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Summary and closing comments by Dr. Bernadette Robinson for the fourth "Virtual conference":
Staff Develompment:   (1 - 20 February 1999)

23 February 1999

The virtual conference ran for three weeks. There were 183 subscribers and 190 messages posted by 54 people (approximately 30 percent of subscribers). The following is a summary of key points from the discussion. Of necessity, it neglects the rich range of input which appeared in the individual messages posted. Any distortions, misrepresentations or omissions in what follows are entirely mine and I hope one apology which I hereby offer will be acceptable for all the faults contained. The conference ran at a breathless pace and it is difficult to do justice to the contributions in the short time available for producing this summary.

THE FOCUS

1. Current concerns in Staff Development in Open and Distance Education
   (ODE).
2. Lessons learnt so far (exchange of experience, good practice, problems
   and ideas).
3. Future directions.

THE OUTCOMES

1.0 CURRENT CONCERNS

1.1 How to provide staff development for staff developers.

Ways were sought for keeping staff developers (and staff) up-to-date and to expand their repertoire of knowledge and skills in a rapidly changing scene. Staff developers need to know how to locate and access relevant information, databases, and other people working in similar jobs or particular sectors (like K-12 DE for schools). Access to these sources was seen as important for getting new images and new perspectives onto staff developers' horizons and to support reflective practice and self-development. Reflective practice, critical debate and action research were seen as a key routes to self-development for staff developers.

1.2 How to initiate change in productive ways.

The introduction of staff development in an institution can be done in more than one way. In some cases, managers' decisions and organisational practices work against the best ways of doing this and against the interest of staff developers. As a result, would-be practitioners are reluctant or resistant, or are offered isolated 'off the job' training events which have proved ineffective, inconvenient and have a poor image. Staff developers need to increase their knowledge of options open to them in managing change and address the issue from an organisational perspective. More specifically, better ways of initiating new writers in the development of self-study materials are needed as alternatives to formal orientation or instant immersion. The exchange of information and descriptions of effective models would assist this.

1.3. How to obtain an adequate share of resources (both financial and staff time) for staff development.

Resources allocated within organisations don't always match the goals defined by senior managers. Senior managers need to tie their stated policies and goals more closely to the resources needed to achieve them. Negative staff attitudes and resistance were reported, resulting from this mis-match and from the lack of incentives for taking on ODL work. Staff developers need to address the political side of their role more directly.

1.4. How to accommodate cultural differences.

The need to be culturally appropriate in approaches to staff development was emphasised (for example, the relationship between 'teacher' and 'learner'). However, the question of whether this could also be used as an excuse for remaining conservative was raised. The reality may be that more participative learner centred approaches can provide a mis-match with the existing culture of a country.

1.5. How to make use of computer communications for staff development.

This medium is seen as offering scope for interaction, and for providing a forum for debate, such as this virtual conference. But access and cost are still a major issue for some countries, and prevent staff developers and others from using them. The need for more user-friendly forms of computer communication was also seen as important in encouraging people to use it.

1.6. How different kinds of organisations may have different staff development needs.

The question was whether the needs for staff development were similar or different in an autonomous DE institution, a dual-mode institution, and in projects etc. The needs themselves, and the nature of transition from face-to-face to ODE teacher were not thought to be so different, but the organisational issues and the nature of the learning environment were.

1.7 How to gain a productive balance between higher education and corporate providers of ODE and staff development.

Debate and disagreement focused on what the balance should be. In businesses and industry the ready availability of technical facilities which can support distance education and their convenience as sites of learning opportunity for workers offer considerable potential. Many collaborative programmes are already being implemented. Staff development was also described as a 'business opportunity' as well as an academic challenge. The argument focused, on the one hand, on the benefits of alliance and synergy of academic institutions with industry and business organisations, and on the other, on possible clashes of interests, mission and values, together with the threat of competition.

1.8. How to address the organisational issues surrounding staff development within institutions (its status, resource allocation and perceived value).

Finding a credible role for staff developers within organisations and locating staff development appropriately within the structure (and mission) of organisations was an issue in some contexts. Roles and structures needed to change to keep up with (ahead of?)) changes in organisations and the people who worked in them. Staff developers need to stay ahead of the field in ODL, not lag behind it. A model of staff development appropriate for one phase in an institution's life may not be appropriate for another.

