Standards II : Resources

A. All resources supplied are appropriate to the needs, knowledge and experience of a stated group of learners.

B. The provider takes all reasonable steps to ensure that course materials are effective and do not contain significant errors of fact, misleading or out-of-date information, concepts or approaches.

Course materials are reviewed within specified time periods to ensure they remain effective and up-to-date.

If a new course is introduced, or significant amounts of new material are introduced into an existing course, the effectiveness of such material is properly assessed in advance. Where there is any doubt that such material can be adequately assessed by other means, it is used in a pilot study or otherwise tested on potential students, with the latter’s knowledge.

C. Course materials are designed for a specific and clearly stated level of learner support, and suitable opportunities for such support, where intended, are built into the material.

D. Course materials are structured to facilitate individual study & the development of study skills.

Typical features of good quality self-study course materials, regardless of the delivery medium, include:

1. appropriateness to the overall purpose of the course;
2. the ability to deliver the declared outcome of the course;;
3. presentation in an appropriate and convenient-to-use format;
4. careful pacing;
5. subdivision into appropriate units, lessons or modules;
6. an indication of the time a learner of average ability might expect to spend on each unit;
7. a sequential exposition, with new material building on previous material;
8. the use of a variety of approaches, including summaries, visual material, and illustrative examples as appropriate, to illuminate particular concept
9. facilitation of different learning styles;
10. regular opportunities for reflection, review, practice and self-assessment
11. the inclusion of clear instructions to guide the learner through the material.
12. appropriate assignments which facilitate the learning process and offer opportunities for assessment.
    
    

    In addition, features of good quality course material delivered on screen include:

13. making effective use of the technology
14. ease of navigation to all other appropriate points in the materials;
15. a way of identifying the position of the current screen in a module, and the whole course;
16. the ability to bookmark and annotate the materials;
17. time taken to load screens is minimised;
18. the page to screen ratio is close to unity

The use of language in course materials is appropriate to the intended learners.    In particular, care is taken with language if courses are described as being appropriate to those whose first language is not English.

A clear outline of the course as a whole is provided with the first set of materials.