Factores de influencia en el clima

especially in government owned universities, bite more than they can chew by working in more than one or two institutions at the same time. When this happens, teaching in a distance education institution becomes the second or even the last priority. Compounding this are poor remuneration and inadequate physical and technical facilities. These are a common factor in Nigerian university system and this would negatively affect facilitators’ functionalities in NOUN and OAU. The different academic staffing patterns obtainable in the two cases might also have some influence on the effectiveness and productivity of tutors.

Some facilitators downplayed the unpunctuality of instructor-facilitators in NOUN. The argument is that NOUN tutors’ responsibility, according to its open learning model, is to attend to questions and clarifications based on what the students have read in the study pack. “The tutorial session is for the facilitator to attend to your problem areas…” (NOUN LSCAF 2). This participant further described how the face-to-face contact is expected to work: “So, it's not a teaching class. It's just for another higher individual who is vast, who is a superior in that field to throw more light…” This is in line with socio-constructivism’s zone of proximal learning/development. However, the facilitators and/or the students do not optimally understand the implication of this, thereby causing a gap between what the students expect of their teachers and the reality of what happens in their study centres. It is important that the facilitators demonstrate their competencies and that the learners have confidence in them. For the institutions to ensure efficiency, recruiting distance learning facilitators for full-time service would make them more dedicated, focused and productive but it would be more realistic and economically manageable to fashion out a modality to ensure that “part-time facilitators” in both institutions carry out their responsibilities optimally.

similarity with regards to where admission screening, payment of fees and course registration take place. These processes are predominantly carried out online, “everything is online” (OAU CDLAF 1). This sets the tone for why ANY distance education student in this age must be “ICT compliant” (NOUN OSCAF 1) and “ICT conscious” (OAU IEDAF 1). This however does not mean that some physical presence is not required at the institutions’ designated offices for these processes, especially for screening. Hard copies of supporting documents and print outs of application, payment and registration are often required to be submitted for crosschecks after the online activities. Technical hitches occasionally make the NOUN students do more offline than necessary, especially when the electronic portal is down and this makes the process “quite stressful” (NOUN LSCS 2).

Modes of admission in NOUN and OAU are both similar and different. O’ Level results (with a minimum of 5 credit pass, including Maths and English in Senior School Certificate Examination/General Certificate in Education, SSCE/GCE) is the usual basic requirement in both settings and candidates do not need to write the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (JAMB UTME). The SSCE/GCE could be from examinations conducted by the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) or the National Examination Council (NECO).

While applicants might gain admission into NOUN only on the merit of their O’ Level results, applicants interested in OAU usually have higher qualifications such as National Diploma (ND), National Certificate in Education (NCE) and Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) certificate depending on the courses they intend to undergo. As at now, for instance, in OAU CDL, candidates are admitted into 100 level for Economics and Accounting programmes on the merits of their O’ Level results but admission into any OAU IED programme is always a direct entry into 200 level (Part 2) with NCE or Diploma in education.

NOUN too requires NCE/ND for direct entry admission. There is a prevailing alternative route to gain admission into NOUN, the Access or Pre-Degree Programme, for prospective

undergraduates who have some deficiency in their O’ Level results. OAU do not have such for distance learners. The similarities in the admission process of the two universities could be because the two universities are federal universities and/or are subject to the same code of conduct and regulations of the National Universities Commission (NUC).

Instructional resources used in NOUN are print media (hard and soft copies), audio and audio-visual materials (CD, DVD, VCD) materials uploaded on the school's website. Textbooks for each course are distributed to the students but some students complained that although the school has been up and doing in this aspect they either still get the books too late or insufficient for all the courses offered. NOUN makes its textbooks available as open access literature on the school website where they are available for students and other scholars beyond NOUN.

OAU students are provided with some print materials, audio/audio-visual materials programmed on mobile devices (for CDL students only), and materials uploaded on the school's website (for CDL students only). However, findings did not confirm Agyeman’s (2007) report that NOUN already uses video-conferencing for some course deliveries by making students gather in study centres and interactively participate in class activities with facilitators in remote locations. Materials uploaded on CDL students’ tablets and on the centre’s website include audio-visuals of studio-recorded lectures. This suggests that OAU IED part-time students only rely on print media except for those that personally make efforts to get learning resources through other platforms.

In both institutions, some media identified by Adewale (2003) such as telephone (mobile devices and land lines) website and the Internet are deployed to an extent while the use of teleconferencing and videoconferencing facilities is at zero level. This limitation is understandable in the light of the fact that the Nigerian society is largely at the low extreme of the digital divide due to poor socio-economic, technological and infrastructural developments.

However, the two institutions are relatively achieving optimally by combining available

technology with required pedagogy. In their words: “I think we have adequate technology to provide required distance learning in this Centre” (OAU CDLAF 1) and “if you are not ICT compliant you cannot meet up with the pace at which NOUN is growing” (NOUN OSCAF 1).

