Case Study

Ghana

 Institute for Educational Development and Extension 

The University College of Education of Winneba
Post-Diploma Bachelor of Education (In-Service)
Distance Education Programme

Prepared by    S.A. Kadingdi

Brief description of the programme

Until 1992, diploma teachers who wanted to further their education by upgrading themselves to the degree level had to pursue the same four-year courses planned for sixth-formers at the University of Cape Coast. The University College of Education of Winneba (ucew) was established in 1993 through the amalgamation of seven diploma-awarding teacher training institutions to serve such diploma teachers. 

The college was therefore established with the overriding purposes of both preparing teachers and other professionals for service to the nation and improving upon the basic education needs of Ghana by concentrating on the training of teachers at both the Diploma and Bachelor of Education degree levels. ucew therefore carries out its mission by designing and implementing pre-service education programmes for the preparation of teachers and other personnel.

Even though the college was set up to recruit more teachers to pursue higher courses, the limited accommodation facilities available militated against the achievement of this noble objective.

To complement the efforts of the university college in meeting the ever-increasing demand for access to its programmes, the Institute for Educational Development and Extension (iede) was established as one of seven academic divisions of ucew to co-ordinate the offering of some of the courses at a distance. The distance education unit, which is by far the largest of the five units of iede, is therefore charged to run the Bachelor of Education (In-Service) degree programme for teachers and teacher trainers holding diploma certificates who expect to study part-time without undue disruption of their work schedules.

The programme will run alongside the internal two-year post-diploma Bachelor of Education programme and will offer a degree of equivalent status. Like most distance education programmes in developing countries that have been heavily influenced by donor countries, the iede received some funding at least in the beginning from the Department for International Development (dfid), formerly known as the Overseas Development Administration (oda). dfid invested in the initial survey of the learner profile of prospective students to enrol in the Bachelor of Education programme and also helped to address the training of writers of participating departments through consultancies involving workshops that were run jointly by external experts, the dfid subject advisers, and local counterparts (co-ordinators) of the iede. Even though iede co-ordinates the course material writing of the departments, the participating departments are responsible for the content of the distance education programme. ucew is therefore a dual mode distance education institution using departmental course teams and editors. Co-ordinators at iede serve in varying roles from simple proof-reading and assisting with artists’ briefs and layout to offering advice for the restructuring of study material.

Problems encountered

Planning and managing distance learning

• Academic staff of the participating departments are not provided release time for

• the writing and review of their course material.

• This has caused delays in the submission of course material 

• since lecturers have many functions such as lecturing, organising tutorials, and

• marking their examinations as well as

• supervising their on-campus students on teaching practice.

Implementing quality assurance

• Lecturers in the participating departments were initially sceptical

• about the credibility of the programme, 

• taking into consideration the user-friendly language proposed for the

• writing of distance education course material.

• However, this scepticism can be explained in light of  some lecturers’ inexperience

• with the delivery systems involved in distance education programmes.

• It should, however, be emphasised here that external assessors have been,

• engaged to read and comment on the course materials and provide supportive

• feedback to the course writers.

• Each course has its own editorial team of two or three members who review

• the materials initially and provide feedback to the authors.

Using and integrating media in distance education

• The use and integration of media in the distance education programme

• of ucew leave much to be desired, since the departments engaged in course

• writing do not have the basic skills or the necessary equipment

• to enable them to use any medium other than print.

Instructional design and production for distance education

• Instructional design is the sole responsibility of the departments although

• co-ordinators at iede monitor their work and give advice.

• The production of course materials is facilitated at iede with the help of support staff

• using the equipment purchased by the dfid.

Learner support systems

• Even though the programme has not yet taken off,

• the institutional response to student enquiries needs improvement.

• The preparation of course material by the academic staff needs speeding up to 

• avoid the situation in which students enrolled in the programme have to wait long

• periods for study materials to be delivered and are consequently frustrated 

• and demotivated.

• Four regional study centres have been established to provide student support

• through tutorials and library facilities, with the help of tutors

• and other supporting staff.

The most important issue: Instructional design and production for distance education

The literature on the Open University of the United Kingdom and many other institutions on distance education indicate that for a course to be implemented, an institution requires about 18 months (some even a lot longer, say three years) from the initiation of the writing process to the implementation of the programme. Although the writing of the distance education material at ucew began in April 1995, only four courses out of a total of twenty-four first-year courses are on the shelves at present. 

The heavy teaching workloads of the course writers impedes their ability to deliver the study material as planned.

Staff who have found it difficult to prepare their teaching in the distance mode are given close support from the iede co-ordinators, who have been trained in distance education. To this end, therefore, the iede co-ordinators have always tried to treat writers with respect and courtesy by sharing with them their concerns and encouraging them to pick up from where they left off. In this way, the co-ordinators provide not only guidance in content, style, and format but also give moral support while urging them to make time to write, despite their heavy teaching workloads.

The iede co-ordinators also ensure that writers are provided with regular feedback on the progress of writing to the respective course teams. Course writers are encouraged to meet regularly with the co-ordinators to discuss their units.

Realising that a good team can exert pressure to achieve deadlines and equally ensure quality output, the iede co-ordinating team instituted departmental academic editorial boards of committed and dedicated writers trained in the editing of distance education material to help more specifically with the content editing of materials. During the editorial training, emphasis was laid on the basic principles of distance education material writing procedures.

This step has to some extent speeded up the writing process even though much is still left to be done. At one time it became clear that one reason writers could not deliver the materials on time was that they managed their time poorly. A workshop on time management was organised to enable writers to make the optimum use of their time.

Future plans

To facilitate the production of the course materials on time, it is important that the ucew establish realistic workloads and, if possible, set up staff support networks to maintain the writers’ morale. There is also the need to consider involving a wider development team by contracting external writers and staff from other institutions.

Plans are afoot for a series of short one- to three-day writers’ workshops to encourage faster planning, drafting, and reviewing of course materials A ‘writers’ surgery’ session will likely evolve to give writers the opportunity to bring and share their difficulties with their more experienced and successful colleagues.