Use of ICT in education in the South Pacific: findings of the Pacific eLearning Observatory

Robert Whelan. Distance Education. Melbourne: May 2008. Vol. 29, Iss. 1; pg. 53, 18 pgs

Abstract (Summary)
The Pacific eLearning Observatory at the University of the South Pacific (USP) conducted an
online survey of educational technologists (n = 60) to assess levels of access to information and
communication technologies (ICT) in education and identify ways of lowering the barriers to
ICT in the Pacific region. Almost half of USP's 22,000 students are distance based, and access to
ICT defines their learning activities. The survey addressed perceptions of educational ICT,
development strategies and initiatives, and 'guesstimates' of ICT accessibility. Results show ICT
access between 1 and 11%, with tertiary-level access at 70%. Capacity building, curriculum
development, infrastructure, policy, and government support are the most important development
factors. Findings are analysed through eight barriers to education, and proposals are made to help
USP improve access to ICT in the region. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

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Full Text (8915 words)
Copyright Open & Distance Learning Association of Australia May 2008

[Headnote]
The Pacific eLearning Observatory at the University of the South Pacific (USP) conducted an
online survey of educational technologists (n = 60) to assess levels of access to information and
communication technologies (ICT) in education and identify ways of lowering the barriers to
ICT in the Pacific region. Almost half of USP's 22,000 students are distance based, and access to
ICT defines their learning activities. The survey addressed perceptions of educational ICT,
development strategies and initiatives, and 'guesstimates' of ICT accessibility.
Results show ICT access between 1 and 11%, with tertiary-level access at 70%. Capacity
building, curriculum development, infrastructure, policy, and government support are the most
important development factors. Findings are analysed through eight barriers to education, and
proposals are made to help USP improve access to ICT in the region.
Keywords: development; education; ICT; indicators; Pacific

Introduction

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are having a revolutionary effect on school
practices, distance education, as well as government and public sector policies, and commercial
and economic growth worldwide. The South Pacific's island nations are no exception to this
trend, with substantial increases in the availability of ICT and access to the Internet during the
last decade (UNESCO Bangkok, 2003), and in particular, an estimated growth of 80% in the
number of distance learners using ICT at the University of the South Pacific (USP) between
2000 and 2007.

Access to ICT is an increasingly important factor in distance education in the South Pacific, and
the barriers to access are numerous. For the purposes of this article, we define ICT in education
as the use of computers, the Internet, and telecommunications networks in teaching and learning.
This definition includes audio and video conferencing, synchronous and asynchronous online
communication and collaboration tools, email, voice over Internet (VOiP), and online course
management systems, although mobile telephony is excluded because of its limited role in
formal education in the Pacific region now. As USP strives to improve the academic performance
of its 22,000 students and enhance the effectiveness of its 350 (mostly print-based) distance
education courses, a new online course management system is being used as a catalyst for
improved quality of service during a time of rapid growth in the student population. As of 2007,
USP's satellite-based private telecommunications and ICT infrastructure, USPNet, has tripled its
bandwidth consumption in the last seven years, while the number of online ICT-based courses is
projected to grow almost 200% per annum, from 78 in 2007, to over 600 by the end of 2010
(regional manager of USP Information Technology Services, personal communication,
November 2007). However, managing and coordinating the growth of ICT at USP requires
accurate strategic information about the current rates of access to ICT in the Pacific region, about
the barriers to access, the regional programmes and initiatives to increase ICT access, and the
attitudes, skills, and capacities that USP's current - and future - students possess. Thus, while
schools, educational institutions, and policy makers in the Pacific aim to take full advantage of
ICT's potential in education and training, the availability of relevant data on which to base
strategic decisions becomes increasingly important.

Literature review

Research on access to ICT varies according to the needs of the researchers and the 'end users' of
the results. Some research addresses access to ICT in terms of electronic commerce, e-
government, or other economic or political dimensions, while another approach specifically
addresses ICT infrastructure with a more technology-centric view (Bridges Consulting, 2005). In
approaches, the use of and access to ICT in schools may be addressed. However, studies
specifically addressing the use of ICT in education in the South Pacific region are rare, and such
studies are usually part of a wider, multi-sector analysis, sometimes framed in terms of 'e-
readiness.'

E-readiness can be loosely defined as the degree to which a nation or region uses ICT to improve
its welfare. The relevant unit of analysis is the 'benchmark,' and a wide range of qualitative or
quantitative benchmarks may be used in any given e-readiness study. Large institutions and
development programmes such as the World Bank, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC),
the World Education Forum, the Commonwealth, and UNESCO refer to such benchmarks as a
way of assessing the effectiveness of their investments in bridging the digital divide. Å-readiness
benchmarks may include quantitative statistics on such factors as physical access to ICT, the
relative affordability of ICT, the availability of locally generated content, or more qualitative
information on factors such as the integration of ICT into people's lives, security and trust in ICT,
or a government's role in developing ICT (InfoDev, 2005).

There are four general methodologies used in e-readiness benchmarking (Bridges Consulting,
2005): survey instruments such as Harvard University's Center for International Development's
(CID) Readiness for the Networked World: A Guide for Developing Countries, case studies such
as the International Telecommunications Union's (ITU) Internet Country case Studies, third-party
analyses such as the Economist Intelligence Unit's E-readiness Rankings, and informal
customised assessment models designed for specific purposes.

Over 20 e-readiness assessment approaches are compared by Bridges Consulting (2005), some of
which include benchmarking of ICT in education. Common benchmarks found in these
assessment tools include descriptors of basic infrastructure; connectivity; 'teledensity,' or access
to ICT; the use of ICT in schools and ICT education and skills; applications and services;
development 'enablers' such as policy initiatives or regulatory frameworks; preparedness of
institutions and stakeholders; barriers to access; social and cultural infrastructure; and the role of
ICT in sectors such as health, transport, government, and commerce.

