Introduction
Distance Education has come a long way from its humble beginnings in correspondence courses to an era when we speak of learner centred virtual universities. Over a period of one century, print has been supplemented first by radio; later by television, and more recently by the Internet and the World Wide Web.
Such growth was made possible by an exponential growth in electronics. Technological inputs into distance education started with the simple radio and the transistor which formed the basis for very successful distance programmes in agriculture ( Radio rural forums in Canada and India; School on the air in Latin America). A later development of television enriched distance education by opening the possibilities of incorporating the audio and visual medium and television’s use in education, at least in India received a boost with the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment in 1975. Distance education institutions did not lag behind in their use of the latest media technology available in their efforts to reach out to students irrespective of time and distance, whether in the U.K. Open University or in similar institutions in Germany ( Feruniversitat) ; NHK in Japan; or the Chinese Television University. Broadcast of educational television became more flexible with the use of audio and video cassette recorders enabling anytime study for the learner.
The computer and the satellite converging together paved the way for the Internet and the World Wide Web. Coupled with findings from research into the cognitive and learning sciences, we have now come to an age where web based instruction is an immediate precursor to the virtual university, with Internet as its platform.
The technological possibilities have made collaboration and cooperation a must. It is the purpose of this paper to explore strategies in crucial areas and various mechanisms for collaboration.
Strategies for Pedagogical inputs for Web based instruction
The Internet and the World Wide Web were the outcomes of developments in the Information Technology industry. Pioneering academicians saw the potential of the Internet and World Wide Web, as a rich resource of information to supplement classroom teaching. The more enterprising academics went ahead and began to offer programmes or courses of study on the Internet i.e. web based instruction. However if “instruction can be defined as a purposeful interaction to increase learners’ knowledge or skills in specific, pre-determined ways” ( Critchie & Hoffman-1997)”, then, simply publishing a World Wide Web Page with links to other digital resources does not constitute instruction. “Instructional sequences typically embrace seven common elements: motivating the learner, specifying what is to be learned, prompting the learner to recall and applying previous knowledge, providing new information and offering guidance and feedback, testing comprehension and supplying enrichment or remediation (Dick& Reiser 1989). With forethought, each of these elements can be incorporated in instruction designed for delivery on the World Wide Web, to ensure that the pedagogical strategies are met. Self learning materials in Distance education typify a scientific effort at incorporating these seven elements. The pedagogy of self learning materials has to be enlarged and adapted keeping the delivery systems ( in this case, the WWW) in constant focus. With pedagogical strategies being met, online courses or web- based instruction is bound to grow in popularity and provide the means for greater access.
Prof. S.W. Tam, in his paper entitled “ Managing Learner Centredness: The role of effective student support in ODL” presented at the recently concluded Asian Regional Conference of The ICDE ( Nov. 2000) observed that “ one of the hallmarks of distance education and indeed what has made it superior to face- to- face education is the emphasis placed on making instructional design and development an integrated aspect of ODL”. He laments the fact that with the advent of new modern technologies and the way they have become pervasive in distance education many people erroneously think that the design of instruction does not matter as long as there is the medium to convey the facts that we wish to provide the students. In distance education, as in any other form of education, the aim of education is not just to convey facts but to convey knowledge in such a way that the student can synthesise it. Also, efforts are made in the ODL system to make students “Learn how to learn”. Prof. Tam refers to the analysis of 25 years research in ODL done by Clark ( 1983) and quotes Clark’s opinion that the primary active ingredient in studies in instructional methods were the strategies and not the media employed by course designers and instructors. At OUHK, this is just as true today as Clark found it in 1983. “ The premise for this is that whether by print, offline or online, the instruction needs to be well designed to suit the learning styles and preference of the students. It should also be designed with all the relevant learning and instructional theories. It has also been suggested that effective web-based instruction must integrate three crucial elements- epistemology, pedagogical strategies suitable for the web and the characteristic of a web- based teaching and learning environment- to create a new instructional model ( Jegede 1999)” Prof. Tam emphasises that for effective student support to be provided, ODL must continue to use the design principles that are appropriate especially to distance learners. “ Additional to instructional design is the need to provide a comprehensive tutorial support.
Prof. Otto Peters in his paper titled “ The Flexible and Virtual University: Pedagogical Models” presented at the Asian Regional Conference of the ICDE in November 2000 observes as under in respect of pedagogical goals:-
“Theemergence of quite a number of different forms of net based learning and the use of the digitised learning environment has caused educators to revive and to apply pedagogical models which they always have thought to be relevant for innovating and reforming the teaching- learning process. Individualisation, activation, communication, games, projects, student- centred approaches are some of the old pedagogical keywords which assume new relevances in virtual learning spaces. The most important one among them is the model of autonomous and self regulated learning. For about a hundred years this has been a pedagogical goal for the education of school children and to a larger extent even of adults. Trying to realise this model is nothing new. However, we are now challenged by the fact that the digitised learning environment is full of promises in this respect. For the first time in the history of learning this model can be relatively easily developed, applied and practised. The old pedagogical idea of the independent, self- acting, self-confident, self-assured and self-conpetent student who learns by studying on his or her own can be realized. Even more: in the long run practising this model will become a sheer necessity with regard to life-long learning required in our post- industrial information and knowledge society.