Interactivity in distance education: the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) experience

Abstract

The paper represents a study of students’ experience of interactivity in distance education programmes at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). Through surveys and focus groups with students, facilitators, and administrative support staff, we found out that interactivity is a key determinant of student success rate. Majority of the students are workers in the urban areas who combine “work and learn” which is the motto of NOUN. The survey showed that majority of the students depended on their facilitators as key resource persons and on their peers or study groups both for required and voluntary interactivity to reinforce their learning. This was able to reduce loneliness, boredom and loss of community experienced in distance education. Because NOUN has not completed its Repository, Production, Distribution, and Administration Headquarters (REPRODAhq) and equipped the study centers with up-to-date technological facilities, this frustrated accessibility that is dialectically linked to interactivity.