Papers Presented at the 1st National NADEOSA Conference
Held 11-13 August 1999

Author: G. Dhanarajan

Title: The quest for implementing quality in distance education
Quality in Distance Education: Practice not Platitude

1. Not too long ago, I had the privilege of being the Director of the Open Learning Institute of Hong Kong, recently renamed the Open University of Hong Kong. I recall a few debates that I had with my then academic colleagues on Quality. There was one particular colleague who was well versed in the ways of the business world and its plethora of gurus. I will never forget his constant reminder of a quote from Mr. Tom Peters that effective leadership in quality improvement is moral not statistical. I recall this story in the context of this conference not because I think my former colleague was right in his innuendo that quality is a leadership issue but because I think Mr. Peters is right. Quality, at least in our business, has a big moral element embedded in it. How else can we view it? Take a typical student using distance education provisions in a developing country. You will find that he or she is from a marginalised part of the community; earns low wages; was deprived of opportunities early in her or his life to acquire an education or training; and is going through tremendous personal and social challenges while trying to acquire the same now. Not to provide an excellent learning environment to such a person is both academically unacceptable and morally repugnant.

2. I think it is equally useful to remind us that platitudinous statements from leaders or managers cannot achieve quality. It can only be achieved by a sustained effort on the part of all those participating in the venture. Leadership has a role and a responsibility and I will come to that role later.

3. While we have always assumed that quality is axiomatic with education, it is only during the last two decades of this century that the axiom itself has been challenged and a greater transparency demanded by the general community of the how, why and what of their educational enterprises. This demand for greater transparency and accountability can only increase, as those whom education serves become more knowledgeable and confident of their rights as citizens. Not surprising then, quality has become the international buzz in educational circles as noted by Esnault and Skilbeck that "many higher education authorities state the need for ensuring quality, efficiency and …as among their highest priority." . Every major international gathering, from UNESCO’s recent World Conference on Higher Education to a recent World Bank seminar on the same topic, makes explicit reference for the need to see a qualitative improvement in the delivery of educational services not only in the tertiary sector but also in all other areas, ("the crisis of higher education is first and foremost a crisis of quality"). The demand for better products, improved services, greater transparency and clearer accountability is no longer an item of just academic debate; it is an item for serious academic practice.

4. Even more significant is the way quality itself is viewed by both users and providers of the service. The phenomenon of globalisation, for better or worse, has shifted benchmarks away from just institutional or national environments to global ones ("universities in developing countries face an urgent qualitative challenge as higher education has become an international system, with the "gold standard" being set largely by the leading American research universities"). Just consider this: until the mid-eighties, the major open universities of the Commonwealth were quite comfortable serving the needs of their nationals. Since then, joining the globally aggressive Open University of the UK are institutions such as Canada’s Open Learning Agency in BC and Athabasca University in Alberta, the Open Learning Agency Australia, the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, Indira Gandhi National Open University in India, your own UNISA and many departments of external studies of conventional universities. In this new environment, benchmarks of quality tend to move away from being dictated by local standards to one that is influenced by global competitors. These developments lead to higher expectations of content, instruction, standard and support at local levels (never mind the availability of resources).

5. Interestingly, just as the sensitivity to quality in education was increasing so too was the interest in distance education and open learning. Those of you who are students of educational development globally will not dispute the fact that the practice has been gradually moving onto the centre stage of education and training agendas both nationally and internationally. Distance education has, more than any other practice of educational delivery, the opportunity to demonstrate good practice in the design and delivery of education and training as well. Like all great opportunities there are great risks involved. If distance educators want to exploit the present favourable environment available to them, to its full potential, then they have to get the quality issues right. If we do not, there is every danger of being damned as an unsatisfactory second-rate option just like the commercial correspondence education of the past.

6. There is, however, reason to believe and hope that the distance education community is not getting it wrong. At least the direction seems to be pointing the right way. There are any number of reasons for this optimism but most notably:

• the acceptance of distance education as a beneficial practice by a vast majority of nations as an important pillar of their educational provision;

• the extent and intensity of debate in the distance education community of the relevance of quality assurance systems within their environment;

• the number of externally generated reports on distance education that are comparing the practice in favourable terms against class-roomed instruction;

• the confidence with which distance education providers are entering the educational market globally, reflecting a high level of confidence in their systems; and

• the enthusiasm with which, historically, world-renowned institutions are embracing the use of distance education.

