Case Study

Botswana

 Distance Education Unit - Centre for Continuing Education 

University of Botswana

Prepared by: J. W. Kamau

Brief description of the programme

The University of Botswana, which hitherto existed as a constituent college of the University of Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland (ubls), became a separate national university in 1982. The university is a dual mode institution that offers on-campus degree programmes through various academic faculties, conducts research through various institutes, and provides off-campus academic and other outreach programmes through the Centre for Continuing Education where the Distance Education Unit is based. The mandate of the Centre for Continuing Education is to provide educational opportunities to adults through distance education, evening and weekend classes, public education conferences, workshops, seminars, and radio programmes on a variety of subjects that are in high demand by the public.

The university’s involvement with distance education dates back to the 1970s when radio campaigns, complemented by face-to-face contact, were used to educate the public on issues of national interest such as civic education. Geographically, Botswana is a vast country and radio broadcasts could reach many people simultaneously.

Today, the main responsibility of the Distance Education Unit, which conducts its distance education programmes mainly through the print medium, is to increase the university’s capacity for distance education and, in collaboration with relevant departments, to identify and develop certificate and non-certificate programmes for delivery at a distance.

The Distance Education Unit plans to provide programmes at non-credit, certificate, diploma, degree, and post-graduate levels. Currently, the unit offers a certificate in adult education for people involved in literacy, adult, continuing, and community education programmes. A diploma in primary education commenced in 1998 to upgrade primary teacher’s certificate holders in a bid to raise the standards and quality of education at the grassroots level. Plans to launch further programmes are also underway.

The certificate in adult education course development experience

The Distance Education Unit has, in the past, offered a certificate in adult education programme in a semi-distance education mode, with materials developed by consultants and heavy reliance being placed on residential study schools in Gaborone, where most of the teaching has taken place. This programme was reviewed in 1989 and is being revised so that it can be offered completely by distance education.

This exercise has proved to be a useful pilot project, as it has brought to light a number of problems in the area of materials development that the unit will have to address in the future. These problems relate largely to four specific areas of course development: the development of the syllabus, the recruitment of course writers, the submission of a first draft, and the actual development of the materials.

Developing the syllabus

The syllabus outline for each of the five courses was developed as a collaborative effort between the Distance Education Unit and lecturers in the Department of Adult Education who have been teaching the courses. 

As each course will be taught over a two-semester academic year, courses were divided into two modules, each consisting of 10 to 15 units, but no firm guidelines were set regarding the exact number of units that would comprise each module. The content of each unit was then detailed under several major topic areas. Course writers were thus armed with mutually agreed upon unit outlines to use as the basis for their writing but these were insufficiently detailed.

Recruiting course writers

In the unit’s material development process, course writers are recruited mostly from the co-operating departments and colleges that run the on-campus equivalent of the programmes. In the Certificate in Adult Education programme, some of the course writers have been drawn from the Distance Education Unit because of their professional training in adult education.

A decision was made that all writers, apart from unit staff, would be paid for their services and that all materials developed would be recognised as academic publications for staff appraisal purposes. Contracts were not signed as they required the approval of university authorities. Thus, course writers have proceeded with their task on the assumption that they will be paid for their efforts in due course. In each course, at least two course writers were appointed and decisions relating to a division of the writing workload was left up to the individuals concerned.

As distance education has not been a significant feature of the University of Botswana in the past, it is understandable that most writers have not had any experience of writing materials for distance learners. As a result, course writing workshops were held to train writers for this specific function. During these workshops, the writers were made aware of the nature of distance education programmes, the features that would be expected in materials, and the reasons for incorporating them.

They were advised that a typical unit should be 10 to 15 typed pages in length and consist of an overview, unit objectives, several sections of content divided into subsections, interactive questions, a summary, self-assessment questions on the whole unit, and a list of additional reading materials. They then set off to start writing.

Submitting the first draft

In most cases, materials were not forthcoming as writers were preoccupied with teaching activities and could not find the time to devote to additional tasks. Many manuscripts, when submitted, did not conform to expectations, and in some cases, ignored the guidelines altogether. Consequently, the decision was made to hold a series of writing retreats during which writers were isolated in comfortable surroundings conducive to the activity of writing. 

Secretaries accompanied the group to word process materials as they were submitted and there were high expectations that all units for both modules would materialise. In reality, although these retreats have produced units, less than half of the expected output has been achieved.

Once written, units were passed on to the word processors and editor for word processing, formatting, and editing. On the whole, the submission of hand-written manuscripts resulted in unnecessary confusion and delay as word processors struggled to decipher handwriting and instructions. The content was often not divided into subsections with identifiable head

Many units did not follow the agreed upon syllabus outline for content and, in some cases, later units were collapsed into previous units and dealt with fleetingly as the agreed range of twelve to fifteen units per module was not met, leading to unequal workloads for students over the semester.

Actually developing the materials

A combination of inexperienced distance education writers and word processors has meant that part-time copy editors had to be employed to work on the initial word processed drafts before they were passed on to the editor. In addition, the volume of work arriving at one time meant that it has not been possible to return a first draft to course writers within a short period of time.

The underlying assumption at the time was that hand-written materials would only need word processing and superficial editing and formatting by an editor. The reality has been that this is not the case and that there must be far more concentration on developmental processes if quality standards are to be met. Materials could be improved considerably by the input of instructional design, graphic art, and media staff.

Possible solutions 

Identified Problem	Possible Solution
Development of syllabus outline	-  Divide modules into a set number of units. -  Develop behavioural objectives for each unit. -  Identify and list major topics to be coveredt. -  Identify and list sub-topics to be covered under major topics in each unit -  Use this detailed unit outline as framework for writing.
Recruitment of course writers	-  Recruit from a wider pool of potential course writers by advertisement. -  Utilise a signed contract stipulating firm submission dates, allowing for progressive payments and requiring the submission of a model unit for assessment of writer suitability. - Be prepared to enforce submission deadlines in terms o the contract.
Training of course writers	-  Provide rigid guidelines stipulating the essential features that will  be expected in each unit. -  Assess a model unit to determine the course writer’s suitability  and compliance with requirements. -   Extend the training period to permit submission of at least the    first two units. -  Stress the significance of the team work approach to    developing materials and the consequent importance of    deadlines.
Submission of a first draft	-  Stipulate and enforce minimum standards for presentation of hand-written drafts.  -   Accept only hand-written drafts that are complete.
Course development process	-   Recognise the importance of developmental staff and increase their numbers accordingly.  -   Spread realistic submission dates for units over the whole writing period to avoid developmental congestion.  -    Provide professional development training for word processors.  -    Appoint instructional design, graphic art, and media staff to enhance and enrich materials.