CHAPTER 1:DEVELOPING CONTENT

Best Practice: Successful distance learning programs make careful decisions about content development.

“Content” in this chapter refers to text-based and digitally based information and materials within an overall course of study (the curriculum) developed for a specific educational endeavor or context. Content can include text, multimedia, simulations, animations, lectures, presentations, tutorials, collections, resources, subject- and task-specific cognitive tools, references, assessments (quizzes/tests/exams), and readings

Constraints Associated with Developing Distance Learning Content

Video, audio,

web interact

ivity

Salary of

developers

Digital content

Time spent in the

development

Interactivity,Flexibility,

customizability

Digital Content Benefits

•Contents are customized to suit students needs

Interactivity

•Could be connected to current research, easier dissemination. Inexpensive than textbooks

Flexibility

Customizably

Multiple Formats

Connected Learning

•Digital content, same as textbook, can be published in multiple formats

Price

Convergence of teaching and learning

Digital text can be less expensive than paper based text curriculum

can foster engaging, immersive, and interactive learning experiences

Strategies for Developing Distance Learning Content

1. In-house development of course content. Open University practice of using course development teams comprising subject specialists, instructional designers, and educational technologists (Latchem & Jung, 2010). 2. Form partnerships with local

entities to develop or share locally appropriate content. National pedagogical institutesUniversities and teacher training colleges. Implementing agencies. like USAID-fundedNational educational agencies, Internal institutional partnershipsPublic-private partnerships, Media partnerships

Strategies for Developing Distance Learning Content

4. Using course content from external or commercial providers.

3. Form partnerships or consortia with external but similarly focused entities to share, modify, and develop content.

- EDULINK, AVU and TESSAwork together to repurpose existing Open Content teaching material and adapt it to local contexts using appropriate technologies.

Strategies for Developing Distance Learning Content

5. Brokering content from other open universities or distance education entities.

6. Repurposing content from face-to-face courses.

7. Self-publish and remix materials. (developing their own content or remixing existing content types to create new forms of digital content (“mash ups”).

Open education resource (OER): Open and free educational content (including metadata) for educational institutions and end users such as teachers, students, and lifelong learners. Since OER is liberally licensed for re-use in educational activities, it is free from restrictions on modifying, combining, and repurposing. Ideally, OER should be designed for easy re-use, in that open content standards and formats are being employed, and it should employ open source software for which the source code is available, open application programming interfaces, and authorizations to re-use Web-based services.421

Open Educational Resources

A final way to create content for distance-based courses is through open educational resources (OERs).

OERs include open source software (OSS), OpenCourseWare (OCW), and open content, which includes all forms of digital and text-based “learning objects” (see figure 18.4 for an explanation of learning objects).

any copyrightable work that is licensed in a manner that provides users with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities:

Retain - the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage) Reuse - the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video) Revise - the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language) Remix - the right to combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup) Redistribute - the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)

Open Content

Open Course Ware

OpenCourseWare (OCW) are course lessons created at universities and published for free via the Internet.

OCW projects first appeared in the late 1990s, and after gaining traction in Europe and then the United States have become a worldwide means of delivering educational content.

Open-source software (OSS) is computer software with its

source code made available with a license in which the copyright holder provides the rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose.

Considerationswhether institutions create or

purchase content for distance learning courses, these materials still must be evaluated for quality, fitness, usability, and appropriateness with regard to the curriculum.

ConclusionAll effective distance learning content

materials—both digital and text-based—must be developed by people with successful school experience.

These developers must not only understand how people learn and how the design of content contributes to learning but must also be aware of the skills, abilities, and culture of the pre-service and in-service teachers for whom they are producing the content.

ConclusionThe materials must be of high quality and must be

sufficiently engaging to advance the diverse aims of various courses by supporting instructional efforts to model good teaching and learning.

These efforts require focusing on classroom and school; integrating theory and practice; linking to specific teacher assessment outcomes; explaining and modeling subject-specific pedagogy; and inculcating declarative, procedural, and conceptual knowledge about a particular subject area (Commonwealth of Learning, 2008).