UWIDEC APC P. 5b

2003/4

UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES

REPORT FROM DISTANCE EDUCATION CENTRE, MONA

Report to Academic Programme Committee Meeting, October 22, 2003

Prepared by Christine Marrett, Campus Coordinator and Senior Projects Officer

Introduction

Mona has responsibility for 10 centres in Jamaica and oversight of the Northern Caribbean countries: The Bahamas Islands, Belize, Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos Islands. Students from these latter four register (in the main) with the Mona campus.

The report is limited to areas thought pertinent to the Academic Programme Committee, i.e. Programme matters, and related student, staff and space issues. It ends with a brief update on the Caribbean Universities Project (CUPIDE).

Obituaries

UWIDEC joined the rest of the university community in acknowledging the passing of two persons who had been involved in distance education, Dr. Peter Whiteley and Ms. Pam Morris as well as Louise Wilson-Taylor a student registered in our distance programme.

Programmes and related issues

In addition to the programmes which are common to all the countries, there are two programmes in which only students in Jamaica currently participate: M.Sc. Family Medicine, which was first piloted in 2001/2002, and a B.Ed Secondary programme which is funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture, Jamaica.

There are discussions within the Faculty of Medical Sciences on extending the MSc. Family Medicine programme to other countries.

As the B.Ed. Secondary programme is geared to upgrading secondary school teachers in 10 subject areas, the UWI may wish to explore the possibilities of extending the programme to other countries.

The Head of the Department of Educational Studies has been asked by a few of the non-campus countries to develop proposals for specific offerings of (1) the Certificate in Adult Education to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and (2) a course in Curriculum development to four eastern Caribbean countries.

Summer School

The Faculty of Social Sciences and UWIDEC attempted a more organized approach to the offer of summer programmes, guided similar attempts on campus to streamline the management of summer programmes.

A major departure was the lodgement of fees by the Jamaican students directly to a Centre account, rather than into the pooled Mona account. Income from non-Jamaican centres is being lodged to this account. Final accounting with payments to the Faculty is to be completed by the end of November.

Mona Summer Workshop for Distance Education Students

The Office of Student Services at Mona once again held a workshop on campus for distance education students. The activity was not held the previous year due to the housing on campus of athletes attending the World Junior Athletics games.

Development of other electronic forms of delivery

As UWIDEC seeks to incorporate other forms of delivery than print, face-to-face tutorials and audio teleconferences on a wider scale than currently exists, (e.g. on-line, Just-In-Time-Learning), issues such as compensation to faculty for involvement in development of these materials are being raised.

Processes for on-line distribution of materials will also have to be worked out.

On-line registration, which has been the norm at Mona for a number of years, was extended to the non-campus countries for current (2003/2004) academic year.

Examinations were now held at each of the centres in Jamaica. The cost of examinations is being charged to UWIDEC.

Library service (From 2002-2003 Distance Library Service Annual Report, prepared by Evadne McLean, Mona Library)

Throughout the year, the Library actively served two groups of distance learners:

-Those in the northern Caribbean, as well as the 10 intra-Jamaica UWIDEC sites enrolled in the Social Sciences and Education programmes delivered through UWIDEC.

-Those in the B.Ed Secondary (Distance) Programme, which came on stream in January 2003.

In an attempt to make the services offered to distance learning community mirror those provided for on-campus students, there was a further strengthening of some on-site collections for the Social Sciences and Education programmes, as well as document delivery and book loans to staff and students. Requests for past examination papers have been greatly reduced as students and tutors can now access these directly from the on-line catalogue.

It is planned for the current academic year to

§ extend the distance library services to other students in the M.Sc Counselling programme and the M.Ed. on-line programme run out of the Institute of Education.

§ aggressively market the library services to the distance community in the northern Caribbean so to encourage greater use of the resources and services.

§ begin to develop the distance learners Web-page into a one-stop shop for most library services

§ establish, on the home page, web links which will be beneficial to the students

§ prepare user survey in the form of a self-administered questionnaire (SAQ) to determine user satisfaction with services and to determine new areas of need in the changing environment.

Staff

Ms. Charmaine McKenzie, Editor, has been acting in the post of Curriculum Development Specialist.

A temporary editor has been employed for the period of one year, vice Ms. McKenzie. There may be need for an additional editor, which would have to be funded from extra budgetary sources.

