A personal journey of discoveries through a DIY open course development for professional development of teachers in Higher Education

This paper is the author's exploration into the story behind the development of the pedagogical ideas for the open course around Flexible, Distance and Online Learning (FDOL), its design and implementation, and the opportunities and challenges this presented to the author through three iterations, FDOL131, FDOL132 and FDOL141 during 2013 and 2014. Flexible, Distance and Online Learning is an open course developed by educational developers in the UK and Sweden for teachers in Higher Education (HE). Formal and informal continuing professional development opportunities are blended to bring higher education teachers from different disciplines, institutions and countries together into a community to learn autonomously or in groups supported by facilitators from different institutions. Personal discoveries and learning points are shared, based on reflections, observations and related research activities carried out as part of a PhD research project by the author together with a description of the pedagogical design developed for and used in FDOL. Findings shared might be useful for other open course designers who are interested in providing extended, and extending, collaborative learning opportunities for their students through opening-up and joining-up educational provision and practices

Supporting learner autonomy: theory and practice in a distance learning context

There is overwhelming consensus among language learning researchers on the benefits of developing an autonomous approach by learners (Hurd et al. 2001, p344). Despite the difficulty in defining what Little (2004) describes as a "problematic term" and a "slippery concept", he suggests there is also broad agreement on what this means. Autonomous learners "understand the purpose of their learning programme, explicitly accept responsibility for their learning, share in the setting of goals, take initiatives in planning and executing learning and evaluate its effectiveness" (Little 2004). However, it is also argued (e.g. by Candy 1991; Little 1995) that the achievement of learner autonomy depends on the willingness of teachers to hand over these responsibilities. Teachers must be committed to creating a learning environment where learners can gradually "learn how to learn" and experience autonomy in order to become more autonomous, a process which Little (2004) calls "autonomisation". In distance learning, much of the responsibility for autonomisation rests with the teaching/learning materials. However, these materials are often mediated and supported by tutors who can use their contact with learners to develop learning skills. This chapter explores the tutor role in autonomisation in a distance language learning programme of The Open University in the UK (OU(UK))

Open Science Happens Somewhere: Exploring the use of Science OER in Schools

This paper concerns a pilot exploring the use of openly licensed content in secondary schools. Specifically it looks at the use of the Open University’s (OU) OpenScienceLab (OSL) in two remote rural schools in the West Highlands of Scotland. OSL is a series of online experiments openly licensed for anyone to use, they are about learning through experimentation, and are part of a wider OU interest in how to support and develop inquiry based learning at a distance (Scanlon 2012). This area is of particular relevance to Scottish schools, as the underlying pedagogy of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) promotes interdisciplinary thinking and learning through inquiry (Macintyre 2014). The idea of the pilot was to work on how “open content” might be used in schools to understand what openness might mean in and for educational practice. While our initial intention was simply to run these in schools after the first workshops it became apparent while the technical and licences were open and it was relatively clear how to do the experiments, people were uncertain how to use them in their educational practice. Emphasising the need to attend to Educational Practice as well as Openness in OEP. The pilot took a participatory design approach (Sanders and Westerlund 2011; Mor et.al 2012), to developing and support practices around the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in classroom. Through a series of workshops and schools visits we looked to solve these problems from the classroom out, using the teachers experience to develop learning journeys that worked for teachers and pupils. With teachers we created a learning journey using the OU’s free platform OpenLearnWorks to wrap the experiments in a mixture of existing and newly developed OER. Two journeys were created, these will be run in two locations with with two sets of teachers in December 2014. The paper will report on the outcomes for pupils and teachers of this final stage. In doing so it will reflect on the participatory design process, highlighting the practices developed to support the use of open content, drawing out broader conclusions might support the use open materials in the classroom

Using Design & Animation Concepts to Produce Animated Instructional Resources that Can Facilitate Open Distance Learning in Science and Technology Education

This paper presents an outline on how teachers can use "The Design Process and Animation Techniques to produce animated instructional resources (AIR) which, can be used to facilitate Open Distance Learning in especially Science and Technology Education. A model of the Animated Instructional Resource was developed for the teaching of Human Digestive System, piloted in selected senior secondary schools in Bauchi State Nigeria. The results indicated that, the developed AIR had significant impact in students' learning of the subject matter. AIR was found to be a veritable learning tool for use in and out of classroom, even from remote locations. It was also found to be a good means of stirring teachers' creativity towards developing similar resources, and that this initiative could help boost open distance learning where specialist teachers and high-tech resources are scarce for regular in-class teaching/learnin

Mathematics teachers’ professional development and identity in a distance education setting

