ROLE OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS IN THE PRODUCTION OF QUALITY TEACHERS IN OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATION

Abstract

Open and Distance Education is an effective way of educating people of all categories and professions in the society as the delivery system is quite different from conventional on-campus teaching. It is also a substitute for the conventional classroom teaching as it involves different types of media which include printed materials, like text books, newspapers, radio, cassette, television, computer-based communication, and telephone among others. In this age of information super-highway, it is impossible to challenge the possibility that effective and quality education can be offered through adequate design and usage of instructional materials for the production of quality teachers. In recent times improving teachers’ quality has assumed a central strategy for improving a nation’s ability to compete in the global knowledge, economy, ensuring the quality of the workforce, and meeting rising social expectation related to diversity and equality (Teachers College Record, 2012). It is in this context that this paper, using the existing literatures as bases, examines and discusses the role of instructional strategies that could be implemented in the development of instructional materials for teaching and learning in open and distance education for the production of quality teachers.