ABSTRACT

Charles Sturt University (CSU), Australia offers her Bachelor of Arts (Library and Information Science) degree in Hong Kong in collaboration with the School of Professional and Continuing Education (SPACE) of the University of Hong Kong. Adult students in Hong Kong are studying for a CSU award through an enhanced distance education mode. Academic and administration supports are provided by both CSU and SPACE. The CSU staff visit Hong Kong twice a year to conduct study sessions. SPACE organizes regular tutorial sessions throughout the study. The admission is open to all persons with some form of post-secondary education, including continuing education programs.

The course was first offered in Hong Kong in 1993, with an intake of 22 students. It was the first course available in Hong Kong providing first-degree level library professional education. With a biennial intake, the fourth intake in 1999 was fully subscribed with 50 students. Some eligible applicants had to be rejected.

This paper reports this successful joint venture between an overseas institution (CSU) and a local academic partner (SPACE) as a case study. The measures of success from the perspectives of the distance education provider, the local partner, and the students will be described. The critical factors leading to the success will be examined. The problems encountered and how they are overcome will be addressed. In addition to the reflections of the academic and administrative staff, feedback from the students was collected through questionnaire survey and focus group discussion. The students・ general course satisfaction and their reactions to the enhanced form of distance education are investigated.

The findings of this case study provide useful reference for distance education providers to enhance their competitiveness to operate in other countries. On the other hand, the paper also reveals how a place can meet her education and training needs through the collaboration with overseas institutions. The cooperation creates a win-win situation for the offering and receiving ends. Through such cooperation, it is believed that the quality of distance education has been improved. The students, of course, should become the primary beneficiaries.

Introduction

There is no library school in all the tertiary institutions in Hong Kong. In the past, the only route to get professional library education was to study aboard. It is not exactly known why this was the case, even though there are now seven universities in the territory. The School of Professional and Continuing Education (SPACE) of the University of Hong Kong, together with the Charles Sturt University (CSU) of Australia, fill this gap (Gorman 1997). In 1990, they jointly offered the CSU Library and Information Management graduate diploma in Hong Kong. In 1993, they jointly offered the CSU Library and Information Science bachelor degree. The two qualifications are recognized by the Australian Library and Information Association as fulfilling the academic requirement for professional membership. In 1996, the CSU Master・s degree in Library and Information Management was jointly offered.

These CSU programs are offered in Australia in distance education mode. In Hong Kong, local teaching support and supplementary local contents are added into these programs through the SPACE collaboration.

We examine the successful collaboration between two geographic distant institutions, one being an overseas course provider (CSU) and the other being a local academic partner (SPACE). The measures of success from different perspectives, namely the course provider, the academic partner at the receiving end, and the students, are discussed. We identify the critical factors leading to such success and review the experience of handling the problems encountered. In order to have a focus on the discussion, the bachelor degree program is used as the main reference in this article. Please refer to Mills for a detailed account of the overall collaboration between CSU and SPACE (Mills 1999).

In addition to the reflections of the academic and administrative staff, feedback from the students was collected through questionnaire survey and focus group discussion. The students・ general course satisfaction and their reactions to the enhanced form of distance education are investigated.

Background

The Charles Sturt University

Charles Sturt University is a multi-campus university with established traditions and a proud record of higher education in Australia spanning more than 100 years. It has a long tradition of offering high quality education to international students. Distance education is a particular strength and focus at CSU and has opened up opportunities for study by distance education, for the adult and part time student especially. Students find CSU outstanding because she has a strong teaching tradition and makes effective use of technology. There are over 28,000 students enrolled in over 150 courses.

In 1997 Charles Sturt University was awarded the premier annual award for Australian universities - University of the Year. This award was presented in recognition of the University・s unparalleled success in teaching students who have no personal or family experience with tertiary study.

The School of Professional and Continuing Education

The School of Professional and Continuing Education (SPACE) of the University of Hong Kong is the extension arm of the University. Its role is to provide access to career training and education opportunities for the community. SPACE is the largest tertiary institution of continuing education in Hong Kong. The School was formerly called the Department of Extra-Mural Studies, which was founded in 1956. Since then, over 850,000 students have taken courses offered by SPACE and its predecessor.

