Articles of Interest

The Costs and Costing of Distance/Open Education
The Costs of Computers in Classrooms: Data from Developing Countries
Costing Tool for Teacher Education at a Distance
Computers in Education in Developing Countries: Why and How? 
Computer Education in Nigerian Secondary Schools: Gaps Between Policy and Practice (pdf)
Fifth Generation Distance Education
ODL Challenges to Quality Assurance

Note: These documents provide information and recommended readings that are deemed to be useful and relevant from various resources. The opinions reflected within are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the World Bank and its affiliated organizations.
     
The Costs of Computers in Classrooms: Data from Developing Countries
Source: Marianne Bakia, mbakia@fas.org

The idea of computers in developing country classrooms may seem incongruous to some at first glance. Why put computers in places where there are few textbooks, no electricity, or where the teacher rarely comes to school? And it is true, computers will not suddenly or magically solve everything that plagues an educational system. Computers can be used, however, to address several pressing problems facing educational institutions. Today computers are used to improve data processing, administration, and teaching and learning. Most arguments in favor of computer use to improve the quality of teaching and learning in K-12 schools hinge on three key areas:   Skills: The skills argument suggests that computer-related skills are valuable in their own right. Students report that word-processing, spreadsheet, web-browsing, and more advanced skills such as database design, computer programming, and computer maintenance and repair, contribute to their ability to be hired (WorLD evaluation 1999). In short, increasingly computerized economies pay for technology.    Content: In places where print is either expensive or not easily distributed, computers, perhaps with wireless connectivity, dangle the possibility of mass distribution copies at the push of a button and at a relatively low marginal cost per copy. Pedagogy: Finally, some research suggests that teachers can and often do teach differently with the support of computers. Computers are vehicles for simulation and exploration, and computers readily support an activity-based curriculum. With such a curriculum, students are "actively exploring phenomenon, instead of being passive recipients of information" (Osin 1998). Read more about the Costs of Computers in Classrooms (PDF) in developing countries.

Fifth Generation Distance Education
by Professor James C Taylor,Vice-President (Global Learning Services)
The University of Southern Queensland, Australia

Over the past twenty years, the transformation of a relatively simple computer network used by a few researchers into a global Internet, involving hundreds of millions of people and generating a new economic order, took government, business and education, by surprise. Given the well-established tendency for people to underestimate the extent and rate of technological change, it seems reasonable to suggest that the extent to which the Internet created economic and social upheaval in the past ten years is likely to pale in insignificance by comparison with the changes occurring in the next decade. The next few years will encompass the significant impact of broadband, wireless, smart cars, smart fridges, streaming media, voice recognition and the inevitable growth of new Internet applications. In the present context, change is the only constant!   

Read Professor Taylor's article about how institutions of higher education respond (PDF) to such a dynamic external environment. 

Computers in Education in Developing Countries: Why and How?
by Luis Osin

This technical note deals with the subject of the introduction of computers as teaching and learning tools within the educational systems in developing countries, although many of the concepts that are presented are of general validity and could be applied to any country facing the decisions related to this area. I have tried to avoid the usual pitfall of many transfer-of-technology projects, which is to “copy” in a developing country a project that was successful in a developed country. This note is the result of my experience in implementing educational projects in the very different situations that arise in developed and developing countries.

For more information, please refer to Osin's article on Computers in Education in Developing Countries: How and Why? (pdf)

ODL Challenges to Quality Assurance
Source: UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education

The challenges and emerging issues faced in providing quality assurance mechanisms in distance learning are discussed in the USA-based report "The Challenges of Quality Assurance in a Distance Learning Environment". Some of these challenges and issues are:

	The boundary problem: Current structures for accountability are tied to political and geographic boundaries, but distance learning is increasingly transcending those boundaries. The task for governmental agencies and accrediting bodies is to coordinate development of standards with a wide array of players.
	The standards problem: Traditional programmes are often judged on the basis of resources presumed to indicate quality. For example, the number of full-time faculty with appropriate degrees may be a legitimate quality indicator for conventional programmes, but it could have no meaning to new education structures of distance learning. Therefore, there is a need to develop standards of good practice which are less tied to physical assets and intellectual resources on-site.
	The regulation problem:  It is very difficult to regulate the Internet, which is the latest ‘medium of choice’ in distance learning. Instead, better consumer information may be the best approach to combating fraud.
	Evaluating consortia and non-educational providers of services: New collaborative arrangements including the outsourcing of some functions to vendors are increasing the complexity of accreditation. The pragmaticapproach taken by accrediting bodies is to hold the degree-granting institute accountable for the vendors’ actions rather than accrediting the vendors.
	Evaluating course and modules: Educational experiences today are more likely to be a series of courses rather than a ‘holistic’ college experience, and accountability systems will have to adjust as well. To gain meaningful customer feedback, quality assurance might have to be done at the course level at least.

For more information, please refer to the full article on the UNESCO website.