Use of Mobile Phone Technology in Promoting Tutor – Learner Interaction in Open Distance Learning
(Sub-Theme: Technological innovation for interaction and delivery)
Cherla Raja Mouli Ph.D
Dr.B.R.Ambedkar Open University
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India - 500033
Abstract
Open Distance Learning (ODL), using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), can take education to more and more people.
Mobile Phone, especially Short Message Service (SMS) technology has the potential to be a cost-effective tool for this purpose. Presently this technology is accessible to a large section of the Indian society and most of the people are using SMS mainly for personal and business communication purposes. There is a greater potential for this technology to be used in more productive ways as ODL.
Mobile phones, either prepaid or postpaid services, are cheaper and more easily available than fixed landline phones. SMS offers a mode of communication that is within the reach of almost everyone, when compared to computers and the Internet, the uses and effects of which on education are already well documented.
Mobile phone can be used by the tutor to clarify academic doubts, give clarifications on assignments or preparation for an examination. ODL students have frequent needs for information from their institutions about timetable; due dates for assignment submission and examination fee, feedback from their tutors, and any such information. Nearly all the student’s carry this sophisticated communication device, mobile phone, which can be effectively used in their life.
At short notice, if a lecture or practical activity has to be conducted or cancelled, the university or study centre can communicate to the student body concerned by SMS. As everyone knows this is an efficient means of communication, all the students will receive and read the messages, and none will be inconvenienced. This way, either to the whole student body or to select students of a faculty or a department or a class grouping, the message can be sent.
The researcher explores the possibility of using mobile phoning technology to promote tutor – learner interaction in ODL system.
Introduction
J.P.Naik, a great visionary in Indian education system, said ‘A state has now been reached when even the most affluent countries are convinced that they will not be able to provide adequate education to people unless they abandon their exclusive dependence on formal system of education’ (Naik, 1978:9).
Correspondence education is more than four decades old in India.Since the establishment of the first Institute of Correspondence Courses in 1962 by the University of Delhi, about 60 Directorates of Correspondence Courses have been started by Conventional Universities. Recently most of them have been renamed ‘Centres for Distance Education.’
The educational transaction in correspondence education is facilitated by the medium of print in conjunction with the mail system. As a result, this method affords the learner considerable independence with regard to both place and time of study. For many students, correspondence education has broken down these two previously insurmountable barriers to continuing education (Garrison, 1989: 55)
Though correspondence education became quite prevalent, according to Garrison, what appeared to be lacking were imaginative methods of facilitating mediated communication between teacher and student. To overcome this limitation, in the early seventies, correspondence education added radio and television broadcasts and audio cassettes to the course materials developed by a team of experts. The catalyst for these innovations was the establishment of the British Open University (Garrison, 1989: 57).
According to Perry (1977), the Open University concept was the key to providing opportunities for higher education 'through a multi-media system that harnessed educational broadcasting to correspondence teaching and other methods' (p. 9).
Till the end of 1970s, distance education in India was attached to the formal system of education, working under the umbrella of the Conventional Universities. There was a strong demand in various quarters for the establishment of an autonomous institution of the level of a university that would coordinate the work of all directorates to develop distance education. As a result the first Open University in India, the Andhra Pradesh Open University (renamed Dr.B.R.Ambedkar Open University in 1991), came into existence in 1982. Subsequently in 1985 the Government of India had established the Indira Gandhi National Open University, and several state governments have taken steps towards the establishment of their own Open Universities. Open universities in India are offering a wide range of programes. At present, there are eleven State Open Universities in operation in India. (For a complete list see Appendix – I)
Student Support
A typical Open University functions with a network of Study Centres. The Study Centres are contact points between the university and the students. According to Sewart (1987), the Study Centre has been used for a number of functions in various distance-teaching systems. In some it has been seen as a viewing centre where replay devices may be used. In others it has been seen as a library resource centre. In some it has been seen as a focus for student interaction and self-help groups, a substitute for the conventional campus. In yet others it has been offered as a site for practical experiments or the use of equipment, such as computing facilities, which are essential to study but which can not be offered easily to the student at home. Finally, there are cases where Study Centres are valued as a tangible link between the otherwise impersonal distance teaching institution and the local community(34).
In words of Tomlinson (1984) the Study Centre is 'a base where students can come together and meet their tutors, counsellors and other students' (195).
Information and Communication Technologies in ODL
Several Open Universities have adapted multimedia approach to instruction, print being the dominant medium. Printed course material, in a self-instructional format, is produced by the university and provided to the students. Lessons are broadcast over Radio and Television channels. The degree of usage of these broadcast media varies from institution to institution.
In distance education there is growing need and appreciation of sustained two-way communication in the process of learning. Meeting the demands of educational transaction-at-a-distance is dependent upon communication technologies that provide frequent and regular interaction between teachers and students as-well-as amongst students.
In recent times a technological revolution has occurred and it has produced so many opportunities for enriching and enhancing instructions, for connecting people who are geographically distant and for redefining the classroom that the challenge is not whether to use telecommunications as a part of higher education but how to use it more effectively.