However, although they provide invaluable information, e-readiness benchmarks are often too
general to focus specifically on the deeper issues addressed by educators involved in the
development and use of ICT. In the more developed world, various observatory-type research
efforts have been established to assess access to ICT in education and training. In Europe for
example, HELIOS (n.d.) is a European Commission-funded research project to establish a
'sustainable observation platform' to monitor the progress of ICT in education in Europe. The
initiative is policy driven and aims to forecast scenarios of educational ICT development.
Similarly, the EUfunded European Schoolnet programme includes a policy advisory unit focused
on tracking indicators of ICT development such as school ICT access statistics, teacher training
levels, and government policy initiatives in primary and secondary education (INSIGHT, 2000-
2007).

For various reasons, the South Pacific region has no such data collection services. However,
UNESCO established an initiative to monitor benchmarks in the development of ICT in
education in selected Asia-Pacific countries. This programme designed and tracked indicators of
ICT's impact in education, established a database of assessment tools, and developed a manual
for pilot testing the use of indicators to assess the impact of ICT in education. Indeed,
UNESCO's Bangkok office has collected over a dozen examples of ICT indicators for education
on its website (UNESCO Bangkok, 2007). These include the Pan-Canadian Education Indicators
Programme (PCEIP); Indicators in the Best Practice of Online Learning - Lisbon; the National
Survey of ICTs in South African Schools; the Information Society Technology Programme
funded by the European Community; the Japan ICT in School Survey; Indicators of ICTs in
Education for the Baltic and CIS Countries; Research on the Internet in Slovenia (RIS);
Teaching, Learning and Computing in America; and the Profile on ICT Capabilities in the
Philippines: Project TAO CARES (Computer-Assisted Reform for Schools). In each case, these
instruments or reports took selective, context-specific approaches tailored to particular
socioeconomic, political, technological, and educational conditions in a given country or region.

While benchmarks or indicators must be carefully selected to provide the desired information
about development of ICT in education, the methodological requirements will also vary. For
example, case studies, third-party analyses, and informal customised assessment models often
require (high-priced) experts and consultants conducting desk-based and field research on the
ground. Moreover, because of the scale of these projects and the time commitment required, such
initiatives are often one-offs or are reproduced only irregularly.
Some nations have begun to monitor the development in ICT in education, but the relevant
statistics may be unavailable, or available in different or inconsistent formats. Gathering
accurate, relevant up-to-date statistics from schools or education institutions requires ongoing
effort with top-down government support and, ideally, the participation of a central statistics
bureau. This, in rum, requires appropriate legislation. In the Netherlands, for instance, the
Ministry of Education was mandated to establish a monitoring service to track developments in
ICT in primary, secondary, tertiary, and vocational education (MINOCW, 2004). The Swedish
government (SNAE, 1999), the United Kingdom National Grid for Learning (Department for
Children, Schools and Families [DfES], 1999), and the United States National Center for
Educational Statistics (Kleiner & Farris, 2002) have been mandated to conduct similar research
designed to inform stakeholders and policy makers in specific ways about the role ICT is playing
in education. France, Ireland, Australia, Japan, and other nations have also launched
observatorystyle projects in the last eight years.

With respect to ICT in schools and in distance education in the nations of the South Pacific,
however, there is no coordinated regional effort to monitor developmental trends in ICT using
standardised indicators. The difficulties in gathering such information from small countries,
widely distributed in a vast region, with little or no funding or capacity for tracking this data
requires persistence, flexibility, and novel approaches to data collection.

In spite of these challenges, working on behalf of the Commonwealth of Learning, Brandjes

(2002) conducted a survey of 27 states, including five Pacific nations, in an 'environmental scan'
of educational ICT capabilities in the small states of the Commonwealth. The study combined
basic educational data such as school enrolment and completion rates with data on school access
to electricity, telephones, computers and computer labs, and the Internet, as well as government
policies on ICT and future initiatives in the sector. He concluded that investment in pedagogical
training was necessary in order to take better advantage of ICT in education, that there were
many misconceptions about what ICT in education is, and that most states surveyed face steep
financial and technical hurdles. At the same time, the report established that stakeholders are
eager to collaborate to help solve problems and overcome barriers to the successful uptake of
ICT in education. This report drew pertinent conclusions but showed that standardised indicators
or benchmarks for ICT in education do not yet exist for most South Pacific nations.

Moreover, Brandjes' report (2002) showed how access to benchmarks and indicators provides
only a passive, static assessment of the sector, and an additional layer of analysis and
interpretation is required in order to address identified needs, ideally within an interpretative
framework that supports constructive, developmental problem solving.

In this context, the Pacific eLearning Observatory was established in 2006 with a grant from
USP to monitor the development of ICT in education in the 12 USP member nations: Cook
Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu,
Vanuatu, and Samoa. The objective of the project is to use effective low-cost methods to provide
strategic information to educators, policy makers, and especially to the Distance & Flexible
Learning Department and the Centre for Educational Development and Technology at USP
which caters to the distance students enrolled at USP across the Pacific region. The project uses
mixed methods to study developments in each country and to track benchmarks and indicators
such as infrastructure development, Internet access, capacity-building projects, curriculum
revisions relating to ICT in schools, teacher training and professional development, policies
related to ICT, stakeholder networking, and financing.

