PROFILED ORGANIZATIONS
--- Distance Education and Training Council

ONLINE RESOURCES
--- Using music to enhance learning
--- Instruments to assess WBI.
--- Guidelines and processes for teachers planning, designing and preparing
online courses for distance education students
--- The Practitioner's Guide to "Designing Instruction for Web-Based
Distance Learning"
--- Breakthebarriers
--- Spend, spend, spend? Is public spending a good thing for the Tanzanian
economy?
--- What price children? The added value of children to rural households in
Zambia

PRINTED AND OTHER RESOURCES
--- SAIDE Resource Centre : Selected Abstracts No.6/1999

ARTICLES
--- Information technology and higher education: The "global academic
village" and intellectual standardization-- Written by Phil Agre, June 1998

***************************

NEWS

INTERNET SHOPPING SEEN TRIPLING IN FOURTH QUARTER

Source: Reuters

Internet shoppers will spend $12.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 1999,

triple the amount for the same period last year, Gartner Group analysts

forecast Tuesday. US spending would account for $8.5 billion of that, the

company said at a forum in Orlando.

That $12.2 billion was part of $31.2 billion worth of online shopping the

group expected for all of 1999, with the annual number ballooning to $380

billion by 2003. "Books, CDs and computer sales are still the drivers, but

apparel is the fastest growing segment," said Brett Azume, vice president

for electronic business at DataQuest, a unit of Gartner Group. "This is not

a niche market, this is not an emerging market, this has become a mainstream

market," Azuma said.

----------------------------------------

Swaziland and Mauritania to get on Web

Global One, the international joint venture of Deutsche Telekom, France

Telecom and Sprint, has won contracts to design and implement Internet

systems and services for the governments of Swaziland and Mauritania under

the United Nations Internet Initiative in Africa (UNIIA).

UNIIA promotes economic and social development in sub-Saharan Africa by

developing Internet connectivity and national communications capacity.

Global One has provided networks and connections to Botswana, Ethiopia,

Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Sierre Leone, Togo and Zimbabwe. Source:

Communications Africa, August/September 1999.

Taken from The MEDIA BEAT - October 25 (compiled by the Communication

---

Big Jump In Standard Readership - Zimbabwe

The Zimbabwe Standard (Harare) - October 10, 1999 - By Itayi Viriri Harare -

The Standard recorded a massive 101% increase in its readership between 1998

and 1999, making it by far the largest increase in readership to be recorded

***************************

PROFILED ORGANIZATIONS

(This component of the TAD Consortium Newsletter kindly sponsored by Times
Media Limited - www.tml.co.za)

-----------

The Distance Education and Training Council (formerly the National Home

Study Council) is a non-profit educational association. The site is

***************************

ONLINE RESOURCES

Taken from The TrainingZone LearningWire - Issue 71

Using music to enhance learning

Here's an interesting online article brought to our attention recently which

seeks to demonstrate the value of music as an aid not just in relaxing, but

also in promoting learning and performance. I knew there was a good reason

----------------------------------------

I have developed several instruments to assess WBI..one of them that is

Manal El-Tigi

ISD Coordinator

Evaluation Specialist

TitusAustin Egypt

----------------------------------------

Some colleagues and I have developed guidelines and processes for teachers

planning, designing and preparing online courses for distance education

students. These development projects are based on our experience in

developing distance education courses at Central Queensland University and

other institutions over the past 25 years. While some information applies

specifically to Australian situations, much is generic.

The resources are substantial, equivalent to over 200 pages of print

materials. They can be found under the following titles and URLs.

--- Thinking about developing an educational

We would appreciate feedback, comments or suggestions for improvement from

edresourcers.

Please return comments to f.nouwens@cqu.edu.au

----------------------------------------

Here are a couple of online resources you might find helpful.