7. Having said these optimistic words, it will be naive to believe that good practice is widespread. The practice of distance education still has a long way to go especially among institutions, which are not dedicated single-mode distance education providers. Even as long ago as 1991, The Commonwealth of Learning provided some guidelines to Ministries of Education of the Commonwealth on the minimum requirements needed if traditional systems wished to embark on distance education. These included:

• comprehensive communication infrastructure;
• a core of dedicated distance education expertise in the institution in areas such as instructional design, material development and assessment;
• an effective student management and record system;
• a supportive learning environment for isolated learners; and
• developed sensitive marketing strategies.

8. Developing quality distance education capabilities has special relevance to this continent. The provision for education and the investment in education as a portion of GNP is probably the lowest in the world. Against this limited provision is the huge need for putting in place educational systems that need to compensate for the deprivation of the past and the demands of the present and future. The participation in education by the appropriate age group on the continent, in real numbers, is not increasing but decreasing. Just consider this: of the 31 countries which suffer extreme deprivation (where a third of all children are out of school) in basic education, 24 are located in sub-Saharan Africa and 15 of these are located in the bottom 20; a significant number of those who are lucky enough to be in school do not survive beyond grade 4, and in tertiary education, there are less than 1.3 million participating from a population pool of some 500–600 million people.

9. For the situation to improve and improve it must, the continent must see the use of its limited educational resources extend dramatically beyond their present reach without significant increases in their financing. This would mean schools, colleges and universities have to transform their present practices of requiring students to come to them at their call to one where the teaching will have to travel to where the students are. It is in this context of expecting most of this continent’s education becoming mixed-mode that I wish to consider in the rest of this presentation.

10. The concern for quality is predicated on a number of assumptions that all those who provide public services are expected to acknowledge. These assumptions relate to good governance, gender sensitivity, human rights, transparency access to information and perhaps most important of all, accountability. These are not unreasonable expectations – the community that pays for and nourishes us has the right to demand very clear accounting of the resources used, processes applied and benefits derived by public investment. In the case of education, the quality of the venture stands at the top of these accountabilities. There are at least three sources that need accounting from educators. They are:

• Society: By and large, a country’s educational system is paid for from the public sector. This applies as much to schools as it does to colleges and universities. There is therefore a responsibility on the part of the Government to ensure that what it gets from the system is acceptable and provides value for money. There is also an expectation that besides value for money, our educational systems will safeguard and transmit the communities’ values and heritage. Societies need assurances that educational systems are not failing in this responsibility.

• Clients: This group includes the students and employers of the products of the system. They desire to have the best education and training as possible and to have a certification that the particular levels of skills, knowledge and professional competence has been achieved, while at the same time it commands respect and carries a value.

• Subjects: There is an expectation that the knowledge, skills and attitude that comprise each subject must not be distorted, misused or suppressed during teaching. Those who teach must be accountable to their professional colleagues that the integrity of their discipline is upheld.

11. When we take these assumptions and apply them to distance education, some things emerge. These have to do with:

• Access: How do we turn to practice our declarations of open, flexible and accessible learning; how user friendly is the organisation; has it attempted to aggressively remove impediments to learning weather these impediments are academic, economic, geographic and technologic?

• Instruction: Are the course materials and the structure of the programmes sensitive to learning difficulties; are they enabling and empowering; is there logic to the product; are the processes to develop learning products have the required checks, balances and review necessary to ensure the integrity of the subject; what about the face value of the product – is it packaged properly; elegantly produced and, finally, how efficiently is the product delivered; are product designers sensitive to the learners access to technology, etc?

• Support: Are systems in place to support the out of campus learner in terms of her or his learning difficulties; administrative requirements; peer consultation; library and laboratory needs as well as professional requirements.

