Margot McNeill and Louise Turnbull
Open Training and Education Network - DE
51 Wentworth Road STRATHFIELD NSW 2135
Margot McNeill [OTEN-DE], E-mail, margot.mcneill@tafensw.edu.au
Louise Turnbull [OTEN-DE], E-mail, louise.turnbull@tafensw.edu.au
Technology, effectively used, can significantly enhance distance delivery and make it a more accessible, dynamic, supportive and interactive experience for students and teachers. Utilising all the advantages of asynchronous and constructivist learning, learning can be "just in time" and "just for me", and the supporting administrative systems can enable students to begin and end their studies whenever they choose, possibly with 24x7 access to learning, help and guidance. However, can education providers be tempted to take flexibility too far - to a point beyond the optimum for both students and teachers? If so, what is the ultimate aim of flexibility and who determines whether particular initiatives are indeed flexible?
The Open Training and Education Network (OTEN-DE) is one of the largest providers of distance education in Australia with close to 35,000 students enrolling in 250 courses in 2001. Flexible delivery and the use of appropriate technologies have been key components in meeting the needs of these students and overcoming some of the traditional barriers to distance education. Flexibility has been applied not only to the design and delivery of courses but also to the administrative systems and processes that support delivery.
This paper examines a move to re-define the boundaries of OTEN-DE's flexibility. Significant changes in the available technologies and the opportunities afforded by them have influenced this re-definition, as well as research that indicates there are some areas where students and teachers could benefit from more structure.
OTEN-DE has long considered its own brand of distance education to be at the optimum end of the flexible delivery continuum particularly in relation to these aspects:
In terms of client centredness and access, students are increasingly being offered the option of either studying all or some of their modules online or using print and other types of media. In many courses students can choose the order in which to study their modules, and the learning materials themselves are designed to be non-linear and as flexible as possible.
With regards to client control, students can enrol when they choose from November (for the following year) until August; they can decide how many modules they wish to enrol in and can add new modules to their enrolment throughout the year. Most courses are self-paced, with no set study program or fixed dates for assignments.
The fact that most courses do not require attendance at workshops or residentials and therefore can be studied at a location of the student's choice has further reduced the impact of geographic location on access to study. Further, OTEN-DE plays an important access role by allowing other TAFE NSW students to co-enrol in order to study subjects not available at their local TAFE college.
The teacher's role in this flexible learning environment is a blend of correspondent, mentor and helpdesk, providing support and feedback on assignments via the postal system, telephone, fax and increasingly, email.
However, the degree of flexibility offered by an educational institution is ultimately determined by the learning experience of the student. Flexibility should encompass the entire student experience of communication and support between students and faculty, assessment, time and time management, and participation in different learning activities. (Alexander (2001)). The challenge of flexible delivery is to use technology to enhance learning, but not to be governed by its opportunities.
As suggested by the ANTA definition of flexible delivery:
"Flexible learning is an approach to vocational education and training which allows for the adoption of a range of learning strategies, in a variety of learning environments to cater for differences in learning styles, learning interests and needs and variations in learning opportunities"(1992).
The OTEN-DE Learning Support Site, launched in April 2002, provides an opportunity to change and enhance many of the educational and administrative processes at OTEN-DE. The site was established as a learner friendly (McClelland, 2001) gateway to online services and information. Students are sent all the learning material they require for each module usually in a print form. They can then access the site for information on the range of available support services, for example, counselling and other student support services, as well as resources, communication tools and information for the course or modules they are studying.
The site is integrated with OTEN-DE's student administration and management system (SAM) and therefore allows students to have access to relevant information from this system. (See figure 1.1)
When students log on to the site, their individual student numbers and enrolment details are validated from SAM. This data is then used to:
All of the course and module support pages on the site include an introduction to welcome the students, a link to the Course Information Leaflet (CIL) and a "contact us" link to the specific teaching area. Most also have a brief profile of the teachers involved with the course or module, and some will have additional features such as useful links, exercises, graphics and a discussion board.
