Improving distance education

Improving the format and distribution of study materials for distance education students was the main theme of a three-day benchmarking visit by representatives from the University of South Africa (Unisa) in March 2008.

Organised by the University's Learning and Teaching Support Unit (LTSU), the delegates visited USQ's Distance Education Centre (DeC), International Office (IO) and Information and Computer Technology (ICT) department to share information on serving students through distance education.

Director of Multimedia at Unisa Mr Wessie van der Westhuizen said they are working towards providing more interactive learning materials for students.

'We've set ourselves a plan that by 2015 we will be Open Distance Learning (ODL) based,' Mr van der Westhuizen said.

'ODL is much more interactive and involves more communication with the students.

'To make things more interactive we are looking at technological advancements in the use of multimedia especially in electronic deliveries such as podcasting, cell phones, SMS etc.'

As the largest distance education provider in the Southern Hemisphere, Unisa currently serve around 300,000 students and are eager to consider ways to give students options for study materials and to reduce the cost of student communication.

'We are really focusing our efforts to give more to students and give students options.

'We serve first world countries but we also serve third world countries. You can't give one student a higher standard of education because they have better facilities.

'Because we are dealing with Africa, the bulk of our students are in Africa, some don't even have power.

'For students in this situation they can register for the course and receive their materials printed at a certain price.

'For a slightly reduced price students could receive all of their information on a CD which contains the PDF files and they can take it home and print it themselves.

'At a further reduced cost they receive the same material but it is accessed on the web.

'There are also 11 official languages in South Africa so students could also have the option of which language their material is presented.'

Director of LTSU at USQ Professor Lynne Hunt said as part of the visit the Unisa team led a discussion on benchmarking.

'This presentation was useful for faculty staff interested in the use of multimedia in learning resource development.

'The visit by Unisa is also a useful opportunity to network and to build links with such a significant distance education provider.'

Mr van der Westhuizen said it was important for the two institutions to share knowledge to determine ways to best serve students.

'We can see what you're doing, what you're using and how you're using it. Hopefully at the end of the experience we can learn something from your university and you might even learn something from us,' he said.

'It is interesting that we have come some 17,000 kilometres and people are still talking the same language.

'Everyone is doing the same job they are just doing it in different manners. That's the whole reason for benchmarking because we might learn from the way that you are doing it.'

Media Contact: Jane Urquhart USQ Media +61 7 4631 2559