This study is a qualitative evaluation of the impact of the Certificate for Distance Education
Practitioners, a collaborative staff development programme for open and distance learning
practitioners in the five southern African countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa
and Swaziland. It aims to inform the stakeholders of this programme on its impact and to add to
the limited research on open and distance learning in Africa. It is the first southern African
systematic evaluation of the impact of a staff development collaboration programme delivered
through open and distance learning methods. The study evaluates the impact of the programme
on the 1997 - 2000 learners and on the organisations where these learners worked. Parlett and
Hamilton’s (1975) illuminative evaluation methods were combined with McAnany’s (1975) five
criteria impact evaluation model to produce an expanded and innovative design of programme
impact evaluation. Postal questionnaires and interviews provided biographical data and direct
views of the programme’s participants. Progressive focusing illuminated the key issues
emerging from the programme’s delivery and McAnany’s (1975) evaluation criteria were used to
analyse and interpret the programme’s impact. One of the key findings from this study is that the
conceptions informing the delivery of the Certificate for Distance Education Practitioners are
based on notions of openness, flexibility, learner-centredness and collaboration and that the
programme’s implementation endeavoured, in varying degrees, to match these notions. The
second finding is that the participants regarded the programme highly as a sound introduction to
open and distance learning approaches and practices and felt it contributed to the application of
learner-centred ideas in their organisations. However, the programme’s low enrolment numbers
and progressively declining throughput rates contradicted this high regard and did not match the
providers’ original projections. Lack of resources impacted negatively on participants’
application of open and distance learning approaches while organisations’ implementation of
new policies and mergers created job insecurity for some participants. As in Perraton and Lentell
(2004) other key issues emerging from this study include the absence of enabling staff
development policies, lack of recognition, currency and/or reward after completion of the
programme, limited marketing, level and national focus of the programme, and management and
administration issues. These findings suggest that it is possible to deliver a regional
collaboration staff development programme through open and distance methods but that the
issues raised in this study need to be addressed to make such programmes sustainable, effective
and financially viable.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/4961 |
| Date | 18 June 2008 |
| Creators | Nonyongo, Evelyn Pulane |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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