Meanwhile, as Al-Alawneh (2013) argues educational strategies should not be isolated from the context but rather, there is a need to extend an e-learning system to adapt quickly to change.

To Anderson and Simpson (2012) this ultimately means it is the combination of the human, the technological and the organisational resources that works.

In the aspect of contact platforms and patterns, blended learning modes (that is physical and online contacts) are observable in both institutions. Ezekoka’s (2015) study already shows that three models of blended learning – face-to face driver model, rotation model and self-blend model – are practiced in NOUN. In NOUN, students and facilitators interact online via emails, chat-rooms and forum (iLearn online class) and through face-to-face meetings at distributed classes/centres on week days. In OAU, only the CDL students enjoy institution-arranged blended learning as they interact with themselves and facilitators via emails, chatrooms and online classrooms through the centre’s Learning Management System (LMS) and physical contacts on selected weekends and holidays. A facilitator at the centre explained that the physical contacts compulsorily constitute 30% of the total contacts per semester in accordance with the National Universities Commission’s no-full-online-education policy. Also, the online students must attain at least 75% attendance. OAU IED students are limited to face-to-face meetings at the school’s campus on weekends (including Friday evenings), holidays and long vacation period (around July and August when primary and secondary schools are on break).

The difference in the blended learning modes practiced in the two institutions is that while NOUN students usually meet during week days, CDL students meet during weekends and holidays (and when primary and secondary schools are on vacation) for their physical contacts.

This variation aligns with the fact that OAU students are older and most of them have work and family responsibilities than their NOUN counterparts.

Blended learning is a methodological approach for “simultaneous combination of learning, working and living, and vice versa” (Olatunji, Otefisan and Ajayi, 2017, p. 449, emphasis authors’). Olatunji and colleagues regard learning, working and living as imperatives of life necessary for developing a wholesome personal and public life. Hope (2005) thus underscores that blended learning is a preferred option in the USA. Garrison and Kanuka (2004) define it as

“thoughtful integration of the classroom face-to-face learning experiences with on-line learning”. Blended learning gives learners the opportunity to socially acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes at different interaction levels through constant negotiation of structured and unstructured learning experiences, thereby practicing socio-constructivism. It is observed that there is an increase utilisation of ICT in accordance with the demand of providing modern distance education but more must be achieved in this regard. This would not be easy considering the national socio-economic context and common technological challenges. For instance, OAU CDL discontinued the provision of tablets to students because of the recent economic recession in the country. The centre resorted to transferring recorded lectures through flash drive. Aside from this, students must now provide the data required for such online activities by themselves.

Similarly, for some reasons, it appears NOUN Radio (and TV) and NOUN Television are not popular, especially among facilitators and students, facilitators in Lagos insisted “the radio station was functioning effectively” (NOUN LSCAF) at least before the headquarters was moved to Abuja. These traditional media are supposed to be another virtual meeting points for NOUN students, at least for those in Lagos.

Furthermore, in NOUN, examinations hold both physically and online while examinations in OAU only take place in physical classrooms. Participants from NOUN explained that students in 100 level and 200 level write online examinations while students in subsequent levels write

pen-on-paper examinations in designated physical classrooms. NOUN students enjoy some flexibility in the sense that there are provisions for them to write examination in another centre other than their domicile centre, especially when they travel from their usual area. In addition, according to information provided by facilitators, students’ attendance is very compulsory by rules in OAU but not compulsory in NOUN, though “for a two credit units course you have 8 hours face-to-face contact with your facilitator” (NOUN OSCAF 1). With regards to partnership or affiliation with other institutions or organisations, both institutions have some form of partnerships but as an open university, NOUN relies more on such partnership because, for instance, its course writers and lecturers/tutors are mostly outsourced from other universities, colleges and polytechnics while distance learners in OAU are taught by the university’s lecturers, though under some sort of different agreement. Academic staffing patterns of the universities are understandably different; OAU tutors are full-time (in the sense that they are full-time employees of the university but working with its distance learning units on quasi-part-time or contract basis) while NOUN has what Omolewa and Adekanmbi (1994) call flouting faculty. However, it was discovered that at present there is no more direct link or partnership between OAU’s CDL and IED.

Operational structures adopted in any mode of distance education should be towards creating a learning process that is active, collaborative and social in nature. This is an implication of socio-constructivism (Kundi & Nawaz, 2010). Although many differences are observable, NOUN and OAU seem to be evolving towards fulfilling their mandates, especially in the context of their inherent natures as a dedicated distance learning institution (open university) and a mixed distance learning institution respectively. The two universities are using blended learning approach but OAU might have to incorporate this into its part-time studies in IED if it aims to keep pace with providing modern distance education. Meanwhile, there is an indication that

IED has kept strictly with traditional part-time operation because any further upgrade might result into unaffordable financial cost implication for the students.

4.2.4 Adequacy of Students Support Systems for Distance Learners in NOUN and OAU