History of ODLAA

The following abbreviated account of ODLAA's history is largely extracted from an article commissioned for ODLAA's 25th anniversary and published in Distance Education in 1999. More recent updates are attributed to Wanda Jackson, Vice President of ODLAA 2007-2009 and Secretary 2001-2005.

Inglis A., 1999, Looking back, looking forward: celebrating a quarter century of serving distance education ‘down under,’ Distance Education, 20(1): 7-30

The idea for an association was conceived at a forum on external studies held at the University of New England in 1972 attended by 68 educators representing 25 institutions from all Australian States and from New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Fiji. The following year, at the University of Queensland forum, ODLAA's parent organization, the Australian and South Pacific External Studies Association (ASPESA) was formed for the promotion of external studies at the tertiary level.

For the first half decade of ASPESA’s existence, the membership was dominated by heads and senior administrators of central
external studies sections and its main function was sharing of information. The Biennial Forum and quarterly ASPESA Newsletter were established. The association began directly responding to national initiatives with its 1974 workshopped response to the Committee on Open University Draft Report, and the 1975 biennial forum ‘Implementing the Open Tertiary Education Report’.

In 1977 ASPESA obtained a grant to support two international speakers at the Biennial Forum Professor Charles Wedemeyer – who was then Past President of the International Council on Correspondence Education – and William Lighty, Professor of Education Emeritus at University of Wisconsin Extension. In the weeks leading up to the forum, Professor Wedmeyer offered presentations at multipe locations. Institutions interested in being including on Professor Wedemeyer’s itinerary were asked to contribute the cost of his accommodation plus a contribution to the cost of his travel within Australia. The colloborative model of supporting the visiting scholar program continues to this day.

During the boom period for distance education, from 1977 to 1987, ASPESA also grew, and the composition of the membership changed to include more teachers and a developing cohort of instructional designers whose needs were centred on professional development in relation to external teaching and on the pursuit of scholarship in distance education.

Professional development workshops were instituted from 1978 to fill the gap between successive Forums. They differed from Forums in that they were devoted to specific issues and were more practically oriented. In 1979 the Executive appointed a Workshop Convenor and a program of National Workshops continued unbroken until 1990. To reduce attendance costs and increase participation by teaching academics and junior administrators state workshops were instituted in 1985 and 1986. However, the additional load of convening State-based workshops, coming on top of the National Workshops and Biennial Forums, was starting to strain the scarce human resources of the Association. Presumably, it was also starting to strain the goodwill of institutions. The state program did not survive into the term of the next Executive.

Responding to an internationally recognized need for a research journal in distance education, ASPESA took up the challenge, and Distance Education was launched in 1980 with Ian Mitchell and Desmond Keegan as executive editors. After two years as the initial publisher RMIT handed the baton to Deakin University Press for three years until publication was taken over by what has now become the University of Southern Queensland where it remained for many years. Current publication details are available from the Distance Education page.

Early stage research, case studies and extended thought pieces were brought together for a number of years in the Occasional Papers series which was formally phased out in 2005 when it became clear that members were more interested in publishing refereed papers than non-refereed papers.

Research was even more obviously supported from 1981 with the initial research grant being awarded to Ron Store of Townsville CAE for a project investigating students’ use of external studies materials. Subsequent awards increased in value although it was continually difficult to to extract required reports from grant recipients or attract a large field of high quality applications.

At the conclusion of the 1983 Forum in Toowoomba it was recognized that the range of interests represented amongst its members broadened and a request was made that Special Interest Groups be formed to enable people with common interests to exchange views and information. Members were initially offered a selection of six SIGs each with their own convenor: telecommunications, instructional design, research, Women’s Information Network, library services, counselling services. The convenors of most SIGs circulated newsletters to their members and at various times some SIGs had regular slots in the Newsletter.

During the 15 or so growth years of ASPESA, paralleling the growth of distance education, it had developed strong links with tertiary institutions, a closer relationship with educational providers than was generally the case for professional associations. This may have been partly because it met a professional development need that institutions were unable to meet and partly because the distance education function was itself an organizational function and ASPESA was able to bring the staff of different institutions together. The central external studies units had the flexibility to absorb the costs of newsletter printing and distribution into their own budgets. By this means the Association was able to leverage its relatively modest financial resources to achieve considerably more than would otherwise have been the case. The Executive was largely made up of operational heads and senior managers of central external studies units and in serving the Association, they were at the same time serving their institutions.

The next five years corresponded to a period of rationalisation. Multiple government reports and an ethos of economic rationalism saw establishment of a system of Distance Educations Centres (DECs) and dramatic changes. The stresses of the period took their toll on the distance education profession and on ASPESA. The spirit of cooperation that had been built up in the growth years was undermined by the feelings of uncertainty and suspicion. The energies of ASPESA’s members had been absorbed in coping with institutional change. ASPESA retreated back to its core activities: conduct of the Forums, publication of Distance Education, ASPESA News and ASPESA Papers. The National Workshop program lapsed; and the SIGs ceased to operate except in nominal form.

The demise of the DEC system marked the start of a new era for distance education in Australia, and, perhaps coincidentally, the appropriateness of ASPESA as a name was being called into question. New words were being used nationally and internationally to express changed emphases on learning, on openness, on distance, and moves were even made to drop an "Austalian" emphasis in favour of more regionally inclusive terms. A 1992 member referendum of seven choices resulted in most being dismissed. Members accepted a motion at the 1993 Biennial General Meeting to adopt the name Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia.

With a new name and a new logo, in a positive political environment of increasing national and international comittment to promotion of equity and access in higher education, and a positive technical environment of increasing feasibility of online learning, ODLAA was able to reinvigorate in the mid 1990s. The Research SIG, which had been reactivated with Olugbemiro Jegede as convenor, launched the RESODLAA list serve and compiled a directory of research in distance education in Australia. Biennial awards for excellence in completed research were introduced and in 1997 parallel awards for excellence in practice were introduced. A Code of Ethics for the conduct of distance education research was drawn up and adopted. The National Workshop program resumed.

Since the late 1990s ODLAA’s task of differentiating itself from other professional associations has become increasingly difficult. The same forces which led to reinvigoration have also led to mainstreaming of many of the concerns and interests which were previously distinct to ODLAA. Developments in technology are blurring the boundaries of distance education. Distance pedagogies have become less of a concern than technology-based pedagogies, instructional design is a more mature profession less in need of professional development, issues of equity and access have their own istitutionally-based advocates. More specialised associations have developed niches in what ODLAA would once have addressed and online sources provide much of the information sharing and professional development opportunities that newcomers to the field may once have sought from a professional association.

Looking forward, there are still many unanswered needs for case studies, for research into and critical examination of the applications of technologies for particular educational purposes, for policy and practice guidelines, benchmarking, and readily accessing research findings at the point of need. Globally, distance education continues to be a growth market. Increasingly, the technical response to the challenges of distance and open learning require both quick answers and sustainable professional development for teachers, instructional designers, and managers. At the end of 2008 ODLAA undertook a survey professional development needs among current and past members to help understand and determine new directions for supporting those needs. A new website with dynamic and changing content is one part of the Executive response to that survey. Other initiatives will follow in direct response to member engagement.