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

Author: Kimani Kabonoki. University Of Botswana, Centre for Continuing Education, Distance Education Unit.
Private Bag 0022 , Gaborone, Botswana. Tel. 267 355 2427 Fax: 267 355 2056 email: kabonoki@noka.ub.bw

Title: BUILDING QUALITY INTO MEDIA DISTANCE LEARNING MATERIALS

Abstract:
Although audio and video instructional materials do not allow for interaction and although the emphasis today is on the interactive media, it is not correct to assume that every distance education provider will use high technology immediately. There are also several factors that will influence the speed with which various stake holders will get to use this technology. Among them are conducive infrastructures, at institutional and national level and whether the learners are equipped with adequate skills to enable them benefit fully from using such technology. Furthermore, the experiences and methodologies gained from the development of distance learning materials such as audio / video will be transferable and applicable when the new technologies are fully in use.

The paper therefore identifies some landmarks in building quality into audio/ video materials. The first land mark in quality is the generation of content by subject specialists. This is further enhanced by working in groups composed of people with various skills not necessarily related to education. Secondly, quality is not divorced from the realities and characteristics of the distance learner. Learning materials that do not meet the needs of the learner cannot be said to have quality. Quality in content must be complemented by quality in production. This aspect examines the role of the production staff and the infrastructure in which production must operate.

About the Author:
Kimani Kabonoki is the media officer at the Centre for Continuing Education (CCE), University of Botswana. He is in charge of production of audio and video programmes for the Distance Education Unit of the CCE.

As learning by distance mode gains popularity and as more and more organisations join in providing this service, the element of competition will naturally come in. Those seeking this service will look for quality, relevance and affordability in what they seek. So in order to survive in competitive environment an organisation or individual must produce quality learning materials. What then is quality? Sallies (1993, p. 22) defines quality as an absolute concept, thus, Quality products are things of perfection made with no expense spared. They are valuable and convey prestige to their owners..….

Parsons (1994, p. 2 ) defines quality as, …..The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs ...

Sallies says that two characteristics associated with quality is rarerity and expense. In the quest to build quality into media instructions, there will be several factors to consider. Among them is the environment in which the production of learning materials are being made. As Sally would put it, coming up with quality learning materials will require that we do not shy away from costs. In a situation such as University of Botswana, where distance learning materials are being produced within the existing infrastructure of the university, it is critical that support in the production of the materials receive recognition from all the players within the university administration in terms of the attention given to such infrastructures. Quality of media materials calls for special considerations because the process and the demands for producing such materials is different from that used in producing print materials. Media learning materials require the inputs from different categories of persons with varied expertise. Some of these persons are the subject experts, machine operators and maintenance personnel. Besides, quality physical facilities such as studios must be available.

Our distance learners at the University of Botswana have in the past depended on the printed modules as the source for their readings. They live in different parts of the interior of the country away from the main urban centres which are to the east along the boundary with the Republic of South Africa. It is not surprising then that the only time they get a chance to interact with lecturers is during the two-week residential sessions, three times a year when they come to the capital city. These students when interviewed and asked to mention some of the problems they face, had this to say:

....I had some problems like shortage of reference materials. I am staying very far. I am not able to communicate with tutors…..

....I am all by myself. The assignments are tough. Even the phone some times are not working whereby I could phone some body and ask……

...At times I feel lonely whereby I miss my tutors especially when I try to tackle my assignments. Means of communication especially where I am staying is very difficult to get in contact in time with my tutors…….

.....The problem is the pressure of work in such a way that we are dealing with workers.....you meet them after hours and weekends....the time which you use as study.

.....We have a problem of shortage of books for students sponsoring themselves, so the books are expensive and you find it difficult to buy them…….

For quality, media materials should be designed to meet some of the needs expressed by students. The materials should be designed in such a way that they address issues expressed by the students, namely:

wSupplement what the learners already have inform of print.

wClarify in detail and in simple terms aspects of the content in the book or module.

wAfford flexibility in terms of use, taking into consideration the learners daily commitments.

wAttempt to reduce the feeling of isolation which seems to be major as expressed in the students comments.

The need for supplementary material is seen in the students responses either because further reading resources are not available or are there as in printed modules but difficult to understand. The need is also seen in terms of lessening the fear that the content is difficult. The written module probably never gets a chance to go through a pretesting cycle which is necessary in providing a guide in the writing style appropriate to the learner although every effort is made to follow the established guide lines for writing distance education modules. Audio / video materials have a place in this particular situation and should focus on bringing in clarity, simple language and use of suitable examples.