SPACE offers a number of award-bearing programs in collaboration with overseas universities. In some cases, these programs are in areas that have a demand greater than the capacity of local provisions, for example, in information technology. In other cases, the programs are in specialized areas that are not formally available in local tertiary institutions, for example, in library and information science.

Library Education in Hong Kong

In 1964, SPACE (then the Extra Mural Studies Department) and the Hong Kong Library Association offered a certificate course for library assistants. This was a sub-professional level course for supporting staff working in a library or information agency. The teaching staff were drawn from practitioners of the library profession from different organizations.

A local professional level library course was not available till 1981. The major employers of professional librarians during that time were the Government and the Universities. The academic libraries used to recruit librarians who had already possessed a professional qualification. The public libraries recruited graduates of any discipline as Assistant Librarian II. The Urban Services Department Training School was responsible for the training of civil servants working in the municipal services. They commissioned the Extra Mural Studies Department and the Hong Kong Library Association to develop a graduate diploma library course for their junior Assistant Librarians. Dr. Lai-Bing Kan, the University Librarian, acted as the Director of Studies. She designed the curriculum with the help of some local professionals and overseas advisers. Teaching was primarily done by Dr. Kan and the local library practitioners as their part-time commitment to educate the new generation of the profession. Two out of the six subjects were taught by an overseas academic in the area of library and information management during his term breaks.

Due to the limitation in local staff resources, the 3-year graduate diploma program could only recruit an intake every three years. That is, only one batch of students was studying at any one time. The number of public librarians waiting to be trained started to build into a long queue. There was also a strong demand to join the program from practicing librarians without a professional qualification in other sectors. Nevertheless, there was very little room to admit these persons into the program. Dr. Kan then started a search for overseas collaboration to enhance the course and expand the intake. She identified CSU as a partner because they were committed to distance education and had strong courses in library and information science education (Kan 1997). CSU had students in Australia and many other countries. Their library science courses began in 1974. They had one of the largest library schools in the world.

The collaboration was formed by replacing the local diploma with the graduate diploma in library and information management of CSU. The first intake started their study in 1990. With the establishment of a link to the library school of CSU, it became possible to increase the number of students in each intake and to recruit new intakes more frequently.

Bachelor of Arts (Library and Information Science)

Driven by the demand, the CSU Bachelor of Arts (Library and Information Science) degree was introduced into Hong Kong in 1993 as a joint program with SPACE. The graduate diploma only provided a training path for bachelor degree graduates of other disciplines to study for a professional librarian qualification. In the secondary school libraries of Hong Kong, there were many teacher librarians who held a teacher certificate but not a degree. To help these teachers to cope with their teacher librarian role, the Education Department in association with SPACE organized a two-year in-service training course for them. The teacher librarians, however, were keen to further upgrade their academic and professional qualifications. The graduate diploma was unfortunately beyond their reach.

Many special librarians serving at small and medium sized enterprises were neither professional librarians nor degree holders. They also had similar training needs as the teacher librarians. The BA(LIS) nicely complemented the graduate diploma. It provided an access path for people without a degree to develop themselves into professional librarians and to complete a first degree at the same time. This was the first undergraduate course in library professional education offered in Hong Kong.

The BA (LIS) course comprises 24 subjects, out of which 16 are related to library and information science and 8 are related to a single academic major other than library and information science. Students study the course part-time. Almost all of them have a full-time job. In addition to the normal semesters, there is a ．summer・ session (December to February, summer in Australia but winter in Hong Kong!). Students study two subjects in each semester and one in the summer session. Students with recognized qualifications, such as the teacher certificate, can receive credits (exemption) from the non-library academic major and complete the BA degree in three years. Otherwise, it takes about four and half years to complete the whole BA degree.

When the course was first offered, there were only 22 students. With a biennial intake, the fourth intake in 1999 was fully subscribed with 50 students. Some eligible applicants had to be rejected. Recent questionnaire surveys indicated general satisfaction of the course by the students. Since the launch, three batches with a total of over 80 graduates have completed the BA course. The success is rooted in the collaboration and mutual trust between the two partnering institutions. It does not mean that there were no problems. In fact many problems have occurred. It requires close communication between the institutions and their joint effort to provide timely responses to fix the problems.

