to avoid monotony in learning. The introduction of a new principle should be immediately followed with an appropriate activity to illustrate it. Feedback should be unambiguous and comprehensive as learners are at a distance.

The course designer should consider appropriate media for each activity. Activities that aim to improve motor skills and general knowledge acquisition may be better presented in the form of Video Cassettes and print, respectively. Activities that seek to promote intellectual skills may use both print and Video cassettes with equal emphasis.

Conclusion

The successful application of instructional activities in distance education in effectively promoting teaching gives credence to this mode of teaching. Instructional activities provide the fibre and conduit for the tutor - student dialogue. Instructional activities ensure a reflective, innovative, independent learning and interactive teaching at a distance. They also confer quality of on the curriculum as well as the being the vehicle for student-tutor feedback for successful student assessment. Instructional activities allow collaboration between the tutor and student in that they provide room for the exploitation of prior experiences that they bring to the learning process.

References:

Dick, W., and Reiser, R.A. (1989). Planning Effective Instruction. New Jersey. Prentice Hall.

Galbraith M.W. (1991). ‘The Adult Learning Transactinal Process’. In Galbraith M.W (Ed.) Facilitating Adult Learning - A transactional process, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company.

Galbraith M.W., Zelenak B.S (1991). ‘Adult Learning Methods and Techniques’. In Galbraith M.W (Ed.) Facilitating Adult Learning - A transactional process, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company.

Schieman E. (1990). ‘Instructional Development Concerns’. In Garrison D.R., and Shale D (Eds.) Education at a Distance. Florida: Robert E Krieger Publishing Company.