This resource has been drawn from discussions in the General Forum of the Australian Flexible Learning Community during the period July 2002 to December 2004. Many thanks to all who contributed.

Can we go back to basics for a moment, please?

The Australian Flexible Learning Community attracted a lot of leading-edge practitioners in the public discussion areas during its operations. However, it was also a place where newcomers sought advice and answers to their questions. The following posting was a reminder that not everyone is at the same level of sophistication when it comes to flexible and online delivery.

I have been talking to groups of LearnScopers and Flexible Learning Week participants in the last couple of weeks and I realise how quickly we can lose sight of the basics. For many teachers just beginning their journey into flexibility the catalyst for change can be the simplest of things.

In recent conversations with ACE teachers looking for new ways to engage with their ESL learners, the use of a digital camera and the generation of a few Powerpoint slides was a simple but effective way to make the best use of technology. One person said that they didn’t really see the value of PowerPoint slides for classroom teaching until they were able to access a data projector. From that moment on, Powerpoint had a whole new meaning.

This really brought it home to me that there are many teachers still struggling to keep up-to-date with limited resources at their disposal.

Just what are the basic hardware and software requirements for successful flexible delivery? It seems like a silly question but in fact, it needs to be asked more often. For some adult education centres (in Victoria anyway) this presents a real challenge when trying to meet the needs of their clients on a limited budget.

The question of what are the basic hardware and software requirements wasn’t answered. The Community explained that, as is often the case, the answer “depends”.

What did arise from this question was a conversation about being able to find simple, easy to use resources that can be developed in a short space of time with 'no fancy overheads'. The general agreement was that simple resources are more usable than sophisticated ones. As one contributor said…

I think that in an ideal world it should be as easy for a teacher to populate a course with resources delivered electronically as it is to do it for face-to-face delivery. Every course I have every taught has required me to find and assimilate resources. If we can make that as easy to do for electronic courses as for the traditional alternative then the time issue will no longer be relevant. I personally believe that leveraging whatever resources are available is the way to go. It could be a book in a library closed reserve system, a video etc. That way the impediments to finding content no longer exist. You use whatever resources are available just like you do for face-to-face delivery.

But this wasn’t the end of it. Two more important points were made before the conversation came to an end. The first was about quality of resources.

I sometimes find the knowledge that the resources are out there somewhere contributes to the sense of frustration I get when I go looking for them. So much time is spent sifting through the chaff. Perhaps we need a rating system like they use on some of the software repositories.

The other point was about that most finite and precious of all resources – time.

I think you are spot on with the time issue; for most teachers just meeting the needs of their day to day students is challenge enough.

With regards to TIME - I think it's a matter of time management for all of us. Access to technology means that we have at our fingertips a whole range of resources - but we need to be able to sift out the good from the bad. Gone are the days when you simply go to a library and come up with 2 or 3 good books. Now we have the world at our feet and it takes significant amounts of time to sort through it all.

These examples remind us that many teachers are still struggling to keep up-to-date with limited resources at their disposal. Whenever this type of comment is made, most people think of ‘limited resources’ as being money and technology. However, the most limited of resources is one we often overlook but is the one that is most basic of them all – TIME.

For teachers to advance their skills for flexible delivery they need time. We’re busily developing innovative technologies but when did you last see research and development effort going toward innovative strategies for time management? Access to technology means that we have at our fingertips a whole range of resources - but we need to be able to sift out the good from the bad. Gone are the days when you simply go to a library and come up with 2 or 3 good books. Now we have the world at our feet! Clearly time management is an issue for all of us.

Although budget and technology requirements remain in the top three of significant hurdles for those in flexible delivery, it seems that time has to be at the very top of the list.