In the following sections, we describe the critical factors leading to the success, the problems encountered, and how the problems were overcome. In addition to the reflections of the academic and administrative staff, we also report the feedback from the students. A questionnaire survey was carried out to collect ratings and comments on specified aspects of the course. A focus group discussion was conducted to gather open comments from a small group of students and to examine some of the issues in more details.

Academic Collaboration

The first dimension we want to explore is the academic quality of the course. From the perspective of Hong Kong, the collaboration provides obvious advantages. As mentioned before, CSU has a large library school and a strong team of library academic staff that Hong Kong lacks. The academic standard of the CSU BA degree is internationally recognized. The course contents and study materials are continually kept up to date. The degree course is accredited by the Australian Library and Information Association as fulfilling the professional education requirement. SPACE is able to meet the local training demand with a course with enhanced quality and international recognition. From the perspective of CSU, the operation in Hong Kong not only expands their number of students and extends their international education boundary, it represents a recognition of their achievement in distance education and brings in a new dimension to facilitate further development and enhancement of their courses.

It may sometimes seem questionable whether the course standard can be maintained when it is operated in another country with a different culture. The following factors are believed to have ensured the academic quality of the course offered in Hong Kong and may even have enhanced the course quality with respect to the local context.

Distance Education Material is Portable

The CSU BA (LIS) degree is offered in Australia as a distance education course. For each subject, students will receive a Subject Outline (also available online), a Study Guide, and a book of selected Readings. The fact that distance education material can be physically transported into another country is a guarantee of academic quality when the course is offered offshore. Students in Hong Kong receive learning support very much alike their counterparts in Australia. In terms of teaching support provided by CSU, the study packages contain the same materials, the online teaching support is accessible through the Internet. While Australian students go to the CSU campus to attend Study Schools (intensive study sessions held at the beginning of the first academic year), CSU staff fly to Hong Kong to conduct Study Schools.

Distance education has established itself as very much an economic, socially acceptable and academically sound means to offer University programs. The very existence of the International Council for Open and Distance Education is evidence of the acceptance of distance education around the world.

Tutorial Meetings

SPACE, the local partner, has its role to play in maintaining and enhancing the academic quality of the course. Students in Hong Kong receive face-to-face teaching support, manly tutorials, of 12 to 16 hours per subject. The tutorials are conducted by practicing library professionals to facilitate the understanding and learning of the students.

The advancement in technology, especially the telecommunication technology, helps to reduce the barrier of distance. Through the Internet, students in Hong Kong can access the subject homepage and online teaching forum in the same way as the Australian students. They can read announcements posted by the CSU Academic staff and participate in open discussions. They can send and receive email messages to the CSU Subject Coordinators. All these technology tools facilitate students to study in distance education mode. Why do we still organize tutorial meetings?

Of course, there are many constraints and overheads in attending face-to-face meetings, such as scheduling the time and travelling to the meeting place. Distance learning is supposed to eliminate these problems. There is also some doubt whether these meetings are cost effective and whether such arrangements deter independent learning that is required in distance education programs.

In Hong Kong, the overhead in travelling for attending tutorial meetings is far less a concern than in Australia. We believe that through the elaboration on the distance learning study materials by the local professionals, it will be easier for the students to link up the knowledge to the actual working environment and the local context. Wherever appropriate, study materials can be enhanced with lectures on local supplementation, for example, the handling of library materials in Chinese.

The tutorial meetings provide an opportunity for the students to have peer discussion on their learning outcomes and difficulties. The sharing of different working experiences among themselves is also a valuable part of the learning process. The psychological and actual support generated by the peer group cannot be neglected. Hong Kong is rather famous in its fast pace and busy working environment. It is quite easy for the students to fall behind the study schedule if they are studying alone. It does not mean that they are not capable to study independently, but it is very difficult to maintain a regular study schedule when faced with all sorts of pressures for time. The scheduled face-to-face meetings provide an effective mechanism to set checkpoints and to regulate the study plan.

