Copyright: Geir Maribu/NITOL
NITOL is based on a model whereby the students learn according to the principle of "Learning independently of time and place". This means that students decide when and where their studies will be performed. Hence this is a flexible method, familiar from previous distance teaching.
The original intention with this was to exchange subjects among NITOL institutions, allowing students from one institution to follow studies at another one and thereby obtain credits approved by their own institution. This method entailed making course lessons available to all students at the institutions.
The approach we chose was to make these lessons electronically available via the Internet. However, this also meant that our teaching material was available to virtually "the whole world". The next logical step was therefore to make this accessible for everybody, hence a distance learning opportunity everyone could benefit from.
The novel feature of the NITOL model is that the course designers collaborate on the course programme. Several institutions contribute to the same course without the students needing to be aware of this. The students find their course lessons and exercises at the same location no matter which institution is responsible for the lesson in question.
The persons in charge of the course use the same technology in the collaboration as the students use to gain access to lessons, "classroom discussions", etc.
The main administrative challenges in distance teaching according to the NITOL model are the following:
NITOL institutions have generally operated alone when it comes to the administration of the studies. Thus far the collaboration has been on the subjects themselves, meaning that students have been able to select subjects from different institutions offering courses for distance learning students etc.
Course enrolment, registration, exam administration, grades lists, etc. have been handled by each particular institution.
However, this is now becoming a thing of the past. This new common NITOL subject "Pedagogics in Open Learning" is forcing us to also examine more closely the purely administrative aspects of the studies, which is a natural extension of the NITOL collaboration model. Nonetheless, it will surely not be the easiest of tasks. The institutions have different approaches to subject content, credits, courses offered to students etc. and this will now have to be unified.
Below I will examine the administrative procedures that have to be followed from the start to the finish of a NITOL model distance teaching semester. You might regard this as a downhill skiing race where you have to successfully negotiate the various gates.
Before posting the first course lessons several matters have to be attended to: course catalogues, advertising courses, registering people who enrol, provision of information about courses etc. More information on this is provided below.
The work on a new course catalogue commences months before the course actually begins. One of the institutions is assigned the task of compiling all the different elements to go into the course catalogue. This concerns information on courses, technical solutions and not the least a description of the subject content.
It is essential to include a registration form in the course catalogue.
Around ten thousand copies of the NITOL course catalogue are printed and distributed to present and previous students, all upper secondary schools (three copies each), Chief County Education Officers, Municipal School Administration Offices, military establishments all over the country, NITO-organised staff as well as a number of individuals.
In addition to all this, the complete course catalogue is posted on the WWW.
We insist that enrolment is via letters (on paper) or fax because we want people to submit binding signatures. Anybody enrolling via e-mail is requested to fax or mail a letter containing their signature. We believe students consider this matter more closely when their signature is required, and we also weed out those who enrol and then forget all about it. Yes indeed, this type of enrolment was actually a problem for a period, especially from "our own" students at the institutions. These people do not pay their courses fees, either!
So far each NITOL institution has registered its own students. This means that students who want to study several subjects at Høgskolen Stord/Haugesund send their enrolment letters there. If a student wants to study subjects at more than one institution, s/he must send more than one enrolment letter.
Registration methods also vary widely from one institution to
the other, running the gamut from entering information in simple
spreadsheets to databases programmed in Access. The required tools
depend on the number of students to be processed, and the proportion
of internal and external (distance learning) students in question.
At the College of Sør-Trøndelag County we have found it expedient to employ a database for registration. This is partly because of the number of students and partly because the proportion of external (meaning distance learning) students is high. Database registration makes it easy for us to generate lists for each subject, as well as lists of exam results, invoice lists, lists to be forwarded to examining schools etc. More on this later.
The main rush of students comes two or three days before the enrolment deadline. However, from experience we know that a considerable number of enrolments arrive too late, so it is important to be flexible. Our figures indicate that a whopping 40% of participants have enrolled after the deadline.
It would have been preferable and advantageous for students if we could have managed to give feedback as the applications flood in. In practice, however, this has proved impossible, which means that students may have to wait a week or two before they are notified whether they have been admitted. In practice it appears that three or four rounds of sending letters confirming admission are required, the first one immediately after the deadline, and then two or three more batches confirming the admission of latecomers.
