Stakeholders' experiences of the implementation of an open distance learning grade R diploma programme

Abstract

Over the past few years the government of South Africa has been working towards the implementation of a law which stipulates that all Grade R teachers should be qualified practitioners. As a result, many unqualified practitioners are searching for improved qualifications. The Unit for Open Distance Learning of the NWU implemented a Grade R diploma as the first of its kind in October 2013. The literature shows that any new open distance learning course has challenges that need to be taken into account in its implementation. Since no studies have been conducted on the implementation of the Grade R diploma at the North- West University, this research focused on the topic and investigated stakeholder experiences of the implementation by means of Open Distance Learning (ODL). The purpose of the research was to explore and describe the challenges in the implementation phase of the Open Distance Learning Grade R diploma of the North-West University and to determine the most viable strategies to overcome these challenges as experienced by students, teacher-mentors, and lecturers as stakeholders. In this qualitative research semi-structured interviews were conducted with students, teachermentors, and lecturers in two urban and in two rural settings. Interpretivism was used as the paradigm to interpret the literature as well as the qualitative data collected in interviews. The analysis of the interviews was done according to the accessibility of the programme, content, communication between lecturers and fellow students, collaborative learning experiences, and the use of technology. The findings of as well as the strategies identified by the stakeholders were combined to present a list of final recommendations to the different stakeholders. The results showed the computer literacy of the students to be one of the biggest challenges. As a result the students do not communicate freely with lecturers, do not join other students in support groups, cannot access the broadcast whiteboard sessions, and are not able to retrieve email messages from the university with important information such as timetables. Serious technical challenges which were detected in the broadcasting of the whiteboard sessions also require attention since these impacts on students’ progress in the programme. The challenges found in the study and the suggested strategies have been combined into recommendations applicable to students, teacher-mentors, and lecturers