1.9 How to define the audience for staff development.

It was agreed that the nature of the audience for staff development contains a variety of groups (not just academic staff) throughout an organisation. The end point and purpose of staff development was the quality of the student learning experience, which should also be the starting point in planning staff development. The primary audience for staff development were thought to be the staff.

1.10 How to improve the quality of the research base for staff development.

The need for more and better quality of research was needed, to help staff developers move from too frequent reliance on prescription to more rigorous studies of staff development in action.

2.0 STAFF DEVELOPMENT NEEDS

2.1. Awareness raising and education about open and distance education for a broad base of people, educators, managers and decision-makers.

2.2 Specific skills training (in materials design etc) for specific groups;

2.3. Helping traditional teachers to teach in new ways.

2.4. Helping teachers change perceptions and concepts as well as practices.

2.5. Helping traditional teachers to use new equipment and technologies to
(a) teach in new ways and
(b) teach in more usual ways but via new technology.

2.6. Learning to work in teams of different kinds.

2.7. Ensuring that what's learnt in staff development activities can be used in the 'real work' context.

2.8 Assisting staff to become multi-skilled (and oneself too).

2.9 Provision of continuing access to a broad community of staff developers and resources.

2.10 A need to help staff new to ODE get in touch with the existing knowledge base on ODE.

3.0 MAJOR CHALLENGES

3.1. How to achieve a culture shift from a teacher-centred, 'dissemination of knowledge', content-oriented model to a learner-centred, process-oriented one.

3.2. How to make the practice of staff development congruent with the
practices being advocated for ODE practitioners to use ('do what I say,
not what I do').

3.3. How to ensure more attention to the characteristics (and motivations) of the learners, that is, the primary group (the client group) of ODE practitioners, and the secondary group (the students or learners) of those the ODE practitioners are helping to learn.

3.4. How to improve the quality of needs assessment.

3.5 How to achieve a better fit between training offered and its relevance and utility in work, for staff in different roles (administrative, managerial and support staff as well as course developers).

3.6 How to re-orientate more quickly and effectively those teachers who come from traditional backgrounds to being ODE practitioners within a short time-span.

3.7 How to get to grips more effectively with the organisational issues which affect staff development for ODE?

3.8 How to find and choose effective models of staff development.

3.9 How best to re-shape institutional or senior management or donor practices, often ill-chosen or unproductive, in allocating funds for training and staff development.

3.10 How to embed staff development in work activities.

3.11 How to be a political animal as a staff developer, to strengthen the
staff development power base and resource allocations.

4.0 LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE

4.1 There are a wide range of staff needs to be met in initiating and establishing open and distance education. This diversity needs to be acknowledged by planners and purse-holders. Perhaps we neglect some categories of staff. Needs include those of the primary target audience (course developers, service providers, managers and administrators) but also, importantly, secondary target groups such as decision-makers and policy makers, other agencies, partners and the public, all of whom may be new to open and distance education. Staff needs include general 'training' and as well as specialist training. While the students' experience as learners and members of a course or institution provide the end goal or the rationale for staff development, they themselves are not the primary target of staff development though they should have strong influence in shaping it. One goal of staff development is to help teachers and all others involved in ODE provision to understand their students and their needs well so that provision and services can be appropriate.

4.2 Detailed analysis of needs and context is required in order to produce a relevant and affordable staff development agenda for a project or institution, and to prioritise the needs and the institutional responses to them. Needs analysis for staff development should incorporate information from several sources: student feedback and expressed student needs; profiles of student characteristics; job descriptions and job roles; institutional and course goals; intended learning outcomes; assessment requirements; present understanding, practices and experience of the staff concerned; staff interests and goals. Staff development provision should itself provide opportunities for staff to learn in flexible ways, and be able to respond to both group and individual needs. Staff development needs to be learner-centred (staff are learners) and provide opportunities for co-development among peers and self-development.

4.3 Staff developers need to interpret their roles broadly, analysing and working with some of the organisational issues which surround staff development in their contexts. Interpretation of the staff developer's job, whether in relation to academic or administrative or service other staff, as the provider of taught sessions is too narrow an interpretation of the role or function. Staff developers need more support and training in organisational analysis and managing the change process.