Thus, as part of its research into access to ICT in education in the countries of the South Pacific
region, the Pacific eLearning Observatory conducted an online survey of ICT and education
experts across the region (n = 60). Experts in ICT were chosen because they are directly familiar
with the problems, obstacles, costs, and structural limitations of ICT in rural and transitioning
small island states. They are arguably best qualified to provide an overview of the current state of
play in the transitioning countries of the Pacific region and to provide reliable estimates of levels
of access to ICT in the countries where they are based. The survey/questionnaire method was
chosen because it is an efficient, low-cost approach that can be easy to administer on a regular
(annual) basis. Most significantly, however, little or no research of this type has been conducted
that specifically addresses the regional, national, and local needs for ICT access in education in
the South Pacific nations. This research focuses on the development and implementation of a
context-specific survey tool whose results can be interpreted with a solutiondriven approach to
lowering the barriers to access to ICT in education.

Analysing the survey results constructively in terms of ways to lower the barriers to ICT can
support improved strategic planning of USP's distance education delivery. To better interpret the
survey results, a literature review of research on barriers to ICT in education was conducted. A
range of factors was identified, including gender (Young, 2000), confidence with ICT (Hara,
1998), self-efficacy, and prior educational background (Mungania, 2003). Several studies
addressed a range of complex factors, but in two large sample size (n = 1056) factor analytic
studies of barriers to online learning, Muilenburg and Berge (2001,2005) identified eight
underlying constructs that limit student experience of online education. These barriers are
administrative and instructor issues, limitations of social interactions, limited academic skills,
limited technical skills, learner motivation, time and support for studies, high cost and limited
access to the Internet, and technical problems. The strength of Muilenburg and Berge's approach,
aside from its large number of participants and broad scope of identified barriers, is its focus on
student perceptions, which offers an integrated conceptual framework to interpret the findings
about access to ICT in the specific context of the Pacific region. This framework will be explored
in the discussion below.

Method

Survey: purpose and method

The aim of the Pacific eLearning Observatory was to design a survey to assess access to ICT in
primary, secondary, and tertiary education in the Pacific region, and to interpret the findings with
an emphasis on lowering student barriers and improving access to ICT in education. Since little
or only basic data is available on ICT in education in the South Pacific, the survey was intended
to gather baseline information that can be used to inform distance education policy makers at
USP annually and over an extended period of time.
The survey instrument was developed by the Pacific eLearning Observatory research group at
the University of the South Pacific in a collaborative process of selection, testing, feedback, and
refinement. In a first phase, and drawing from the benchmarks used in e-readiness benchmarks
and ICT in education indicators, the group identified the following factors to be included in the
survey: estimates of ICT infrastructure access, general perceptions of ICT in education, current
educational ICT initiatives, current educational ICT strategies, status of government policy,
teacher training and ICT, role of ICT in the curriculum, the role of school networking, and
demographics of the respondents.

A draft set of 40 survey questions in multiple-choice (selected from a drop-down menu) or free-
response (text field) formats was created and then revised by an editorial group of 26
practitioners in educational ICT. The group consisted of professionals and experts in ICT and
education from across the South Pacific region, Australia, and New Zealand who were known to
members of the research group. The editorial group made suggestions on editing, modifying,
adding, and removing certain questions. The revised set of questions was reviewed once again
for style and clarity by the research group. A final round of testing took place within the
university department that houses the research group, with 18 colleagues and faculty members
acting as test subjects. Email was used to facilitate the process.

Survey participants

Participants in the survey were educators, policy makers, experts in information technology, and
researchers in the general area of education and ICT in the Pacific region (see demographics
section below for more detailed information). They were invited through email messages sent to
three pre-selected listservs: the Network of Pacific Educators (NOPE), the Pacific Chapter of the
Internet Society (PICISOC), and the Pacific Regional Initiatives for the Delivery of basic
Education (PRIDE). The membership of these three lists is estimated at 600. Additional
invitations were sent to individual ICT and education experts in the region known to the research
group. In addition, recipients were asked to forward the invitation to their colleagues or expert
contacts. Sixty surveys from 16 Pacific countries were submitted, though not all questions were
answered by all participants.

Survey instrument

After five months of development and testing, the 38-item survey was implemented online
anonymously and delivered using the 'Feedback' tool in Moodle, USP's learning management
software. The survey was available online from May to August 2007. It addressed the following:

* demographics of the respondents (4 items)

* perceptions of ICT in education and teaching practices (10 items)

* ICT access and school networking estimates (17 items)

* role of ICT in the curriculum (1 item)

* current ICT initiatives for education (2 items)

* strategies for the development and deployment of ICT (2 items)

* current needs and challenges in ICT development (1 item).

A final question invited participants to make any general comments. Responses were
anonymous.

Survey analysis

The 'Feedback' tool in Moodle offers basic data visualisation and data export components that
support data analysis in conventional statistics software applications. In Moodle, free-text survey
responses were collated for each answer while multiple-choice responses including numerical
values were depicted as colour-coded bar charts for initial previewing. Survey data was then
exported to Microsoft Excel format and text responses were separated from numerical and
multiple-choice data. Text responses were then analysed, coded, and categorised, while
numerical and multiple-choice responses were analysed with basic descriptive statistics such as
mean and grand mean. In addition, raw data in the Moodle 'Feedback' database was accessed to
divide the data across dimensions such as country of origin and certain specific attitudes of the
respondents.

Survey results

As mentioned, survey results were gathered under eight headings; these are discussed below.

Demographics of the respondents

The first group of questions was designed to determine where the respondents are based, what
their professions and genders are, and what their skill levels are. The survey drew responses from
professionals working in government, academia, schools, information technology, and
consulting. Job titles included secretary for education, deputy director for education, university
lecturer in education, distance learning supervisor at a rural community centre, Ministry of
Education IT administrator, and IT support officer at a secondary school, to name a few (see
Table 1).

