Case Study

Australia

 Open Learning Institute Charles Sturt University 

Prepared by:       David Meacham

Brief description of the programme

The Open Learning Institute (oli) of Charles Sturt University (csu), a multi-campus institution, is located in several cities in inland New South Wales in Eastern Australia.

Charles Sturt University offers a wide range of degree courses, both on-campus and through distance education, using print and electronic instructional media.The Open Learning Institute is responsible for research and development, learning materials, design, production, student liaison, and academic staff development.

The university is expanding its proportion of off-campus students, with only about 13 percent being recruited directly from high school on the basis of their learning certificate results. An increasing number of overseas students study both at a distance and on-campus. Charles Sturt University is currently the largest single university provider of distance education in Australia and is seeking to expand its market by introducing both greater choice and greater flexibility of learning for its clients, many of whom are young professionals seeking to enhance their careers.

Problems encountered

In a time of rapid social and technological change coupled with government induced destabilisation of universities, many issues are emerging relating to the future role of distance education and its efficient operation in a client focused market, where needs may have to be met with diminishing resources.

Planning and managing distance education

	In a dual mode institution, structures and practices develop primarily to serve
	on-campus students who are now in the minority.
	his focus creates problems in introducing new systems for learners who require
	flexibility and asynchronous teaching.
	Currently the university is attempting to expand resource-based learning to allow
	greater flexibility in study time and location, which is problematic in a conventional
	two-semester system with fixed entry and exit times.
	Structures in the university are based on substantive areas of study, that is,
	schools, faculties, and centres, and functional divisions (for example, Information
	Technology and Financial Services). The Open Learning Institute exists to service
	a particular mode of learning that has become dominant. In addition, there has
	been considerable devolution of organisation and financial responsibility in an
	environment of diminishing resources.
	Consequently it is extremely difficult to develop a corporate or institutional
	approach to distance education when large numbers of factions with particular
	self-interests demand more from severely limited budgets.
	The volatile external political and economic environment makes forward planning
	difficult politically and economically it has become expedient to attempt to
	increase  the level of
	student support for distance learners, while reducing expenditure. This situation
	has the potential to precipitate extreme management problems.

Implementing quality assurance

• The Open Learning Institute has begun a comprehensive quality assurance

• programme, starting with the development of a series of comprehensive procedure

• manuals.

• These manuals are proving difficult to update during a time of rapidly changing

• structures and priorities.

• In the university there is a large degree of scepticism about the effectiveness of

• industrially derived quality assurance schemes in higher education. In contrast, the

• political imperative is to develop sophisticated responses to government inspired

• quality audits that could significantly influence future funding.

Using and integrating media in open learning

• The university has enthusiastically embraced the use of non-print media in distance education. 

• However, there is considerable increase in development costs in continuing to

• offer print materials with a multimedia alternative, or by using some multimedia to

• complement print.

• Important equity and marketing issues need to be addressed with regard to the

• use of integrated multimedia. The technology policy of the university will require

• new students to access specified personal computer hardware and software,

• eliminating some potential clients and attracting others, unless alternative provision

• exists for a while.

• The early stages of transfer to a predominantly electronic medium of distance

• education have led to some materials being made available that are little more than

• digital textbooks.

• More research needs to be done on the value added by various media and

• their suitability for specific applications.

Instructional design and production for distance education

• The integration of electronic media into distance education resources has required

• the recruitment of specialist instructional designers who have expertise in video,

• authorware, and Web design. 

• General instructional designers, whose competence is mainly in the

• area of print, have become somewhat apprehensive as resources are moved to

• support emerging technologies.

• Electronic media are being produced by individual teaching staff with limited input

• from educational designers, making quality control problematical. 

• Print materials are rigorously checked before dispatch, after a comprehensive

• editorial process.

• New technologies are emerging at a rate that outstrips the development of

• systems to support and control their use.

Learner support systems

• The university has traditionally provided compulsory residential schools for many

• subjects, where group work and the use of specialised equipment were deemed to

• be necessary for appropriate understanding and competency development.

• Such provision is currently being challenged on the grounds that residential

• schools are costly, both for the university and for the student, who has to leave

• work and often travel long distances. 

• Consequently, alternative, media-based means of support are being

• developed, sometimes against the views of the traditionalists, who regard

• face-to-face contact with students as a necessary ingredient for effective learning.

The most important issue: Finding alternatives to face-to-face contact

An important contemporary issue is the university’s lack of a structured, informed approach to the offering of residential schools.

The original intention was to require distance education students to attend campus for not more than two weeks per year to obtain intensive instruction, practice in areas in which human interaction or a specialist environment was a precondition for understanding and skill development, or both. Residential schools also provided an assurance to accrediting bodies, employers, and professional associations that distance education was not inferior to conventional teaching. The issue of parity of esteem between on- and off-campus courses was of paramount importance in the early days of distance education in Australia, but has diminished with widespread acceptance of the quality of distance education graduates.

Over the years, differences emerged between the two colleges that amalgamated to form the new university. Historical factors led to one campus offering course-based residential schools on a reduced scale, while another campus offered a greater level of subject-based residential schools. The original intent of residential schools appeared to be diluted, with idiosyncratic, campus-based views dominating. At the same time, emerging technologies capable of providing group interaction and simulations were not promoted and implemented on an institutional basis as an effective substitute for the on-campus instruction residential schools provided.

The Academic Senate of the university issued regulations concerning the conduct of residential schools which were often ignored or circumvented by the substitution of ‘optional’ residential schools operating under different or even no rules whatsoever.

Consequently, the Senate undertook to review its policy in this area, and adherence to it.

A working party investigated the issue and concluded that decisions about the offering of residential schools should be made on a transparent and rational basis, with such decisions being the responsibility of specific staff members. It also required monitoring and accountability systems to ensure conformance.

In addition, the Open Learning Institute seconded a staff member to research media-based alternatives to face-to-face teaching.

Thus the outcomes in the near future should be:

• the restoration of pedagogic considerations as the prime determinants of the

• existence of residential schools;

• an improved system of accountability; and

• research upon which to base decisions about appropriate modes of teaching.

It would be presumptuous to believe that procedural change and research will achieve all these improvements. Little has been done to address entrenched attitudes, which differ on the various campuses, and had their genesis in groups working in isolation from one another and in the corporate goals of the university. 

Scant attention may be given to regulations and recommended practice emanating from outside these groups. For success to be achieved, the benefits of both change and conformity must be clearly conveyed to the stakeholders, unless they are to revert to their comfort zone of familiar practice.

Summary

The following lessons can be learned from this study:

• Instructional design issues can only be resolved satisfactorily in an organisational

• context.

• The logic of pedagogy may conflict with the requirements of the market, the

• institution, and individual stockholders.

• Instructional design issues involve innovation and change; therefore, they require

• changed management components for successful implementation.

• Responses to external pressures on universities may lead to a diminution of the

• importance of pedagogical considerations.

• The structure and decision making processes of universities make innovation

• arising from outside the school structure and central administration problematic to

• deliver and monitor. 

• The necessity for face-to-face contact to complement distance education in this

• context is poorly researched and lacks objective articulation.

• The mere availability of technology does little to ensure its institutionalisation.

• Institutionalisation of changes in teaching methodology is highly problematic in

• multi-campus institutions with highly devolved decision making and financial

• process.