So what is contained in the admission letter? The main thing is to inform the applicant that s/he is now a student, and the subjects s/he will be taking. Moreover, a brief description of the studies and the instruction given is necessary, as well as a list of the required equipment and communication software, instructions on how to connect to the Internet, and how to dial into our servers to retrieve course material. The letter must also inform applicants on where to find more information on the studies, methods, technology (the distance learning student manual), etc. on the net.
The student must be given detailed information (more or less step-by-step) on where and how to download the first lesson off the net. This is essential, as we want the student off to a good start with the teaching material. This has a beneficial effect on the student, making him/her feel positive about the studies and the method.
We also ask students to orient themselves in the "electronic classroom" to see what is there, and test out how to do things in different situations etc.
Before sending in their first exercise answer, students must be informed which supervisor to send it to. If you are the teacher, this means you must provide supervisors. At HiST we have employed students to help out with correcting papers. If for some reason you are unable to send out this list in time, an overwhelming number of students will send their answer directly to their teacher.
Since the course now is running and the students must be expected to master the technology, the list might be posted electronically, either on the Web or as News.
The next step is invoicing. Invoices must be sent immediately after the enrolment deadline. Distance teaching comes at a price!
Another problem in this connection is those students who neglect to pay. Some also cancel when they get the invoice, while others continue to study while neglecting to pay. Following up these persons regretfully consumes valuable time and resources.
Nevertheless, the great majority know what they want and pay in time.
The first lesson is posted within a week after the enrolment date. At this time students have already received or have been referred to detailed information on how to download this lesson and print it out.
Always remember that under the NITOL method the teacher and the supervisor may in principle be anywhere in the world. This makes no difference to students or teaching colleagues.
A subject may be taught by several teachers all from different institutions, as the idea is to take the know-how from where it is. This requires that the person in charge of the subject uses the network for information exchange.
An essential feature in this context is guidelines for all teachers to use so that students encounter the same teaching, responses and reactions irrespective of which teacher is presenting the lesson.
Below you will find such guidelines drawn up by distance teachers at the Department of Information Technology, HiST. These are available via the Web for distance learning teachers. You may also have a look on my home page on the net with the following URL (Uniform Resource Locator):
http://www.idb.hist.no/~geir/
Distance teaching is new to many teachers. This overview is intended to assist and to remind teachers about their tasks and duties in this context.
I. Course preparation:
II. Post the following information on the Internet on course commencement:
III. During the course:
IV. On course completion:
This ensures equal treatment in all subjects, and probably also raises the total quality of distance teaching courses.
Each supervisor is responsible for 10-15 students. His or her duties include correcting exercises, recording approved exercises, answering questions, discussing with newsgroups etc.
Since each subject normally would have a number of supervisors, it is necessary to be able to inform these via the net. The Web is a good way of providing information on guidelines, methods etc., while e-mail is appropriate for messages etc.
Below you will find guidelines for supervisors:
Guidelines for supervisors:
I. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS:
II RECEIVING, CORRECTING AND RETURNING ANSWERS
III. OTHER TASKS
Having distance teaching students from all over the country necessitates routines for local exams. This means that each student is responsible for arranging a location for his/her exam. Possible locations are primary schools, upper secondary schools, or military adult education centres. The institution in question must be authorised to give exams.
Procedures call for the students to initiate contact with a school near them inquiring about the possibility of taking an exam at their institution. In the event of an affirmative answer the next step is to forward the name of the school and that of a contact person to the appropriate NITOL official.
Further agreement with the examination school is under the auspices of NITOL. Initially a letter is sent to each exam location thanking them for letting our students sit for their exams, informing about procedures etc.
One possible problem may be that the exam dates are set at a late stage in the semester. This is because the NITOL subjects are the same as those offered to university and college day students, thus the same exam will be taken.
The enrolment process starts when a date has been set for enrolment for exams. Unfortunately it is not always possible to set the exam dates at this point in time. This varies from one institution to the next, however.
Below you will find the information sent to the students about the exams:
Signing up for exams:
All distance learning students must sign up for the exam! Anyone enrolling late will be referred to the next exam, which is in six months' time.