Of the 60 surveys analysed, 37 were from men and 23 from women. Of these, 27 were
government-related policy developers or administrators in education and training; 19 were IT
professionals engaged in education or training; and 14 were engaged with academia, schools, or
other educational institutions.

Respondents self-rated their IT skill level as mostly intermediate (n = 30; 50%), or novice (n =
11; 18.3%), expert (n = 9; 15%), or advanced (n = 10; 16.6%).

Perceptions of ICT
The survey asked 10 general questions about the perception of ICT in education and the extent to
which it is integrated and used in each country. When asked to agree or disagree with the
statement 'Educational ICT would be beneficial for students in the Pacific,' all 60 respondents
(100%) agreed with the statement. However, when asked 'How well integrated is ICT into your
country's curriculum?,' 14 (23.3%) responded that it was not at all, 37 (61.6%) responded that it
was partially integrated, while only nine (15%) said it was well adapted. When asked 'How
would you rate your country's educational system's overall effectiveness on a scale of 1-10?,'
responses had an almost perfect normal distribution.

Respondents were next asked to indicate whether ICT was being used in the teacher training
programme in their respective countries. (Note that several countries in the Pacific region have
no formal training pre-requisite for teachers.) Seven respondents (11.6%) said they didn't know;
21 (35%) said no, while 29 (48.3%) said ICT was used in teacher training.

Respondents were also asked to characterise the effectiveness of their country's teacher training
programme with respect to ICT awareness and ICT support. Twenty respondents (33.3%)
characterised their national teacher training programme as 'failing,' 35 (58.3%) said it was
'adequate,' while one person said it was 'excellent.' Four did not answer.

When asked how ICT can be best used in education, respondents voted for up to three from a list
of eight options. The single most beneficial perceived ICT activity was training and capacity
building, followed by localised content development and the creation of new learning materials
(see Table 2).

Respondents were then asked three yes/no questions about school networking. The first item
asked 'Would schools in your country benefit from having a school-wide ICT network?'
Fiftyeight (96.6%) said yes, while one person (1.6%) said no, and one did not answer. When
asked 'Would schools in your country benefit from a nation-wide ICT network?,' the same
response profile emerged.

Finally, when asked 'Would schools in your country benefit from a Pacific region-wide ICT
network?,' 52 (86.6%) respondents said yes, three (5%) said no, four (6.6%) said they didn't
know, and one did not answer.

The survey also asked respondents about the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative, an effort
to provide students with low-cost laptops to aid in their education. The OLPC programme has
also been touted as an initiative that could boost distance education amongst tertiary and
continuing students. Forty-four respondents (73.3%) agreed that the OLPC initiative would be
beneficial for students in the Pacific while 14 (23.3%) said maybe. No participants disagreed but
two participants did not answer.

ICT access and school networking estimates

The bulk of the survey concerned physical access to basic ICT infrastructure in the region,
focusing in particular on access to PCs and the Internet. This question helps to determine the
extent of ICT access for both current and prospective distance and face-to-face students at USP.
Drawing on their local experience and knowledge in the sector, respondents were asked to
'guesstimate' the percentage of primary, secondary, tertiary, and teacher training students with
access to computers and the Internet, in both rural and urban areas in their own countries. The
mean estimates are shown in Table 3.

The results show that urban students and teachers have significantly better access to ICT than
their rural counterparts; tertiary (distance) students, teacher trainees, and urban teachers have the
highest rates of access to ICT; while primary and secondary students and in particular, rural
teachers, have the lowest access. Overall, there was a marked difference between pre-tertiary and
tertiary levels of access to ICT, and the low access rates of rural teachers was a revealing factor
behind low rural awareness of ICT. In this sense, the survey identified a digital divide between
urban and rural Pacific populations.

The 60 respondents estimated that 17% of the population of approximately 9 million people in
the Pacific region has at least some access to the Internet.

Role of ICT in the curriculum

In order to assess attitudes, needs, and expectations about ICT in education, respondents were
asked to provide their opinion as to what role ICT should play in their country's school
curriculum. The perceived importance of ICT was underlined by the emphasis on ICT as a
'priority one area,' that it 'should be an enabling mechanism,' that it is 'core,' 'crucial,' 'pivotal,'
that it should play an 'immense role,' a 'leading role,' a 'very dynamic role,' that it should be an
'integral part,' and a 'driving force' in the curriculum. Only one respondent was 'not sure.'

Respondents indicated that ICT should be central to the curriculum, both as a subject in itself and
as a tool for learning and teaching. The use of ICT was perceived as vital for information literacy
across all subject areas. ICT was also perceived as an important medium for the delivery of
learning, especially for tertiary (distance-based) studies and in rural areas. Respondents stated
that ICT can be used for classroom instruction, for research, for teacher and student
presentations, and for extending teaching and learning skills. Improved assessment and learning
support were also perceived as being strongly supported by ICT. Fifteen respondents emphasised
the importance of using ICT to develop and share digital curriculum materials that are localised
to Pacific contexts.

Current ICT initiatives for education

Respondents were asked to describe the current educational ICT development initiatives in their
country. Over half of the 55 respondents indicated that their government is currently taking little
or no action in this area, or if it is, they were unsure what actions were involved. Fifteen
respondents (25%) were critical of the apparent absence of progress in their country. Of the
respondents who did identify current ICT initiatives, eight named the initiatives in their country
and discussed them to some level of detail. The purpose of this question, however, was to assess
what types of development initiatives are taking place and where (see Table 4).