Media materials such as radio/audio cassette, have an advantage to the distance learner in that the learner can carry them a long and use them at locations and situations where it would not be possible to use a variety of other forms of learning materials. Such materials as audio can be used as the learner travels to or from work, in their car or public transport if they have a walkman cassette player. The advantage here is that the learner will be able to utilise other sense organs such as the ear for the purpose of learning, while at the same time giving the learner freedom to walk about, do some simple tasks with the hands because the life of a distance learner is surrounded by a never - ending set of responsibilities. Media materials will be able to lessen the notion of isolation because voices / images of the tutors they met at the residential session are heard on the cassette tape or the images are seen on the television screen or the computer. In other words the supplementary role of media materials is to stretch the time the learner has at disposal and to provide flexibility so that learning can take place and also be able to cope with other chores. Such materials should be a good alternative to the absence of library services. If this is achieved, then one can claim that such materials have quality because they meet the needs of the client. Video or audio materials should be as complete as possible. They should not be dependent on other sources which the learner may not have. It is not appropriate to make reference to another source during an audio or video programme unless such materials have been supplied. In distance learning situation, the learner should not be left feeling that the programme expected them to have read other sources in order to benefit from the current audio or video programme. As audio and video are a one-way communication mode, the writing and production styles should allow the programme to pose a question or give a reasonable exercise during such a programme. However such exercises or questions should be dealt with, within the course of the programme rather than leave the learner wondering if they went right or wrong. This is building quality into media materials. The language should be the conversational language not only to make text easy to follow but also to reduce the loneliness experienced by the learners. This is adding quality to media materials for distance learning.

Quality in the design of learning materials for distance learning implies setting standards.

The conceptualisation of the kind of media materials which will be produced is the initial point at which quality should begin. Teams made of subject specialists are identified and formed. They may be trained teachers but this condition is not necessary but it is an added advantage to the quality that will be realised as a result. These teams will need to be joined by another team with specialist skills at various stages. This team is the team of trainers. It is composed of media specialist with good knowledge of video production, audio production and the design of educational programmes . These two groups will work as a team. At the training stage the content specialists who, in the case of University of Botswana are the academics from the relevant departments will be trained in the various formats and methodologies used in writing educational instructions. Such instructions as on radio or video should be presented in the more exciting formats associated with radio or television and not the voice-only on the radio or a talking head on the television screen. Woodley (1998 p. 70) gives an insight into how team work operates at the Open University of the UK.

The great majority of OU teaching materials are prepared by course teams, and peer review of draft materials is common place. At an informal level this may simply involve one or more colleagues reading, listening to or looking at draft materials and providing comments in terms of the suitability of content and the style of presentation. On the other hand arrangements may be made for systematic critical commenting, with teachers or writers reviewing the materials prepared by all the others working on the same course or programme. Here there is the potential to improve not only individual teaching materials, but also the overall course of instruction. The reactions of colleagues can also be augmented by adopting the more formal procedure of inviting one or more experts in the field to act as Assessors to comment on the draft materials. (Italics by me)

During the formation of working teams, those with same interests especially at the content level are grouped together. Writing, consultations and editing takes place amongst these groups. For example, the scientists (chemistry, physics, mathematics, agriculture, biology) form a team. Their responsibilities are to draw up general and specific themes which will later become topics upon which programmes will be written. The role of the team members are clearly defined. Each one is allocated an assignment to write upon, and to submit the finished work to the group for discussion. The writer of the original content owes it to the group to see that recommendations made during plenary session are made without deviation.

To maintain quality through team effort especially in a university setting where the academic staff members have teaching loads, research assignments, members of organisations and are constantly required to serve as members of various committees, a formula must be found to recognise their participation in the production of media learning materials. Winter & Winter (1993, p. 26 - 27) talks of how institutional managers can promote team spirit and hence influence quality.

Experience shows that employees are energised by the attention they receive, particularly when it comes from the top. This attention reiterates the importance leaders place on the work teams are doing. The obvious trust and confidence management accords teams sends a powerful message. Successes in moving through the problem-solving process itself is a multivational factor and keeps positive energy flowing, but all of the good feelings engendered may exist for only a limited time. But what more can be done?.......Although monetary rewards are a clear sign of recognition, and are routinely used in industrial settings, this is almost an alien concept in higher education organisations, and many are not willing or able to initiate this tactic to support team efforts(Italics by me.)

Keeping the teams intact in order to maintain standards, has to be supported by the administrators.

The academics form just one of the many groups that may be required in the writing and hence in the maintenance of programme standards. The administrator must recognise the importance of trained personnel as an effort to maintain standards. If for any reason the trained script writers fall by the side that must be taken to be a threat to quality. There may be several other players providing related services during the writing process. Such people could be media practitioners from the private or public sectors. Their presence would be to give the writers a deeper insight into the nature of media and current practices. The participation of such players would need to be given recognition.

