In this Unit, you learnt about the importance of communication in open schooling. Due to the distributed nature of learners, you also learned about common challenges that are faced in communicating with open school learners. Through the example of an open school in Africa, you were also exposed to the wide range of communication strategies you can use with your open school learners. Managing an effective communication system with open school learners is a pre-condition for learner success in open schooling.
In this unit you also learnt about how to support open school learners through various strategies, including managing assignment feedback. A key aspect of learner support is the ability to track your learners as a teacher/facilitator. This enables you to identify at-risk learners and provide timely support. In this unit, you also learnt of the importance of enhancing collaborative learning by creating social learning communities for your learners. Thus, as a teacher, you have an important role to play in creating an enabling learning environment for your distributed learners, even if you do not have regular face-to-face meetings with them.
We hope you are now in a better position to manage learning in an open school environment after going through this unit.