Recent OTEN-DE research, (Kirkby,1999 and OTEN-DE, 2001) indicated students showed a preference for more structure in the form of study timetables and fixed dates for their assignments. This research, coupled with the opportunities provided by the OLS site, lead to a review of the structure of the learning environment to include fixed dates for assessment events to be implemented in 2003. In this context, the students are defining what they want - paradoxically, flexibility equals a more fixed study pattern.
Both research studies revealed that a significant number of students would prefer more contact with teachers and other students, a finding reinforced by studies from other tertiary institutions. (Brown, 1996; Lake, 1999) The OLS site provided for increased contact with the teachers through email, however, it was realised that the OLS site had been developed to include some tools that could not be utilised given the current self-paced system. Activities such as reflection (Andrusyszyn and Davie, 1995) can play a valuable part in developing new meaning for students, yet in a totally unstructured environment, it is difficult to make full use of tools such as discussion boards to encourage this metacognative awareness. The structuring of the study program will enable teachers to initiate threads of discussion, which encourage reflection and also support students by directing them to the relevant self-assessment exercises on the site.
This structuring of learning will also enable students to choose to study with other students in a group in they choose and allow for mentoring opportunities between students.
The synergy from these types of activities can be a powerful motivator, the lack of which students have identified as one factor in the discontinuation of their studies. (Kirkby, 1999) In the OTEN-DE model of flexible distance education, the important role of motivator has rested solely with the teacher, often in individual emails or phone calls with the student (Phipps, 2000). The group environment of the discussion board, if thoughtfully and constructively facilitated can enable the group to motivate its own members and for shared learning to occur. "The benefit of the system is that the communication is on a "one-to-many" basis, so that all students may benefit, not just the one who asked the initial question." (Taylor, 2001)
"For technological change to be effective, it usually needs to be accompanied by major structural change and organisational changes for its full potential to be realised." (Bates, 1999)
OTEN-DE's model has been that of a traditional distance education provider - producing high quality materials, providing support "on demand". The introduction of the OLS has provided a unique opportunity to change both the structure of the learning environment for students and also the educational and support approaches used by teachers. For example, students will have easier access to communication with their teachers and support staff through Helpdesk email, phone and fax contact details for each course and support area. Although this increased access to help and guidance from the OTEN staff will be valuable to many students, the site can also be used to provide "a wider repertoire of teaching methods, (so) the environment in which students learn would be enriched." (Nunan, 1996). It can be used as an integration mechanism, "providing dynamic linkages to real-world applications", rather than the distribution mechanism of traditional education. (Maule,1997). This change will not be merely putting print based materials online, or redeveloping existing materials, the cost of which can be prohibitive. Instead, the change in the methodology of learning will entail reviewing the entire "complex system"(Alexander (2001). The materials themselves will need to be adjusted to reflect the new deadlines and also the availability of this new "collaborative" style of learning.
An accompanying issue is "the altering of staff attitudes, behaviours and skills" (Johnson, 1992). OTEN-DE teachers have traditionally seen their role as responding to student requests for assistance, so significant cultural and behavioural change will need to take place before they take advantage of the opportunities afforded by CMC and the online support site. They will also need to learn the skills of online facilitation in a more proactive sense. (Salmon, 2000) At the same time they are required to work within the organisational constraints including the high student/teacher ratio, as high as 162 to 1 in some courses.
To assist the teachers in adopting their new role, access to technical support has been arranged and a mentoring program to spread knowledge throughout the teaching staff (Bates, 1999; Phipps, 2000) is currently underway. Professional development programs include a 25 hour "Introduction to Teaching Online" course and ongoing workshops on effective and creative uses of the support site including for example online facilitation skills, finding and adding useful links, and developing dynamic resources.
"The use of information technology does not of itself
improve learning - but rather the entire student experience of communication
and support between students and faculty, assessment, time and time management,
and participation in different learning activities." (Alexander, 2001)
OTEN-DE's redefining of "flexibility" to be "meeting students' needs" aims to utilise the available technology, however sustainability is also critical. Two changes are underway which, while again apparently setting boundaries to the level of flexibility, will improve the level of student service OTEN-DE is able to provide.