We have sought the views of the students by conducting a questionnaire survey in February 2000. A majority of the students responded that they preferred the mixed distance learning plus some face-to-face teaching mode over the purely distance learning or the purely face-to-face teaching mode. The result indicates that a compromise between the two pure form of teaching modes gives students the benefits of both worlds. Further discussion of this subject will follow.

Other Academic Issues

Through SPACE, students are arranged to have access to the libraries of the University of Hong Kong. Professional work placement and library visit subjects are important components of the course, hence, stipulated as compulsory requirements of the degree program. Working together with SPACE, it is much easier for CSU to organize these activities in Hong Kong. Organizing these activities directly from Australia could result in delay and frustration. Hong Kong librarians are sometimes, initially, reluctant to take students on placement. Having a local institution as the coordinator will certainly facilitate the arrangement.

The distance between Australia and Hong Kong does influence the course operation. While information technology tools such as email and web pages provide pretty efficient communication to people at afar, the submission and return of assignments still very much relies on courier service. The assignment turnaround time for Hong Kong students is longer than their counterparts in Australia. This is a problem identified by students in the questionnaires and focus group. The electronic submission of assignments is technically feasible but not yet a mature mechanism for wide use. The problem in different file formats alone has no simple solution. Will it be fair and practical to restrict students to use a limited set of software and versions? If students in Hong Kong make some reference to local publications with Chinese characters, will the whole file then become unreadable after sending to Australia where the computer does not necessary have a Chinese system? Most markers still want to mark on hard copies. The printing out of the assignments is not only tedious but there is also no guarantee that the documents are printed in exactly the same layout as the students originally submitted.

With the use of the online teaching support system on the Internet, at least the CSU teachers can provide general feedback on the assignments to all the students at the same speed independent of where they are located. If it is absolutely essential to provide timely feedback to an individual, email can be used. Obviously the associated time resource of the teachers is a concern. There is a partial but not yet a completely satisfactory solution to this problem.

Administration Collaboration

For an academic joint venture, it is quite natural that the initial focus is on the course structure and contents. Once the course starts to operate, it is all the administrative issues that will emerge. If these issues are not handled properly, they can have serious impacts on the quality of the course and the satisfaction of the students.

The CSU distance education system is primarily designed to cater for individual students. Like many universities, CSU is highly automated in their student support systems. There is a very comprehensive system to support the logistics of student enrolment, fee paying, package delivery, records keeping, and issuing of academic results and other notices.

Having a partner in the operation inevitably upsets the normal system of operation. In order to organize local teaching support in Hong Kong, SPACE needs to receive the study packages well in advance before the students. This is necessary for the appointment of tutors and the preparation of ordering text and reference books. When notices are sent to the Hong Kong students directly by CSU, sometimes SPACE may be left out and does not know what has happened. For example, a student is being warned that exclusion from the course will be exercised because of unsatisfactory progress.

There are also similar problems generated at the other end. Students in Hong Kong will normally approach SPACE as their first contact point for regular functions as well as when there are problems. In many occasions, the matters can be solved locally. There are occasions that SPACE staff have to inform or consult CSU but have not done so in time. For examples, not able to collect from the students and send to CSU all the enrolment forms in time or not relaying students・ problems immediately to the attention of the appropriate person at CSU.

In practice, there is no clear delineation of responsibilities for academic or administration staff. Due to the large number of independent administrative units responsible for the operation of joint ventures, it is difficult to assign overall responsibility for problems that arise. Moreover, administration staff can change more often than academic staff and it may become a constant challenge to inform the new administration staff assigned to cross country collaboration matters. To some extent these potential problems can be overcome by strong administrative support of academics. But often this is seen as a luxury by University management who may not appreciate the more complicated coordination needed to operate joint venture programs. From our experience academics must be prepared to take administrative responsibilities and a coordinating role; only the extent to which this occurs is variable.

