Why is “thorough and updated content” the top item in the list of elements associated with quality in distance learning?
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Thorough and updated content is essential for quality distance learning because information spreads so quickly online. Outdated or shallow content could confuse students rather than educate them. For distance learning to be effective, content must be academically sound, comprehensible, aligned with learning goals, interesting, and continuously updated by subject experts. Critical thinking is also important - students should analyze and evaluate content through reflection and judgment. Using open educational resources allows content to be freely accessible, adapted, and improved through collaboration.
![Table 1 – Critical thinking as a problem-solving process
Phase 1: Identification of
the problem
Students observe or study a problem, identify elements, and observe their
connections to arrive at a basic understanding.
Phase 2: Definition of the problem Students analyze a problem to arrive at an understanding that clarifies the
values, beliefs and assumptions underlying the problem’s statement.
Phase 3: Exploring the problem Students admit or propose an idea based on their connection with
propositions already admitted as true by induction and deduction.
Phase 4: Applicability of
the problem
Students evaluate alternative solutions and new ideas within a
social context.
Phase 5: Integration of problems Students propose coordinated actions to apply a solution, in order to
follow a choice or decision.
Source: Yang et al., 2011.
Learning objects for DL courses should combine
good educational design strategies with high quality
content. This requires development teams that include
teachers or subject matter experts, educational design-
ers, and technology experts.
To ensure effective course development, it is import-
ant to establish a workflow that includes a content
review process so that it is regularly updated and
reflects new developments in the field in question.
One highly recommended possibility is to integrate
a variety of interesting sources available as open
educational resources.
Ordinance n. 451, dated May 16th, 2018, defines
as open educational resources those that are within
public domain or have been registered under an open
license allowing free access, use, adaptation and dis-
tribution by third parties.
Free educational resources are those that, despite
being made available in the closed modalities of
intellectual property, allow access without technical
restrictions and without costs, for an unlimited time.
The Open Education Initiative Portal (Aberta,
2018, our translation)3
presents a brief review of the
literature on the reasons why it is recommended
to adopt open educational resources, of which we
highlight some:
■■ To facilitate the access of all people to knowledge;
■■ To ensure the freedom and creativity of production;
3 IEA – Iniciativa Educação Aberta. Perguntas frequentes. Disponível
em: <http://aberta.org.br/faq/>. Acesso em: 24 jul. 2018.
■■ To encourage collaboration, participation and shar-
ing practices;
■■ To bring technology to the classroom in a productive
and planned way, and which promotes the idea of
authorship between teachers and students;
■■ To encourage educators and students to be rec-
ognized as authors;
■■ To allow access to education to those who are in school
and to those who are not;
■■ To improve content that already exists and allow it to
be appropriate and adapted to local realities;
■■ For quality education that is accessible and integrates
different forms of individual learning;
■■ To encourage the production of local content;
■■ To encourage the sharing of learning resources
among institutions, academics and within commu-
nities of practice;
■■ To enable teaching materials and other pedagogical
resources to be universally improved and shared -
locally, nationally and globally - to support learning;
[…]
■■ To encourage the development, acceptance and
adaptation of open technical tools and standards
that have the potential to increase local productivity
and use by teachers and students;
[…]
The concept of quality in education is as complex as
learning itself. There is a tension between the means to
verify quality and expected results. The most common
is that the perception of laypeople and the academic
community is shaped by the legal framework and
2017 Brazilian Census for Distance Learning
20](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/20190202censoeadbr2018artigoluciano-ingles-190202185519/85/Why-is-thorough-and-updated-content-the-top-item-in-the-list-of-elements-associated-with-quality-in-distance-learning-3-320.jpg)
Why is “thorough and updated content” the top item in the list of elements associated with quality in distance learning?
