Distance Learning Materials in a Face-to-Face Context

Saide was asked to provide training in course design and materials development for academic staff in three faculties of the Mangosuthu University of Technology. Sheila Drew lead the process.

In this project we worked closely with one or two lecturers from each faculty, and with the Teaching and Learning Development Centre (TLDC) staff members, to design and develop the materials. (In TLDC there is an e-learning specialist to help the institution focus on the use of technology for online learning. However, at this point courses are run in a face-to-face mode, supplemented by resources and some engagement on Blackboard). Each TLDC staff member agreed to play a support role for the author/s of the course materials, and, including the e-learning specialist, participated in the training and review of materials. The idea is that this will enable the TLDC to provide and sustain materials development training amongst academic staff in the future, with support from Saide as and when necessary.

Open Education
We talk about open education – education which, among other things, provides access to teaching and learning across a range of contexts. Primarily, we think about access by the students to the content that is being taught. But access to content is not sufficient - students need to access learning, including access to assessment, access through language and access to resources. We also have to consider access by the teachers to the necessary content knowledge, and access to the skills of how to teach that content (the pedagogy or methodology of teaching). A further dimension of access also includes finances and policy, but at MUT we focussed just on developing accessible materials.

Open Distance Education Materials

Content

Most materials are content-based – lecture notes, textbooks, videos or audio clips. How we present that content, the language we use, the ‘look and feel’, the style and so on all make that content more or less accessible. This would include access to additional content in various forms, including links and references to commercially available learning programmes and tutorial programmes online by way of example. We have all been in that situation where someone is trying to teach us something and they talk at us or at best they write something on the board and we walk away none the wiser - the Talk and Chalk scenario. The equivalent in teaching and learning materials is the Read/Test approach – read this and then write a test to see what you remember. With no activities such as analysis, comparison, or even just a reflection, materials can provide content, without necessarily providing access.

Methodology / Pedagogy
As humans we learn by doing - doing something and then thinking about it. Content without accessible pedagogy will not provide meaningful, purposeful access. So in order to create real access to learning, materials need to facilitate doing and thinking through activity-based learning.

Support
A facilitative, activity-based pedagogy has support as one of its foundations. In a classroom a good teacher is constantly providing informal and formal feedback to students. This may take the form of praise, of questions and even of constructive criticism and challenge. Quality open materials will do the same. The activities are essentially formative assessment, and as such need to be supported by bi-directional feedback to the student and to the teacher. So the main support we are talking about is feedback! Feedback is key in motivating both students and teachers, encouraging each to take ownership of the teaching and learning process. Feedback and support is also integrally tied to an assessment strategy consisting of formal and informal assessment, formative and summative assessment, all leading to, and supporting the achievement of learning outcomes.

Open Face to Face Learning Guides
Frequently distance education materials (often referred to as Learning Guides), are given to students for purposes of self-study. Students are expected to engage with the Learning Guide, do the reading, do the activities and reflection, and do the assignments. The materials become the teacher because the teacher is not physically present. In some modes of delivery there are practical contact sessions that supplement the Learning Guides.

At MUT we chose to produce Learning Guides for use in class by teachers who are present. Why would we do that?

The issues of content, pedagogy and support, outlined above, are important educational issues which we believe apply equally to face-to-face teaching and learning, as they do to distance education. Our conversations about open education, and producing open education materials, gave the lecturers and TLDC staff an opportunity to reflect on their own teaching practice. This will not only be potentially beneficial for staff and students in the face-to-face context, but is also an important conversation in thinking about a move to more online learning at MUT.

Giving the students access to learning materials, allows them to do revision and consolidation in their own time. In essence this is a form of self-study. In the case of MUT we built a self-study component into the materials. We saw this as an opportunity to practise and extend the learning from the lecture room, which was more than just ‘homework’. We considered that this might also encourage students to take more ownership of their own learning.

One of the issues that this raised was the time to do activities in class. In the current face-to-face context students spend a defined and limited amount of time in a classroom, and the courses have to be covered in a 12-15 week period. Delivering a lecture is less time consuming than activity-based learning. With the introduction of activity-based learning in the classroom lecturers, were forced to reconsider some of the content decisions they had made about what is covered in their courses, and then find the right balance between what is addressed in class and what is regarded as self-study.

We will be working with a few more of the faculties at MUT in the 2015, and we look forward to learning more lessons about what it means to develop open education materials in a face-to-face context.