Introduction
In one sense the needs of the student entering an open learning system are no different from the needs of all students. These needs involve finding answers to a range of questions about the process they are entering. Questions like:
- What?
What is the subject? What is the level?
What qualifications/knowledge are needed for entry?
What qualifications are gained by taking this course?
What does the qualification mean?
- How much?
Eg. How much will it cost?
How much time will it take?
- Can I... ?
e.g. Can I really do it? (in terms of prior knowledge, ability, skills)
Can I really do it? (in terms of who are the other students-are they people like me?)
- Should I... ?
e.g. Should I do this course or another? Should I do a course at all?
Should I prepare for the course?
Although the need for answers to these questions may be the same, for the distance students they are even more critical. For the conventional student when these questions are not clearly answered at a pre-course stage, answers can still emerge during the educational process itself, from tutors, fellow students and the operations of the 'college'. In short, the face-to-face mode often copes with the unanswered pre-study questions by its own dynamic. The non-operating or non-starting student is quickly identified by the simple test of attendance. The contrast with the open learning entrant is clear. Answers at the pre-study stage to a large extent determine whether the student actually engages in an educational process. Non-starting is difficult to identify in a distance system where as simple a test as attendance is not available. So for any open learning process a crucial issue is converting the intending student into an operational one.
The converse may well be true: if answers are received at the pre-study stage it is more likely that the students will start the course.
Although it is relatively easy to suggest the areas of need, providing adequate answers is subject to at least four difficulties.
- The changing 'status' of the intending student.
- An appropriate answer will need to cover the full range of guidance.
- Not all students have the same needs even when following the same programme.
- The student may not be able to articulate these questions.
Each of these difficulties will now be examined in turn.
1 The changing 'status' of the intending student
The changing status of students, from initial enquiry to the point of starting the course, puts the intending student into different levels of involvement in the process of becoming a student. The person making a tentative enquiry about a course has a different 'status' to that same person actually starting the course. Although systems will differ widely there is likely to be a time lag, an administrative process and probably a financial transaction. More important is the change in the level of commitment to becoming a student and in consequence the nature of the questions requiring an answer.
In the Open University (OU), for example, the potential student is seen as progressing through four different 'statuses':
- enquirers: those who ask for details of courses and who receive brochures and application forms;
- applicants: those who apply to join a course or programme;
- offerees: those who receive an offer of a place in response to an application;
- initially registered students: those who accept an offer of a place, sign an acceptance form and who pay a fee (or arrange for a third party to pay).
It is clear that there is an increasing level of commitment to becoming a student and, in the case of the undergraduate programme, the passage of a period of time. But it also involves declining numbers. The position for the OU's Undergraduate Programme in 1985 (for 1986 entry) was:
- enquirers
| 200 000; |
- applicants
| 56 000; |
- offerees
| 32 316; |
- initially registered
| 19 788. |
This rate of decrease may be atypical in that the OU is larger than most other institutions and has special features. For example, there is a strict ration of places on the undergraduate programme so that the number of initially registered students should be approximately the same as the quota (or ration). Not all open learning systems will have this sort of quota. Moreover the length of the 'gestation' period (formally a 10 months application period which is in practice much longer where applications are carried forward from the previous year) will usually be much shorter elsewhere. However, the OU example does show that pre-study guidance will need to cover the potential student at different levels of commitment to the courses. It is likely that most open learning systems will have to distinguish between at least two processes, as shown in Table 21.1.
Table 21.1
The changing status of intending students
| Process | Open University Status |
| Publicity | Enquirer |
| Enrolment | Applicant
Offeree
Initial Registration |
2 An appropriate answer will need to cover the full range of guidance
The question raised by the student may require an 'information' answer. How much will it cost? can usually be seen in this mode. In so far as the answer is '£x', information is an appropriate mode of response. However, it is unlikely that Can I really do it? can be answered in this way. It is likely to require a more personal answer which can only be approached after a considerable interchange of information between questioner and adviser and counsellor. Using the UDACE Report The Challenge of Change (1986)1 helps to identify at least six overlapping activities involved in guidance:
- informing;
- advising;.
- counselling
- assessing
- enabling
- advocating.
(The UDACE report also identifies a seventh activity, that of 'feeding back' which is also an important aspect of pre-study guidance. Any programme needs feedback on intending student response and their needs if it is to remain relevant and responsive, open learning programmes perhaps in particular. However, this seventh activity is not a direct service to the student.)
