Distant Learning Lecture 2-Relevance, Goals and Characteristics of Open Distance Learning. (ODL Lecture 2)

      Lecture 2-Relevance, Goals and Characteristics of Open Distance Learning. Lecture 2

By 

Olaide B.Alabi (PhD)

Objectives 

At the end of this lecture, students should be able to:

• State the relevance of Open Distance Learning

• Highlight the goals of Open Distance Learning

• Mention the characteristics of ODL

The Relevance of Open Distance Learning

1. Open Distance Learning is relevant to human development because of its interconnected nature it could make education available for all and sundry with little stress. 

2. Open Distance Learning has its quality in the teaching exposition and the non-contiguous communication which contains a distinct curriculum which cuts across different courses of study.

3. Support learning in Open Distance Learning could take any form, depending on the nature or standard of the institution, support learning could include teaching-which might be virtual or physical or both, it could take the form of direct interaction with the course lecturer via phone or other correspondence. 

4. In Open Distance Learning, pre-produced course materials must be made available for learners at an affordable rate.

5. Open Distance Learning should free learners of constraints of time, space and place, It should allow learners to work and combine family responsibilities with educational opportunities

The goals of Open Distance Learning

1. To offer a window of opportunity to the rich collection of valuable instructional resources to all categories of learners 

2. It is to bring about the international coalition in the global education system, thereby  cross-border initiatives would be  realised to bring a form of equal standard of education for all categories of people 

3. It is an opportunity for institutions to get constant internally generated revenue, this could be done by increasing and seeking students from all levels of human endeavours

4. It is to promote personal accomplishment, growth and universal social interactions. 

5. To utilise the opportunity offered by the current technology in providing educational opportunities for all and sundry.

6. It is to exploit the approach that complies with the current trends in the mode of instructional presentation.

7. It is to ensure an opportunity to perfect Internet‐based education and online learning.

8.  It would lead to a large‐scale chance of prospective online scholars as a requisite of their developing their innate and academic potential

9. It is a viable way through which professionals may enhance their professional competencies while still engaging in their different careers.

10.  It would be a viable way through which the frustrated ones could pick up hope to recover their missed chances of developing their skilled gift through this new window.

Characteristics of ODL

1. ODL is about online learning and it offers different groups of learners open access to education; most of the courses uploaded online could be made available for students to have free passes as long as the learners could get data for an internet connection.

2.   It is expected that ODL should provide high-quality content and ensure that learners are well informed as far as modalities to follow to get themselves engaged in getting the required knowledge from the content of the courses.

3. Instructors and facilitators should qualify in the related fields, they are to provide contents that meet the requirement of current global standard, resource person should not be regionally bound, they could be sourced from any part of the world.

4. With the high rate of success of ODL operation, it ought to render conventional institutions redundant and present stiff competition, sustaining the interest of learners in online learning instead of the conventional method of learning.

5. ODL learners are expected to be of various personalities with diverse motives for engaging themselves in ODL learning models, the model should expose them to diverse kinds of opportunities, especially to motivate them to develop their hidden potential.

6. ODL should be success-oriented, the focus of ODL is not only to get students registered but to ensure that students are built and transformed to manifest in full force the content and context of their related curriculum 

7. Commitment to the course of study and goal realisation should be the focus of the ODL curriculum planners, supervision should be set in a format that would make both students and instructors operate under the broad aim of the whole system

8. Diversification  should be the other of the day, any courseware prepared should be flexible enough to accommodate new trends at any given time

9.  Compartmentalisation of the system should be ensured, this is necessary to meet the demands and interests of all types of students and be allowed to meet the interest of impending applicants.

10. Motivation and learners' conduct are very essential as this would lead to the dedication required to complete the course, and should be enough discipline on the part of the institution to extrinsically motivate learners. 

References

Rovai, A. P., & Downey, J. R. (2010). Why some distance education programs fail while others succeed in a global environment. The Internet and Higher Education, 13(3), 141-147.Kizilcec, 

R. F., & Halawa, S. (2015, March). Attrition and achievement gaps in online learning. In Proceedings of the second (2015) ACM conference on learning@ scale (pp.

Williams, K. M., Stafford, R. E., Corliss, S. B., & Reilly, E. D. (2018). Examining student characteristics, goals, and engagement in Massive Open Online Courses. Computers & Education, 126, 433-442.57-66).