Ideally the academic coordinators at both ends are the most suitable persons to liaise with other academic and administrative staff of their own institutions. The administrative responsibilities are often not easy to divide into separate administrative units, and it is often the academic who has the broad picture relating to areas such as examinations, student admissions, preparation and delivery of study materials and the individual idiosyncrasies of each course. Therefore, it is important that there is always a single person in each side to act as the point of contact - a kind of hotline to ensure a fail safe communication link. When there is any problem in any of the normal communication channels there needs to be a single local point of contact straight to the problematic area to fix things up. The local contact point will ensure local coordination runs smoothly.

Formal and Informal Communication

In addition to the formal system of communication, the informal communication between the staff of the two collaborating institutions is equally important. Inevitably, there are occasions that the normal operations fall away. For examples, the prescribed text is out of print, some of the teaching resources are not available in Hong Kong, the enrolment records of some students are incorrect, clarification of the assignment question is needed, or the assessment schedule has to be adjusted. Timely responses to these problems require efficient communication and collaboration among many parties of the institutions. Without a high level of trust, the cooperation will not be effective.

The two or more visits to Hong Kong by the CSU academic staff each year enable them to get familiar with the staff and students in Hong Kong. The administration staff of CSU visit Hong Kong frequently. The Director of Studies, the Course Administrator, and the Course Coordinator of SPACE for the library courses also visit CSU from time to time. It is important for the other units of CSU, such as the Open Learning Institute, the Library, the Student Administration, and the many other academic and administration staff, to know their partners in Hong Kong. The two institutions, hence, establish a solid and strong collegial relationship. It increases the mutual trust that we are all working together to provide a quality course to serve the students in Hong Kong. There is the confidence that the academic standard is not being compromised because the matters are handled by people you are familiar with, just like your immediate colleagues.

Student Benefits

It will not be a complete success if only the institutions fulfill their organization objectives such as expanding their provisions or increase their revenues, but the students do not benefit from the joint venture. There is no doubt that the students are attending a course they need, otherwise they simply will not enroll. While they study for an Australian degree accredited by the relevant professional body without leaving Hong Kong, they have enhanced, instead of limited, support when compared with the fellow students in Australia. The overall tuition fee and the related expenses for studying in Hong Kong is much less than studying aboard in Australia as there is no boarding and travelling expenses. Since students can continue with their existing employment, the opportunity cost is very significant.

But do the students find the course with high quality? Do they have problems in taking a distance education course offered by an Australian University? We conducted a questionnaire survey in February 2000 to find out how the students feel about the quality of the course and which teaching mode they prefer most. We sent out 50 questionnaires by mail and received 24 returns, the response rate is about 50%. We also conducted a focus group discussion with four students shortly after the questionnaire survey to hear directly from the students.

From the questionnaire survey and the focus group discussion, it is found that the students are generally satisfied with the distance education study packages, the tutorial meetings, the annual study school, and the assessment items. It is worth noting that out of the six respondents who gave a low ranking to the usefulness of the tutorial meetings, four of them preferred more face-to-face teaching support. In the written comments, they expressed that they were dissatisfied because the tutorials were inadequate and they wanted to have more. Only one respondent said that the study package alone was sufficient to support the study.

In the written comments of the questionnaires and in the focus group discussion, some respondents suggested that a close communication between the local tutors and the CSU subject coordinators was important. The most mentioned issues by the students were the small administrative issues such as delay in getting the study packages or the text books. As a consequence, assignment submission dates had to be rescheduled and students could not get timely feedback of previous assignments and use it to benefit the preparation of subsequent assignments or the examination. This is an important message to the organizers that small administrative issues can have significant impact to the course quality.

Teaching Mode

Distance education is increasingly being seen as a more economic education delivery proposition. But market acceptance and resistance is yet to be tested and may not necessarily be the same over all subjects, in all courses, in all levels. Cultural factors also must play an important part (Robinson 1998). The traditional role of teachers in Asia is authoritative and the Asian students are perceived to be reluctant to become active learners. Can the increasing use of technology in course delivery, in communication between teacher and student, alter the traditional role of the teacher and student in Asia?

