Guidelines
There are a number of guidelines that can prove useful when implementing tertiary distance education, in particular to developing countries. The following guidelines have been adapted from article Implementation of Tertiary Distance Education - Choices and Decisions.
- Assess current good practice from other countries and develop explicit national strategies for tertiary distance education and associated technology development that are solidly based upon existing local capacities.
- Support this strategy with an aggressive start-up phase of institutional and human resource capacity building activities. Partnerships with overseas distance education programmes and with local industry or other training institutions can improve the quality and efficiency of this capacity building process.
- Design (or reengineer) organisational structures to accommodate the unique requirements of distance education in contrast with conventional teaching.
- Integrate distance education courses and certifications into the existing tertiary education system as fully as possible, recognizing that choices represent a continuum ranging from campus-based face-to-face teaching to home or office-based learning by means of one or more media.
- For many countries a dual-mode approach in which distance learning programmes are incorporated within existing tertiary institutions would appear to be the most cost-effective and manageable approach. This integration should also include acceptance of distance education degrees as employment qualifications for the public service.
- Start with printed materials as the main medium of instruction, invest in good quality course design and study guides, and strive for strong and effective student support services.
- Use ICTs to improve management efficiency and enhance educational quality rather than to expand access; pay special attention to library transformation in this process.
- Limit course offerings to areas of high student demand, and develop only at the pace permitted by resource availability and management capacity.