4.4 Some of the functions, goals and processes in staff development are the same in technology-rich/resource-rich settings and in technology-poor/resource-poor settings. The starting points in each circumstance are the needs of staff and determining appropriate ways of meeting those needs. Technology and resources alone do not guarantee good quality staff development. Of course technology and resources can offer more choices and options in the form and delivery of staff development, and access to it. We have few studies of cost-effectiveness in this respect; we need to do some.

4.5 The target group of staff (and each individual) needs to perceive some personal and work benefit or reward from engaging in staff development, to motivate them and engage their interest. They need to feel they are learning something new and of value to them.

4.6 There is a shortage of experienced and knowledgeable staff developers in ODE in some countries. There are materials and experienced people available but sometimes no bridges between the available resources and the needs. Staff developers need access to information and people beyond their immediate circle, and computer communication may offer one means of access. As more and more professionals gain access to the Internet/Web based resources we need to ask three questions: how these can provide an ongoing source of both self directed learning and peer group support? What can staff development offer in helping them (and us) make effective
use of this access? And what are the limitations?

4.7 Poor quality face-to-face (traditional) teachers are unlikely to turn into ready-made good quality open and distance learning teachers overnight; selection of the 'right' people affects quality, as well as training and developmental support. Making the transition from traditional teachers/staff to ODE practitioners may require much more than changes to surface techniques and practices; it may require a fundamental re-think of the teaching and learning process, and a re-appraisal of oneself as teacher (this is one area a staff developer could assist with, in helping staff with self-appraisal, though a sensitive area).

4.8 Single event/one-off training sessions are unlikely to be an effective means of staff development, yet this remains a feature of many programmes.

4.9 Reflective practice should play a key role in establishing and improving the quality of teaching and learning. Tasks involve identifying, filtering and accessing sources of self-directed learning which may help foster their personal development and maintain their relevance through their careers. Staff developers have a role in six respects: - in challenging assumptions that staff may have about students' innate or existing capacity for self-directed learning (research can play a role in providing a reality check on this); - in disseminating research findings and information to base sound practice on and to challenge accepted and unsubstantiated wisdom; - in focusing on self-directed learning and reflective practice in the management of their own work and development; - in focusing on self-directed learning and reflective practice in staff development work with others; - in helping to create access to resources on ODE. This includes using computer communications, where accessible and affordable, as a means of staff development to allow greater exchange of information and interaction between those with common interests and concerns; - in using problem-based staff development as a way of achieving relevance for individuals and groups.

4.10 Some of the problems and practices in staff development in ODE result from the organisational context, for example:
- how staff development is planned and conceptualised within different
institutional settings;
- how it is supported;
- the presence or absence of a policy for staff development;
- the presence or absence of a coherent institutional framework for staff development for ODE;
- how staff development is (or is not) linked to terms and conditions of service;
- professionalism in ODE cannot develop without clear institutional support.

Staff developers have to work with the political and economic realities around them. Ways of ensuring the status and allocation of resources to staff development include: involving high-status staff and senior managers; ensuring that staff development is written into institutional strategic plans and policy statements; including staff development activities in departmental reports; acknowledging the activities of individuals; setting visible targets and plans for staff development; tie staff; realistic recognition of the resources needed and commitment of budgets ('people development is not cheap'). Staff developers need to get to grips with the politics of resource allocation within institutions.

4.11 The ability to use new technology is not the same as the ability to train and develop staff to use it for teaching.

4.12 Staff developers should facilitate connections to other sources of support (more experienced colleagues, mentors, resources etc) for staff.

4.13 Staff developers are sometimes seen as 'academic police'. They need to think about their image and develop their role in ways which counter this. One way of doing it is to work alongside staff on small joint projects.

4.14 Encourage wide ownership of the staff development process.

5.0 EDUCATION, TRAINING AND THE CORPORATE WORLD (higher education and industry)

The growing emphasis on the notion of 'the learning organisation' has generated much interest and activity in education and training in the corporate world. It was seen to be relevant to education in general and ODE in particular. Debate focused on the following issues.

5.1 The extent to which education providers and the corporate world share common goals. Does a university, for example, have a different mission, in preserving some values and a critical tradition which are distinct from those of a corporate provider of education and training?

5.2 The potential for collaboration and synergy between education providers and the corporate world and, by contrast, the potential threats. 5.3 The need to base staff development on the needs of the ultimate user of what we produce.