Strategies for the development and deployment of ICT

Respondents were asked to identify the most important strategies that could help further
development in ICT in education. This question drew 51 responses, which fell broadly into seven
categories, discussed below.

Planning and policy. Respondents consistently emphasised the strategic importance of designing
and developing a national ICT implementation plan. Such a plan or strategy would be based on
consultation and expert or working group input, and would involve key stakeholders before
becoming legislation. Consistent, top-down support from the government is perceived to be of
fundamental importance. Such a plan would provide for the 'migration of educational processes
from manual to technology-based' systems wherever possible, and would include clear
guidelines regarding the use of ICT in the curriculum for distance-based and face-to-face
students. Such a plan could, moreover, involve a 'yearly planner' or project-based approach that
can be closely monitored and evaluated. This strategy reaches beyond the education sector and
would be framed as an issue of national socioeconomic development.

Legislation. Related to planning and policy, 21 respondents emphasised the need to develop and
review legislation that may be hindering ICT development in education. A recurring factor is the
need to end monopoly control of ICT infrastructures and networks with the introduction of
competition for local telecommunications operators. Legislation, respondents argued, should be
used to lower Internet access costs, open up competition for Internet service providers, and even
create tax-free ICT zones. Several respondents underlined the importance of forging partnerships
between government and companies, which would provide ICT services to schools mandated and
controlled through legislation, particularly in smaller countries, where telecommunications
monopolies are the only viable option.

Training and capacity building. Respondents emphasised the importance of ICT training at all
educational levels, which would lead to overall capacity development and improvement in
distance education access. Respondents envisioned initiatives that could increase ICT training
and use in school classrooms, for in-service teachers, as well as other sectors of the economy.
Tactics here included organised training programmes, public campaigns and promotions,
awareness-raising efforts through the media, workshops, and seminars. It was recognised that
substantial funding would have to be earmarked.

Curriculum development. Another area of strategic importance raised consistently by

respondents concerned the integration of ICT into the curriculum. The aim should be to make
ICT education 'compulsory,' and as early in the school cycle as possible. Respondents suggested
that students should be offered information literacy training but moreover, student learning itself
should utilise ICT while learning materials and content should be ICT based and localised
wherever possible.

Access to ICT. Respondents cited strategies to improve access to ICT, especially for distance
learners and learners in rural areas. Providing access to all schools, ideally at broadband speeds,
was mentioned by over half of the respondents, with one-third advising that access should be free
or low cost. This would entail extending school networks to more primary and secondary
schools. Building more 'Internet centres' or community ICT resource centres for public access
was also recognised as important. One respondent recommended providing free access to the
Internet for all people aged 5-35; another gave a strong endorsement to the OLPC discounted
laptops initiative.

Reduction in costs. The high cost of access and equipment was cited by respondents as a
hindrance to educational ICT development. Respondents recommended providing free or low-
cost access to the Internet and computing equipment, particularly for rural areas and outer
islands. Related to this, a planned, collective approach to the replacement of equipment was also
mentioned. In terms of content and learning materials, five respondents advocated for access to
lower-cost tools and localised multimedia resources across all levels and subjects of the
curriculum.

Sustainable development of ICT. Eight respondents discussed the importance of sustainable and
environmentally sound practices. Thus, a broadband network environment with a robust
computer was perceived as important, and a low power requirement supported by renewable
(solar) energy sources as equally important. In this way, ICT development planners must give
thought to sustainable processes and realistic services that fit the local environment.

Current needs and challenges in ICT development

Respondents were asked to describe the top three challenges facing educational ICT
development in their country. Fifty-seven responses were coded and the 10 most common
perceived challenges are identified in Table 5.

Respondents were also asked to describe the priority needs for development of educational ICT
in their country. The most common themes identified were related to overcoming the distances
separating rural Pacific communities, the need for new infrastructure, the many benefits for
(distance) education as well as health, government, and the sector, and the need to train skilled
staff.

While several countries in the Pacific have yet to develop an ICT policy, almost a third of
respondents echoed the recurring theme of the importance of developing ICT skills and capacity,
and training trainers who will not emigrate. Overcoming rural barriers to education using ICT
was perceived as especially important in the larger rural Pacific island nations such as Solomon
Islands, Vanuatu, and Fiji. By the same token, several respondents emphasised the importance of
local government and community ownership of ICT infrastructures - especially for education -
in the face of monopoly control that leads to unaffordable and recurring costs for schools.
Indeed, cheaper, faster, more ubiquitous, environmentally sound (wireless, solar-powered) ICT
infrastructures were urged by some 20 respondents.

General feedback

As a final question, respondents were asked to make any additional comments. One-third of the
28 respondents to this optional question expressed appreciation for the survey itself, believing it
would help frame issues in the sector and offer new approaches to educational ICT development.
Respondents made a range of other comments. Forming local, regional, and international
partnerships for the development of ICT in education was emphasised and the theme of IT
training for capacity building was reiterated. One respondent mentioned the effects of social
unity that ICT can bring about through improved communication and access to knowledge.
Another comment underlined the need to develop new, localised educational content for distance
education and training.

Discussion

This survey generated baseline data about educational ICT access, as well as expert opinions in
the sector on a range of issues relating to ICT use in the South Pacific region.

Given the transitional and developing socioeconomic status of many of the South Pacific
countries, much of the data could have been anticipated. However, key findings include estimates
that Internet and computer access levels on average for primary and secondary schools are well
below 10%, with tertiary urban access levels as high as 70%, thus providing tangible evidence of
the scale of the digital divide in the region. There is a wide gap between rural and urban access,
although some small Pacific nations (such as Nauru, Niue, and Tokelau) have little or no such
distinction because of their small size. Respondents also estimated that 17% of the Pacific
population has access to the Internet, a finding that may be higher than estimated elsewhere (for
example, Internet World Stats, 2007).