In countries like Australia, where distance education is well established, this role has been changing over the years. Given the choice between spending money attending home campuses for study schools, or dispensing with the advantages of face-to-face classes and communication at study schools and staying at home, many students choose the latter. Can this experience be transferred into the Asian context? Given the following comment by Cheng (Cheng 1998), regarding students in Asian culture, it is uncertain whether Hong Kong students prefer to study at home and communicate electronically with their teachers.

Students in Asian culture are also not used to expressing themselves and exchanging views. They are more used to listening, keeping analyses in their minds, and express themselves only when it is very necessary. As such it remains to be seen whether the extension of the physical classroom to the cyberspace would further discourage or encourage interaction among students. (p. 8)

In our questionnaire survey, we asked students to select which teaching mode they preferred most. Half of the respondents prefer the existing arrangement, that is, distance learning with supporting tutorials. Out of these respondents, a majority (75%) indicates further that they prefer the tutorial sessions to focus more on helping them to prepare for the assignments. For the other teaching mode, six respondents (25%) prefer some of the subjects be taught by face-to-face lectures. Five (21%) prefer face-to-face teaching for all the subjects. Only one respondent prefers purely distance learning without any lectures and tutorials. This finding seems to support well our belief that the mixed mode of distance learning with face-to-face teaching support provides students with the benefits of both worlds. May be we should not move too quickly towards a situation of less personalized teaching, mainly reliance on electronic access where the teachers and students increasingly become remote and impersonal, unknown to each other.

Conclusion

We have seen the development of professional library education in Hong Kong outside the mainstream provision by the local tertiary institution system. It is in fact done through the collaborating effort of a local continuing education unit together with the local library professionals and an overseas University.

It was a rational move to bring in cross-country collaboration. The globalization trend happened in education as in other business. The overseas partner complemented what was lacked but needed locally. Through the development of an enhanced form of distance education, students had the benefits of both worlds. They did not need to go aboard but could study for an Australian University award. The qualification obtained was recognized by the Australian and local professional bodies. As a result, their achievements had a much wider international credit. At the same time, they received valuable teaching and tutorial support from local librarian professionals. In addition to the distance learning materials, they were provided with supplementary material useful to the local environment which were not covered in the original course in Australia. Students studied the course part-time, therefore, there was no disruption to their jobs. The overall study expenses, together with the opportunity cost in employment, were dominantly favorable to study locally than overseas.

This example reflects the dynamic, flexible, and cost effective nature of developing continuing and professional education. The key factor to its success is through collaboration with an effective coordination system. The findings of this case study provide useful reference for distance education providers to enhance their competitiveness to operate in other countries. On the other hand, the paper also reveals how a place can meet her education and training needs through the collaboration with overseas institutions. The cooperation creates a win-win situation for the offering and receiving ends. Through such cooperation, it is believed that the quality of distance education has been improved. The students, of course, become the primary beneficiaries.

Reference Lists

Cheng, Kai-Ming (1998) Institutional collaboration in higher education: challenges of the information era, in The Asian distance learner, 12th Annual Conference, Asian Association of Open Universities, 4-6 November, 1998. Paper handed out at Conference.

Gorman, G. E. (1997) International Cooperation in Library Science Education: Charles Sturt University and the University of Hong Kong, in Education for Librarianship in China, Wu Guangwei,Zheng Lili and the contributors. London: Mansell Publishing Limited.

Kan, Lai-bing (1997) Librarianship Training in Hong Kong, in Education for Librarianship in China, Wu Guangwei,Zheng Lili and the contributors. London: Mansell Publishing Limited.

Mills, J.J. & Chan, F.T. (1999) Collaboration and Cooperation for Joint Venture Success in Distance Education Programs: A Case Study of Hong Kong and Australia, in Open and Distance Education Systems and Models Facing 21st Century・s Information and Learning Societies, 13th Annual Conference , Asian Association of Open Universities, 14-17 October, 1999 Conference Proceedings Vol. 1 (pp. 166-185).

Robinson, B. (1998) Asian Learners, Western models: some discontinuity・s and issues for distance education, in The Asian distance learner, 12th Annual Conference, Asian Association of Open Universities, 4-6 November, 1998 Conference Papers (pp. 370-375).