New ways of mediating learning: Investigating the implications of adopting Open Educational Resources for tertiary education at an institution in the United Kingdom as compared to one in South Africa

Access to education is not freely available to all. Open Educational Resources (OERs) have the potential to change the playing field in terms of an individual's right to education. The Open University in the United Kingdom was founded almost forty years ago on the principle of 'open' access with no entry requirements necessary. The University develops innovative high quality multiple media distance-learning courses. In a new venture called OpenLearn, The Open University is making its course materials freely available worldwide on the Web as OERs ( see http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn). How might other institutions make use of these distance-learning materials? The paper starts by discussing the different contexts wherein two institutions operate and the inequalities that exist between them. One institution is a university based in South Africa and the other is a college located in the United Kingdom. Both institutions, however, deliver distance-learning courses. The second part of the paper discusses preliminary findings when OERs are considered for tertiary education at these two institutions. The findings emphasise some of the opportunities and challenges that exist if these two institutions adopt OERs

Distance education at conventional universities in Germany

Germany’s educational system has undergone a series of transformations during the last 40 years. In recent years, marked increases in enrolment have occurred. In response, admission requirements have been relaxed and new universities have been established. Academic distance education in the former Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) was ushered in by the educational radio broadcasts around the end of the 1960s. Aside from the formation of the FernUniversität (Open University) in West Germany in 1975, there were significant developments in distance education occurring at the major universities in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). After German reunification in 1990, the new unitary state launched programs to advance the development of distance education programs at conventional universities. Germany’s campus-based universities (Präsenzuniversitäten) created various entities, including central units and consortia of universities to design and market distance education programs. Hybridisation provides the necessary prerequisites for dual mode delivery, such as basic and continuing education programs, as well as for the combination of distance and campus-based education (Präsenzstudium). Hybridisation also has also opened the door for the creation of new programs. Following an initial phase in which distance education research is expected to centralize a trend towards decentralisation is likely to follow. The German Association for Distance Education (AG-F) offers a viable research network in distance education. Two dual mode case studies are also be surveyed: The Master of Arts degree, offered by the University of Koblenz-Landau, with Library Science as the second major, and the University of Kaiserslautern, where basic education will continue to be captured within the domain of the Präsenzstudium or campus-based education. The area in which distance education is flourishing most is within the field of academic continuing education, where external experts and authors are broadening the horizon of the campus. Multimedia networks will comprise the third generation of distance education

Delighting Our Customers: Building Services Collaboratively with Learners at a Distance

The Open University (OU) is the largest academic institution dedicated to distance learning in the United Kingdom, with over 173,000 students. Distance learning students can provide a unique perspective on the experience of the library. As the number of students enrolled in distance education courses continues to grow globally there is an increasing opportunity to work with distance students on service design and development. Engaging with distance students can be challenging, but not impossible. Here we will discuss how The Open University Library has utilised a number of methodologies to work in partnership with its students on service design to the benefit of the service and our students. This paper will provide practical value for any library service with a distance learning community. Specific methodologies of successful distance learner engagement will be presented, along with lessons learnt

Sharing and reusing rich media: lessons from The Open University

OpenCourseWare and Open Educational Resources comprise many types of assets including rich media. However dynamic rich media offer different opportunities and challenges for learners, teachers and higher education institutions alike than do more static items such as text. The Open University in the UK has been extensively developing and using rich media in its distance teaching programmes since it was established in 1969, often in partnership with the BBC. As new media technologies have arrived so has the capabilities of The Open University to create rich media. This paper describes these developments and then discusses the approaches required to guide them in a way that both serves the university and the wider higher education community. It concludes that rich media are an essential part of the developing OCW/OER landscape and that openly sharing them brings defined benefits to an HEI beyond their traditional student body

Does design education always produce designers?

