APC P.14b
2003/2004

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).

Programmes and related issues

Distribution of materials continues to be affected by the unavailability of student numbers per course per site on a timely basis. For the academic year 2003/2004 there were a number of instances where the number of course packages sent were insufficient.

Problem courses are SY32E (dealt with in the report from St Augustine) and EC14C, GT423, ED33A, ED33B, ED33N, which are still without the printed materials prepared by UWI faculty. EC14C to date relies on the purchase of text books. GT423 relies on old course materials and photocopies of articles, while the ED courses rely on photocopied materials.

The distribution of materials for the new foundation course FD11A had to be done electronically, on a unit by unit basis, as the writing of the course was not completed in time for the start of the semester.

The certificates in Public Administration and Business Administration were not advertised for the coming academic and a new intake for 2004/2005 is not anticipated. However, there will be students in the system who will need to complete the programmes, which may involve GT423. The payment of course coordinators in those courses peculiar to the certificates was raised, as the Faculty of Social Sciences at Mona, which historically was responsible for the certificate programmes, had ceased offering them on campus.

Tutorial support especially for level 3 courses in the B.Sc. programme, continues to be a challenge because of

1. small numbers of students at some sites;
2. unavailability of qualified persons.

In addition to the programme matters which are common to all the countries, there are two programmes that are currently delivered only in Jamaica: the B.Ed. Secondary programme, which is funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture, Jamaica, and the Masters in Family Medicine.

B.Ed. Secondary

In addition to the normal delivery modes of teleconferences, print material and tutorials, a number of the courses under this programme have been making use of Campus Pipeline for course delivery. The Web Administrator, Mr Howard Smith, and the Curriculum Development Specialist (Acting), Ms Charmaine McKenzie, have been instrumental in the process. There are also courses offered face-face during the summer period.

The Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Education does allow for use of the materials without permission for the conduct of UWI courses. It is therefore suggested that UWI establish the demand for these programmes in the other countries that support the network. Likewise, should the materials produced for the distance courses be in demand for the same courses taught on campus, the feasibility of reproducing the materials for the campus students could be investigated.

MSc Family Medicine

Registrations for the M.Sc. Family Medicine are as follows:

The Department of Psychiatry and Community Health at Mona have written to the Board for Non-Campus Countries and Distance Education to pursue the possibility of extending the programme to other countries.

Summer School

Overall, the arrangements made for the administration of summer school 2002/2003 worked reasonably well, with fees from students being lodged directly to a centre account. The implication was that UWIDEC was responsible for effecting refunds or transfers to the regular student accounts where necessary.

Discussions have begun with the Faculty of Social Sciences representative for arrangements for this years’ summer school.

Staff

Ms Charmaine McKenzie, Editor, has been acting in the post of Curriculum Development Specialist since October 2000.

The designation of the senior projects officer was changed to senior programme officer.

Ms Christine Marrett, Campus Coordinator and Senior Programme Officer, will be going on three months study leave from April 15, 2004. In her absence, Mr Derrick Thompson will be acting Campus Coordinator and Mr Orville Beckford will be Programme Officer. Ms Marrett has relinquished responsibility as campus coordinator as of the start of her study leave.

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.

Space

Challenges of space and staffing of the non-campus sites is a continuing issue. Additional classroom space at Ocho Rios was provided with the use of four refurbished trailers.

Following on notice to quit the temporary housing at the Ministry of Education located on the grounds of the Brown’s Town Community College, arrangements to site two 40’ converted trailers at the College were made.

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. Denbigh has also indicated the need for additional accommodation.

Projects

On the request of the Ministry of Education in St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Head of the Department of Educational Studies had prepared a project proposal to offer the Certificate in Adult Education to St Vincent and the Grenadines. However, no response was forthcoming.

A project proposal for a course in curriculum development for four eastern Caribbean countries, also prepared by the Head of the Department of Educational Studies in response to a request was not supported by the funding agency that had been approached (DFID).

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. The project agreement was signed on January 17, 2003.

Activities of the project considered pertinent to the Academic Programme Committee are:

1. Reports of consultancies
2. Pilot Course
3. Establishment of the Caribbean Association for Distance and Open Learning.

(i) Reports of consultancies

Two consultants were 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 – February 16, 2004.

In general, Mr Sylvester recommended further investigation of the use of E-Links Americas to provide V-Sat communication for the five participating institutions. He suggested that the institutions examine the development of an educational portal. Based on projected costs, he recommended that the option of on-line distribution of materials for reproduction at distance education centres not be pursued.

The E-Links Americas is an organization born out of a World Bank supported project, Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network (CKLN). However, at a meeting of the CKLN project held in February 2004, it was stated that E-Links Americas would not be ready to provide service before another 8-12 months.