The Practitioner's Guide to "Designing Instruction for Web-Based Distance

Breakthebarriers is intended to help remove the obstacles that get in the

----------------------------------------

Spend, spend, spend? Is public spending a good thing for the Tanzanian

economy? contributor(s): Josaphat Kweka and Oliver Morrisey - University of

Nottingham , DSA Conference 1999 23 August 1999

Does government spending enhance economic growth? The evidence supporting a

significant relationship between the two is mixed. The impact of increased

spending differs from country to country depending on the economic

environment and on a particular government's budget allocation to each

sector. Research has thus tended to split such expenditure into two strands:

productive or investment spending which has a positive effect on economic

growth, and non-productive or consumption spending which has a detrimental

effect on growth. Researchers from the University of Nottingham have

attempted to establish which category should be considered productive and

To receive this piece by email, send a message to the following email

Leave the SUBJECT field BLANK, and copy the following text into the BODY of

the message:

Further information:

Josaphat Kweka

Centre for Research in Economic Development and International Trade (CREDIT)

Department of Economics

University of Nottingham

Nottingham

NG7 2RD

UK

Tel: +44 (0)115 951 5151

Fax: +44 (0)115 951 4159

----------------------------------------

What price children? The added value of children to rural households in

Zambia contributor(s): Hazel Barrett and Angela Browne - Coventry University

23 September 1999

The value of children in rural Zambia is increasingly seen in terms of an

economic and social resource with a price tag. Environmental hazards and the

resulting social changes add to poverty and uncertainty. The changes are

forcing families to reconsider their attitudes towards the earning abilities

of their offspring and the contribution they make towards a household's

income. Research from Coventry University focused on the Eastern Province

where women bear an average seven children. The study explored the links

between uncertainty, the increasing value of children, and the effects this

To receive this piece by email, send a message to the following email

Leave the SUBJECT field BLANK, and copy the following text into the BODY of

the message:

Further information: Hazel Barrett or Angela Browne

Geography Subject Group

School of Natural and Environmental Sciences

Coventry University

Priory Street

Coventry

CV1 5FB

UK

Tel: +44 (0)2476 888444

Fax: +44 (0)2476 888447

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PRINTED AND OTHER RESOURCES

-----------

SAIDE Resource Centre : Selected Abstracts No.6/1999

---

Collaboration

---

Joint Ventures in Distance Education: Mapping Uncharted Terrain by Andrea J

Lee and Tracy G Marsh. In: American Journal of Distance Education, vol.12,

no.2, 1998 pp54-62.

As greater numbers of universities and colleges enter the distance learning

arena, strategic alliances between academic institutions and private sector

businesses are increasing. Various models of academic/business alliances

that emphasize the strength each partner brings to the collaboration have

been discussed in the literature. This article proposes an alternative to

these bipartite models: a tripartite model in which the academic

institution, the business institution, and the students are equal partners

in the learning process. Using cartography as a metaphor for this model, the

strategic alliance between Marygrove College and Canter and Associates to

provide a comprehensive distance learning master's degree program is

discussed. The article describes the challenges this alliance has faced and

offers prescriptions for continued success and future growth.

---

Distance Education

---

Distance Education is a Strategy: What is the Objective? By Thomas W Smith.

In: American Journal of Distance Education, vol.12, no.2, 1998 pp63-72.

The tools and associated with distance education can be used to meet a

number of social, political, or business goals and their accompanying

educational or training objectives. Strategic planning is a means for

developing and verifying the fit between distance education and its

sponsoring goals. This paper reviews a number of strategic plans and the

goals and objectives normally assigned to distance education. This essay

examines assumptions about adopting distance delivery of education and

training by looking at distance education, not as an objective, but as a

strategy that can potentially serve many educational objectives.

---

Facilitation

---

The Complete Facilitator's Handbook by John Heron. London : Kogan Page,

1999.

The model presented in this book provides a key to successful facilitation.

Originating at the Human Potential Research Project, University of Surrey,

and rooted in the realities of facilitator training, this model has been

continuously developed for over 25 years, and is committed to empowering

whole people in highly flexible learning environments. Analytical and well

structured, it relates six basic learning dimensions to three primary forms

of decision-making, and within this framework offers an extensive repertoire

for practical action. It provides essential support for facilitators to

develop their own style and build effective skills relevant to the diverse

situations they may encounter. As well as practical guidance, there is a

strong theoretical content, covering group dynamics, facilitator authority,

experiential and whole person learning, personal charisma, co-operative

inquiry and social change. The appendix applies the whole model, in detail,

to the manager as facilitator.