• Learner outcomes: How often have we spoken of attrition rates and how quickly have we been at ascribing deficiencies of the student or her learning environment for failure. Yet, learner outcomes can be a good indicator of quality assurance in a distance education environment. These outcomes are often dictated by practices relating to clarity of learning materials, assessment purposes and systems, academic support. Adult learners express their frustration with the system often with their feet and attrition rates often signal dangers in the academic health of a distance teaching facility.

• Effectiveness and efficiencies: The cost-effectiveness and efficiencies of the system are overriding concerns for everybody in distance education. These factors have a major impact on the ways in which courses are designed, developed, delivered, assessed and supported.

12. Nielsen in 1997, when discussing quality issues relating to the training of teachers by distance education, referred to constraints that he described as internal and external, which impact on the delivery of good quality teacher training by using distance education. Those that were internal had to do with the relevance and quality of the curriculum and learning materials (seldom do they reflect student centredness); effectiveness of the learning processes (the presence or absence of student support as appropriate to the course); the quality of the assessment systems (assessment designed for traditional forms of training not being suitable for mature students studying at a distance); and effectiveness of system management (management systems that are insensitive to the difficulties of students who live and study away from campus). Those that were external constraints included student traits (lack of motivation, inadequate preparation, cultural challenges); funding (underfunding); organisational support (to ameliorate academic isolation, lack of sensitivity to environmental difficulties; lack of financial assistance); and infrastructural facilities (poor communication systems, socio-organisational support). As many of you know from your own experiences, these issues are not confined to just teacher training; every single distance education system that I am aware of has gone through more or less very similar kinds of experience. And in order to safeguard the quality of goods and services in such challenged environments, innovative ways were explored to deliver curriculum, at times circumventing even institutional bureaucracy. Technology or at least a consideration of technology for such purposes was never far away from these efforts.

13. In a book that he edited in 1984, Bates commented that "developments in technology are bringing advantages to distance teaching and removing some of the disadvantages previously associated… through promises of lower costs, greater student control, more interaction and feedback as well as wider range of teaching functions and a higher quality of learning". The last 15 years has seen some remarkable transformations taking place within the operating environment of global distance education in which the new technologies are playing a crucial role. Improvement in administrative efficiency, better student record management systems, improved course development protocols, a higher level of study centre support and student learning environments have all, in one way or another, benefited from the use of a variety of technologies. But,

14. Technology, whether it is print or multimedia, does not teach; the techniques adopted simply enable the delivery of teaching from narrow to mass catchments while shifting the responsibility of learning away from the teacher to the learner. In the process, it transforms the relationship between teachers and learners. Even while we are entering the era where both multimedia and hypermedia are bringing together, under one umbrella, the essence of print, audio and video signals, computer-assisted instruction, conference and group learning, at the heart of the teaching and learning transaction will be institutions and teachers in them. The challenge for us will be to create pedagogies of learning within which modes of delivery will contribute to effective learning. Even before the arrival of the newer technologies, communities of distance educators around the world have been at the forefront of bringing change in the educational environment. The circumstances under which practices have been developed, took into account the requirements of learners who used distance education and also needed:

• Increased and flexible access to information (isolated learners, preoccupied with other demands of living, require
a variety of channels to access information on both academic and administrative matters);

• Increased and flexible opportunities for interaction between mentors and peers (the freedom from time-tabled environments to conduct their learning);

• Increased student time on tasks (pacing of learning through devices that set tasks and deadlines for judicious absorption of information, skills or knowledge and completion of learning);

• Opportunities to control their pace of learning;

• Learning that is relevant to their daily lives (curriculum that is appropriate and sensitively transformed into learning experience);

• Greater response to their individual circumstances (mass education does not necessarily have to dehumanise the learning process); and

Regular and sensitive encouragement to continue their learning (counselling for success).

