Training and Support for Distance Educators

By

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My thanks go out to all who have helped me complete this study and with whom this project may have not been possible. In particular, my gratitude goes out to friends, facilitator and family for extensive and helpful comments on early drafts. I am also deeply indebted to the authors who have shared my interest and preceded me. Their works provided me with a host of information to learn from and build upon, also served as examples to emulate.

DECLARATION

I, (Your name), would like to declare that all contents included in this thesis/dissertation stand for my individual work without any aid, & this thesis/dissertation has not been submitted for any examination at academic as well as professional level previously. It is also representing my very own views & not essentially which are associated with university.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSII

DECLARATIONIII

CHAPTER NO 2: LITERATURE REVIEW1

A strategic perspective on training1

What is training?2

Student Barriers to Distance Learning4

Does training make a difference?5

Training as organizational change6

The organization's responsibilities in the training process7

Pre-training7

Developing a strategy7

Identifying training needs8

Evaluating training and staff development9

REFERENCES11

CHAPTER NO 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

The need for training and professional development for staff has received growing acknowledgement as open and distance education has expanded, diversified and made use of an increasingly wide range of new technologies, moreover establishing itself as a legitimate field of study. There is now greater understanding of training needs and the role that training can play, especially in the achievement of good quality output. Despite this, training for distance educators is still seen largely as factor of increasing cost, not as an investment. Therefore, it has frequently given low priority in organizational plans and funding allocations. Furthermore, even when training has been provides organizations and projects have not always been ready enough to utilize the new learning. This means that opportunities for capacity building are lost.

One problem that occures especially in developing countries, is the lack of information on training and staff development. Information can be difficult to get, since the literature is scattered across a range of sources. This resource book should help solve that problem. It contains a substantial collection of papers drawn from journals, books and reports on distance education in several countries (Warr, 2009).

A strategic perspective on training

'Strategy' is the means by which an organization chooses to reach its objectives. The term comes originally from military stage and usually refers to a thought-out plan of action or a consciously formulated policy for achieving an objective. However, it can also mean the posture or stance an organization adapts to its staff, structure, operations, competitors, students, and the processes of learning, the public, the wider world of education around it and to itself as an organization. Strategic decisions are those, which significantly affect the organization's ability to achieve its objectives (an organization also makes decisions in the normal course of functioning, which are not strategic).

Thus, strategic management is the process of managing change to reach an organization's objectives. Where is training and staff development located ...