This paper discusses the influence of an in-service distance education course in the construction of mathematics teachers’ professional identity, especially regarding their views and practices of reflection and collaboration and their relation with information and communication technology. The course was based in open-learning pedagogy and focused on conducting exploratory and investigative work in the mathematics classroom. Evaluation results show that the perspectives and involvement of the participant teachers depend very much on their previous professional experience and relationship with the Internet. Teachers that use e-mail for collaborative work found this a very stimulating experience whereas those with less professional involvement had some difficulty in assuming the roles and values required for this kind of activity

Quality of civic education materials to promote democracy in context of a market-led education system: Conceptual and pedagogical issues, existing materials and gaps

This study shares the concerns of professional educators and international education agencies UNESCO, the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), and the Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa (TESSA) that in order for the developing world to achieve the Jomtien 1990 and Dakar 2000 declarations about access and quality of education, it is necessary to go beyond conventional methods of delivery. While it acknowledges the inevitability of adopting Open and Distance Learning (ODL) approaches as well as the design, development and sharing of Open Educational Resources (OERs) within and across countries and educational institutions, this article critically examines the impact of market-led education policy on the availability and quality of civics school texts. The author recommends for concerted efforts of local and international professional agencies in building capacity for developing and sharing of OERs for the benefit of teachers and students in Tanzania. Keywords: Civic education, Instructional Design, Open and Distance Learning, Open Educational Resources, Pre-service teachers, Tanzania

RELEVANCE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF DISTANCE EDUCATION FOR TEACHERS IN NIGERIA

Promoting a knowledge society through Information Technology (IT) to the development of Distance Education or open distance learning is beginning to emerge fast over the last decade. Thus, this paper discusses the extent to which IT is relevant to the development of Distance Education for teachers in Nigeria. Literature were reviewed regarding the concepts of Distance Education as a means of enhancing teachers’ performance, emergence and transformation of Open-Distance Education, the goals of Distance Education, IT and Distance Education, integration and promotion of IT for teachers. Similarly, adoption of IT in teacher education programme and their problems in Nigeria were also discussed. Relevance of IT to the development of Distance Education for teachers in Nigeria was also discussed which is the key assertion to this paper. Based on the discussion, the paper suggested that teachers should enroll for computer training programmes so as to meet with modern trends in education. All stakeholders in education should accept the reality of the need to adopt IT by integrating it into teacher education programmes, effort should be geared towards making IT products through local sources, remuneration review should be given top priority to enhance teachers’ performance, adequate financial backing should be provided for the management of Teachers’ Colleges and Universities. Similarly, curriculum of teacher education programme should also be reviewed to include computer training and practice to the development of Distance Education for teachers in Nigeria.  Article visualizations

Learning about Chinese-speaking cultures at a distance

This chapter focuses on the challenges posed by curriculum choices and pedagogical frameworks to the study of Languages of the Wider World in the UK. These languages reflect complex linguistic and cultural realities that do not fit into the traditional constraints of language education, which raises questions about the extent to which we can address the global and local dimensions of the target languages and cultures. I examine in particular the case of Chinese – a language family with multiple varieties and spoken by many communities in Asia and other parts of the globe – in the context of distance education. Issues surrounding language learning at a distance are discussed, as well as the role that teachers and technology play in supporting the development of language learners’ cultural awareness. While teachers can, in a face-to-face situation, exploit, expand and discuss cultural information, this possibility is very limited in distance learning. We will see how, at present, technology has taken on a major role in both formal and informal education, facilitating contact between learners and between learners and teachers (however distant they might be). For example, the Open University’s beginners’ Chinese course discussed here makes use of online forums to enable cultural interaction; initial examinations of these forums reveal the students to be diverse and mobile, and they also give us a sense of their cultural stances, and of the shapes of the beliefs, values and attitudes supported by their individual cultural backgrounds

Educational Significance of Open Distance Learning Mode: A Case Study of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Open Distance Learning (DLC), as an instruction-delivery method, is one of the frontiers of knowledge of learning strategies targeted to meet the need of the ever-increasing global population for capacity and nation-building. It is an educational system that helps e-learners acquire modern technologies for critical thinking, quality education, and research growth. However, some critics and learners still prefer the conventional mode of learning practice on the assumption that Open Distance Learning mode lacks face-to-face interaction, absence of teachers, fixed location, fixed schedule, and close feedback between online facilitators and e-learners. Therefore, this paper investigates the educational significance of Open Distance Learning mode through the use of modern educational technology tools of WhatsApp classroom interactions used to deploy the teaching of English Language and Literature at Distance Learning Centre, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, between online facilitators and e-learners, as open access to knowledge-based information, critical thinking, learning security, interactive mutuality, high innovative skills and research development for capacity and nation-building. Besides, it examines its teaching and learning flexibility and its learning methodological friendliness. Five (5) excerpts are purposively selected from WhatsApp classroom interactions. The article employs Schechner’s performance and Freudian and Jungian Psychoanalytic theories. The data are subjected to content analyses