Mona continues with the employment of an additional production assistant for materials production from extra budgetary sources.

A second technician/operator at Mona was employed during the course of the past year.

We continue to try to regularize the appointment of technician Sheldon Cardoza in the Montego Bay centre.

Change in site coordinators

For the year under review, the person appointed by the host institution to oversee the management of the centre in Mandeville, Mr. Karlem Mair, consequent on his change in status to acting Vice Principal of the Church Teachers’ College, handed over responsibility for UWIDEC to Ms. Carmen Bailey, a Senior Lecturer at that institution. We wish to place on record our appreciation to Mr. Mair for his years of service to UWIDEC in Mandeville, from its inception under UWIDITE.

For the academic year 2003/2004 there were to be at least two other such changes: one in Port Antonio and the other in Savanna-la-mar. The administrative assistant in Port Antonio, who holds a part time appointment with UWIDEC, was to be on four years study leave as of September 2003. A temporary replacement has been found.

Other staffing matters

Part time computer/lab technician posts which came on budget for 2002/2003 were not yet filled as the posts were still to be advertised.

The post of Web Administrator was now being financed through UGC funding.

A number of administrative assistants in Jamaica and some of the distance education coordinators of the host institutions benefited from a course in Counselling the Adult Learner in March/April 2003.

Space

Challenges of space and staffing of the non-campus sites is a continuing issue.

Brown’s Town

UWIDEC received notice to quit by the end of 2003 temporary housing at the Ministry of Education located on the grounds of the Brown’s Town Community College. Arrangements to site trailers at the College are on-going.

Ocho Rios, trailers commissioned into use for 2003/2004.

Port Antonio

The space provided at Titchfield High School was in need of refurbishing but given the limitations for expansion, unsuccessful attempts to relocate the site were made. We are to proceed with refurbishing of the existing space.

There have been renewed enquiries from St. Mary for citing a centre in that parish and a request was made to the acting director about the construction of a centre in Savanna la Mar – an activity which had been slated under the CDB project, funds for which had been vired to other activities.

CUPIDE

The Caribbean Universities Project for Integrated Distance Education (CUPIDE) is an alternate name for the UNESCO-UWI project for the Enhancement of Human Resource Development in Distance Teaching, Administration and Materials Distribution, funded through the Japanese Funds in Trust for Capacity Building.

Human resource development is a primary concern of governments in the Caribbean region, with increased participation in post-secondary education viewed as an important aspect and the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in the delivery of education as one of the strategies.

The overall goal of this collaborative project is to develop the human resources within the region through enabling each of the five participating universities (The University of the West Indies, the University of Technology, Jamaica, the University of Guyana, the University of Suriname, and the University Quisqueya [Haiti]) to better develop and deliver quality distance education programmes using ICTs. It will provide telecommunications hardware and software, technical assistance and training of personnel in each of the five collaborating universities. A number of programmes will be developed under the project.

In this way, the competitiveness of the region in general and the institutions in particular will be enhanced, participation in the knowledge society increased – not only as users, but also as generators of knowledge – and cost savings realised in the use of the technology for distribution of the course materials and the teaching and administration of programmes. CARICOM is a partner institution in the management of the project.

The project agreement was signed on January 17, 2003. The first few months were spent setting up the administrative arrangements for the project, including the establishment

of the Project Advisory Committee, chaired by CARICOM with senior representatives from each of the participating institutions (Mr. Carlton Samuels is UWI’s representative).

Two consultants have been hired by the project:

1. Mr. Kenneth Sylvester, Managing Director of Systems Alliance (Jamaica) Ltd. was selected to carry out the of the Information Technology Consultancy, July 22-November 22, 2003; and

2. Mr. Ronald Nicholas, Senior Consultant with HGM Management and Technologies, Inc. a firm based in Washington D.C, was engaged to provide base-line information and recommendations on programme needs, similar initiatives, learning styles, and human resource requirements, August 25, 2003 – January 25, 2004.

Mr. Nicholas is expected to meet with participants of the APC at the time of the meeting on Oct. 22, 2003.

A pilot course on developing distance education is to be mounted by UTech and UWI by the end of this year.

The second year of the project should see the implementation of the recommendations of the two consultants, leading to the development and offering of programmes.