It is now time to focus on the benefits of increasing student participation in the learning process and to the potential role of interactive technologies in creative opportunities for direct, real time, synchronous communication between teachers and students. Technology can bring people together. It helps breakdown the barriers of distance amongst students. In essence, it can provide a ‘high-tech’ & ‘high-touch’ approach to learning.
It can be said that presently no other technology is so widely available to citizens as mobile phone technology. It is being felt as a ‘necessity.’ Even among the users, teenagers and youth are using it extensively. This is precisely the age-group of students at the open universities.
More than 80% of the students enrolled in the ODL programmes are below the age of 30. As majority of the students have access to a mobile phone, SMS can be used successfully to communicate with them. Even if some of them don’t possess one, at a very cheaper rate mobile phones may be provided to them on a group basis. This considerably reduces the burden on the institution and also the personnel working for it. A single SMS message can take care of printing stationery, cost involved in mailing, sorting & delivery of the letters, delay in receipt and other problems of bulk mailing.
The students in ODL institutions are separated from their tutors by some ‘distance.’ Therefore they frequently experience the need to know their counseling schedule, conduct of practical classes, submission of assignments, and other clarifications on academic matters.
Similarly, the education providers in ODL needs to provide information to the students regarding the changes in time-table, conduct of practical classes, examination schedules, and other urgent and important communications from time to time.
If a counseling class has to be postponed, tutors find it very difficult to communicate to their students. Either the tutor has to announce postponement in the previous class or else the students who turn up for the classes have to get disappointed on the scheduled day.
Usually, attending academic counseling classes is not compulsory but only optional for the students. Therefore some students who fail to attend the classes on a day might be missing the announcements made on that day by the concerned tutor or the study centre to which the student is attached. This might lead to communication gap between the students and the tutor or institution. A single SMS message can help us to overcome the problem.
Instead, if a class has to be postponed at a short notice, the tutor can communicate with the students concerned by Short Messaging Service (SMS). The message can be sent to all the students and there would be no inconvenience to the students. Such SMS messages can be sent to the entire student body or select students depending on the need.
To a majority of the ODL students, learning is not their primary occupation. They may be working at home or outside, in search of a job, or may be studying for some other degree. They may be shouldering several responsibilities including that of their family, job, social or may be shaping their careers. They tend to neglect their studies due to lack of peer group interaction. In conventional on-campus learning, students come to know about the various happenings on campus, share information, get their doubts clarified from their tutors in a face-to-face situation, and classmates will always be there to lend a helping hand. This is a very strong component that is missing in ODL.
This is another area where SMS can be put to lot of use in contacting students who are on the verge of withdrawing from their course of study. Identifying such students and providing quick help can reduce the rate of dropouts in ODL.
Yet another factor that has a great impact on the ODL system is the ‘psychological’ distance between the teacher and the taught that has a very dominant role to play. The adult learners in ODL who might have left school or college study some time ago experience this a lot. The sense of isolation in the minds of learners creates a feeling that they are alone and there is nobody to help them. The students in ODL are supposed to be independent learners. However, the dependency from childhood on their family members, peers in the school, and friends in the society continues even when they join ODL system. If they develop confidence that they are not missing anything by receiving SMS messages from their tutors and the institution from time-to-time that adds to their self-confidence and power to overcome the sense of isolation.
This is the age of ‘instant’ communication. Students seek answers to their queries rather immediately. A tutor can encourage the students to pose their doubts and clarify them by SMS messaging. This would reduce the time lapse and increase satisfaction on the part of the students.
Therefore, SMS messaging through mobile phone technology has to be put to optimum use in ODL system for the potential inherent in it.
***
References
Garrison D.R. (1989) Understanding Distance Education, London: Routledge.
Holmberg B. (1986) Growth and Structure of Distance Education, quoted by D.R.Garrison (1989) ibid.
IGNOU (2001) Vice-Chancellors Report (12th Convocation), New Delhi: IGNOU.
Naik J.P. (1978) Equality, Quality and Quantity – The illusive triangle in Indian Education, Bombay: Allied.
Perry W. (1977) The Open University, San Francisco: Jossy Bass.
Sewart D. (1987) Limitations of the learning package. In M.Thorpe & D.Grugeon (eds) Open Learning for adults, UK: Longman.
Appendix – I
State Open Universities in India
- Dr.B.R.Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh
- Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University, Kota, Rajasthan
- Nalanda Open University, Patna, Bihar
- Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, Nashik, Maharashtra
- Madhya Pradesh Bhoj Open University, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
- Dr.Babasaheb Abbedkar Open University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
- KarnatakaState Open University, Mysore, Karnataka
- Netaji Subhas Open University, Kolkatta, West Bengal
- Uttar Pradesh Rajarshi Tandon Open University, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh
- Tamilnadu Open University, Chennai, Tamilnadu
- Pt. Sunderlal Sharma Open University, Bilaspur, Chattisgarh
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