Systems View - Activity 3

Courses MODFL
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Time: This activity should take you about 15 – 20 minutes to complete

Study the map of Botswana and identify possible challenges likely to be faced at national level in providing ODFL.
• What challenges are faced (or are likely to be faced) at national level in rolling out successful ODFL?
• Share your ideas in the discussion forum and read at least one other post.

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The topography of a region may affect the connection and reliability on online services. Higher population area may not enjoy better network flow like regions with low population.

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It is true that relief may affect connectivity and delivery of learning resources. However, high population density makes it more economic to establish infrastructure and facilities than low population density. In the first country (Botswana) you studied in this activity, you will notice that the greater part of the country, especially the western side, is a desert and is very sparsely populated. So, establishing facilities in that part of the country is noy cost-effective.

The second country (Nigeria) is exactly the opposite of Botswana, population densities are very high, especially in Lagos, Anambra and Imo. The challenge here is too much pressure that is exerted on available resources. This becomes a challenge as well.

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Well done for going through Unit 3 over the past week!!

In this unit, you learnt about different systems of ODL delivery, which range from those that have regular face-to-face (physical contact) sessions to those that that do not have any face-to-face interactions at all. You also learnt that apart from the physical contact/virtual continuum, there are also variations in terms of the extent to which technology is used in teaching and learning. Some make very little use of technology and rely primarily on paper-based materials whilst others are purely web-based and do everything online. Thus, there are various models of ODL implemented across the globe, depending on what is feasible in a given context. However, it is important to note that most systems are moving towards non-contact models that are heavily supported by technology. Where does ODL in your context fit on the grid provided in the unit?
You also learnt that in any given context, there are challenges that are faced in rolling out high quality ODL. Examples have been given in the unit curse materials and I am sure you were able to identify the ones that are prevalent in your context. It is important as planners and as providers to have good understanding of the challenges and work systematically to address them. Only when you do this, usually in a concerted effort do you manage to mitigate the challenges and improve the quality of provision. Thus, collecting data on an ongoing basis on how your system is performing will help you identify problems and address them timeously.
In this unit, you also learnt about the need to strike a balance between access, cost and quality – Sir John Daniel’s Iron Triangle. It is important to monitor these three aspects to ensure that none of them is compromised.
Well done for going through the Unit and for completing the quiz at the end. I hope you earned yourself a certificate.
You can now move on to Unit 4 on Technology and emerging pedagogies where you will learn how technology is influencing roll out of ODL.

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Challenges that are faced/ likely to be faced:
-learners in remote areas may feel isolated
-lack of/ unreliable internet connection
-challenge to get feedback from teachers
-late distribution of learning materials due to remoteness of learners

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Activity 4- A systems view of ODFL
One challenge of rolling out ODFL in an institution is slow and expensive Internet service. Where some days it may not not be possible to access the internet for most of the day.

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What challenges are faced (or are likely to be faced) at national level in rolling out successful ODFL?

  • There is unequal distribution of land to people in Botswana. In this context, ODFL institutions go out of their way to ensuring that these marginalized communities’ access education.
  • Another concern often raised at national level is lack of a (clear) distance education policy. Such a policy gap usually leads to uncertainty by the public on the comparability of qualifications obtained through distance education with those obtained through traditional institutions
  • A factor linked to policy is funding of ODFL at national level. Where there is no policy on distance education, public funding has either been absent or has been too little to make significant impact in terms of this mode of provision. In either case, this has such negative repercussions like poor resourcing of ODFL, limited access due to lack of support for the poor people, and generally poor quality of provisioning leading to negative perceptions of this mode of provision by the public.

What other challenges did you think of that operate at national level in your context?

  • In my context, we usually come across with network communication very challenging because once these telecommunication breakdown, the distance learning will be affected. Assignments will be not able to submit on time, online tutorials will not be able to attend and so on.
  • The level of learning abilities will also affected, like the slow one’s will be in big problem to catch up on what session they missed.

What other challenges did you read about in the chat?

