UNDERSTANDING OPEN
AND DISTANCE LEARNERS
Introduction
When designing Open and Distance
Learning (ODL) materials it is important to
remember that the learner is the expected
consumer of the product or our customer
 It is therefore necessary to know the
characteristics of that customer in order to
design effective learning materials

Demographic factors

The writer must know the following
demographic characteristics of the learner
 Expected number of learners
 Ages- whether children or adults
 Gender- whether men or women
 Family status- whether single, married,
divorced, or separated
 Number of children
 Geographic location, eg. Rural, urban, etc
 Previous education
 Languages spoken
 Employment status
Motivation factors
 The
writer needs to know the reason
for the learner’s desire to learn,
namely:
Why the learner wants to learn
How the learning programme
relates to the learner’s life or work,
Motivation factors
◦ e.g. Whether the learner is a teacher
and wants to increase his knowledge
base for better teaching at higher levels
or whether he wants to acquire
knowledge in a new field to change his
career, etc.
 What the learner hopes to achieve and
his fears about the task at hand
Learning factors (location and
learning environment)
•
The writer also needs to know the following
learning factors about the learner:
• Their beliefs about learning
• Their preferred learning styles
• Their learning skills, eg. Reading ability
• Their experience of ODL
• Varied access to learning resources
Learning factors (location and
learning environment)
• Varied learning facilities depending on
the surroundings of the individual
learner
• Varied individual home environment
and learning styles
• Varied infrastructure like power,
comm. And transport facilities
• Varied beliefs about learning
Subject background

The writer needs to know the subject
background of the learners, namely:
 How they feel about the subject of the
programme
 The knowledge and skills they already have in
the subject
 The misconceptions or inappropriate habits
held by the learner
 Personal interests and experience of the learner
which may be relevant
Resource factors

The writer also needs to know about
availability of resources for learners,
namely
 Where, when and how they will be learning
 Who will be paying their fees or expenses
 How much time they will have for their studies
 What access they will have to facilities such as
study centres, libraries, laboratories, etc
 What access they will have to the equipment
and media required for the course unit
Typical problems of open and
distance learners

The writer needs to know the typical
problems faced by open and distance
learners, namely:
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Worries about work and money
Lack of books and libraries
Lack of their own study space
Isolation
Lack of transport to get to tutorials
Lack of confidence
No undisturbed study time
Low levels of reading ability
Lack of time to attend tutorials
Adult learners

Adults are self-directed:
 The learning climate should cause
adults to feel accepted, respected and
supported
 Learners need to be involved in a
process of self-diagnosis of learning
needs and in the process of planning
their own learning
 The teaching and learning process is
the mutual responsibility of learners
and teachers/writers
 Adults are ready to learn when they
recognize the need to know
◦ Learners need to know why a
particular topic(s) or session is
included and why they are expected to
learn
◦ Adults learn best with a real world
approach, which uses case studies or
role plays and allows them to test
strategies to solve real problems
Adult learners…
 Adults prefer problem-centred or
performance-centred learning
◦ Learners’ needs should be sequenced
according to problem areas
◦ An exercise should be provided early
in the lesson that allows learners to
identify specific problems they want to
deal with
◦ Teachers/writers must enable learners
to see that their learning has been
successful
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