One of the National Association for Distance Education and Open Learning in South Africa's (NADEOSA) major contributions has been the development of the Nadeosa publication Designing and Delivering Distance Education : Quality Criteria and Case Studies. After contextualising quality assurance in distance education in South Africa, the publication then identifies 13 quality criteria, each with a number of elements which contribute to an understanding of that criterion. It then gives illustrations from the South African context of poor distance education practice around particular criteria of concern. It concludes with a set of case studies which illustrate good practice around particular criteria. The Association has updated the publication with new case studies that are available digitally on the Nadeosa website. Ephraim Mhlanga has been taking this process forward and discusses some of his observations.
As Open and Distance Education becomes more and more popular in Southern Africa, just like elsewhere in the world, practitioners are becoming more and more creative about how they use it. Of significance are the various ways in which this mode of delivery is used in order to address local problems bedevilling communities. The University of Swaziland case study provides an example of where open and distance learning (ODL) is being used to train community-based personnel working with children affected by HIV/AIDS so that they are better able to support vulnerable children in their communities. The Household Food Security initiative uses ODL to train poor rural communities in addressing food security problems. The programme was developed by the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) at the University of South Africa (Unisa) working in collaboration with Saide. At the University of Pretoria's Unit for Distance Education, ODL is being used to roll out a large-enrolment teacher education programme. In 2012 more than 19 000 teachers were enrolled in the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
In all contexts where ODL is provided, the major concern to the general public is whether this mode of delivery measures up to quality standards. All the three cases cited above demonstrate that quality is less a function of delivery mode than it is of the deliberate steps the provider takes to ensure that the services offered are credible and are appropriately benchmarked. Snippets of the case studies are provided in this attachment. Two of the case studies are available on the Nadeosa website, with the University of Pretoria case study being made available shortly.
Conclusion
The three case studies illustrate a number of quality criteria defined in NADEOSA's quality standards for distance education. The key message communicated through the case studies is that ODL providers stand a better chance of developing and rolling out high quality programmes in cost-effective ways by forming collaborative relationships and undertaking collaborative projects with relevant stakeholders. The second message is that quality criteria are dynamic instruments; they need to change with time in order to keep abreast with changing times. Whilst the case studies illustrate a number of the NADEOSA quality criteria, two of them also point to possible criteria that need to be added to the existing NADEOSA criteria:
The HFS case study illustrates the need to add a possible additional criterion on community engagement, which might read as follows:
Where programmes are designed with the specific intent of supporting the development of particular communities, such initiatives should be designed, implemented and evaluated in consultation with those communities.
The UP case study shows how the Unit for Distance Education closely monitored students' profiles, including how the use of SMS technology benefited students. This information guided planning of what technologies to use and how to use them. The case study illustrates good practice in the area of evaluating the benefits of using a particular type of technology. An additional quality criterion suggested in this regard is:
Technology used for teaching and learning purposes must be evaluated regularly in terms of its appropriateness and returns.
Copies of the original NADEOSA Quality Criteria are available in print form from the NADEOSA Secretariat @ R80 per copy. Contact: jennyl@saide.org.za . |