Mr Nicholas’ report provided a wealth of information on distance education at each of the participating institutions, with a significant portion of the report dedicated to the UWI, as the most advanced of the five, relative to the provision of distance education. The first draft of the report can be accessed at: http://www.cupide.org.jm/reports/CUPIDE_ProjectReport_Draft02_Submit022704.doc.

Some pertinent observations on UWIDEC include:

• “UWIDEC’s success in promoting the value of distance programmes has likely fuelled heightened expectations for distance education – expectations that may have now become exceedingly difficult to meet. Being a pioneer, UWIDEC utilised the most cost-effective technologies available to it during its evolution. These technologies involved the use of paper-based content, combined with local infrastructure in the form of distance education centres, along with local and distance staffing to provide both tutorial and lecture-by-teleconference instructional support.
  
  However with today’s standards and technologies, there has been an explosion of the use of various modes and channels for the use of ICT to support virtual or online education. Almost universally drawn to the Internet as the most widely accepted form of integrated access, today’s pioneers in distance and online education are finding a spectrum of even more cost-effective uses of technology, networks and methods.
  
  As we will see, the university and UWIDEC recognise the need to embrace the use of newer technologies for the creation, management and delivery of distance education. This organisation faces the added challenge of wanting to change while at the same time having responsibility to continue developing, maintaining, delivering and supporting the current programmes as well as those in the immediate pipeline that are geared to use existing technologies and methods.
  
  Like trying to change tires on a car while it’s speeding down a road that’s already difficult to drive, the challenge can be overwhelming. When you add the heightened expectations of a growing constituency of stakeholders for distance and online education, the prospects for success can appear limited and frustrating. The challenge for the university will be to understand the perceptions and needs of its many constituents, and to establish and articulate clear strategies and tactical steps that will bring all of the resources and stakeholders together to work in concert to manage the changes that will be needed.”


• The attainment of the strategic objective to “Expand distance education enrolment by 5,000 students, after radically reforming the system, to facilitate wider regional access to higher education” [The University of the West Indies, “Strategic Plan II 2002-2007”, University of the West Indies, Updated March 2003, pp 8-9] is questionable. “It would seem that both radical reformation and the achievement of targeted enrolments are significantly at risk…. In order to achieve the 5,000 enrolment figure by the 2006/2007 academic year, enrolments would need to grow at an astounding rate, compared to historical rates of growth. Add to this challenge the fact that much of the historical enrolments were comprised of students in Certificate programmes, which are being eliminated, the apparent magnitude of growth is even more daunting.
  
  In addition, the practicality of expecting such dramatic success in enrolment growth while simultaneously “radically reforming the system”, suggests that the goal was established without having any realistic awareness of what is necessary to achieve such dramatic change. Without any equally radical infusion of funding, manpower, training and/or leadership, it’s highly unlikely that UWI can come close to overcoming the institutional inertia that appears to be a significant obstacle to success with many, if not most of the strategic goals.”


• “UWI already has a number of individuals with varying degrees of experience with newer forms of online education. One of the difficulties at UWI is that the organisation that is charged with the responsibility of change, UWIDEC, appears to have less “online” experience than other groups who are in the process of developing and delivering new programmes using online modalities. In essence there appears to be a variety of distance teaching experiments, newer versions of the “DITE” in UWIDITE, if you will, occurring in what appears to be a rather scattered fashion.  Due to this wide gap of individual experience, it’s most likely that developments and implementations are occurring in an ad hoc fashion with different approaches and methods for development and delivery.
  
  UWI can greatly benefit by providing a framework for university-wide collaboration and synergy. This will require, at a very early stage, the development of an internal project for training on the subject of online distance education and further dialogue on the topic areas that the training must cover. (See details in later section). The training should be mandatory and it should span the entire university, beginning with those groups most impacted in the short-term. The training should be designed in a “train-the-trainer” fashion, so that those who are involved in the development teach the first wave, who in turn will teach the second wave, etc.”


• “It’s likely that UWIDITE succeeded in part, because it was done on a small scale and was viewed as an “experiment”. In many ways, the current plans for “radical reformation” may still be viewed by many as part of an “ongoing experiment”. The change being considered is not without risk and the smallest of these risks is the change of technology, policy and organisational structure. The much larger risk involves the successful change of individuals and their behaviour – “the actual work that they do”. An integral part of project management is risk management.
  
  Like most institutions, UWI is constrained by its resources, funding and personnel in particular, and would benefit from being able to find institutional economies of scale in the use of new technologies and methods to expand the reach of its many educational arms To realise this, it must find the means to not only strengthen these arms, but to have them working together. A standard and universally delivered package of learning to create awareness and understanding about what the “radical reforms” of online distance education really involve, is a key first step in a much more comprehensive project.
  