15. By deliberate design, distance education has been instrumental in making some fundamental changes to long held beliefs about where, when and how teaching and learning should take place. The critical issue is not where the students are located, but whether they can interact with a teacher or teaching programmes. Bringing about the desired levels of interaction between students, teachers and programmes will mean subscribing to a list of good principles. Many of you know these principles but in the context of this keynote, let me reflect a little:

• Good practice recognises the need for students to be well informed about the courses that are available to them. Courses of study vary in many aspects even within a programme. Well-designed courses make it transparent before students enrol, details such as aims, objectives, course synopsis, the position of the course in a programme, expected quantum of work, tasks that students are expected to do and criteria that will be used in recognising the completion of the course. Students need to know what they should do in order to make personal preparations before a course begins.

• Teacher learner contact is an essential part of a good educational environment. These occasions are not only good for motivating learners but also helpful in the context of overcoming learning problems. Learners are also able to use these occasions to measure their own value systems about their studies and their future.

• Active learning is healthy: Students do not learn much from memorising facts and reproducing set answers; they derive greater benefits by being active in their learning. Talking, listening, observing, discussing, writing and relating their own experiences and applying them in the context of their lessons are all part of an active learning process. Good practice in distance teaching does this effectively.

• Peer support in learning is highly beneficial. Sharing one’s own ideas and responding to the ideas of others to improve thinking and increasing understanding. Learning can improve by it being a team effort rather than a collection of solo performances. Study centre facilities provide valuable opportunities for peer-supported learning.

• Feedback and encouragement: Knowing what you know and what you do not know can be a focus of future learning. Regular feedback on their performance helps students learn better and deeper.

• Paced learning: Using time effectively is critical for students; what this means to teaching is a clear understanding of appropriate pacing of learning through tools such as assignments, tutorials, broadcast programmes, computer conferencing, etc.

• Learning pathways must be mapped to facilitate different styles of learning.

16. Besides good practice, which must be at the heart of any quality consideration in the practice of distance education, there are three other aspects of distance and open learning that are crucial to its good health. Let me reiterate this once again. They are:

• Access: supporters of open and distance learning will claim that their educational mission is to provide access and equality of opportunity for learning, especially to individuals and groups who have been denied this before. As has been argued before, success in providing access is not a sufficient condition for claiming greater opportunity. "Equality of opportunity is a matter of outcomes, not merely resource availability"; in other words, providing access is merely
a starting point and equality can only be achieved if the people provided with such opportunities are helped towards achieving their own goals.

• Cost considerations: The cost efficiency and effectiveness of distance education systems are overriding concerns for all of us. These considerations have a major impact on policy issues, and any measurement of the quality of a distance education system will have to take into account costs and benefits.

• Infrastructure: Delivering education to students off-campus needs infrastructure that are supportive of the teaching and learning environment. This infrastructure should have among other items, the following bare essentials:

i. all those who deliver content must have the skills to use teaching methods that are resource-based;

ii. such teachers must be trained and provided with the technologies for the performance of their tasks;

iii. have provision for students to have access to the emerging communications and information technologies;

iv. management configures institutional resources and invests in the production of knowledge products and the pathways to deliver them; and

v. management prepares itself to cope with the diversity in the make up of its students, their goals and the context within which they learn.

17. Finally, even as the practice of distance education moves from the margins of educational practices to centre stage, its full potential to contribute to national development, equalising opportunities for all and drastically changing the nature of teaching and learning still continues to be untapped. In another context, Bill Gates, in his book the Road Ahead, reflected that " . . . we are all beginning another great journey. We aren’t sure where this one will lead us either, but again I am certain this revolution will touch even more lives and take us all further". It seems to me that how much further we can go with improving the delivery of high quality distance education is not completely governed by technology or other resources. At the heart of quality will always be the professionalism, skill, knowledge and commitment of the women and men who are in and work for distance education. Simply relying on present habits or knowledge of instruction and technology will not be enough. We will be required to put in place, organisations and people who can deliver courses at any location chosen by the learner. We need new strategies for course development and certification. And we need arrangements that will link students among themselves; link students and tutors and tutors and tutors; we need a fresh look at our curriculum and we need a curriculum that is dynamic – not one that confines learners to fixed points, but one that is seamless and open. I am told that we have the knowledge, experience and skill to do all these. Crucially, we also have today, the technology to enable us to achieve these ideals. What is needed is the collective will to make it all happen.

Thank you.

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