Papers Presented at the 2nd National NADEOSA Conference
Held 21-22 August 2000

Author:
Kimani Kabonoki

Title:
A starting point in the use of technology for distance learning: University of Botswana experience

Abstract:
This paper examines the experiences of the Centre for Continuing Education of the University of Botswana in the production of audiocassette tapes for the Diploma in Primary Education (DPE) programme. This is probably the lowest level in the ladder of the technologies available. The use of the cassette tapes and the decisions made there after were guided by findings from a survey carried on a sample of teachers within Gaborone – capital city of Botswana, on the technologies available to them.

The paper describes the production process, how the survey influenced pedagogy, language use and latter advise to the students on the care of cassette tapes and cassette players. Most students were learning by cassette tapes for the first time. During the orientation, complaints were received from students, some genuine. These problems are described together with the manner in which they were dealt with.

The paper ends by describing problems experienced during studio productions, meeting a demand for 3000 cassette tapes in the first year, for the 600 students registered for the programme, and the future direction in the use of the technology available in the market.

Introduction

The Centre for Continuing Education (CCE) is the outreach arm of the University of Botswana. It implements its distance education programmes through the Distance Education Unit (DEU). One of the biggest undertakings of the Distance Education Unit has been the implementation of the Diploma in Primary Education (DPE), an upgrading programme for primary school teachers.

Learners in this programme are supported by printed modules, face –to- face residential sessions and audio cassette tapes. To use this model, the CCE translated the conventional Diploma curriculum into a distance –mode curriculum through training of writers, editors and scriptwriters. The Ministry of Education, the sponsor of the DPE programme, met the cost of the printed modules, purchase and the dubbing of the audio cassette tapes. Students were expected to acquire their own play back equipment. It is this requirement which prompted the Distance Education Unit to carry out a survey to establish the level of ownership of audio and other related media facilities so that this information could guide in making decisions in the use of technology in the Diploma in Primary Education Programme now and in the future.

The Survey

The survey focussed on a population (N = 96) of primary school teachers within Gaborone City. The assumption was that the pattern in the ownership of media related hardware from this sample of teachers would approximate fairly well the pattern of ownership from the general population of the teachers in other urban and rural centres. The survey set out to find out the level of ownership of:

• Radio and radio cassette recorders
• Television sets.
• Video cassette players.
• Telephones.
• Fax machines.
• Computers.
• Telecommunication service providers.
• Knowledge of computer use such as emailing and word processing.

Findings from the survey indicated that the radio cassette was owned by most respondents (86.46%). Although television ownership was also high (71.88%) among the respondents, the ownership of video cassettes players was quite low (39.58%). Telephone ownership ( 65.63%) was the next popular medium after television. The survey showed that few (14.58%) of our respondents own computers and even fewer (13.13%) owned fax machines. In addition the majority (80.21%) do not have computer skills. Telephone ownership was fairly high (65..63%) and main service provider for telephone is the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation.

The Centre for Continuing Education used this information to produce audio programmes for the Diploma in Primary Education.

During the preparation of the audio programmes, consideration was given to the fact that few of the respondents had actually received instructions by audiocassettes. Although data showed that 54.65% responded in the affirmative in having learnt by radio, supplementary questions which sought to know the subjects learnt indicated that the respondents were referring to the regular primary school broadcasts aired by the Educational Broadcasting Division of Radio Botswana. This information formed the basis for organising a session with the learners during the orientation on how to use and care for audiocassette tapes.

The demographic data for the 96 students showed that the majority (78.65%) had an academic qualification of junior secondary school or lower. This figure was latter compared with the actual qualifications of 400 students (100 from each college) as supplied by the employer. It was found that nearly 93% of these students had an academic qualification of junior secondary level or lower. In writing audio scripts, attention of the writers was drawn to this fact. That the Diploma students should be addressed in simple language. Indeed, clarity and simplicity is central to the design and delivery of audio instructions. This fact needed to be stressed because some scriptwriters were drawn from the University of Botswana and are used to handling degree students.

