Topic 5:

Course Delivery and Learner Support

Overview

•                   Source materials for this topic

Providing learner support

• Review of issues
• Problems distance learners face
• Special needs of distance learners
• Role of support services at key times in the learning cycle

Instructional support

• Role of instructional support
• Academic advice
• Models of instructional support

Non-instructional support

• Admissions and registration
• Counselling
• Administrative support
• Finance

Checklist for successful delivery and support

Practice exercise

• Role play

 1. Overview 

These materials support a discussion on the topic of delivering courses and providing support to learners in open and distance learning programmes. All education programmes must support learners in a variety of ways, including counselling and advising, and providing library services or perhaps special tutorials. The emphasis in the materials that follow, however, is on providing support to learners who are studying at a distance, and the particular problems and issues that distance raises.

The first subsection deals with general issues in providing learner support in open and distance learning and the second deals with the types of support that are provided.

The section closes with first a checklist of questions that open and distance learning providers can ask of their particular programme to ensure that they are providing quality services to learners and, finally, another practice exercise.

1.1 Source materials for this topic

The Commonwealth of Learning. Perspectives on distance education: student support services. Vancouver: col, 1992.

Evans, T. Understanding learners in open and distance education. London: Kogan Page, 1994.

Lewis, R. Tutoring in open learning. Lancaster: Framework Press, 1995.

Mills, R., and A. Tait. Supporting the learner in open and distance learning. London: Pitman, 1996.

2.1 Review of the issues

The issues involved in providing support to distance learners emerge in answering questions like the following:

• What are the characteristics of open and distance learning that determine the support needs of distance learners?
• What are the main roles of learner support in the light of these needs?
• What are the different stages in the learning process at which learners require support?
• What are the essential characteristics of a successful support system?

2.2 Problems distance learners face

Distance learners face problems that include:

• isolation in that distance learning participants may have little or no opportunity for face-to-face contact with the institution, their tutor, or fellow learners;
• difficulty organising studies and finding sufficient time to study;
• difficulty balancing work, study, and family commitments;
• lack of motivation;
• lack of resources and equipment –in that learners may not have access to specialist libraries or practical equipment needed for studies; and
• difficulties in developing appropriate study techniques such as note taking and essay writing.

Discussion: What problems have distance learners faced in your own and your participants’ experience? The case studies that are included in this kit also provide examples of learner support needs and methods.

2.3 Special needs of distance learners

Distance learners have special needs, which include:

• information to help learners relate to the institution and understand its system;
• contact with tutors to help maintain motivation and overcome learning problems;
• institutional identity, which is some means of helping learners identify with a remote institution and to feel that they are part of a body of learners rather than studying in isolation; and
• advice on how to study; as well as that provided within the course itself, learners often need additional support to develop good study techniques.

2.4 Roles of support services at key times in the learning cycle

Some of these support service needs of distance learners are indicated in the following table.

Stages in the Learning Cycle

Stage in learning cycle	Learner needs
Pre-enrolment	information about the institution and its courses advice on which courses to choose advice on how to finance studies
Enrolment and starting study	more detailed information about the institution and study procedures advice on studying at a distance advice on planning studies
During study	Support and motivation Assessment and evaluation
Completion and graduation	notification of exam results career advice advice on further studies

Discussion: Provide an example of a working support system  with which you and your participants are familiar. A variety of examples of learner support systems are also contained in the case studies that accompany this kit.

Though less visible than instructional support and less central to the actual process of learning, non-instructional support is vital to the smooth operation of distance learning and must be integrated with instructional support.

Generally speaking, the following types of learner support are available.

4.1 Admissions and registration

The admissions and registration support subsystem includes the following functions:

• marketing;
• facilitating applications;
• making offers;
• registering learners; and
• matching learners appropriately with courses by level, subject, and so on.