---

Higher Education

---

An Audit Perspective, 1995-1998 by David Woodhouse. Wellington : New Zealand

Universities Academic Audit Unit, 1999.

The Academic Audit Unit (AAU) audited the seven universities during the

period 1995-1998, beginning with Victoria University of Wellington, which

submitted its audit portfolio to the AAU in February 1996, and ending with

Lincoln University, whose audit report was published in June 1998. This

overview is based on the seven audit reports and is therefore a historical

document. It presents a snapshot of aspects of the university sector in the

period 1995 to 1998. Even within this period, it is more of a video than a

still, because the universities have been changing constantly: in

anticipation of audit, in response to audit, in response to the changing

environment, and through continuing initiatives. Despite its historical

character, this overview should be of value, as it deals with issues that

frequently recur in different ways and different guises.

---

Outcomes Based Education

---

Changing Curriculum: Studies on Outcomes Based Education in South Africa ed.

By Jonathan Jansen and Pam Christie. Cape Town : Juta, 1999.

The introduction of outcomes based education (OBE) is the most controversial

reform in the history of South African education. It goes right to the heart

of the ongoing process of transforming this country into a democracy and

shedding the legacy of apartheid. The book is a critical analysis of

outcomes based education, its potential to succeed and its inherent

implications for the education system. It fills that vital space lying

between the conception of the system and its implementation. Changing

Curriculum : provides critical and wide-ranging analyses of outcomes based

education; combines theoretical work and field research; contextualises the

South African debate in terms of broader intellectual movements in

education; includes input by teachers, lecturers, government officials,

curriculum theorists and policymakers; constructs a much-needed dialogue

between various players in the educational field.

---

Evaluation of Curriculum 2005 and Outcomes Based Education in Gauteng

Province submitted by Khulisa Management Services with MBM Change Agents to

The Gauteng Institute for Curriculum Development. Johannesburg : GICD, 1999.

This evaluation of Curriculum 2005 and Outcomes Based Education in Gauteng

Province was conducted by Khulisa Management Services on behalf of the

Gauteng Institute for Curriculum Development. The evaluation was designed to

answer six research questions: What has been the experience in implementing

OBE-Curriculum 2005 in Grade 1 during 1998 (with special examination of

learner assessment practices and the availability/use of learner materials)?

How adequate was the preparation in 1997 for Grade 1 implementation during

1998? How adequate is the 1998 preparation of Grade 2 (for implementing

C2005 in 1999)?What has been the process for introducing and promulgating

OBE and Curriculum 2005 at provincial, district, and school levels. How

successful has this process been? What do Gauteng education professionals

(administrators, educators, policy makers, etc) think about the concept of

Curriculum 2005? How has OBE-Curriculum 2005 impacted on learner

performance.

---

Student Progress

---

Unravelling the complexities of distance education student attrition by

Christopher K Morgan and Maureen Tam. In: Distance Education: An

International Journal vol.20, no.1 1999 pp96-108.

This paper reports on an investigation into the complexities of student

attrition in a distance education course. Deep-seated factors involved in

the attrition process are disclosed as the particular qualitative research

process that was employed mapped student responses through the course of

interviews. These tabulations reveal interesting patterns of change as

students volunteer explanations for their decisions.

---

Technology Enhanced Learning

---

External Quality Assurance for the Virtual Institution by Shona Butterfield

et al. Wellington : NZUAAU, 1999.

In order to investigate the establishment, use and auditing of QA systems

for virtual institutions, one may begin by asking, What are the essential

differences between a conventional and a virtual institution, especially in

relation to QA? The authors argue that the difference is significant, and

that the difference must be reflected in the QA processes. However, it is

further argued that few institutions will fit neatly into one category, as

providing either face-to-face or on-line or distance education. A single

institution, and even a single course may evince characteristics of all

these modes. The area of interest of this publication may therefore be

described in a more general formulation as "flexible learning and teaching".

This definition includes: the provision of teaching programmes on the

internet; the use of media such as broadcasting, teleconferencing and

CD-ROM; all the systems currently used to provide educational programmes to

distance students; systems for the collaboration between campuses or

institutions for teaching; and the transformation of campus-based study by

the increasing use of information technology. There are basic processes for

QA and questions for academic audit that are sufficiently generic to be

applied to all institutions and modes, while others are more specific to the

mode. The central question is how does a higher education institution ensure

quality and how does an external quality agency verify this?

