Marchessou
abstract:
(the lecture will be pronounced in Portuguese)
"Evaluation as a precondition for sustainability in Open and Distance Learning post-2000"
In spite of the often repeated optimistic prophecies about open and distance learning, of the enthusiasm for e-learning etc..the reality is not always so rosy and I have personally witnessed the difficulties many programs were coming across just to keep the distance teaching/learning process alive while other have collapsed altogether.Over the past decade or so,distance education has moved forward,politicians and administrators see the need for it ,there are training programs to prepare designers and tutors and funds to help launch new courses but the key issue now is that of sustainability. I personally believe that the key to a sustainable ODL system is a constant evaluation process involving multiple parameters.
Evaluation in purely academic terms is the assessment a student's performance in relation with a certain body of knowledge and skills to be acquired.This raises the question of evaluating skills in ODL..since there is a practical concrete dimension involved which is difficult to measure at a distance. Are there 100% distance education medical schools and if there were , would you trust the physicians they train if you were seriously ill?There are some interesting developments however notably with the progressive introduction of electronic skills portfolios in many professional areas.
Our experience (in Europe, Brazil,Africa etc..) shows that in order to attain sustainability, all the human actors (administrators, teachers,tutors,engineers etc..) within an ODL project should look beyond their own specific subject area and assess on a semi permanent basis what is actually going on or likely to happen beyond the original contextual analysis: the actual availability of equipments and modes of access to work stations ,the students' cultural backgrounds and real lifestyles ,how they actually divide up their time, their visual and technical literacy etc...
Evaluation for sustainable development is not only the measurement of a number of pre-set criteria but also a general,systematized awareness of what goes on outside the institution,of the permanent and changing features of the social groups to which Open and Distance Learning is addressed. We should not forget that since it is both Open and Flexible, ODL, is better suited than intitutionalized face-to-face instruction to meet the diverse changing individual and collective needs of people. There has been a subconscious tendency to intitutionalize distance education at the expense of the incorporation of the new training needs that emerge and may require a refocussing of existing policies. We know where the pitfalls are and the new awareness should help us avoid those pitfalls and guarantee sustainability.
François Marchessou Casa dos Paises do Cono Sul, Univ de Poitiers
