Prof Esther KibukaMy name is Esther Kibuka-Sebitosi. I am a Professor at the
University of South Africa (UNISA), Institute for African Renaissance Studies. I hold a PhD in Natural Sciences with a focus on vector-borne diseases/ Public health and an MBA from UNISA/ Open University UK. I teach PhD and Masters Students and conduct research from a Multi-, Inter- and Trans- Disciplinary (MIT) approaches underpinned by the African Renaissance paradigm. I am currently persuing a Masters in Distance Education (MDE) at the University of Maryland, USA. I am a member of International research Teams for example on a study of regulatory framework on eHealth in Sub-Saharan Africa for the European Union, a member of the Education for Sustainable Development Expert Net Work that includes South Africa, Mexico, India and Germany as well as a former member of the European Union Training Board (ETF) Toulon, Italy. I love the Lord and preach the Word of God. I am called into the Teaching and deliverance Ministry. Research interests
I have many research interests and collaborate with several partners in the following fields: Distance Education Education for Sustainable Development Business and Transformation of Organizations Endemic & Emerging diseases in Africa such as HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Vector-borne diseases E Health in Sub-Saharan Africa Culture and Heritage |
Interest in Distance Education and the Journey
Original Definition: Distance education is a method of teaching students at a “distance” meaning they are not face to face interactions like what happens in Traditional classroom environments. The need for distance education varies from continent to continent and from place to place. In North America and Britain, it was mainly necessary after the First World War when many people found themselves needing the necessary skills to feed into the industrial revolution. In Africa, it has been a journey of reaching the unreachable that did not the resources and infrastructure to attend the formal face to face education. Here in Africa, distance is real meaning remote and deep rural in the real sense. In South Africa, specifically, distance education was impacted and influenced by the apartheid regime that segregated the education according to colour. Distance education helped to educate the black people, Indians and rural whites as they could not attend classes together with the white minority. Another area or student type that was impacted upon by distance education was the prisoners who mainly studies Law while serving their sentences. The Famous Nelson Mandela studied by Distance
Education while in prison for 27 years at Robin Islands.
Resources
Implementing Andragogy in Distance education
Research question: To what extent is Andragogy relevant in Distance education? References Care, W.D & Udod, S.A. (2000). Women in Distance Education: Overcoming barriers to learning. New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development. 14 ( 2), 4–12. DOI: 10.1002/nha3.10111 Chaves, C.A. (2009). On-Line course curricula and interactional strategies: The foundations and extensions to adult e-Learning communities, European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning 1, 1-6. Dable, R.A., Pawar, B.R., Gade, J.R., Prasanth, M., Anandan, P.M., Nazirkar, G.S & Karani, J.T. (2012). Student apathy for classroom learning and need of repositioning in present andragogy in Indian dental schools, BMC Medical Education, 12, 118. DOI:10.1186/1472-6920-12-118. Donavant, B.W. ( 2009). The New, Modern Practice of Adult Education Online Instruction in a Continuing Professional Education Setting, Adult Education Quarterly, 59 (3), 227-245. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ911758.pdf Haveril, M. (2009). Towards innovative virtual learning in vocational teacher education: Narratives as a form of meaningful learning, European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, 1, 1-9. Hussain, I. (2013). A Study of learners’ reflection on Andragogical skills of distance education tutors, International Journal of Instruction, 6 (1), 123-138. Potvin, D.J. (1975). An Analysis of the andragogical approach to the didactics of Distance Education, Canadian Journal of University continuing Education, 2 (1), 27-36. Rossman, Mark, R. H. (2000). Andragogy and Distance Education: Together in the new Millennium, New Horizons in Adult Education, 14 (1), 4-11. DOI: 10.1002/nha3.10105. Schultz, R.B. (2012). A critical examination of the teaching methodologies pertaining to Distance Learning in Geographic education: Andragogy in an adult online Certificate program, Review of International Geographical Education Online © RIGEO, 2 (1), 45-60. Retrieved from: http://www.rigeo.org/vol2no1/2.3.RIGEO-VOL.2.NO.1-3.pdf Vince, H & Ronnie, D. (2005). Our first time: Two Higher Education tutors reflect on becoming a "Virtual Teacher", Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 42 (3), 257-264. |
Learning Journal Distance Education