---

Leadership in Accreditation and Networked Learning by James W. Hall. In: The

American Journal of Distance Education, vol.12, no.2, 1998 pp 5-15.

Distance Education and traditional campus-based education are experiencing a

historic convergence that has produced a high degree of anticipation and

anxiety among those who deal with institutional evaluation and

accreditation. Convergence of these two approaches as networked education is

well-advanced; today's instruction, once mediated at the boundaries of the

campus both by the state authority and the regional or professional

accreditation body, easily crosses physical boundaries and established

jurisdictions. Accreditation threatens to become a pastich of intertwining

jurisdictions, since neither government nor accreditors have fully

anticipated the implications of networked education. How will public policy

ensure that appropriate educational and academic controls persist, and how

and by whom will the decisions that guarantee the quality, continuity and

credibility of student work be made? Students themselves may already be

providing new directions for leadership.

---

Learning to solve problems on the Web: Aggregate Planning in Business

Management Course by David Jonassen and others. In: Distance Education: An

International journal vol.20, no.1, 1999 pp49-63.

In this paper, we articulate a model for designing learning environments

that engage learners in solving problems and can be delivered to learners at

a distance via the World Wide Web. These environments include a problem

(including representation, context, and manipulation spaces), related cases,

information resources, cognitive tools, and collaborative support. We apply

this model to an environment on aggregate planning in an operations

management course. Students represent the problem, collect resources and

experiences, and solve the problem using a spreadsheet, which can be machine

scored. Field trials showed that students were challenged, and they liked

being able to see the results of their manipulations instantly.

***************************

ARTICLES

-----------

Information technology and higher education: The "global academic village"

and intellectual standardization-- Written by Phil Agre, June 1998

University administrators these days are planning for a world in which

information technology is pervasive -- so pervasive, in fact, that the very

institution of higher education begins to change. It is entirely possible,

of course, that we can use information technology to improve higher

education. But information technology is exceedingly flexible, and we will

surely face numerous choices about how best to apply it. Some of those

choices will be ethically straightforward matters of efficiency, best left

to the experts. Other choices, however, will require us to reflect carefully

on the values that a university ought to express. If we have learned

anything from attempts to improve life using information technology, it is

that significant improvements are only possible when institutions are

rethought at a basic level. Some will argue that the necessary changes are

inevitable, having been determined in advance by the technology. But such

arguments should be examined with great care: in practice they will usually

be found to encode important ethical stances that do admit reasonable

alternatives.

Let us take an example. A recent letter to University of California faculty

from the chair of the University's Academic Council, Sandra Weiss, discussed

something called "course articulation", which she defines as "the degree to

which students can build an additive degree program by taking courses either

at different institutions or at the different campuses of one institution".

This same idea is called "modularity" in Britain, where it was central to

the higher education platform of the Thatcher and Major governments. On the

motives behind course articulation, Professor Weiss explains that "we have

moved into an era where individual campuses are becoming part of a larger

academic community -- a "global academic village" so to speak". Information

technology helps drive this trend, and Professor Weiss further explains that

"[f]or technology-mediated coursework, we need to identify comparable

content across courses that would be acceptable for transfer and also

grapple with our expectations regarding traditional "face to face contact"

between professor and student and among students themselves". (Quotes are

from Professor Weiss's "Notes from the Chair" column in the May 1998 issue

of the "Notices" of the University of California's Academic Senate.)

This sort of discussion refutes often-heard stereotypes of professors -- or

"academic elites", as the new jargon would have it - as Luddites engaged in

bull-headed resistance to technologically driven institutional change. Quite

the contrary, as Professor Weiss's letter illustrates, my own impression is

that fundamental changes are being implemented as we speak, and that these

changes are often taking place beneath the radar screens of most faculty,

much less the broad public. Now, the University of California has perhaps

the most robust traditions of shared governance of any public university in

the world, and so the faculty here have no excuse if they are unaware that

these things are going on. And although I have my differences with the

University of California administration, I think the game is being played

more or less fairly. Still, it is important that we step back and ask what

we are getting ourselves into, and what choices we are actually making.