The ICT services provided by USPNet across the region explain much of the high level of
Internet and computer access amongst distance tertiary students. The survey results also indicate
that training and capacity building, curriculum development, infrastructure (including electricity,
transport, and basic services), financing, renewed policy initiatives, and top-down government
support are perceived as the most important factors to address in educational ICT development.
This is not new information and is consistent with Brandjes' study (2002) and with UNESCO
Bangkok's metasurveys (2003).

However, the countries of the South Pacific vary widely in size, distribution, and socioeconomics
status. For this reason, current developments in ICT in education range from early stage policy
formulation and legislative review (as is the case in Papua New Guinea, for example), pilot
testing of new initiatives (in the Solomon Islands), and the construction of community ICT
centres for rural areas and community (as in Samoa and Fiji), to the construction in some
countries of portals to support national educational administration and the delivery of learning
materials (as in Samoa and the Cook Islands, for example).

In this sense there is a variable range of development across the Pacific, with some countries
formulating a vision, other countries introducing ICT as an information literacy lever, and others
seeking to more fully incorporate ICT into the daily use of the curriculum. There may be a
decade or more gap between these phases of development. Moreover, those countries that have
progressed further along this line and that have incorporated ICT into the curriculum still face
pressures to sustain their initiatives, to secure top-down government support, and to continue to
deploy relevant and effective policies.
Implication for distance education at USP

The survey findings will inform USP's distance education policy in a number of respects. As
USP is the leading educational institution in the region seeking to deliver quality educational
services to its distance students, the role of ICT is central to its service planning and delivery. Of
particular concern is the need to provide equitable, inclusive access to an ever-increasing number
of students requiring the skills and capabilities to join the global workforce. This, in turn,
requires lowering the barriers to accessing online education.

To better interpret the survey results in terms of ways to lower the barriers to ICT in education,
Muilenburg and Berge's eight factor model (2005) is used here as a conceptual framework.

The first factor addresses the 'barriers that administrators and instructors control, such as study
materials not always being delivered on time, lack of sufficient academic advisors, and lack of
timely feedback from the instructor' (Muilenburg & Berge, 2005, p. 47). With conventional print-
based delivery of distance education, this barrier has been a particular concern for students and
the university management for decades, and contributes significantly to student attrition and low
performance. The growing use of ICT in education in the region should at least in theory make
learning materials, instructor access, and timely feedback more accessible for students. Study
materials can be posted online, especially if paper-based materials are slow to arrive to remote
locations, while email, chat, and discussion boards can be used to communicate with lecturers.
However, with new technologies come new affordances as well as new practices, and lecturers at
USP who undergo training in the use of Moodle or other ICT-based services should be informed
about the need to be accessible, available, and 'present' in online forums and via email. The
tendency amongst some lecturers may be to remain distant from students because the availability
of study materials may be perceived as sufficient support in and of itself. Lecturers should be
encouraged to be actively engaged with their courses and to use interactive features such as chat
(for online Office hours'), discussion forums (for online seminars), and other interactive
communication services such as DimDim. These requirements will in turn impact the workloads
of lecturers, their ICT skills, and their understanding of teaching and learning at a fundamental
level. Wherever possible, information systems must be automated and integrated to reduce
student disorientation and administrative overheads relating to passwords, login information, and
resource access.

Having said that, the survey data shows that rural students with less ICT access will risk being
excluded as more and more courses go online, and efforts to improve ICT access to rural areas,
where some 60% of the Pacific population lives (Haberkorn, 2004), will become increasingly
vital. USP distance education policies must therefore address the need to improve rural ICT
access, ideally by extending the reach of its own USPNet centres (with low-cost,
environmentally friendly solutions). This must include the development of new protocols for
monitoring the quality of service, bandwidth usage, and student satisfaction rates with ICT
services. Studies of usage patterns of ICT amongst rural students should be conducted, using
focus groups and observation as methodologies, and the findings formed into models of effective
web-based learning in the Pacific context. Teachers (especially in rural areas) should also be
better supported to use ICT-based classroom activities to help prepare their students for higher
education and ICT-based distance learning. The importance of instructor access and effective
administration should be emphasised at this level also.

The second factor discussed by Muilenburg and Berge (2005) is social interaction; it relates to
the barriers that 'students perceive as being caused by a lack of interaction with peers or the
instructor, such as the lack of student collaboration online, the lack of social context cues, or
their being afraid of feeling isolated in online courses' (p. 47). This again was perceived to be a
key contributing factor in student attrition and failure in conventional print-based distance
courses, and the shift to ICT-based education raises a new strain of the problem. The survey
shows that the relatively high ICT access amongst tertiary students, teacher trainees, and urban
teachers contrasts with the much lower access in secondary-level education. At the same time,
online collaboration and interaction are acquired skills requiring practice and guidance. Recent
media reports (from Tonga and Tokelau, for example), however, indicate that the use of social
networking websites such as Bebo, Facebook, and MySpace is widespread amongst teenagers
and yet formal education institutions are ill-equipped to comprehend, let alone harness, the
implications of 'digital native' online behaviours (Whittle, 2007).