My understanding of distance education is tainted by the struggles of apartheid within this context. Distance education meant correspondence study whereby the communication was one way from the teacher and the student who responded by writing the assignments and reading mainly printed text books and readings compiled by the lecturers. It is not surprising therefore that perceptions of distance education have varied over the years and many misconceptions exist among the people both the teachers and learners together with an isolated student. However, the changes in Technology, economy, political and social environments have ushered in a new era of distance education that I am proud to be part of and look forward to delivering.Reading the history of distance education in Britain and the USA brings in a fresh perspective to why it happened and the reasons that shaped its design, pedagogy and theoretical frames works that are well documented by Garrison and Cleveland-Innes (2010) who provide the industrial era of distance education as well as the post-industrial era. Miller (2010) on the other hand describes the need for social change and technological development that drove distance education and organizational changes that occurred. The bridge is however provided by Haughey ( 2010) who gives teaching and learning in distance education before the digital age. The present day distance education and is shaped by the technology and many factors that impact on the teaching and learning. Haughey correctly argues that the culture of the times shaped what learning meant. Reflecting back on Africa, the culture and technology has continued to shape distance education into what is now called, Open and distance learning (ODL) that is taking the continent like a fire. Many institutions have tried to adapt to these technological changes within a new and competitive environment to stay afloat the economic down turn and cater for rural students that are young, techno kids and who are “ born- free” to bring it back home ( meaning those who were born between 1994- and now) in a free society and have got technology. Their learning needs are different from the mature working class they planned the institution for. These dynamics have continued to shape distance education locally and indeed throughout the African continent.
1. Review your group's (r)evolutionary grid. What aspects of Wave 2 did you find to be the most interesting? Why? What was the least interesting?
The most interesting aspects of the second wave was the systems approach and the dominant forces that drove DE. The reason for systems approach is that the sustainability organism must take into account the different elements and each must in harmony with each other. Application of the systems thinking and approaches to DE is a powerful tool that helps us to understand the dynamics of complex organizations or phenomena. In DE it can help us to recognize the relationship between different parts or elements of a process like the student sub systems, the materials production, the student support and many others.
I have designed a diagram to explain this concept in DE and reflected earlier on the subject as follows:
Viewing DE through the systems approach helps us to map out the different elements of DE and show how they are related. This would in turn assist in identifying messy problems and break down complex issues like student support that impact DE.
The most elaborate way of comprehending the systems approach has been reported by Greville Rumble (2005) depicts diagrams to explain the concept. I must say, I found his paper complicated.
All systems thinking looks at the world as sub-systems with linking elements; for example, a river has many sub systems like the fish and the plants. If these are affected in a way for example with pollution, the fish die and the plants wither. Applying this model to DE would mean that sub systems like student sub systems, material sub systems, academic subsystems exist and all have to be inter linked with aligned management and financial sub systems for the organization to function optimum.
I guess that is why Moore & Kearsley (2012) refer to distance education as a system where "all the parts are healthy and the parts play their roles in harmony with each other" consisting of all of the processes necessary in order to teach and learn at a distance, from management and design processes to learning, teaching, and communication processes.
So the systems approach gives us a frame work to work with in describing the types of DE for example as explained by Guri-Rosenblit (2009) the five models of DE namely: Single-mode distance teaching universities; dual- and mixed-mode universities; extensions; consortia-type ventures; and virtual technology-based universities (Rumble, 2005) I see the student support systems like the diagram below:
Esther Creations EC ©2013
Thank you and God bless you, Esther
2. What were your "a-ha!" moments during this wave? What incited these moments and how did they influence your understanding of DE?