It is argued that to be effective the pre-study guidance system will need to be accessible in all these forms. In short the answers must be available in six modes. There should be information to answer the questions; the intending student will require advice to choose appropriate options; working with intending students to discover, clarify, assess and understand their learning needs will involve counselling; it may be wise to have some diagnostic facility by the use of formal or informal tests to enable intending students to assess their needs; intending students will need support to enable them to become actual students and negotiations on their behalf may, with advocacy of their particular needs, be desirable.
3 Not all students have the same needs even where following the same programme
It is argued above that answers should be available in all modes of guidance. However, the associated difficulty is that no two students have exactly the same needs. Some will have prior experience of distance learning and have no need to ask the questions, What is the teaching method? For others, whose only experience is of conventional courses, the need to ask will be absolute. Failure to comprehend how one is to learn within the system will probably inhibit a prompt start. The question voiced may be about the plausibility of distance learning.
4 The student may not be able to articulate these questions
This difficulty is closely connected with the prior issue (the need for answers in different modes). Intending students will articulate questions with varying facility. Some will quickly identify their needs and ask the relevant questions. Others will have great difficulty in knowing what their questions are. To some extent this depends upon opportunity to articulate and, of course, their prior learning experiences.
Answering the questions
So far we have identified the probable questions and the difficulties in providing answers. How in the light of this does the open learning system meet the pre-study guidance needs of intending students? Not, it is suggested, with a uniform response. Answers will need to be more available in a flexible fashion to acknowledge:
- the range of question;
- varying levels of need from intending students;
- the changing status of students.
Guidance should be available in all modes and develop methods of contact which are accessible and 'user friendly'. The system will also have to provoke questions (or assist their articulation). This probably means that the guidance needs will have to be reflected in all 'output' from the open learning system, reflected, that is in:
- written documents;
- telephone calls;
- media output;
- personal (face-to-face) contact.
One way of expressing this is by use of a checklist on pre-study guidance. Two checklists are given here in terms of the student status.
Publicity checklist
- Informing
Is promotional literature clear and welcoming?
Are the purposes of the programme introduced?
Is course-specific information given?
Is it clear who the courses are for?
Are sources of further information about courses given?
Are sources of further information about alternative courses given?
- Advising
Is advice offered?
Is requesting advice suggested?
Are alternative methods of getting advice (telephone, written, personal) offered?
Are 'outside' advisory networks suggested
- Counselling
Is counselling offered at this stage?
Is counselling by another organisation suggested?
Is counselling active (open learning system intervenes) or reactive (potential student requests it)?
Is counselling suggested by materials available e.g. (videos, workbooks, checklists)?
- Assessing
Is assessment offered at this stage to the student?
Is assessment imposed?
- Enabling
Are there 'pre-entry' programmes to assist the potential learner to join?
Is someone available to assist with filling in form and/or obtaining sponsorship?
- Advocating
Does the system itself act on the potential student's behalf?
Is some other organisation able to act on behalf of the potential student?
Enrolment checklist
- Informing
Are enrolment processes clear and encouraging?
Is information on fees, payments, sponsorship, liabilities, time and place also clear and encouraging?
Is preparatory material available?
Are sources of further information indicated?
- Advising
Is advice available at enrolment?
How does the enrolling student obtain advice?
By what media is advice available?
- Counselling
Is counselling available at enrolment?
Is counselling active or reactive?
Is counselling aided by other materials?
- Assessing
Is assessment available at enrolment? If so:
Is the assessment by and for the student? (self-diagnosis) or
Is assessment for the open learning system? (i.e. a condition of entry)
- Enabling
How is enrolment assisted?
What ways are used to encourage and assist joining?
- Advocating
Who can act on behalf of the enrolling student?
How far can the advocate go?
These two checklists owe much to the ideas developed by Diane Bailey in a NICEC occasional paper The Nature of Guidance and the Open Tech Programme (1985 ).2 Dr Bailey uses a slightly different but not dissimilar tabulation of the guidance activities and her lists are not confined to the pre-entry phase.
It is argued in this paper that guidance at the pre-study stage for the intending open learning system student is more important than for students entering a conventional educational course. Although the difficulties in devising an appropriate pre-study guidance system are acknowledged, such guidance is essential, essential not just as a desirable 'extra', added on to the open learning system but as an integral part of the system itself. Not only will such guidance be necessary to meet the intending student's need for advice but the feedback from the guidance process should inform the development of the open learning system itself. It may also assist in making that system aware of, and its relationship with, other learning processes.
References
- Unit for the Development of Adult Continuing Education, The Challenge of Change: Developing Educational Guidance for Adults, UDACE, 1986.
- D. Bailey, The Nature of Guidance and the Open Tech Programme, NICEC, 1985.
| 