You sign up by e-mailing the school where the subject is offered. Your mail will include one line for personal information plus one line for each subject you want to sign up for.
Name, address, personal identification number (6 + 5 digits)
subject 1
subject 2
An example:
Kari Ås, Villaveien 37, 7300 Sortvik, 311260 34577
Computer technology basic course
Databases
Distance learning students studying subjects at the College of
Sør-Trøndelag County will e-mail Geir.Maribu@idb.hist.no
giving this information. In the subject field you say EXAM
ENROLMENT.
It is imperative to follow this pattern - no more, no less. If you have the urge to write more, send a separate letter.
After the deadline, you will be able to check if you are enrolled from a list of students who have enrolled for exams which will be made available.
The College needs your personal identification number for you to be registered in their files and thus be registered as a student at the College. All printouts of diplomas, transcripts of grades etc. are based on this system.
All students will receive printouts of grades at the end of June. You may also order your grades printed out at other times by contacting the school administration and submitting a special request.
Approximately two weeks are set aside for students to locate an
examination school. Below you will find the information provided
to students about this:
Examination schools:
Your exam will be administered at a college or upper secondary school in your vicinity. Up till now this has worked very well. All schools contacted for this purpose have been very accommodating on the matter of arranging exams for our distance learning students. Nonetheless, certain requirements must be met if you are to sit for the exam in your home area. These are the following:
Can you imagine students operating with several examination schools in the same semester? Yes, it is possible and it has happened! Flexibility is the name of the game, is it not?
This may be the case for students who have a full-time job. For example, the student in question might be working somewhere else in Norway all exam week - that makes it very practical to sit for the exam in that place where he or she is working.
We are entirely dependent on keeping on the good side of the examination schools. Therefore it is incumbent on us to supply them with correct and comprehensive information. We must avoid irritating the examination schools which could happen if they are kept in the dark concerning procedures for our candidates.
Never forget that the examination schools are doing this for us entirely voluntarily. I am not aware that there has been an injunction from the Ministry of Church, Education and Research telling these schools to arrange exams for other institutions.
The biggest problems arise when our exam dates do not coincide with those of the local examination school. This requires hiring extra invigilators for the one (or more) distance learning student(s).
The information flow between us and examination schools is thus of the utmost importance. Below we list the major items:
It may be hard to avoid exam date conflicts when students are studying subjects at four collaborating educational institutions. This is due to the fact that distance teaching offers the same subjects as the institution offers on campus and thus the same exams. Co-ordinating all these exam dates to avoid clashes would be a vast undertaking.
Presently we see no solution to this problem. However, such problems have actually been few and far between, though it is a nuisance for those students who encounter problems. In the cases we have had, the solution has been to have the student sit for the exam the next semester.
One solution to this problem would of course be to plot exam dates on the calendar at the start of the semester, letting students plan and select subjects with this consideration in mind. At present there is no such plan for an exam schedule at the start of the semester.
There are many examination schools and often there is only one student to sit for the exam at each school. Problems may thus arise if a student does not show up for his/her exam. There may be many reasons for no-shows, but if neither party is notified, friction could develop between us and the examination schools.
The examination schools book invigilators for exam dates and in many cases this is only for our one candidate. If this student does not appear, unnecessary expenses will be incurred, and the examination schools may have a hard time getting the person in question to pay the expenses.
Some examination schools solve this problem by demanding advance payment of the fee.
When giving a course using the NITOL model, there is considerable demand for frequent and exact information. This is absolutely necessary to avoid a deluge of telephone calls, or to avoid incessantly replying to e-mail. The information requirement obviously rises in step with the number of students.
Information is important in all types of teaching, but especially so for distance teaching for the following reasons:
Information must be given in a structured and orderly manner. Retrieving information given earlier in the semester must be easy, and it must be possible to link information with new contexts. For example, it must be feasible to compile a list of things to do before a student can sign up for the exam, as well as drawing up a list of important dates to remember etc.
It is essential to supply the same information several times and to give reminders etc. Often this is absolutely necessary if the information is to really sink in.