I believe that traditional practices of computer system design lead to an

important phenomenon that I call "ontological standardization". When you

write a computer program, almost the first step is to define the ontology

that the program's data structures are going to reflect -- that is, what

sorts of things you think the world is made out of, and therefore what sorts

of data objects are going to be created and stored through the program's

operation. The technical term for this is a "data model". In the case of

higher education, one's ontology might include people, job titles,

departments, courses, majors, and grades. The ontology, in other words, has

(at least) those six components, and your program will only work right if

everything the program needs to represent can be comfortably subsumed within

one or more of those six categories.

In the old, unnetworked world, different organizations - universities in

this case -- all developed their ontologies somewhat independently of one

another. Forces did exist toward what Walter Powell and Paul Dimaggio call

"institutional isomorphism" -- for example, the frequent movement of

administrators from one organization to another. In the world of networked

computing, however, the forces for institutional isomorphism are greatly

amplified. If each student makes only a single choice among hundreds of

different four-year schools, it does not matter so much whether the internal

workings of those schools can be mapped onto one another. But if we suddenly

move to the opposite extreme by letting each student choose among those

hundreds of schools for each course or even each class meeting, then

suddenly the schools need to ensure that they mean the same thing by the

very concept of a course or a class meeting. Thus far, this issue has arisen

primarily in the context of mergers between corporations: if the two

companies' computers don't talk to one another, say because each side has

meant something different by a word like "employee" or "sales", then genuine

havoc can result. Now, however, the same issue can arise in a wide variety

of institutional contexts, even when separate organizations are not being

formally merged. Ontological standardization, then, is what happens when

most of the organizations in a given institutional field are required to

harmonize what they mean by the most fundamental categories of their

internal workings.

What are the practical consequences of this force? The trend toward course

articulation is a good example. In the old days -- that is to say, the past

up to and including right now -- universities competed on the basis of their

distinctive programs: one university's economics department, for example,

might be ranked above another university's economics department in some

magazine survey. In such a world, each university is able to take its own

distinctive approach, and then each program within a university is able to

take *its* own distinctive approach within the overall context of the

university. The University of Chicago emphasizes scholarship, for example,

and Harvard emphasizes social networking. Each program is able to divide up

its curriculum into courses however it likes in accordance with its own

distinctive approach. And because decisions about program philosophy and

course content are made locally by each faculty, on the basis of its own

talents and its competition to attract the best students, the contents of

courses and the boundaries between courses can change rapidly and flexibly

to suit the evolving circumstances.

With ontological standardization, however, all of this threatens to change.

It is, to be sure, a good thing to help students transfer between campuses:

the possibility of transferring from a community college into the University

of California system, for example, has been a basic part of California's

higher education strategy for decades, even if the transfer students don't

always have the easiest time of it. We need to recognize, however, that the

ease of transferring courses between schools -- effectively assembling one's

college education a la carte from among the offerings of a large number of

potentially quite different programs -- may come at a significant price in

intellectual diversity. If the internal modularity of degree programs must

be coordinated centrally, or at least negotiated among numerous independent

universities, then the result will be less flexibility and greater

uniformity. Power over fine details of the curriculum will inevitably shift

in the direction of accrediting organizations, university administrators,

and other professional coordinators. Faculty may effectively lose the

ability to write their own syllabi. The diversity of thinking and teaching

at universities has long been important to the health of a free society.

That is, for example, why professors get tenure once they have proven their

abilities by passing through many levels of competition and testing. And it

may be tempting to stereotype universities as having become dominated by one

or another unpopular tendency as a pretext for standing by as the

institution drifts into greater uniformity. But I think that would be a

terrible mistake. We need to preserve the institutional conditions for a

diversity of intellectual approaches.

As we decide how to use information technology in higher education, we face

choices that follow a pattern. In the "old days", various important

values -- in this case decentralization and diversity -- were guaranteed, or

at least encouraged, by the limitations of the physical world. Universities

were numerous and spread out, it was relatively difficult to transfer people

and practices between them, and so different universities evolved along

somewhat independent paths. Now, however, we only get that independence,

that separate evolution and diversity of educational approach, if we

actively choose it. We will make some of our choices out in the open. But we

will make other choices implicitly, tacitly, as a seeming consequence of

simply following through the logic that information technology imposes on

us.