In the past 12 months OTEN has experienced a significant increase in student emails. Close to 12, 000 out of the 23,000 students enrolled as at March 2002 have provided their email address to OTEN, even though this is a non-essential field. This figure represents an increase of more than 20% from a similar period in 2001, and is a trend expected to continue. Also, in the recent research into student evaluation of online learning (2001), 61% of the 340 students surveyed chose to contact their teachers via email.
The flexibility of every student emailing the teacher for individual help in the first instance is expensive and, with constant pressure on funding, may be unsustainable. The aim therefore is to "minimize the cost of serving customers while at the same time increasing the quality of the service they receive"(Peebles, C. and Antolovic, L., 1999). The following table summarises research undertaken by the University of Indiana:
|
Mode of
enquiry
|
Cost per
enquiry
|
%
satisfaction
|
|
Walk - in |
$4.04
|
92%
|
|
Telephone |
$5.26
|
86%
|
|
|
$7.04
|
79%
|
|
It Knowledge database |
$0.44
|
86%
|
From this data, email is the most expensive of the 4 options, yet has the lowest satisfaction rating. Interestingly, the expense of email customer service is attributed to "the number of back-and-forth exchanges required to get a clear statement of the problem and a succinct solution for it". (Peebles and Antolovic, 1999)
OTEN-DE is in the process of writing the specifications for software to enable questions and answers to be stored a searchable database, to eventually reduce email traffic. Rather than simply sending an email, students are encouraged to enter their query into an online form. A keyword search will then automatically generate a set of responses to the query. If this search fails to provide the answer to the question, an email can then be completed using a purpose-designed form and forwarded to the teacher for individual response, which will then be integrated into the database where appropriate.
In terms of the student being the only real judge of the level of flexibility offered by an educational provider, the proposed email Smart FAQ system, whereby they will receive an instant response to their question, would probably be considered more flexible than the current systems that are only available during office hours.
Specifications are also being drawn up for an electronic assignment submission system. Currently, students can email their assignments to OTEN but from this step onwards the process is manual and the turnaround time not always as rapid as students might like. Distance education students naturally rate a fast turnaround time for assignment processing and marking as a high priority. (Phipps, R., 2000)
Using the new web based system; students will be required to submit their work in fields, without attachments. Assignments will then be sent to specific mailboxes and receipt messages will automatically be forwarded to them. The assignments will be marked and returned online and grades recorded on the student administration and management system (SAM).
On initial examination, this does represent a reduction in flexibility for students in that they will be discouraged from simply emailing their assignments to their teachers, and will also be unable to use elaborate formatting and attachments. However, it is anticipated that this will reduce the turnaround time for marking as well as some of the associated handling and postal charges.
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than those attending too small degree of it."
(Thomas Jefferson, letter (1791) as quoted in Webster's Dictionary of Quotations, 1995)
To date, OTEN-DE has considered itself to be at the forefront of flexible delivery and "liberty" in distance education. However, the move to add structure and timeframes to learning, the opportunity for students to interact with a cohort, combined with more streamlined and robust systems for answering queries and processing assignments are all initiatives which seem at face value to reduce flexibility. As anomalous as they may appear, this paper has shown that there are indeed grounds for such changes. It is envisaged that a more structured learning environment and due dates for assignments will provide some milestones for students and enable them to join a cohort if they wish. It will also enable teachers to use the communication tools available on the OLS site to set up a synergy to engage and motivate the students. Examples include online discussion boards and topic-related exercises.
Answering student queries and the processing of assignments are also areas where flexibility can become increasingly difficult to manage, and adding some boundaries will enable OTEN to provide a better service to all students. The introduction of a "smart helpdesk", a dynamically generated FAQ system designed to answer some of the more frequently asked questions automatically, should enable the teachers to focus more on improving the quality of their interactions and providing learning support to students. Similarly, adding some structure to how students submit assignments will streamline the marking and administrative processes, and should result in a quicker turnaround time.
Hence, students are redefining the boundaries of flexibility at OTEN-DE, based on their needs. Perhaps this is the ultimate aim of flexibility - client-centredness.
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