5.4 The likelihood of an increasing number of partnerships in the future and the issue of how to engage in partnerships without compromising academic integrity. 5.5 Partnerships as a way of facilitating staff development and provision that would not otherwise be possible (for example, using corporate facilities to deliver educational programmes).

6.0 PRINCIPLES TO BASE STAFF DEVELOPMENT ON

6.1 Those to be encouraged
- Staff development needs to be ongoing and have meaning for personal development.
- It needs to be work-related or work-based and relevant.
- The process itself needs to be embedded in the everyday work environment.
- It needs to be learner-focused and timely in terms of what the staff
member needs.
- It has to meet a range of needs (for information, knowledge, skills development, ideas for changing practice, support in changing habitual practice).
- It has to be for more categories of staff than the teaching staff alone (it has to be organisation wide).
- It needs to incorporate reflective practice.
- It needs to be based on sound needs analysis.
- It has to have organisational support (adequate resources, time allowed, a policy basis).
- It needs to involve staff in planning their staff development, to listen to what staff say and to be responsive to individual needs as far as possible.
- It needs to offer choices and opportunities for self-review.
- It needs to be ongoing, offering support over time.
- Since It works well when self-initiated, the organisational culture and environment has to be created to allow this to happen.
- Visible commitment is required from senior management.

6.2 Those to be avoided
- One-shot front-loaded provision of staff development.
- Off the job isolated events.
- Theoretical provision, unrelated to the practicalities of work.
- Provision which militates against reflective practice.
- Partial provision (some staff are neglected).
- Lack of organisational policy and resources for staff development.
- Staff developer-focused staff development.
- Token needs analysis.
- Isolation of staff developers or staff development units within institutions.

Models of staff development need to be built around the key principles chosen.

8.0 IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF STAFF DEVELOPMENT

Areas for improvement in the future were identified as

8.1 Needs assessment: improving the quality and learning how to do it
better.

8.2 Improving relevance in staff development.

8.3 Improving the models of teaching and learning used.

8.4 More opportunities for exchange of experience with a wider range of practitioners from different backgrounds in ODL.

8.5 Ensuring that staff developers demonstrate principles of good and up-to-date practice in what they do.

8.6 Addressing the political realities of staff development.

8.7 Improving staff development planning on an organisation-wide basis.

8.8 A better research base (few prescriptions, more evidence)

9.0 THE VALUE OF COMPUTER COMMUNICATIONS AND EMAIL IN STAFF DEVELOPMENT

The reactions to the virtual conference's use of computer communication in general and email in particular were mixed, though the majority seemed to be in favour if access were available. Access is still a problem for many. This event demonstrated clearly the potential and limitations of the use of a email distribution list for a virtual conference. While conferencing software would have made the discussion more manageable, it might have been at the expense of excluding some who took part. Whatever the shortcomings of the software, it was still able to generate a productive if sometimes complex and confusing debate. We were, after all, able to work together to generate a number of outcomes, and something tangible and of value exists where it did not before.

Reactions to the email event were varied but on the whole positive. These comments typify the range of reactions:

'One of my best ever personal development experiences -- action learning at its best'

'Very limited value; not conceptually easy, indeed almost impossible to follow the conceptual threads'.

Sometimes jumbled and confusing but overall thought-provoking'

'The danger of virtual conferences from your desktop is that your desktop keeps intruding'.

'Is good as a complementary channel for SD'

10.0 WHAT WAS MISSING?

There wasn't much reference in our debate to the foot-soldiers of ODE -- the support staff, usually part-time, in some distant place, maybe isolated from other support staff and from the ODE providing institution, but on whom the learner depends as a prime resource. Like students, they are mostly out of sight. We need to make them and their needs more visible.