We have been disserved, I think, by "cyber" claims that information

technology inherently and inevitably brings decentralization and diversity

to the world. If my own argument has the slightest merit then this is not

so, and indeed the opposite might be closer to the truth. I do not believe

that technology has any essential and inevitable consequences, however. The

traditional practices of computer system design first arose in military and

industrial settings in which centralized coordination is a virtue, or at

least in which centralization does not threaten important societal values.

In higher education, however, it is a different story. Let us use technology

when it helps us do our good work better. But let us not permit the

technology and its customary practices to dictate important, value-laden

changes in our institutions. And when the situation calls for it, let us

develop new technology, or else wait until somebody develops it for us. The

whole point of technology is to serve human purposes, but the burden of

technology is that we must choose what those purposes are.

----------------------------------------

Telecenters are increasingly being supported by donors as a means for

expanding access to information and knowledge, and for helping those in

developing countries to gain access to economic and educational

opportunities via the Web. In designing and implementing telecenters, it

seems helpful to consider the experience of telecenters in the US and other

industrialized countries.

The Community Technology Centers' Network (CTCNet), is part of Education

Development Center, an NGO that conducts projects around the world. CTCNet

has established hundreds of telecenters in rural and urban low-income areas

of the US. They typically (although not exclusively) serve underserved

and/or economically disadvantages groups. Recently, CTCNet conducted an

evaluation of those telecenters' experience, and the results, I believe, are

relevant to telecenters in developing countries. The evaluation was based on

817 surveys from 44 centers in D.C. and 14 states. Below I've summarized

some of the major findings of the evaluation.

The telecenters provide valuable services to women and girls, people widely

ranging in age, members of racial or ethnic minorities, and populations with

relatively few financial resources

* The majority (62%) of the respondents were women or girls.

* Respondents ranged in age from 13 to 91. Half were between the ages of 20

and 49. 11% were 60 or older.

* 2/3 identified themselves as "nonwhite"

* Approximately 75% of users said their household incomes were considerably

lower than the 1996 median US household income

* Aside from students, 38% were unemployed; 27% were part-time or temporary

workers

2. Clients used telecenters for a wide range of services

* 76% took classes at the center and also used the computers for

self-directed activities. Many acquired or improved English language skills,

got tutoring, or participated in adult education programs. They also used

the computers to obtain information from the Internet, use email, and set up

Websites.

* 68% came to the telecenter specifically to carry out their own activities,

e.g., writing a newsletter

3. An important benefit of the telecenter was its use to develop job skills

and learn of income-generating opportunities

* 65% of respondents took classes to improve their job skills

* 30% used the Internet to search for a job

* Of the 446 job seekers, 14% had obtained a job and 67% were closer to

obtaining one. Only 19% said they were no closer.

* Of the 586 people who used the telecenters to improve job skills, 8%

reached their goal. 82% said the telecenter had helped them move closer to

achieving their goals. Only 10% said they were no closer.

4. The telecenters had a positive impact on clients' educational goals

* 85% felt much more positive or somewhat more positive about themselves as

learners due to their participation in telecenter classes and other

activities.

5. The telecenters supported community building

* 71% said that email was important to them, to maintain or extend community

networks

* More than half of the centers' users said the telecenter was an important

source of information about local events and government information

* 82% of respondents said that the "supportive atmosphere" was a fairly or

very important reason for visiting the telecenter

6. Overall perceptions of the telecenters were overwhelmingly positive.

* 94% said they had positive feelings about the telecenter that they visited

* Only 6% had mixed or negative feelings

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Telematics for African Development Consortium

P.O. Box 31822

Braamfontein

2017

Johannesburg

South Africa

Tel: +27 +11 403-2813

Fax: +27 +11 403-2814

neilshel@icon.co.za

www.saide.org.za

* To view an archive of previous updates visit:

www.saide.org.za/tad/archive.htm

* For resources on distance education and

technology use in Southern Africa visit:

www.saide.org.za/worldbank/Default.htm

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