Training Script Writers

(i) Audio Scripting

The training was meant to equip scriptwriters with some of the basic skills of writing audio scripts and to familiarise them with the audio medium as a unique medium of instruction, requiring special attention during the design of the intended instruction. That a successful audio lesson depends on the command of the subject matter by the writer, their creativity and the use of spoken language. During the training, lecturers received presentations and listened to sample audio clips that focused on suitable audio methodologies. They finally developed their audio content outlines and wrote their first scripts. The scripts were edited by the media officer before moving into the sound studio for recording. The Centre for Continuing Education made use of the Educational Broadcasting Division studios at Radio Botswana, the national broadcasting station.

This one-week training changed lecturers’ attitude towards the perceived and often deceptive simplicity in the production of an audio programme. The need for a script to be examined by at least one other person, from the content point and from the point of its suitability to the audio medium was stressed. The realisation that a 20-minute audio programme could take as long as 1 hour or more to record, depending on the nature of the script, impressed on the writers the need for advanced preparations in terms of rehearsals and punctuality.

The involvement of academic staff, media and technical personnel, in the production of audio learning materials, is a model chosen by the Centre for Continuing Education of the University of Botswana as quality assurance measure. In doing this we hope to get rid of concerns expressed by Barford and Weston (1997) in some video learning materials (food hygiene) which they claim were found to be an insult to the intelligence of an average undergraduate.

(ii) Techniques of Presenting

Scriptwriters presented their scripts in the studio as opposed to hiring services of professional broadcasters. Two reasons for doing this were the following:

(a)When the audio lesson is being presented in the studio, changes on the script are often made. In order to avoid distorting the content as the changes are made, a specialist in the subject in question must be present.

(b) The presenter, is usually the lecturer who will have taught during the residential sessions. As the learner listens to the audio tape s/he is able to recognise the voice of the lecturer and hence see or feel the presence of the familiar lecturer.

Initially presenting was viewed by the academics as a straight forward activity. This turned out not to be. When inside the studio lecturers discovered there was a new culture of doing things. For the new comers to the sound studio, several minutes were spent familiarising themselves with the new environment. They received instructions from the studio technician on how to go about a number of things. Among these were the following:

• Not to change sitting position either by leaning forward or backwards. This would change the already set voice recording levels.
• To avoid making disruptive noises such as paper rustling.
• Not to interfere with the position of the microphones.
• To obey cue lights (red/green) as instructed from the control desk.
• To obey hand cues from the control desk.
• Speaking to the microphone during recording.
• Silence as a key discipline during recording.

These experiences were new to most lecturers and for some it was exciting and for others it proved demanding.

Audio Cassette Load

The Diploma course has 38 printed modules to be taken during the 4 years period. These modules are covered as follows:

Two audio lessons were allocated to each module. Each audio lesson would highlight or provide additional information on topics in the module that the writers deemed as needing such attention. At the end of 4 years the student would be in possession of 20 audiocassettes. Each audiocassette (C-90) carries 4 20-minute lessons.

Problems that were reported by students regarding their audiocassette tapes included,

• Tapes running unevenly.
• Tapes breaking.
• Blank tapes.

These problems were attended to immediately and replacements made. The next problem emanated from the fact that only a single cassette duplicator (1 master to 3 slaves) was available. It took more than two weeks to dub 2,400 audiocassettes. It took extra efforts to wrap up 600 packages of 4 cassette tapes each.

These audiocassettes were identified with numbers. All cassettes had 4 audio lessons each. We identified them as cassette 1, 2, 3, and 4. A separate list was given to students indicating the titles on each audiocassette. This list was attached to a booklet of frames.

What the Students Said

During the April, 2000 residential session (24th April - 2nd May), 576 students reported in the four residential colleges of education (Serowe, Tlokweng, Lobatse, Francistown). All of them were issued with a questionnaire asking them to say a number of things about the audiocassettes. We received a total of only 59 responses. Many students left quickly after the residential session and did not hand in their completed questionnaires.

The 5th audiocassette was issued to them during this session and hence their comments referred to the 4 cassette tapes with 16 audio lessons.

Of the 16 lessons, the first lesson on Social Studies seems to have enjoyed highest popularity with 74.6% of the respondents saying they liked the audio lesson. In general students seemed to have favoured all programme ones in the first 8 subjects.