Thus, in terms of instructional and educational design, USP distance education should provide
support and guidance to both staff and students during course design and delivery so that
improved interactivity, and more relevant and effective collaborative learning experiences can be
facilitated that increase motivation and engagement. The survey results indicate that local,
national, and regional school networks or 'schoolnets' would also help prepare students for
ICTbased collaborative learning, in a 'language' that speaks to them, perhaps modelled on the
social networking tools with which they are increasingly familiar. USP should therefore seek to
encourage formal curriculum redevelopment in the region so that secondary students and
teachers can gain more relevant experiences in online social interaction and collaboration earlier
on, thus preparing them for more structured online learning activities once in tertiary and
distance education programmes. This requires carefully designed training initiatives for USP
staff.

A third factor for interpretation of the survey findings concerns students' perceived 'lack of
academic skills in such areas as writing, reading, or communication' (Muilenburg & Berge, 2005,
p. 47). This factor is a fundamental concern at USP and constitutes a high barrier to ICT in
education. With over 13,000 languages in the Pacific region (Pawley, 2003), English (the official
language of USP) is often the second or third language used by distance students. Thus, basic
language skills support is important and, given the high level of ICT access for tertiary students,
more direct and innovative language learning resources could be made available online for USP
distance learners, through the expanded use of podcasting and online conferencing tools for
instance. At the same time, the variations in language skills must be factored into education
design in terms of student workload, the selection of online activities, and social interaction
moderation. A related concern stems from the combination of poor language skills with access to
Google, which has led to a high rate of plagiarism at the university. Actions to control plagiarism
should be implemented using detection software such as Turnltln or DocCop. Moreover, many
survey respondents emphasised the need for locally relevant learning materials. Forming local,
national, and regional school networks would help to accelerate ICTbased local content
development with tools, resources, and support for collaborative content development. In
addition, the option to localise the learning management system's interface into the first language
(or second, if a first is unavailable) would provide additional support for online students.

A fourth factor concerns respondents' perceived barriers to online learning due to their 'lack of
technical skills such as fearing new tools for online learning, lack of software skills, or their
unfamiliarity with online learning' (Muilenburg & Berge, 2005, p. 47). This barrier was
consistently raised as a priority numerous times by almost all survey respondents, and strategies
to address this factor must have a broad reach, as discussed above. Rural students in particular -
and the teachers who are expected to prepare them - are impacted by the lack of exposure to ICT,
as the survey shows. Thus, on arrival at USP, rural students will be much less likely to have the
requisite ICT skills. USP can address this barrier by providing induction, orientation, and training
that targets (rural) students most in need. The online experience of new students should involve
simple, clear interface designs in order to reduce the steep learning curve.

The fifth factor concerns learner engagement in online learning, including the tendency to
'procrastinate, choose easier aspects of an assignment to complete, or feel the online learning
environment is not inherently motivating' (Muilenburg & Berge, 2005, p. 48). For ICT-based
delivery, USP must address this issue with improved instructional design that engages learners
with authentic, group-driven, problem-based learning and new student-centred approaches to
assessment. The survey results suggest that ICT may be inherently motivating for many students,
but distance education materials also require improved teaching support, as well as careful
design and holistically planned, programme-wide structure, which is currently lacking at USP.
Innovative instructional design is, in this sense, the key force of change and improvement in
teaching and learning during the transition to more ICT-based course delivery.

The sixth factor concerns support for studies, and 'whether a lack of time or support from family,
friends, or people in the workplace causes barriers to their online learning' (Muilenburg & Berge,
2005, p. 48). This factor draws on a number of aspects of the survey findings, particularly the
section addressing the top ICT challenges. On the one hand, providing adequate learner support
is a key determinant in student performance. USP can do more to develop its mentoring,
facilitating, and coaching support services. On the other, a broader issue, especially in the
developing context of the Pacific, relates to fostering an 'ICT culture,' and engaging in awareness
raising about the benefits and convenience of ICT within the community. Once the benefits of
ICT can be demonstrated, and basic ICT literacy begins to be demystified, the uptake of ICT and
its application in schools and communities will grow.

A seventh factor concerns cost and access to ICT (Muilenburg & Berge, 2005, p. 48). This was a
priority concern across the board in the survey results. Efforts to address this issue will require
systemic change, top-down policy support, and financial support and planning on a regional
basis. Estimates and models of development vary, but to illustrate, for 1000 schools in the South
Pacific region, providing each one with a computer lab of 30 PCs, at US$50,000 per lab, an
investment of some US$50 million would be required for basic development of ICT in
education. When factors such as capacity building, policy formation, and project management
are factored in, an investment of $10-$ 100 per child is needed, depending on the size of the
country and the available economies of scale. Having said that, ICT has an especially 'big bang
for the buck' in rural areas because the cost of professional development is reduced and higher
quality learning materials can be more easily shared. The high ICT penetration in urban areas
also shows that young people increasingly own their own laptops and computers, and bulk
discount purchasing schemes managed by USP have been very successful. This is another area in
which local, national, and regional schoolnet-style networks can provide organised support,
resources, and discounts as well as problem solving and advocacy at regional ministerial
meetings.

The final barrier analysed by Muilenburg and Berge (2005) is technical problems. This factor
concerns 'a lack of consistent platforms, browsers, and software, or the lack of technical
assistance that causes obstacles to online learning' (p. 48). This issue was also raised consistently
by survey respondents, in terms of slow connectivity and older equipment that is difficult to
maintain, to the lack of skilled personnel who can provide support, repairs, and upgrades. The
solutions proposed involve broader training and capacity-building efforts, from schools to
community and vocational settings. From the perspective of USP, a key priority is to maintain
standard specifications for PCs, software, and upgrade programmes in its dozens of ICT labs
across the Pacific. At the same time, training, skills, and capacity development programmes are
an integral part of the university's staff development effort.

