THE CONTEXT AND PRACTICES OF OPEN LEARNING: FIRST ACTION RESEARCH CYCLE FOR THE UNIT FOR ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT AT THE CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, FREE STATE

KJ DE BEER: THE CONTEXT AND PRACTICES OF OPEN LEARNING: FIRST ACTION RESEARCH CYCLE FOR THE UNIT FOR ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT AT THE CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, FREE STATE To achieve all its differentiated academic goals, the Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) will have no other option than to abide by the context and practices of Open Learning (OL). OL subscribes the political concept in the modern idiom of the new democratic dispensation of South Africa. It is more open to increase access to more students as well as adult learners by removing unnecessary barriers to Higher Education career paths. Simultaneously it also provides students with a reasonable chance of success in a Higher Education Institution (HEI) system focussed on their specific needs that are situated in the multiple areas of study ORIENTATION LEARNER – CENTRED INSTITUTION CHARACTERISTIC AND OL APPROACH: To facilitate and enhance access for all learners; To use co-operative education in promoting employability; To support democratically developed social development and to eradicate social inequalities; To develop a coordinated differentiated Higher Education system that supports “life long learning” To enhance mergers of Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) and reducing regional duplications through collaboration. Key principles in OL include the following: Learner centeredness: Learners should be the focus of the educational process. Learners should construct their own lifelong career of learning. Lifelong learning: Learning should continue throughout life. In an ever-changing and technological world, learners should stay in touch as globalisation changes the world in which we live. Flexibility in learning: The needs of learners should be considered by making learning more flexible to accommodate different kinds of learner’s e.g. different teaching profiles, learning styles and preferences. The removal of barriers hindering accessibility to learners: The use of pedagogical approaches must be removed so as to improve accessibility to learning and expertise OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNING (ODL)   ODL has always been regarded only as a means of helping a limited target group of off-campus students to qualify for their degrees in a non-traditional manner. However, a new approach and a need to restructure Higher Education have been set in motion, despite public policy and politics in South Africa and elsewhere in the modern world. ODL is seen not only as a way to reach more learners, but also as a means of empowering and enhancing institutions towards their own prestige and research capabilities RESOURCED BASED LEARNING Resource-based learning can be seen as a superior form of teaching to content-based teaching. A much more open approach improves the students’ continuous education via a shared and collective approach nestled in reflective professional judgement. Hence the traditional institutional boundaries are opened and the full spectrum of available educational resources is utilised     LIFE LONG LEARNING Paul Belanger into three specific constituent elements: Initial education: Those individuals who participate more in learning activities during different periods of adult life. Cumulative pattern of educational participation is highly influenced by initial education.   Adult education: There has been a rapid expansion of the social demand for organised adult education over the past 20 years, including vocational, community and higher education.     Diffuse learning environments: Learning does not take place only through organised educational, formal or non-formal processes – there are also numerous informal learning events and processes. FLEXIBLE LEARNING   A mixed mode of education (as preferred by the CUT at its respective regional learning centres) is where the same learners, often within a single programme, receive combinations of contact tuition, resource-based learning within ODL offering types. Dual-mode institutions offer programmes by using either ODL and/or contact tuition, or only contact tuition. Flexible learning enables learners to access learning through various learning methods and opportunities aided by a removal of barriers by giving freedom of access, pace, place and time. Mass learning is a key element in flexible learning.   Technologies and methods form part of this process to deliver such programmes OUTCOMES BASED EDUCATION AND TRAINING (OBET) The following are distinctive features of the current OBET approach: It is needs driven, with curricula being designed in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes expected from graduates and aiming to equip learners for lifelong learning. It is outcomes driven, with a line extending from taking cognisance of training needs to setting an aim (purpose) for the programme and goals for syllabus themes and learning outcomes, and finally assessing the learning outcomes in terms of the set learning objective. It has a design-down approach, with learning content only being selected after the desired outcomes have been specified. Content is a vehicle to achieve the desired learning outcomes. OBET AND OL COMMON BELIEFS     Learners must be encouraged and permitted to learn to their full potential.    Success breeds success, and learners will build self-confidence as they progress. The learning environment must promote conditions under which learners can be successful   TRADITIONAL CONTENT-BASED LEARNING VERSUS OUTCOMES-BASED LEARNING Rote learning Learners mainly passive when exposed to content Little communication Content-driven syllabus broken down into subjects Textbook/worksheet bound Teacher centred Syllabus considered to be accurate and non-negotiable Emphasis on what the teacher hopes to achieve Curriculum development process not open to the public Critical thinking and reasoning Learners active and involved in the learning process Communication critical Learning, which is outcome and process driven, is connected to real-life situations Learner and outcome centred Teacher is facilitator Learning programmes seen as guides Emphasis on outcomes (what the learner achieves) Wider stakeholder involvement encouraged THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF OL IN OBET Learning rather than teaching. Students need to think. Processes that engage learners with the content, as well as the content itself, facilitate thinking. Links should be forged with other fields of education/subjects, as subjects never exist in isolation. RECOGNITION OF PRIOR LEARNING (RPL)   RPL is a process which, through assessment, gives credit to learning that has already been acquired in different ways, e.g. through life experience AIM : EDUCATORS The objectives of the National Qualifications Framework include the need to facilitate access to, and mobility and progression within Higher Education, training and career paths, as well as the need to accelerate the redress of past unfair discrimination in education, training and employment opportunities QUESTIONS?