The Place of Course Materials in the Design and Delivery of ODL
Keywords:
Course Materials, Instructional Design, NOUN, Open and Distance LearningAbstract
Course materials play a crucial role in facilitating effective teaching and learning by providing visual aids, hands-on experiences, and interactive resources to enhance learners' understanding of concepts. They continue to be perceived as the chief instrument of instruction in Open and Distance Learning (ODL). Hence, there has been an unprecedented surge of interest among ODL providers to invest enormously in designing, developing, and delivering these materials. This paper interrogates the critical place of course materials in ODL by drawing procedural examples from experiences at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). Through a case study of NOUN and a review of literature, it sheds light on how the use of quality course materials has transformed traditional teaching practices and empowered learners for success. It argues that there is a visceral link between these materials and pedagogy, as the former constitutes the key instrument used to convey instructional information to learners at NOUN. The university adopts a collaborative course team approach in designing and delivering course materials, and a typical team includes a developer, writer, instructional designer, editor, graphics artist, and multimedia expert. This paper contends that if course materials are to contribute optimally to improving performance in Nigeria, there is a need to further their engagement, interactivity, conversationality, and credibility. Meanwhile, some key challenges to the design and delivery of quality course materials include a scarcity of experienced professionals and pressure on course team members to deliver high-quality content in a limited time. Among others, the paper calls for further support from the government and industry to scale up the scope and quality of course materials production through the proper deployment of Generative Artificial Intelligence to improve learners' performance and employability.
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