Roderick Sims, President - Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia (ODLAA)

1. What has been the most promising development within ODL in your region in 2011?

There is a sense that the remote or distance student is now far more mainstream than the exception – whether institutions consider themselves on-campus or not. This is in part due to the growing acceptance of computer-mediated learning as a standard for all courses.

In addition, an increasing number of educational providers are adopting ODL strategies to increase their reach, thus requiring the knowledge of ODL teaching and learning strategies to be applied. The underlying motivation of these providers is to improve opportunities for learners, wherever they may be located, rather than focus only on produce cost savings.

In essence, the curriculum is returning, on the back of technology, to the principles established by the traditions of ODL.

At a national level, Australia's increased commitment to education as a vehicle for economic development will lead to a more strategic approach to its involvement in the region. It plans to do this through the Global Partnership for Education and has rejoined the COL as a full financial member. ODL is recognised by the current government as a significant tool in assisting economic development through education and training.

Where do the main challenges lie in your region?

Austerity measures have begun hitting education throughout the region, with the two major providers of support, Australia and NZ, facing cuts at home. Casualisation of the workforce in universities is increasing the disparity between research and teaching-only institutions. Australia is facing major funding decreases while at the same time it needs to increase and diversify participation in post school education. Flexibility is still interpreted in Australia as providing more options for on-campus students rather than a creative and innovative solution to meet changing needs. The challenge is to convince the leadership of universities and post school providers that the current resources within their institutions can be optimised if the existing silos of control: IT, Centres of eLearning, Libraries and HR could be coordinated with a shared vision embracing the design and development of educational resources.

The alignment of internal strategies with those of the needs of the region have been identified by two Australian universities who have joined five NZ HEIs and seven international HEIs as anchor partners in the OER University: http://wikieducator.org/OERu

At the micro-level there is an increased professional development need for both faculty and students. This will help ensure that ODL strategies are understood by educational professionals to cover the broad range of interactive options made available through media and communications technologies. This will also support peer group learning, facilitation by teacher/lecturer and independent learning.

While ODL has moved well beyond the content-centric process of putting the learning material “out there” and waiting for something to happen, which can and does give ODL a bad name, there remain many courses which are content-centred rather than outcomes centred. Communicating those design strategies which align with effective ODL practice to practitioners in the field is one of the critical needs we face.

Emerging from these points is the overarching issue of quality, and the means by which both quality resources (courses, materials) and outcomes (knowledge application) can be accurately determined.

At the student level there is the need to recognise and implement, through appropriate design strategies, learning environments that cater for different cohorts of learners and their different needs, as well as enabling the integration and value of personal technologies for teaching and learning activities.