Unequal distribution of education resources

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Activity 4

  1. Technological Infrastructure
  • Ensuring that students access to reliable internet connections and appropriate devices that can be a significant. Providing adequate technical support for users.
  1. Pedagogical Shift
  • Need training to adapt their teaching methods to the ODFL environment. This includes online discussions, and creating engaging digital content. Adapting existing courses for careful consideration and planning.
  1. Student Engagement and Motivation
  • Lack of Face-to-Face Interaction: potentially leading to decreased student engagement and motivation, and sometimes even frustration and dropout.
  • Isolation: Students might feel isolated when studying remotely, and maintaining a sense of community can be challenging.
  1. Assessment and Integrity
  • Preventing cheating and plagiarism in ODFL, especially in online assessments can be more challenging than in traditional settings. Institutions need to implement effective measures to maintain academic integrity.
  1. Regulatory and Accreditation Compliance
  • Institutions must ensure that their distance education programs meet the regulatory standards set by relevant education authorities. Resource Allocation
  • Implementing a distance education programme may require significant financial investments in technology
  • Successful implementation and ongoing maintenance of distance education programs.
  • Ensuring that the online learning materials and stages comply with accessibility standards is essential to accommodate students with diverse needs.
  • Institutions need to consider how to make distance education inclusive for all students, including those with disabilities or different learning styles.
  • Implementing robust security measures to protect students’ personal and academic information is critical to comply with privacy regulations and build trust.
  • Addressing these challenges requires careful planning, collaboration among stakeholders, and a commitment to continuous improvement based on feedback and evolving best practices in distance education.
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Activity 5
Explain in a few lines what problems could have arisen which the public raises.
• It shows that the scenario explain that government had increased access by reducing the cost of education, which is a huge benefit associated with ODFL. Though, the quality of education was poor as low cost doomed to have few resources were arranged to ODFL, including human resources. The outline of ODFL was quick, without any planning being done. All this give in the quality of ODFL and resulted in negative views of ODFL by the public.

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The challenges faced are:
-High population and so network flow is at the edge.
-there is no fair distribution of learning materials due to locations are remote.
-funding scarcity.

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Activity 4

  1. Technological Infrastructure
  • Access and Connectivity: Making sure students and faculty members experience the reliable internet connections and relevant learning equipment to use especially at places where access is not good.
  • Technical Support: It’s good to provide suitable technical support for those who use them and to experience issues with online software’s.
  1. Pedagogical Shift
  • Faculty Training: Faculty members need to attend training to know their teaching methods to the ODFL environment.
  • Curriculum Adaptation: Adjusting to existing courses or creating new ones that are suitable for ODFL using a particular delivery model which requires good planning and management.
  1. Student Engagement and Motivation
  • Lack of Face-to-Face Interaction: Distance education may lack the face-to-face interaction like traditional classrooms provide, which lowers students’ engagement and support, and sometimes even cause frustration and dropout.
  • Isolation: Students sometimes feel isolated when doing study remotely, as there would be challenges faced within the community setting as well.
  1. Assessment and Integrity
  • Ensuring Academic Integrity: Institutions need to implement effective measures to maintain academic integrity.
  • Assessment Methods: Make sure there is proper designing of online assessments that accurately measure students understanding.
  1. Regulatory and Accreditation Compliance
  • Meeting Standards: Institutions must guarantee that their distance education programs meet the standards set by applicable education authorities.
  • Resource Allocation
  • Financial Resources: Implementing a distance education programme needs funds and financial investments in technological resources also with training support.
  • Time and Personnel: Time and personnel are important for completion of implementing distance education programmes.
  • There should more of access and availability of resources.

Activity 5

From what is seen the government has increased the access which reduces the cost of education leading a wider benefit in relations to ODFL. Even though it is so there is still poor level in the quality of education as it goes along human resources. Thus living more work not really come to a stage of completion and making the ODFL programme to be not reliable as meant to be.

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Activity 5
Although there is increased access to education at low cost ,quality is compromised. There is pressure on the few available resources - teaching staff, teaching and learning materials