Conclusion

The survey results discussed here provide baseline data and a range of insights and opinions
from experts on issues of concern to distance education planners and strategists. The results were
interpreted using Muilenburg and Berge's eight factor model (2005) of the barriers to ICT-based
learning and the following suggested lines of action emerged:

* Train lecturers about the importance of online social presence, engagement, and interaction,
emphasising appropriate software skills.

* Review lecturer workloads resulting from the increased use of ICT.

* Automate and integrate USP's administrative information systems to reduce student

disorientation and administration.

* Strengthen the capacity of USP's ICT services and extend the reach of its USPNet centres to
more rural areas, emphasising quality of service, low cost, local content development, storage,
and eco-friendly ICT solutions.

* Provide an induction, orientation, and training programme that targets (rural) students most in
need of ICT support.

* Provide awareness-raising and ICT skills training to secondary teachers and school
administrators.

* Study student behaviours online to develop models of effective practice.

* Review current instructional and educational design practices to emphasise more interactive,
relevant, and effective learning experiences online, built on models of good practice and high
quality.

* Design and test innovative ICT-based language learning resources to improve students'
academic and communication skills.

* At the national and regional political level, encourage formal curriculum redevelopment in the
region to support accelerated development in ICT in schools and engage in ICT awareness
raising, literacy, and cost-of-access reduction initiatives.

Having identified these strategies for lowering the barriers to ICT in education in the Pacific, this
survey has a number of limitations to be noted. The survey is biased in that the participants are
ICT-sawy, and are thus more liable to overestimate its importance on some survey items. By the
same token, ICT experts in the region know all too well the problems, obstacles, costs, structural
limitations - and hype - surrounding ICT in education. They may arguably be the best qualified
to be 'realistic' about the value of ICT in rural areas of the Pacific without modern infrastructure.
In this sense, the survey participants, though biased, provided overall an uncompromising
perspective on the current state of play in educational ICT.

A second limitation, as can be noted from Table 1, is that the respondents appear to be unevenly
distributed from across the region. Fiji and the Solomon Islands represent over a third of the
respondents, while smaller populations from Pitcairn or Wallis and Futuna, or remote regions
such as West Papua, are not represented. While the survey makes no claim to be proportionally
representative, Fiji and the Solomon Islands together represent some 20% of the population of
the South Pacific, and have particularly active educational ICT initiatives and national policies.
Taken with the larger Pacific nations of Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu, which are well represented
in proportion to their population, the survey still provides a representative overview of the
common problems in access to educational ICT in the region. Moreover, survey responses from
the smallest and most isolated islands of Tokelau, Nauru, and Niue were especially welcome and
underlined the unique peculiarities of proportional representation in such a vastly distributed but
sparsely populated region.

Thirdly, the survey merges all South Pacific nations into one region, as mentioned, but it is
important to keep in mind that the countries of the Pacific vary significantly in terms of size,
wealth, infrastructural development, and policy innovation.

On a final note, the survey showed strong support for further local and national school
networking efforts, and particularly strong (86%) support for a regional Pacific schools network
that would provide and share organisational support for the development of educational ICT in
each member country and the region at large. This would also enable a bottom-up approach to
building a more effective ICT-based distance éducation service in the vast Pacific region. This
possibility was discussed by Brandjes (2002) but there has been little or no progress as of 2008.
It is clear, however, that with so many shared challenges and issues, a collaborative approach
would bring substantial dividends. For example, recent developments on the SPIN network,
facilitated in part by the secretariat of the South Pacific (SPC), are aimed at building a new
highspeed Internet infrastructure for the region that will greatly increase access speeds while
lowering access costs (SPC, 2007). This will have important implications for education,
particularly if combined with the rollout of the much-touted OLPC initiative. Work by the Pacific
eLearning Observatory will continue to monitor access to ICT in education while emphasising
evidencedriven and regional approaches to improving the quality of distance education with ICT.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge the support received by the Pacific eLearning
Observatory (PELO) project, especially from Dr Jennifer Evans, Neelam Narayan,
Kerishma Seth, Pita Tuisawau, David Leeming, Ian Thomson, Elizabeth Cass, Rajnesh
Singh, and members of the NOPE, PRIDE, and PICISOC networks that contributed to
the survey. The PELO project is funded by the University of the South Pacific.

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[Author Affiliation]
Robert Whelan*
Centre for the Educational Development and Technology, University of the South Pacific, Suva,
Fiji Islands
(Received 18 September 2007; final version received 22 February 2008)

[Author Affiliation]
* Email:
robert.whelan@usp.ac.fj

[Author Affiliation]
Notes on contributor
Robert Whelan is a lecturer at the University of the South Pacific, Fiji. He has over a decade of
experience in educational technology, especially in developing countries.

References
 • References (21)

Indexing (document details)

Subjects: Distance learning, Initiatives, Technological change, Schools, Research,
Online instruction, Digital divide, Case studies, Communications networks,
Observatories
Locations: South Pacific
Author(s): Robert Whelan
Author Robert Whelan*
Affiliation: Centre for the Educational Development and Technology, University of the
South Pacific, Suva, Fiji Islands
(Received 18 September 2007; final version received 22 February 2008)

* Email: robert.whelan@usp.ac.fj

Notes on contributor
Robert Whelan is a lecturer at the University of the South Pacific, Fiji. He has
over a decade of experience in educational technology, especially in
developing countries.
Document types: Feature
Document Tables, References
features:
Publication title: Distance Education. Melbourne: May 2008. Vol. 29, Iss. 1; pg. 53, 18 pgs
Source type: Periodical
ISSN: 01587919
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