- 1. 2017 Brazilian Census for Distance Learning Analytic Report of Distance Learning in Brazil
- 2. Why is “thorough and updated content” the top item in the list of elements associated with quality in distance learning? Luciano Sathler In times of falsehoods and half-lies disseminated over the most diverse media by robots and ill-intentioned people, we must be certain that the content of a course is scientifically reliable. Or, at least, that it was critical and previously evaluated by teachers trained to do so. This applies both to on-site and distance learning (DL). Shallow, fast searches on engines like Google are within everyone’s reach. The exponential growth in the volume of information available and the speed with which it spreads reached unprecedented levels. This inflation of possibilities can confuse more than clarify in the educational context. Due to the characteristics of DL, a basic condition for the perception of quality is content that is aca- demically respectable, comprehensible to the student, articulated and coherent with the learning objectives, that is interesting, continuously updated, relevant, with intuitive and friendly access. In DL, quality cannot be exclusively tied to the assessment of what was previously determined by a specialist. The possibility of students’ active partici- pation in selecting, drafting and updating content is more important than its mere reception. This is one of many reasons why self-instructional courses are not recommended for higher education, as they do not consider as fundamental in their organization the continuous synchronous or asyn- chronous interaction between teachers and students. In this context, it is up to the teaching staff to engage in a permanent research dynamic that goes beyond technical or practical rationality to establish an epis- temological relationship between the subject of knowl- edge and objects in general (Freire, 2017)1 . The student should be encouraged to adopt critical thinking as an attitude and method for analyzing content, which includes deliberate reflection and judgment. It involves skepticism, argument or sus- pension toward a statement, established norm or way of doing things. This critical approach to content contributes to learning. According to Garrison (cited by Yang et al., 2011)2 , critical thinking can be defined as a prob- lem-solving process that is organized into five stages. 1 FREIRE, A. M. A. Paulo Freire: uma história de vida. 2. ed. São Paulo: Paz e Terra, 2017. 2 YANG, D.; RICHARDSON, J. C.; FRENCH, B. F.; LEHMAN, J. D. The development of a content analysis model for assessing students’ cognitive learning in asynchronous online discussions. Education Tech Research Dev, v. 59, p. 43-70, 2011. 19
- 3. Table 1 – Critical thinking as a problem-solving process Phase 1: Identification of the problem Students observe or study a problem, identify elements, and observe their connections to arrive at a basic understanding. Phase 2: Definition of the problem Students analyze a problem to arrive at an understanding that clarifies the values, beliefs and assumptions underlying the problem’s statement. Phase 3: Exploring the problem Students admit or propose an idea based on their connection with propositions already admitted as true by induction and deduction. Phase 4: Applicability of the problem Students evaluate alternative solutions and new ideas within a social context. Phase 5: Integration of problems Students propose coordinated actions to apply a solution, in order to follow a choice or decision. Source: Yang et al., 2011. Learning objects for DL courses should combine good educational design strategies with high quality content. This requires development teams that include teachers or subject matter experts, educational design- ers, and technology experts. To ensure effective course development, it is import- ant to establish a workflow that includes a content review process so that it is regularly updated and reflects new developments in the field in question. One highly recommended possibility is to integrate a variety of interesting sources available as open educational resources. Ordinance n. 451, dated May 16th, 2018, defines as open educational resources those that are within public domain or have been registered under an open license allowing free access, use, adaptation and dis- tribution by third parties. Free educational resources are those that, despite being made available in the closed modalities of intellectual property, allow access without technical restrictions and without costs, for an unlimited time. The Open Education Initiative Portal (Aberta, 2018, our translation)3 presents a brief review of the literature on the reasons why it is recommended to adopt open educational resources, of which we highlight some: ■■ To facilitate the access of all people to knowledge; ■■ To ensure the freedom and creativity of production; 3 IEA – Iniciativa Educação Aberta. Perguntas frequentes. Disponível em: <http://aberta.org.br/faq/>. Acesso em: 24 jul. 2018. ■■ To encourage collaboration, participation and shar- ing practices; ■■ To bring technology to the classroom in a productive and planned way, and which promotes the idea of authorship between teachers and students; ■■ To encourage educators and students to be rec- ognized as authors; ■■ To allow access to education to those who are in school and to those who are not; ■■ To improve content that already exists and allow it to be appropriate and adapted to local realities; ■■ For quality education that is accessible and integrates different forms of individual learning; ■■ To encourage the production of local content; ■■ To encourage the sharing of learning resources among institutions, academics and within commu- nities of practice; ■■ To enable teaching materials and other pedagogical resources to be universally improved and shared - locally, nationally and globally - to support learning; […] ■■ To encourage the development, acceptance and adaptation of open technical tools and standards that have the potential to increase local productivity and use by teachers and students; […] The concept of quality in education is as complex as learning itself. There is a tension between the means to verify quality and expected results. The most common is that the perception of laypeople and the academic community is shaped by the legal framework and 2017 Brazilian Census for Distance Learning 20
- 4. external supervision, either carried out by govern- mental agencies or not. The forms of accountability and evaluation in edu- cation call for measures that are minimally com- parable and trustworthy, as something that always walks on unstable ground, especially in the times of paradigmatic changes that society is undergoing. It is necessary to ensure that the needs and expecta- tions of the students are met, as well as the demands of the socioeconomic-environmental context in which they are inserted. Reliable, academically recommended and updated content depends on well-prepared teachers, engaged in research, willing to dialogue with students, capable of going beyond what was originally proposed to open new avenues for each question or answer reached. ■■ About the author LucianoSathlerRosaGuimarães is the dean of Centro Universi- tário Metodista Izabela Hen- drix, Brazilian Association of Distance Learning (ABED) director, collaborator profes- sor at the master’s program at the Methodist University of São Paulo, and PhD in Management by Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contab- ilidade da Universidade de São Paulo (FEA/USP). 21
- 5. EAD.BR CENSO 2017 WWW.ABED.ORG.BR Analytic report of distance learning in Brazil