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The Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia (ODDLA)

Join with Dr Fred Lockwood and contribute to the development of a new book Alternative Methods of Course Production: Key Parameters and Case Studies

Those who register for the Workshop will receive two documents:

1. A framework based on several key parameters Fred Lockwood believes influences the production of open, distance and flexible learning materials. These will include:

• Budget available

• Availability of academic contributors

• Secretarial, administrative and technical support available

• Time scale for production               

• Estimated student study time

• Student numbers.

2. A series of case studies illustrating how the combination of these parameters influenced the method of material production.

Prior to the Workshop participants will:

• Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed framework.

• Offer their own case study which illustrates the influence of these parameters, or others, on the assembly or production of teaching materials. (Case studies that range over both the ‘old’ and ‘new’ media will be encouraged).

• Indicate, via an online self-completion questionnaire, their initial areas of interest and concerns. (This data will be used to assemble initial Task Groups).

During the Workshop participants will:

• Play a board game in which they draw upon the original framework to draft a course proposal based on randomly selected parameters.

• Contribute to a discussion designed to improve, or completely revise, the initial framework.

• Form discussion groups to criticise the case studies as exemplars of alternative methods of materials production.

Participants will move between a single large group, to several smaller groups, and back to a whole group throughout the day. In the morning the composition of the separate groups will be dictated by the constitution of specified Task Groups; each Task Group is expected to be between 3 - 6 people. Subsequent Working Groups, and their composition, will emerge throughout the day. The size will depend upon the questions being addressed, and the shared interests of participants and is likely to be between 2 - 8 people.

After the Workshop the facilitator will:

• Assemble a revised framework within which previous parameters, suitably modified, and new parameters are represented.

• Invite previous authors of case study material to revise their contribution.

• Invite additional authors to assemble a case study.

• Publish the book Alternative Methods of Course Production: Key parameters and case studies (all contributors will be acknowledged).

About the Facilitator

Personal web site http://iet.open.ac.uk/pp/F.G.Lockwood/Fred.html

Since 1993 Dr Fred Lockwood has conducted workshops, ranging from 1 day to 15 days duration, at 100+ different venues in 20+ countries around the world. The participants have been mainly teachers and lecturers in higher education but have also included trainers from industrial, commercial and public service organisations. The goal of these workshops has ranged from the theoretical to the practical; from developing ideas and published works to planning and production of self instructional materials to their presentation and evaluation.

In the same period he has conducted numerous pre or post conference and in 2000 has already been invited to conduct four; in Adelaide, Brisbane, Lisbon and Manila.

Dr Lockwood is Course Team Chairman of the Open University on-line course H804The Implementation of Open and Distance Learning; this is part of the Masters Degree in Distance Education. Within this course he is author of one of the four core teaching module entitled ‘Quality Assurance and Evaluation’ and was a tutor on the course in 1999.

Dr Lockwood’s experience of conducting workshops in the field in general, and this area in particular was the basis of the book The Design and Production of Self-Instructional Material. London: Kogan Page, 1998. A second book entitled The Presentation and Evaluation of Self-Instructional Material is in preparation and due for publication in 2000.

An indication of his commitment to exploring alternative methods of materials production, and to improving university teaching, is evident in three recently edited books - all have been adopted as set books within the Open University.

• Materials Production in Open and Distance Learning.
  London: Paul Chapman Publishing, 1994

• Open and Distance Learning Today. London: Routledge, 1995.

• Staff Development in Open and Flexible Education. London: Routledge, 1998 (with Colin Latchem)

A fourth book, entitled Innovations in Open and Distance Learning is in press.

As Series Editor of the Open and Distance Learning Series Dr Lockwood is aware of current developments in the field; the latest research and publications. The Series, published by Kogan Page (23 books in print and 10 in production) is the largest book series in the world in this field.

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