Excerpted from Connections, April 1997 (Vol. 2, No. 2)
The Commonwealth of Learning has developed two sets of guidelines related to the "remote delivery of distance education courses and programmes" - one for students and one for institutions. The guidelines have two primary objectives:
- to assist students in making decisions about enrolling in courses that are increasingly being delivered by institutions outside the jurisdictions they were established to serve, and
- to assist institutions themselves in collaborating over the development and delivery of such courses.
The recognition of the need for, and subsequent development of, the guidelines grew from discussions with institutions that provide distance education courses as well as from consultations with the International Council for Distance Education and regional distance education associations.
The premise is that the proliferation of electronic delivery methods has the potential to allow institutions to work together in offering courses in remote locations, which allows them to provide a greater variety of courses and better serve their own students - as well as those registered elsewhere. "Unfortunately," says COL's Director of Programmes, Dr. Ian Mugridge, "this situation also has potential for confusion, disorder and perhaps abuse that could bring discredit to reputable institutions and cause frustration for students."
The guidelines provide a common framework within which individual institutions can work and should help to ensure that students receive a service that is truly beneficial and of high quality.
They are now being distributed throughout the Commonwealth and should be published by distance education journals and regional associations over the next few months. They are also available directly from COL, either by request or through the World Wide Web (Internet).
As there are issues that are difficult to address in such a general document, the guidelines cannot be considered to be complete. They will also be kept under review in light of comments received and reissued from time-to-time as the need arises.
Two other initiatives are in progress that will also enhance the ability of both students and institutions to make judgements about both the
quality and
applicability of courses that might be available to them. First, COL is undertaking a quality assurance initiative that will have two objectives:
- the development and application of effective
quality assurance policies and procedures in institutions where these do not already exist, and
- the development of procedures that will enable receiving institutions to make judgements about the
quality of courses available through other jurisdictions.
Second, COL is developing a proposal for the establishment of a "Commonwealth credit bank" that would help institutions judge the
applicability of available courses to their own credentials. The system would also provide students with a means of receiving credit - and ultimately credentials - for coherent groups of courses taken from a variety of institutions.
Copies of the guidelines and information about this project or the related initiatives can be obtained through COL's Public Affairs office.
(end of excerpt)
THE GUIDELINES FOLLOW:
The initial discussions, leading to the development of the attached documents, occurred at The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) in Vancouver, British Columbia, on 27th and 28th March, 1995. It was based on the document that accompanies this paper and on the assumption that what the participants, representatives of provider institutions in different parts of the world, had gathered to discuss was the consequences, both for institutions and students, of the growing use of electronic means to deliver single courses or programmes for both. It became clear during the discussions, however, that the group was not simply talking about
electronic delivery of courses and programmes but, more broadly, about the delivery of courses and programmes by distance teaching institutions to students who are geographically remote from the region that such institutions were established to serve.
The general title of this paper has thus been chosen to indicate this strongly held view of the participants in the Vancouver meeting. It was this view too, that led the group to the conclusion that the documents they produced must concentrate on three major areas of interest. The first and second of these are, of course, the two major participants in the remote offering of courses (indeed, in any kind of course offerings), students and institutions. The third area is inter-institutional collaboration which seemed to present one of the primary means of solving many of the problems resulting from the increase in remote delivery of courses and programmes.
The group thus developed three documents reflecting these emphases. The first, a Guide for Students, was designed for distribution to students enrolling in remotely offered courses and to enable them to ask basic questions about the courses in which they propose to enrol, questions that will, in turn, produce answers that will provide students with a clear basis for their enrolment decisions. The second, a Guide to Institutional Responsibilities, was designed to assist institutions to establish and maintain acceptable standards in their remote course offerings. The third discusses the question of developing inter-institutional partnerships and makes some suggestions about furthering this activity to strengthen the remote offering of courses and programmes.
In the fall of 1995, these documents were distributed to the institutional members of the International Council for Distance Education with a request for their reactions. The response from those institutions which replied was universally supportive of the initiative itself; and several institutions also made detailed suggestions for revision of the documents themselves. Many of these have been incorporated into a second draft which was circulated to the members of the original consulting group. The attached documents incorporate their subsequent comments as well.
The third document which relates to developing inter-institutional partnerships has been retained in its original form. COL is currently pursuing the suggestion that was made by the original consulting group that it should bring together individuals and institutions to develop a series of proposals. It is hoped that the results of these discussions will be available quite soon.
The purpose of this document is to provide guidance and assistance to students thinking of enrolling in distance education courses offered by institutions that are remote from the region in which they live. These will sometimes be offered through or with validation provided by a local institution in which case the answers to the questions that follow should be easy to obtain or provided in a locally available package of material. In the case of courses offered, for example, through the Internet, however, this may not be the case.