Beyond the information contained in the lessons, the appropriate information is summarised in the following points. Some of this has been dealt with previously.
Much of this information needs to be permanently available. As they gain experience, it is also important that the course managers polish and improve the posted information.
The Web covers most (or all) needs for a solid information flow to students.
The information may be presented in a structured manner in formatted
documents.
The information is always available.
The information is available for everybody immediately after
being completed.
Changes, additions and updates are easy. This is very important
in connection with new arrivals, changing subjects etc.
The information is easy to print out on paper
Making reminders for what students MUST do when signing up for
exams is easy. Existing information may easily be used in new
contexts.
It is your responsibility to keep the information up-to-date,
the student should not have to cope with a series of e-mail messages
with updates, additions etc. There should be no danger of the
student wasting his or her time reading old and outdated information.
There is only one repository for information, so the information
is always valid.
Another work-saving factor is the reuse of information.
Much of what is posted on the Web may be used again, and it is
created in the process. There is no need to start from scratch
each semester and produce new messages because the old ones have
"disappeared".
In some cases e-mail is appropriate. Essential messages may be
sent to all students or to selected students. If the number of
students is high there might be problems sending mail to everybody.
In those cases where the information is intended for selected
students only e-mail should be used.
News is simple and flexible. You just write a message and post
it to the appropriate newsgroup, hoping that the students read
it and remember it. Experience shows that this is not always true.
Students usually read messages, but they tend to forget, especially
if they feel the matter is of no concern to them then and there.
One News drawback is that the message will "disappear".
It may be hard to refer to a previous message because it may have
disappeared.
When I say disappeared I mean that the message has been read,
and newsreaders will normally not display those messages which
have been read. Retrieving the message requires some manipulation,
and then you will normally find it among hundreds of others. It
may even occur that the message simply has been dropped from the
news server as its time span has elapsed.
Thus News has clear drawbacks in the required bulletin board function.
News is a forum for discussion, not for giving structure to large
blocks of information.
News is appropriate for simple messages stating that information concerning this or that is posted on the Web.
The manual is intended to offer support to the student in matters
of technology and methods. For new students this is a must.
In practice, our policy is to send letters to everybody at their
home address, informing them that they have been admitted. We
also explain how to execute the initial connection, and how to
download a complete manual.
Offer a complete explanation of how lessons are downloaded, unpacked
etc. Say something about expected lesson formats, such as Word
2.0, Word 6.0 or other formats.
State how to send exercise answers for correction, whom to send
to, when to expect answers returned etc.
Two issues require discussion and consideration:
You may require all students to use the same software you do.
Then it is easy to offer guidance on how to use this software
for distance teaching.
You may take the consequences of having participants from all
over. They might be from another institution, or they might already
be seasoned Internet-users, wishing to use their own connection
for their distance learning.
If the first solution is chosen, the number of participants will
probably decline, and you will be inundated with questions where
students will ask why they cannot use their preferred software.
For course management this is an easy, simple solution, but is
this what we want?
The second alternative also has pros and cons. The number of participants
will be higher. However, you will also have to cope with course
participants who really do not master the use of their software,
and who have no possibility of learning to master it because no
user manuals can be found. Another problem is when these users
only have older versions of the software which do not handle the
required functions.
Frequently course arrangers offer a full Internet subscription,
including software and connection facilities, to those who are
not on the net themselves.
This should not be a requirement, however. Students may read Web
pages, send e-mail and read News without being registered through
your server. Dialling into the Internet will then be via another
Internet provider's computer.
Distance learning students work in the evenings and during weekends.
If the server goes down, it will disrupt their routines if they
have to wait until Monday before they can log in to download their
lessons.
This kind of breakdown is not tolerable! A serious actor in this
market needs an emergency repair service so that such problems
can be cured within the hour.
There has been no time to take care of these other matters this
time around, but I will deal with them in the next lesson. They
may also be discussed in the newsgroups. This includes:
Late arrivals
The Personal Privacy Act and distance teaching, for example
posting name lists and class lists on News or the Web
Shifting subjects to the next semester, i.e. students who need
more semesters than originally envisaged
The practice of awarding credits for one and the same subject
may vary from institution to institution
No exercises to this lesson!