  The other major human resource development need specific to UWI, is the need to develop the skills in project management, change management, risk management and leadership in order to keep the process of change moving forward.”


• Perceptions of UWI as “a very conservative institution”, “too patronising and unresponsive to the needs of non-campus countries”, “too elitist and needs to shift to attitudes and behaviour that are more egalitarian”, placing “short-term parochial interests over longer-term regional ones”, and “due to its having a very conservative administration, regional constituents may feel that much needed change and modernisation will be too slow in coming.”

The implications of these perceptions are that

• they “may hinder UWI in its strategic objectives for distance and online education in the Caribbean as many of the stakeholders and regional constituents believe that dramatic and fundamental change is necessary.”


• “UWI may not be viewed as being best suited to lead collaborative regional efforts. Though UWI may be well situated because of its regional position and resources, there appears to be some diminished confidence in assigning too much control to UWI as a consequence of perceived institutional inertia and slow response.”


• “Although UWI is the most experienced of the five CUPIDE universities, its level of experience with online formats, and asynchronous delivery is quite limited. Institutions will typically go through a period of formalised training, followed by some experimentation or trial with available methods. The benefit is that the institution can better formulate specific requirements and determine which processes must be changed and what standards to have in place.”


• “Clearly a major thrust of the ICT recommendations is geared to getting university connectivity to the Internet and to establish some hosting capacity for managing some level of inter-university collaboration. As far as support for the delivery of any distance education using the Internet, there remains an important issue, access to students. In order to provide asynchronous modes of distance education to students, one must determine which populations are being targeted for various programmes and how the prospective students will be able to get appropriate levels of access to the PCs that have Internet connectivity with sufficient bandwidth.
  
  Asynchronous methods for delivery can still involve a wide array of choices for course design. If design standards suggest the use of or access to media that will be bandwidth intensive (sound, graphics, video, etc.), then the minimum standard PC configuration and Internet connection speed for students will be greater, and the potential ability to provide access for these students will be constrained. The choice of virtual learning environment and selection of options or features within these environments, may further affect the minimal student access configuration requirements, in terms of bandwidth or software compatibility.
  
  Access strategies should be established. If it is decided that more students will benefit if the configuration requirements are set low (e.g. they can use lower-cost configurations in nearby schools, businesses, libraries, etc.), then such a requirement can impact choices made in selecting technologies and establishing course design standards. In order to accommodate goals for collaboration in course design and development, there is a further implication that design choices made in Suriname or Guyana would be consistent with those selected in Barbados or Trinidad, for example, based on the configurations of PCs that students would be able to access.
  
  Another consideration for UWI is the investment in technology to facilitate printing. The need to print materials will likely persist for some time, though the nature of print is likely to evolve. Where current UWIDEC courses are heavily reliant on printed materials, most Internet course design and delivery reduces the amount of bulk printing and instead, presumes that required bulk printing is minimised. Instead, printing is done selectively as required by the student - mainly for their personal preference and convenience. If a student has access to a connected PC at home or at work, they may be able to “work online” or save materials locally. Other students, however, who must schedule less frequent access to a PC, may need to print selectively to a local printer.
  
  The implication is that, aside from determining requirements for student access to the Internet, UWI will also need to determine how heavily the new model or standard course design will rely on any printing of course content. Other considerations come into play as well. If the standard is to distribute files using popular formats such as MS Word or Excel, then the PCs need to be configured with the appropriate versions of this software. If one should wish to distribute audio or video content on a CD, then the student configuration will need to have the minimum requirements for this medium.”


• “The technical implication …relates back to the issue of student Internet access and the technology infrastructure that will be needed to support it. Many students taking online courses in an asynchronous mode prefer to connect at very late times in evening or early in the morning, due to work commitments. If student course performance is dependent on access to online materials and/or a virtual classroom environment, then it is incumbent on the education provider to make certain that the technology environment is highly reliable, meets performance and access service level requirements, is available when needed (e.g. 24 hours per day / 7 days per week), and that technical support staff is available to troubleshoot problems and to handle student or faculty problems or questions. To determine such requirements, more dialogue on the details of course design is needed. These technology issues have costs associated (bandwidth, processing power and personnel support) and the course design may need to be constrained by the realities of these factors. There will be many trade-offs.”


• Before making final selections on technology to support distance and online education, UWI should be very clear as to how these technologies will be used to support change strategies. Consideration should also be given to the timing of changes. The 1997 VSAT project is a good illustration of the fact that technology changes quite rapidly – usually at a pace that is difficult to keep up with. If planned changes are expected to take a few years, one should consider the potential that technologies and requirements may change over that period.”