By questioning what we mean by the term ‘designer’ this paper describes the ideas behind a new Open University course in Design Thinking. The paper shows how the creative skills of students can be consciously developed, and deliberately applied outside of the creative industries in what are termed ‘embedded’ contexts. The distance learning model of education pioneered by The Open University is briefly sketched before the developments and ideas behind the new course in Design Thinking, in particular the concept of ‘social practice’ are explained in detail. The paper presents the results of an extensive student and tutor survey regarding the course before concluding that, although it is possible to teach design practice by distance, practice-based expertise for tutors remains a critical success factor

Designing an online part-time Master of Philosophy with Problem Oriented Engineering

The paper reports on the application of Problem Oriented Engineering (POE) to the design of a highly innovative post-graduate research programme for the Open University, UK, a world leader in supported distance higher education. The new programme, to be launched in October 2009, is a part-time Master of Philosophy (MPhil) to be delivered entirely at a distance, supported by a blend of synchronous, asynchronous and immersive internet and web technologies. POE is a framework for engineering design under development at the Open University. After a brief description of the project and the task at hand, the paper discusses the overall engineering approach taken, key aspects of product design, the mapping between requirements and technology, and the development of one key technological component

Teaching practical science online using GIS: a cautionary tale of coping strategies

Strong demand for GIS and burgeoning cohorts have encouraged the delivery of GIS teaching via online distance education models. This contribution reviews a brief foray (2012–2014) into this field by the Open University, deploying open source GIS software to enable students to perform practical science investigations online. The “Remote observation” topic spanned four science disciplines in 6 weeks – an ambitious remit within an innovative overarching module. Documenting the challenges and strategies involved, this paper uses forum usage and student feedback data to derive insights into the student experience and the pitfalls and pleasures of teaching GIS at a distance

Attitudes of The Open University of Tanzania (OUT) Students Towards Distance Education

This paper is a descriptive study about attitudes of distance learnerstowards distance education at the university level. It has been established that in developing countries many students decide to join distance education programmes after missing opportunities in campus education systems. Likewise, this study confirmed that students join The Open University of Tanzania (OUT) after futile attempts at admission to campus universities in Tanzania or elsewhere. It was also disclosed that all other things being equal, mature applicants generally prefer to pursue their degree studies through the distance mode due to its flexibility and thepossibility of earning while learning. Direct applicants (fresh from high school) are extremely marginalized in accessing information about distance learning, thus their initial choices for university education tend to focus on campus universities. The paper recommends, inter alia, more concerted efforts to publicize OUT and its programmes (especially through outreach activities in rural areas), for the government and general public to increase the support for the development and promotion of OUT, and to coordinate the institutions that offer distance learning programmes.Keywords: distance education; attitudes towards distance education; distance learners; Open University of Tanzania

Discussing international perspectives on Open Learning in Brazil: educational politics and pedagogical principles

This paper aims to present some of the new tendencies in Open Learning in the context of international online higher education. These tendencies work as a basis for a discussion of the role of e-learning in online higher education in Brazil. The use of open source technologies and the constant search for quality and innovative pedagogies in the teaching and learning process constitute a new trend in international distance education. The main concern nowadays seems to be with ‘quality’ and ‘widening participation’, which result in initiatives such as ‘Open Educational Resources’. In Brazil, the creation of the Brazilian Open University (UAB) would appear to be consistent with these tendencies. The challenge now is to be able to set up a system that attends to national needs while being open to international tendencies. This paper aims to explore some of these issues, and also to present the most recent freeware technologies used for the purpose of enhancing open learning initiatives

Staff Development Practices of Open and Distance Learning Institutions in Ghana: The Case of the Distance Education Programme of University of Education, Winneba, Ghana

Staff development plays a crucial role in Open and Distance learning programmes because most of the staff working on these programmes are products of the conventional face to face system. Lack of proper training of staff in ODL can lead to high dropout rate among distance learners. The purpose of this study was to investigate staff development practices of the Distance Education programme of the University of Education, Winneba. The study adopted the quantitative methodology which employed survey questionnaire to collect data from 39 administrators of the Distance Education study centres. The study found among others that, the University does not have a strong pre-service programme for the administrators at its study centres. It also found that, the administrators were satisfied with the first in-service training organised for them. Based on these findings, it was recommended that, the University should put in place strategic human resource development policies in relation to distance education for teaching, technical and administrative and part-time staff and institute regular in-service training programmes for its administrators at the distance Education study centres. Keywords: Staff development, Open and Distance learning, Distance Education, pre-service, in-service, study centre