The second level of quality maintenance will be at programme production, usually at the studio. The machine operators ( sound and video mixers: editors and actors ) will be well trained and with the necessary experience to produce a programme of such quality as would be acceptable to any media organisation. The programme producers will make the precise blend of actors, presenters so as to come up with high quality programmes. The script writers will have been trained in the use of language and methodologies appropriate to the subject and medium chosen. The task here will be to brew together the content and media language. The lecturer must be prepared to play the new role of an actor, not in front of the class any more, but an actor in front of the camera, which sees on behalf of the audience in the extended classroom. The lecturer becomes an actor in front of the microphone which hears on behalf of the learner. The lecturer becomes an actor in front of the key board during computer conferencing and Email writing. The language of the ear and the language of pictures become the bottom line to the entry into the arena of communication in learning via electronic media. This entry point is being realised at UB. Quality at production level must be complemented by the availability of hardware to the learners. It is no point producing audio or video materials while the learner does not have access to these devices. In a recent survey on 34 students registered for the Certificate in Adult Education course it was found that 88.2% have radios and 82.4% have radio cassette recorders. The students confirmed that radio reception was good around their home areas.. Ownership of television sets stood at 41.2% . The percentage with video cassette players was 26.5%. None of the students had a computer at home and only 29.4% had computers at workplace. A few (11.8%) had some knowledge of word processing but 70.6% had no form of computer skills. This information has given us at UB some idea as where to start when supporting distance learning with the new technologies and the sort of challenges to expect.

Although our students indicate that they have had some experiences receiving instructions on the radio, the audio / video programmes will need to undergo pretesting just to make sure that the language, the pace and examples used are realistic to the learner. Data gathered from this exercise should be used to further improve quality into subsequent productions.

Quality in media learning materials is influenced by the existing infrastructure, the existing administrative set up, and production personnel. Those involved should have the relevant skills. Hence, it is in order to say something about the production staff that should be on the ground. Different descriptions/titles are given to production personnel by various media organisations depending on the nature of productions made by those organisation. The key person in charge of production at he University of Botswana is the media officer who indeed is the programme producer. The media officer has the status of teaching staff and creates venues through which subject content is converted into audio or video programmes. The media officer has strong background in the production of educational media materials. Often this officer inducts the relevant academics on how to go about writing media instructions in their subject areas. All written scripts pass through the eyes of the producer before they can be studio produced.

The next category of production staff would be made up of well trained machine operators.

Any production audio / video materials includes a well trained set of technical staff. These include
wSound operators
wCamera operators
wVideo editors
wGraphic artists
wMaintenance engineers
wComputer specialists

Each of these persons play a vital role in the production process. The sound operator, sometimes referred to as technical operator, for example, is the person in charge of recording quality audio programmes in the studio. All productions are based on script. Interviews, outside recordings and sound effects are recorded by the technical operator as advised by the producer. The technical operator keeps the studio in good working order and reports to the maintenance engineer any repair works that are required in the studio. He or she keeps a record of programmes produced that day, the duration of each, the name of the producer and the subject. Any problems experienced relating to the talents or machines is recorded. Information on booked but un used slots is recorded. Normally you would have a second type of an operator to do camera work. The camera operator is an individual trained in camera operations. Good camera work is as a result of experience, imagination and alertness. An experienced camera operator does not just point the camera at a subject. For scripted shooting, this may be a requirement. But for an occasion such as a workshop, which is never scripted the camera becomes the private eye.

Shots done by the camera operator must receive the services of yet another operator called video editor. To maintain programme quality, the editing process is guided by the script developed by the producer. The video editor, dresses the production by incorporating special effects, sound effects and commentary. These are done with the purpose of making the material relevant and user friendly. Where the technology does not allow, the services of an editor are supplemented by those of a graphic artist. The graphic artist will design captions for the video programmes.

Other Support Services for Quality Media Materials.

The production equipment are often under strain during production and programme delivery. Breakdowns are therefore expected. Operators are not equipped with the skills for repairing equipment. Services of an electrical engineer are required. Quality production means that the equipment stay at peak operating condition. The engineer ensures repairs to cameras, video tape recorders, audio tape recorders, microphones, studio light systems and replacements where repairs can not be done. This is a vital service.

Production of audio video materials requires the services of a stores officer. Several kinds of items will be required from time to time and this includes, audio tapes, video tapes and photographic films. This officer will also be the custodian of newly acquired equipment such as video cassette recorders, cameras and television monitors. Such officer will organise dubbing and issue of media materials to students. Master tapes may not be taken away unless for dubbing purposes and even then should not be allowed to go out of campus unless in the hands of an accountable staff member.