Recommendations for the five universities include:

• Develop online and distance education professional development plans within the framework of an overall project for creating or transforming their distance education programmes;
• Establish project teams at their respective institutions to oversee the planning, development and implementation of their respective online and distance education programmes;
• Develop or acquire significantly greater levels of expertise with project management and change management methods and skills and that the online distance education projects be provided with levels of skilled staffing required by individual project plans;
• Develop a professional development programme that includes a comprehensive overview of online and distance education fundamentals that will establish the context and common understanding and framework for all participants;
• Within the professional development context of the overall project framework, create individualised development plans for each individual who is identified as having some role to play in the overall online distance education project;
• Have those receiving the professional development education undertake an assessment of their learning style preferences as a prerequisite step or requirement;
• Conduct specific research to ascertain the programme and constraints of the targeted tertiary students in each university's targeted geography;
• Review and assess the baseline of existing online and distance education programme courses for collaborative potential.
• Develop a professional development programme that includes subsequent development that is more focused on the technologies, tools and formats to be used and tailored to the specific diverse role of individuals;
• Strive to utilise targeted concepts, technologies, methods, etc. in the professional development learning process;
• Clearly articulate the preferred default modalities (there may be multiple for different student segments) and reasons for the selection. The universities should then facilitate a review by each department head concerning their programmes and courses to assess the appropriate feasibility and related issues for courses identified as having market potential for delivery by distance;
• Engage the education model training participants in facilitated dialogue on the appropriateness of these strategies for each major Faculty Department. From this dialogue, agreements and strategies should be articulated and communicated regarding intended plans for the use of appropriate models and methods of learning and teaching; and
• Develop (or revise) their specific plans, strategies and deployment tactics for online and distance education.
• Build some form of learning style measurement into the admissions process, especially for distance students, and use the information in the selection of appropriate programmes and models of instruction; and
• Involve key project team members in some form of collaborative course development and trial delivery.

Recommendations related to initiatives and collaboration:

• Look to frameworks of implementing CUPIDE provisions that have mechanisms for continuation;
• Further explore opportunities to collaborate in the following areas:
  • Project planning and management;
  • Student marketplace needs and constraints assessment;
  • Human resource professional development;
  • Online and distance education strategic and tactical planning;
  • Implementation of standards, methods, modalities, policies, etc.;
  • Programme / course co-development; and
  • Change management;
• Pursue collaborative opportunities beyond the scope of the CUPIDE project to further the pursuits of expanded access of Internet technology, including the availability of computers, to targeted student population areas, especially those with limited tertiary education options;
• Pursue collaborative technology opportunities that may provide for regional savings and economies of scale. Such opportunities include:
  • Common uses of the recommended portal technology;
  • Shared resources, use and expertise with Learning Management Systems;
  • Exploration of the use of standard technologies to support collaboration such as "Open Source" alternatives for Virtual Learning Environments; and
  • Collaboration with other regional initiatives such as the Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network project to leverage resources and reduce redundancy; and
• Review the potential for some form of "Virtual University" environment among the regional tertiary institutions. This should include expanded investigation, in cooperation with other regional projects, as to the nature or model of implementation that would best accommodate the needs of the region.

Based on the response of the institutions to both reports, the project budget and activities are to be rescheduled for submission to UNESCO, within the first week of April.

(ii) Pilot Course

At the Project Advisory Committee meeting held on August 5, 2004, it had been recommended that UTech and UWI work together on adapting existing courses to form the pilot course on developing distance education. Two meetings had been held between UWI and UTech involving Mr Carlton Samuels and Mr Craig Perue of the UWI Mona Information Technology Services (MITS) and Mrs Grace Turner of UTech, and the Project Manager. A project plan to be applied to the pilot course was drafted by the Project Manager.

The process was stalled when it was revealed that the course presented by Mrs Turner for adaptation was not in fact considered a UTech course but one developed by Mrs Turner.

In a subsequent meeting of the new representative of UTech to the PAC, Ms Cheryll Messam, MITS and the Project Manager, UTech was invited to review the course documentation on the UWI course e-Learning 101, and indicate whether there was agreement with the philosophy of the course and if so, to contribute to the assessment aspects of the course.

A written response was received from UTech and is awaiting the UWI response.

(iii) Establishment of the Caribbean Association for Distance and Open Learning (CARADOL)

Established with seed funding provided by the CUPIDE project for the steering committee, the inaugural meeting of CARADOL was held on the UWIDEC teleconference network, March 2, 2004. At that meeting the constitution was ratified and officers of the Association were elected. The officers are:

Following the meeting, a reception hosted by the Jamaican Association for Distance and Open Learning was held, at which the Japanese Ambassador gave remarks.

The official launch of the Association was scheduled to take place during the COHSOD meeting to be held in Guyana, April 15, 2004.

Prepared by Christine Marrett, Campus Coordinator and Senior Programme Officer
March 29th, 2004