Technological Infrastructure and Use of ICT in Education in ... - ADEA

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Technological Infrastructure and Use of ICT in Education in Africa: an overview 15 • Resource-Based Learning Resource-based learning involves communication of curriculum between learners and educators through the use of resources (instructionally designed and otherwise) that harness different media as necessary. Resource-based learning strategies can be integrated into any education programme, using any mix of contact and distance education strategies. Resource-based learning need not imply any temporal and/or spatial separation between educators and learners, although many resource-based learning strategies can be used to overcome such separation. Although this distinction is somewhat arbitrary, it is helpful for purposes of analysis, as it allows us to establish some underlying problems that have arisen during ‘distance education’ planning. The intention behind this is not to set up new artificial dichotomies. Rather, it is to illustrate more vividly that moves to resource-based learning do not, de facto, achieve the goals of distance education and vice versa. Thus, while most distance education programmes seek to overcome temporal and spatial separation through use of resources, some seek only to overcome distance using direct communication via telecommunications technologies (such as video-conferencing). Conversely, many efforts to develop educational resources have not systematically focused on achieving the economies of scale that have historically provided such a central motivation for most distance education programmes. 2.1.1 What Does ‘Modes of Delivery’ Cover? In historical terms, the concept of ‘modes of delivery’ has been relatively simple to understand, as people have generally tended to differentiate between ‘contact education’ and ‘distance education’ as two readily identifiable modes of delivery. Internationally, this broad distinction began to merge as different institutions moved to establish themselves as ‘dual-mode’ or ‘mixed-mode’ institutions, particularly in the area of higher education. This generally began to happen as traditionally contact institutions introduced distance education programmes for students who were not able to attend their central campus on a full-time basis. In simple terms, then, the concept of modes of delivery covers these three broad institutional types: 1. Contact education institutions (where students attend face-to-face sessions of different kinds, and these sessions are the primary mechanism for communicating course curriculum); 2. Definition of Terms
16 Working Group on Distance Education and Open Learning 2. Distance education institutions (where students and educators are separated by time and/or space, and communication of curriculum takes place primarily through use of educational resources, drawing on different media as necessary); and 3. Mixed- or dual-mode institutions (where the institution establishes parallel administrative systems to enable it to offer both distance and contact education programmes). In most education systems, there are several examples of educational institutions that fall into these categories. Contact education institutions still tend to be the most common, as most primary and secondary schools fall into this category, as do many colleges and universities. Similarly, there are several examples around the world of dedicated distance education institutions, some of which are very large (such as the Indira Ghandi Open University in India, which has hundreds of thousands of students), some medium-sized (the National Correspondence College in Zambia, for example, enrolled an estimated 21,000 students in 1999), and some much smaller (the Botswana College of Open and Distance Learning had 600 registered students completing their schooling in 1999). Dual-mode institutions are also on the increase in the developing world, particularly in the higher education sector, as the examples of the Universities of Pretoria and Stellenbosch in South Africa illustrate. 2.1.2 Modes of Delivery: An Outdated Form of Categorization The concept of ‘modes of delivery’ is based on an historical distinction in education systems between ‘distance’ and contact’ education. This distinction has been very useful for many years, particularly as it allowed for the establishment of innovative responses to education problems—such as Open Universities and Open Schools—that could be set up and run without waiting for changes in mainstream education systems. 2. Definition of Terms This flexibility was important to the success of many distance education institutions around the world, but has also had the unfortunate consequence of establishing two distinct education systems, which have historically operated in parallel and created long-term policy problems. This problem has been compounded recently, as there has been an explosion of education delivery options, around which it has become increasingly difficult to establish meaningful policy and regulatory frameworks.
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