In either case, students should be made aware that their first recourse should be their local, accredited institution as the most likely source of much of the information they need and as the most convenient source for verifying the information provided. The student shall be responsible for requesting this information and raising questions in a timely manner appropriate to the guidelines of the local institution. This information can be obtained by asking the following questions:
- What is the content and design of the course? For example, is a course outline available giving detailed information on such matters as entry requirements, length, level, contents and assessment scheme for a course?
- What institutional regulations affect enrolment in and completion of the course? For example, what regulations exist with respect to such matters as breaks of study, workload requirements, extensions, plagiarism, grade appeals, etc?
- (a) How current is the content of the course? Has it been recently revised to take account of changes in the subject?
(b) How relevant is the course to the student's goals?
- What credit does the course carry? This question has three primary aspects:
(a) How many credit points does it carry at the provider institution?
(b) How does this credit apply to programmes within the provider institution?
(c) Does the course carry transfer credit to programmes at other institutions?
Students should note that questions (b) and (c) frequently apply to courses not carrying credit towards a credential as well as those carrying formal credit.
- What support is provided to students who enrol in the course? This involves students access in the following areas:
(a) Support at the local institution such as tuition, assessment, tutorials, counselling, etc.;
(b) Support offered in conjunction with the local institution such as study centres, telecentres, computer facilities, student representative organisations, etc.;
(c) Support from external sources such as local libraries, private tutors, etc.
- What are the mechanics of gaining access to the course and to the support provided? This question covers the all-important question of cost to students. For example:
(a) What are the direct and indirect costs of the course?
(b) What equipment (e.g. computers) is required for the course?
(c) If computers are required, are students responsible for line charges?
(d) Is required equipment rentable/purchasable from the provider institution?
Other questions include:
(a) By what means do students communicate with their tutors or with other students?
(b) By what means do students gain access to research resources and other forms of support?
- What provision, with or without fee and/or equipment rental refund, is there for withdrawal from the course?
The above questions do not necessarily provide a comprehensive view of what a student should know about a course in which he/she wishes to enrol but rather a series of guidelines to enable students to make informed decisions about such courses.
This guide attempts to divide institutional responsibilities into two categories, those to students and, where appropriate, those to partner institutions.
1. Responsibilities to Students
(a) Responsible marketing and student recruitment practices with particular reference to the provision of accurate and comprehensive information in at least the areas covered by the questions in the student guide. Every effort would be made to ensure access to all distance education students, regardless of such factors as gender, ethnicity, age or physical disabilities.
(b) Course development, review and revision process that is adequate to maintain quality assurance and ensure that courses are culturally sensitive and appropriate for the students to whom they are made available and that they have access to the materials needed to achieve their course goals and objectives.
(c) Provision of appropriate support for enrolled students in areas such as advising, instruction, scheduled evaluation and assessment, examination and protection of student privacy.
(d) Where courses involve computer mediated instruction, clarity about the rights of both students and institutions to materials produced by students.
(e) An assurance that students will be able to complete programmes once they have begun and that changes shall not disadvantage students.
(f) Confidentiality of information provided to institutions by students.
(g) Provision of appropriate faculty and staff training and continuing professional development in the use of electronic systems for materials development and delivery, and for student support.
2. Responsibilities to Partner Institutions
(a) Clear delineation of inter-institutional agreements before they are put into effect.
(b) Implementation of the above assumes that:
(i) all aspects of contract activities required of all parties will be precisely defined;
(ii) appropriate arrangements for the protection of intellectual property rights and copyright for all institutions and individuals developing materials under the contract are specified;
(iii) contracts will be fully costed to ensure that all necessary costs to all partners are covered and that the cost benefits of the proposed arrangements are clear; and
(iv) clearly defined and appropriate institutional resources for carrying out the terms of the contract are set aside for the period of each contract and, where necessary, to enable students to complete programmes after a contract has expired (see 1 (e) above); and
(v) upgrading and sharing of information and new technologies as appropriate.
The previous documents have emphasised the importance of inter-institutional partnerships in the development of systems to deal with the remote delivery of courses and programmes. The last section attempted to outline some of the requirements for the development of successful partnerships defining the responsibilities of the parties to such agreements. In discussing the practical issues related to the development of inter-institutional partnerships, the group emphasised the need for demonstration projects that would both provide useful courses that could be expanded into larger programmes and show the efficacy of a collaborative approach to remote delivery. It also discussed at length the role of international agencies, in particular COL, in acting as a broker to facilitate such activities.
In this connection, it was agreed that:
- COL should attempt to bring together both individuals and institutions to deal with specific problems that could be translated into courses.
- It is important, however, that such courses should be parts of existing programmes or programmes under development and thus be usable in all participating institutions or at least transferable as widely as possible.
- The issue of credit transfer should be dealt with as part of the initial agreement to collaborate on development and delivery of particular courses along with all other details of the agreement.
- Given the need for such demonstration projects, every effort would be made to develop such a partnership agreement in the very near future.
The group agreed that, as discussion of these basic documents proceed, COL would attempt to take a lead in developing a model partnership and thus to bring together interested individuals and institutions to accomplish this.