Abstract
Constant emphasis and close attention paid to Quality Assurance in the production of Open Distance Learning (ODL) course materials at Wawasan Open University (WOU) had necessitated that the whole process of course materials development be clearly defined and tracked systematically. Although a Standard Operating Procedure already exists, yet its implementation by way of manual tracking could not always guarantee that the work delivery timelines are diligently tracked and crucial inputs from all key stakeholders in the course development team are received in a timely manner. There was also a need to ensure that Schools and their academics (course coordinators), the Registry, Educational Technology and Publishing Unit, IT Services and Learning and Library Services could track the developmental stages of any named course at any specific time. A new software application had been developed in-house at WOU which enables all the key stakeholders to keep track of all stages of the course development chain from start to end. The application, built on the Microsoft .NET framework using a centralized MS SQL Server database, serves as a central repository of all the information relevant to the course development cycle and manages the archiving of all the documents. The application can generate (i) course development status reports for ongoing development, (ii) the complete course development report for the courses which have been completed and (iii) summary reports of the progress of any on-going or completed course development for management purposes by the Deans and Directors of the relevant academic support units. A pilot study was conducted involving participation of a small group of selected key stakeholders. It provided valuable feedback which had helped the software development team to further fine-tune the application before the system gets deployed in July 2010. This paper describes the development process and the workings of the Course Development Tracking System (CDTS). It discusses the implications of implementing the system in a real-world environment
Highlights
The core business of Wawasan Open University (WOU) is Open Distance Learning (ODL)
This paper describes the development process and the workings of the Course Development Tracking System (CDTS)
The development of every course in WOU is the responsibility of an appointed course development team (CDT) which comprises: (i) Course Team Leader (CTL), (ii) Course Coordinator (CC), (iii) Course Writer(s) (CW), (iv) Academic Member (AM), (v) Instructional Designer(s) (ID), (vi) Editor, (vii) External Course Assessor (ECA), (viii) Graphics Designer(s) (GD), (ix) Representative from Learning and Library Services (LLS); and (x) Representative from Information Technology Services (ITS)
Summary
The core business of Wawasan Open University (WOU) is Open Distance Learning (ODL). The students of WOU are mainly adult learners who pursue Degree and Masters Programs in disciplines such as computer science, electronics, business management, administration, education, languages, psychology and courses under liberal studies. In order to overcome the above-mentioned difficulties and to ensure that all stakeholders from the relevant Schools and members of the CDTs adhere to the standard operating procedure (SOP) diligently, the idea of using Tele-informatics (Hache, 2000) by developing dedicated software to track the whole course development process was conceptualized and developed. This software application, called the “Course Development Tracking System (CDTS)”, enables all the academics, academic heads, instructional designers and relevant management staff to keep track of the complete course development process from start to finish from their respective work places. Provides a quick summary of the course, current status and CDT
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