4.2 Counselling

Learner problems that require referral to counsellors include:

• financial difficulties;
• family problems;
• difficulty in maintaining motivation;
• problems in finding sufficient time to study;
• balancing conflicting commitments; and
• physical difficulties or barriers, including limited mobility, hearing, or sight impairment.

4.3 Administrative support

A distance learning unit or institution needs to inform learners of the following kinds of information:

• the office hours;
• the best times to call for advice;
• any days when the office is closed;
• the name of the learner’s tutor;
• how to contact the tutor;
• who to write to or telephone about different matters;
• deadlines for sending in tutor-marked assignments; and
• dates of examinations.

Depending on the tutorial system that is in place, other required information may include:

• location and hours of nearest learning centre;
• facilities available at learning centre;
• names and addresses of other learners (with their permission); and
• updates on curriculum changes, procedures, and so on.

4.4 Finance

Part-time learners are typically disadvantaged in awards schemes. Distance learning programmes therefore typically seek scholarship and bursary funds, which entails fundraising as a function.

Discussion: Provide an example of a working support system, preferably one that is familiar to your participants or at least relevant to their situation. The case studies that accompany this training kit also contain brief descriptions of a variety of learner support systems.

If your support system is successful, you should be able to answer ‘Yes’ to the questions in the following checklist.

Checklist for Successful Delivery and Learner Support

• Do you know your learners’ geographical location, age range, access to facilities, academic ability, gender, and so on?
• Are staff sensitive to gender, societal, and cultural differences?
• Are staff sensitive to the frustrations and time constraints adult learners often face?
• Do staff have up-to-date knowledge about the institution and its courses?
• Are your support systems flexible and learner-oriented, available to learners when and where they need them?
• Are the resources allocated to learner support adequate?
• Is there an appropriate balance of resources allocated to the development of materials and subsequent support of learning from those materials?
• Does your support function provide support to the internal functions of the distance learning unit as well as to learners?
• Is your decision to keep support services centralised, or to manage them on a regional or decentralised basis, appropriate to meeting the needs of your learner population?
• Does your learner record system contain the following information:
• personal details, including name, address, age, family circumstances, and employment?
• academic and professional qualifications?
• special requirements such as specially adapted materials for disabled learners?
• tutorial record, including dates when assignments were received, grades, and copies of tutor comments?
• list of materials sent, including date of dispatch?
• record of attendance at face-to-face sessions?
• fees paid?
• Are your records detailed, accurate, and up-to-date? Do you ensure that:
• records systems are regularly monitored to ensure they are functioning efficiently?
• information is disseminated to the right people at the right time?
• records are kept in a secure fashion so that only authorised personnel have access to them?
• legal requirements governing the handling and storage of information are met?

 

6.1 Role play

Instructions: Divide the participants into two groups. Describe the following scenario and situation to both groups.

Scenario: An open and distance learning unit has been in operation for eighteen months now at Prestige University. For the past six months, this unit has actually delivered three courses by distance, using a basic correspondence model. Learners can telephone the unit if they have problems, but there is no continuous assessment provided and learner performance is assessed only by the final examination, which learners must sit at the same time — indeed in the same examination hall — as the on-campus learners in the course.

Situation: The director of the open and distance learning unit is meeting with the Pro-Vice Chancellor, Learner Services, to whom she reports, to argue for more funding so that tutors can be paid to support learners during the course and not just to mark the final examinations.

Task: Group One is the Pro-Vice Chancellor’s group. Their task is to come up with arguments, from a strictly conventional, campus-based point of view, as to why learners ought not to need this ‘special’ service. Group Two is the distance education director’s group. Their task is to come up with arguments from the point of view of the distance education unit as to why learners must have the services for which the director is asking. Ask each group to supply a ‘role player’ who will play out the meeting situation with his or her counterpart, and argue the case that the group has developed.

Discussion: Draw out some of the issues and problems that confront open and distance learning providers in trying to supply adequate support services to their learners.

Timeframe: An hour should be adequate for most groups.

Materials required: None.