This is my first post on this new blog. In it, I'd like to consider the one thing that I always question about Distance Education: Accessibility.
We talk about synchronous and asynchronous Distance Education and how both methods of online learning accessible to those who would not otherwise have access to higher education. This includes those who may live in areas without immediate access to brick and mortar educational institutions; students who work full time; students who have a physical or mental disability that prohibits them from attending a class;
However, all of this ignores what is quite possibly the largest population of people who lack access to education - that is those in developing nations. People living in developing nations do not have the ability to access the internet nor do they have the resources to own the hardware. So how do we reach them? I'm not certain I know the answer. I imagine that these nations will continue to work best under the first generation of Distance Education - correspondence study.
Hi Stacey,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I was paired up as your critical commenter. Accessibility of education is something I'm also passionate about. I work with a Massive Open Online Course and through this experience learned much about those accessing our course from developing nations. Here's an interesting read about MOOCs in developing countries: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/512256/in-the-developing-world-moocs-start-to-get-real/. I wanted to read a follow up article about how these courses are putting the pressure on developing countries however it's limited access! The MIT tech review posts a lot of interesting stories about technology in developing nations.
One way accesibility has been improved is that online courses with videos have the download option now rather than purely live streaming. One of the students in my course two years ago posted that he drove to an internet cafe hours away, downloaded the videos, and drove back to his village to share with his community. I thought this was a great story and illustration of the accessibility issue.
That being said, a serious issue that came up for us this time was identity verification. In order to make the certificates through Coursera mean more (and maybe particularly in developing nations?) in order to obtain an actual certificate students must identity verify with a webcam. If they cannot do so, they are able to complete the course with a grade - they just aren't able to obtain a verified certificate. So this gives the courses more credibility which means they may be used with more confidence in the developing world for an equivalent to college credit, however it means that the accessibility is severely limited. In the article I linked above, they talked about how Rwanda was experimenting with developing a fully MOOC university - so making these certificates identity verified enables opportunities like that, but again accessibiilty is limited. I could go back and forth thinking about this all day! But thought you might find this interesting give your post.
Jackie
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ReplyDeleteDear Stacey
ReplyDeleteAs an academic from a developing country I totally agree with you that DE should not alienate those very people that it is meant to serve. When I was looking at the definition of ODL by Moore & Kearsley, it summarised for us in the African context what the term ODL, meant. It is DE but the reason for the term ODL specifically to our context, is the era of apartheid that we are coming out off. DE was the type of education meant to service the elite in our country, so it was an elitist form of education. However now, UNISA, with its ODL policies is attempting to bridge the geographical distance and take education to every citizen, regardless of race, sex, gender or orientation.
My concern is that sometimes we are moving too fast. If I look at the quote by Chere Campbell Gibson where he states that "technology has brought us access to information to a degree unheard of in the past....." it worries me, because most South Africans do not have access to this of information. The reality is, South Africans are still in the majority, very poor, and technology, whether it is media, tele-education, or tele-conferencing, is still a luxury for most. Sometimes the policies meant to redress the harms of the past can actually lead to their disadvantage. Don't get me wrong, whilst DE can be making strides in First world countries, I am just saying that we need to take stock of each countries situation and adjust ourselves accordingly. I do not disagree with DE, I disagree with the zealousness with which it is being implemented in some countries that cannot afford to do so.
Kind Regards
Tameshnie