11.0 RELEVANT RESOURCES IDENTIFIED

11.1 WEBSITES

http://www-icdl.open.ac.uk (The International Centre for Distance Learning, UKOU)
http://www.col.org/ (Commonwealth of Learning)
http://www.ola.bc.ca/ (The Open Leaning Agency, Canada)
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/resources.html ('How to find World Wide Web Distance Education Resources')
http://waoe.org (World Association for Online Education)
http://www.odlaa.org/ (The Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia, ODLAA)
http://www-icdl.open.ac.uk/bib/toc.htm (Open and distance learning: a selective bibliography for higher education institutions in Europe)
http://www.eadtu.nl/content.htm (European Association of Distance Teaching Universities)
http://bates.cstudies.ubc.ca/carnegie/carnegie.html (papers by Tony Bates, University of British Columbia, Canada, on the implications for change in education of new technologies)
http://www.adlc.ab.ca (Alberta Distance Learning Centre for K-12 education).
http://teams.lacoe.edu (The TEAMS website for K-12 education in California)
http://www.gsh.org/wce/archives/tripathi.htm (Global Schoolnet Foundation website, containing an article by Arun Kumar Tripathi on The Internet in Education and links to other K-12 sites)
http://class.unl.edu (Univ of Nebraska high school programme)
http://www.en.utexas.edu (Univ Texas high school programme)
http://www.openschool.bc.ca. (Open School Canada)
http://fims-www.massey.ac.nz/~audiogph (a Massey University site with demonstrations of asynchronous software which can be downloaded.)
http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/projects/jitol (re staff development)
http://www.warwick.ac.uk/ETS/edu-tech/ (re staff development)
http://www.isoc.org/zakon/Internet/History/HIT.html (on the history of Internet)
http://ultratext.hil.unb.ca/Texts/Teaching/SEPT98/contents.htm (Teaching Voices, University of New Brunswick Bulletin on University Teaching, containing an article by Liz Burge on Thinking About Technology)
http://online.mq.edu.au/public/CPDCOM/ (online workshop for staff new to communication technology, Macquarie University, Australia)
http://www-iet.open.ac.uk/PDET/workshops.html (for onlineworkshops on distance education, UK Open University)
http://www-iet.open.ac.uk (for onlineworkshops on distance education, UK Open University)
http://www.ala.org (American Library Association, ALA).
http://node.on.ca (a Canadian website with useful links and items, including 'libraries in ODE')
http://services.canberra.edu.au/CUTSD/announce/ExSumm.html (contains executive summary of an Australian study of staff development including staff development for IT projects)
http://www.deathofdistance.com/ (about the book 'Death of Distance' by F. Cairncross)
http://www.mnemiopsis.com/interne/tekno/economie/the-economist/death-of-distance/index.htm (a survey of telecommunications by F. Cairncross in The Economist) --no longer available online, Jan./01
http://www.economist.com/editorial/freeforall/21-9-97/index_survey.html (a 1997 survey of telecommunications in The Economist) --no longer available online, Jan./01
http://www.cade-aced.ca (Candian Association for Distance Education) http://www.iicd.org (International Institute for Communication and Development website, aimed at providing information for developing countries)
http://cedir.uow.edu.au (contains papers on staff development from Univ. of Wollongong, Australia)
http://cedir.uow.edu.au/CEDIR/flexible/staffdev.html (contains staff development policy paper of Univ. of Wollongong, Australia)
http://cedir.uow.edu.au/CEDIR/flexible/resources/wills3.html (paper on staff development by Prof. S. Wills, Univ. of Wollongong, Australia).
http://cedir.uow.edu.au/NCODE (staff development site for the National Council for ODE, Australia.)

11.2 BOOKS AND REFERENCES

1. Training and Professional Development of Distance Educators: A resource book of articles. The Commonwealth of Learning. Vancouver 1997.
2. C. Latchem and F. Lockwood (eds), Staff Development in Open and Flexible Learning , London, Routledge, 1998.
3. D. Laurillard Rethinking University Teaching : Routledge, 1993.
4. F. G. Lockwood, The Design and Production of Self-Instructional Materials .London: Kogan Page, 1998.
5. Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Discipline of the Learning Organisation. New York/London. Doubleday Currency. 1990 and Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook.
6. Koble, M.A. 'Integrating Technologies', Distance Education, Vol. 11, No. 3, November 1996. pp. 41-44.
7. Everett M. Rogers. The Diffusion of Innovations. A bibliography on Reflective Practice

 

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Zeichner, KM and Liston, DP (1987): Teaching student teachers to reflect.
Harvard Education Review 57 (1)

---------------------------------------------------
Bernadette Robinson
Consultant in Open and Distance Learning
17 Church Lane
Costock, Loughborough,
Leics. UK
LE12 6UZ
Tel/Fax: +44 1509 852268
email: B.Robinson@open.ac.uk

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