Asked to say why they liked the audiocassette lessons, the responses were varied as follows:

………….Voices are clear…..

………….Made things clear which I could not understand by just reading………..

………….Could associate content on module with what is heard on cassette…….

………….Helped me with assignments………

………….Easy to follow…………………….

………….Introduces lesson……………..

………….Act as a reminder as from my reading……….

………….If you don’t get things clear you revert to the cassette…..

Students were asked to say some of the things they did not like about the audio cassette. Their responses were as follows:

………Do not understand them…..

………Could not understand the language……..

……….Too difficult for me……….

……….Some teachers are fast……..

………They are not clear……..

When asked if they would like more than two audio programmes per module as is the case now, 78% responded in the affirmative and 8.5% were opposed to more audio lessons per module.

An open ended question at the end of the questionnaire asked respondents to make any comment regarding the audio lessons. It generated 44 responses that were divided into 3 categories.

A few are presented below:

Acknowledging the importance of audio lessons

…..They are very good as they supplement the modules by summarising topics. They also foster the note taking skills….

…..Cassettes are additional sources of information. So we still need more cassettes per module…..

Expressing a need

…..Direct audio cassettes to difficult topics……

…..Lessons should not be too long. Tutors to be slow….

……They must provide questions for revision…..

…….More cassettes to cover modules and with techniques to answer questions…….

Making a complaint

…..Some cassettes are very short e.g. Social Studies cassettes….

……Other side of the cassettes are empty…..

……All audio cassettes were difficult to understand…..

…….Label the cassettes……

…….Radio tutor must improve on their volume of speaking….

Summary

The Centre for Continuing Education has just gone through the first year productions of audiocassettes. These audiocassettes have been of value to the learner as indicated in their responses. Some students have already realised the tutoring capabilities of the audiocassette. They have suggested that some audio lessons be devoted to discussing how to go about answering assignment and examination questions. However, the main complaints on the audiocassettes seem to suggest that the audio lessons are posing problems with regard to language use. This is an issue that needs to be addressed in future productions. The survey also suggests the need for another survey to identify areas in the modules described as difficult by students and which should be given more attention in the audio component.

The lecturers on the other hand showed great enthusiasm in the development of these materials. Some lecturers were able to use the new techniques in presenting audio lessons by making use of drama and sound effects.

Using audiocassette accompanied by printed illustrations as was the case with mathematics and English (Poetry) was a clear demonstration that media can be used to support one another in designing learning instructions. For the Centre for Continuing Education, the use of audio as a starting point in the use of technology was reasonable It was the most accessible media at the time. Philips et al (1998) observes that access remains a problem for significant group of students especially those in low income and notes that all media will remain important as long as the problem of access persists.

This is just the first quarter of our productions in the audio medium. This staring point in the use of technology, in our context, is a launch pad for further use of more advanced technology in our distance learning programmes. This survey provided an insight on what lies a head, if tutorials are to be provided using other media.

References

Barford, J. & Weston, C. (1997) ‘ The use of video as a teaching resource in a new university ‘ British Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 28 no. 1 p. 40 – 50.

Carswell, L. et al (2000) ‘Distance Education Via the Internet: the student experience’ British Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 31 no. 1 2000 p 29 – 46.

Koble, M. A. (1996) ‘Integrating Technologies in Distance Education’ Open Learning Vol.11 No.3 P 41 – 44.

Philips, M. Scott, P. & Fage, J. (1998) ‘ Towards a Strategy for the Use of New Technology in Student Guidance and Support’ Journal Of Open and Distance Learning – Open Learning Vol. 13 No. 2 p. 53.

Thompson, D. J.(1996) ‘Audioteleconferencing: myths and realities’ Open Learning Vol. 11 No. 2 p 20 – 27.

Kimani Kabonoki
University of Botswana
Centre for Continuing Education
Private Bag 0022
GABORONE
Botswana
Email :kabonoki@mopipi.ub.bw or kabonoki@mega.bw
Tel. 267 355 2427
Fax 267 355 2056

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