My “a-ha” moments happened when I was listening to the video of Tony Bates about the History of the open University and the factors that led to its establishment and success. They included political push by the Prime Minister, the presence of a large and willing student target group after the war that needed to earn more money if they went to University but were previously excluded. This mirrors the context in South Africa where under the apartheid systems, blacks were excluded from Higher education. With the establishment of UNISA, they gained access to Higher education. Transformation has since been a driving factor in addition to others. My understanding of DE improved as I realized that the context, the social, political and cultural factors have an important role to play in DE. They dictate the pedagogies and the theories as well.
3. After what you have read, learned, or experienced in studying this second wave, how might you revise your original definition of DE? What specific readings/experiences have influenced your understanding of DE?
The definition of Distance education has evolved since I started reading more literature and it would now include something about the learner. This has been influenced by Moore's theory of transactional distance and the three constituitive elements that comprise the theory: dialogue, structure, and learner autonomy. I really loved Haughey, M. (2010) with the changes in pedagogies and systems.
I enjoyed reading the paper by Sarah Guri-Rosenblit of The Open University of Israel who wrote on the Diverse Models of Distance Teaching Universities. She discusses five types of Models in institutions of DE in 2009, namely: Single-mode distance teaching universities; dual- and mixed-mode universities; extensions; consortia-type ventures; and virtual technology-based universities.
4. Consider the seminar with our visiting scholar Alan and the expert video from Tony Bates. What left a lasting impression on you? Tell us about your impression and how it affected your views about DE.
Alan Tait was very good- he responded to questions remarkably. He is indeed an asset to the DE scholars and I wish he had more time with us.
The video by Tony Bates is a welcome break from all the readings and gives fresh breath to DE. He explains the historical evolution of DE and the Open University with passion and Grace and really makes one understand the importance of the contexts and how they influence DE. I liked the political push from the Prime Minister and the use of high calibre professors and the fact that they let them have time for research to support the field of DE. All these Tony says led to the success of the Open University.
5. Go back to the course objectives listed in the Syllabus. Do you feel the objectives are being fulfilled and if so, how and to what degree? Are there objectives that are not being met? If so, which ones?
The objectives are to:
1. Identify the unique characteristics of distance education- achieved satisfactorily
2. Describe the major influences - social, economical, and political - in the evolution of distance education from its early beginnings to the current IT-based practices- achieved satisfactorily
3. Identify the key authors and theorists in distance education and analyze their contribution to the field- achieved satisfactorily
4. Describe how distance education methodologies have changed over time, in particular how the role of teacher and learner have evolved- achieved satisfactorily
5. Describe various types of distance education institutions and the relevance of a systems approach to teaching and learning- achieved satisfactorily
6. Analyze the impact of technological changes on the nature of teaching and learning in distance education- achieved satisfactorily
The objectives are being met and I am surprised how far we have reached in such a short period!
References
Bates, A. W. (2011). The second wave of distance education and history of the Open
University United Kingdom [Online video]. Available from http://vimeo.com/32292234 (Transcript:http://www.box.com/s/cvygk4334sub0i6atrn8)
Guri-Rosenblit, S. (2009). Diverse models of distance teaching universities. Encyclopedia
of Distance Learning, 2, 727-733. Retrieved from http://www.box.com/s/51sbixtccnccfxboh1uk
Haughey, M. (2010). Teaching and learning in distance education before the digital age.
In Garrison, D.R., & Cleveland-Innes. (Eds). An Introduction to distance education Understanding teaching and learning in a new era. New York and London: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.
Moore, M., & Kearsley, G. (2012). Distance education: A systems view of online
learning (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Rumble, G. (2005) Systems thinking and its application to study of distance education.
Unpublished document(OMDE601/OMDE609 Systems thinking).
Shale, D. (2010). Beyond boundaries: The evolution of distance education. In M. F.
Cleveland-Innes & D. R. Garrison (Eds.), An introduction to distance education:
Understanding teaching and learning in a new era, 91-107. New York & London: Routledge