This report examines some important issues to be considered in the production of learning materials. The development of a nation human resource depends to some extant on the availability of learning materials. Various people produce learning materials to either contribute towards knowledge or as a profit making venture. Learning Materials may include textbooks, videos and audio tapes, computer software, and visual aids. The choice of selecting a type of material is determined by what one aims to achieve at the end and how you want it. That is the style of presentation. The type chosen influence the content and the procedures of learning. The choice of deductive vs inductive learning, the role of memorization, the use of creativity and problem solving, production vs. reception, and the order in which materials are presented are all influenced by the materials.
Irrespective of the type of material or style of presentation, one major issue of concern should the context within context within which the proposed users are found. It is quite important in the production of relevant materials for any group of people. A basic awareness of how the book sector (learning materials) works is a first step. The curriculum, production processes, distribution and usage are very important aspect of learning materials development. In Ghana, it is reported that a quantity of books donated to some schools are supposed to burnt just because they were not relevant to the needs of the people (GNA-13/01/06) That may be just the tip of the ice berg. The internet is loaded with materials that one finds it a bit difficult at times to ascertain the authenticity of most. Student a are many a time cautioned by their tutors as to reliability of some materials picked from the world wide web.
My personal experience with the health learning materials teaches me that some materials are produced without the relevant research to ensure that what ever is produced will be relevant, affordable, and practical where the introductions of technologies are involved. Clarke (1989) argues that communicative methodology is important and that communicative methodology is based on authenticity, realism, context, and a focus on the learner. A clear definition of your learners is very important to ensure the materials suit the target groups.
Deciding the target groups
The first and foremost thing to decide is the target groups of the materials. This can be done by knowing the age group to benefit from the material. It will be a good idea not to choose a very wide range as needs changes with age. Technical groups could also be targeted. But once again bear in mind there may various degrees of proficiency and must therefore be given great consideration.
After getting your target group; you need to consult the national /local education authorities for the curriculum for the targeted group. This is to ensure that you material fall within the national/ local frameworks and needs. As a matter of fact, curriculum, learning materials, teaching methods are all designed with the learner in mind. In a study of English textbooks published in Japan in 1985, the textbooks were reviewed and problems were found with both the language and content of many of the textbooks (Kitao et al., 1995). English textbooks for example should have correct, natural, recent, and standard English. Since students' vocabulary is limited, the vocabulary in textbooks should be controlled or the textbooks should provide information to help students understand vocabulary that they may not be familiar with. For lower-level students, sentence structure should also be controlled. Many textbooks use narratives and essays. It would be useful to have a variety of literary forms (for example, newspaper articles, poetry, or letters), so that students can learn to deal with different forms.
Aims and objectives
A clear definition of the aims and objective may be very important in materials development. Aims are usually statements couched in fairly general terms of what one intends to do during a course of a lesson. Objectives on other hand are usually statements designed to identify what students should do or be able to do, in order to demonstrate that they have learnt something (Lockwood 1998).These word are of much value when designing materials that are self instructional. They turn to direct the student should expect throughout the lesson and what the student must achieve at the end. Self evaluations are based on the objectives.
Existing materials
There are various materials already in the system for which we make very little use of. To ensure that you don’t reinvent the wheel, the need to look at what is already available is quite important in every setting. Visit libraries, educational book depots, search on the internet and the various institutions that deal with learning materials. You may find materials that are similar to what you want to develop. Study these materials well before embarking on a new one.
Types of materials
Strategic decisions regarding the page size of printed material, methods of packaging and storing, typographical grid adopted, type of binding, use of colour and paper quality will be considered and illustrated. The implications for these decisions, as well as type-face and spacing will be discussed. Participants will be invited to assess the suitability of the layout and design of their current teaching materials and suggest revisions
Learner support
With the increasing demand for students to develop self intuition to learning demands that learners are supported within the text. This is done by directing learners as to what to do at each point in reading, question their understanding which motivates them to read over again, reflect on processes where applicable and at the end give exercises to be carried. Where exercises are included in learning materials ensure that the answers are included for easy self assessments.
Text books and manual take different approaches. Textbooks assume a teacher will be there to help the student, little or no self assessment, occasionally summarises, dense layout and aims at scholarly presentation. Self instructional materials on the other hand, are written for the learners use, major emphasis on self assessments, content unpacked and aims at successful teaching. (Lockwood 1998) Irrespective of the type of materials being developed these learning supports could be included to help the learner. In the case of videos you need to determine the style of presentation
Writing
The writing and development stages will involve developing manuscript, editing draft, pre-testing and final editing. Writing could be very tedious when you are not committed to what you are doing. Writing well is a complex, difficult and time consuming activity( Elbow, P.1998) The ability to devote time to the writing process demands a lot of commitment on the part of the writer to come out with the first draft. Some writers have tried to produce perfect scripts and end up reviewing their documents over and over. The need to ensure that that you develop your materials along prepared outlines is very important. There is no need adding a fresh topics after you have developed your outline and commenced writing. Such ideas are better kept for the next edition.
After the first draft is ready you do your own editing of the draft to take out typographical mistakes and make it ready for technical editing. Technical editing involves asking someone in the same field to look at the document and making the necessary recommendations for modification of draft.
To enable you determine how difficult your text will be with respect to your target audience, you need to perform a Cloze Text or Fog Index on document (Lockwood 1998). This is ensure that your target audience can read and understand your text. On the other hand you can pre-test the script with a sample of the target population. Pre-testing is advisable when the target audience are technical people like Nurses where terminologies will be technical.
Design of material
The importance of effective visual communication through high quality graphic design, particularly in learning and teaching, should not be underestimated. In textual materials you need to decide on the font size, pictures, spacing of text, number of columns, cover pages. Very colourful books and big font sizes may be for children and us the age increase too dependence on colourful picture decrease. Font sizes also may decrease with age however the accepted standard font size for adults is usually front twelve. Design issues are not carried out in isolation. It is done during the initial planning of the book or the material and it depends much on the target group for choices made.
References
Lockwood, F. (1998) (ed) The Design and Production of Self-Instructional materials. Great Britain: Biddles Ltd.
Lockwood. F. (1994) (ed) Materials Productions in Open and Distance Learning. London: Paul Chapman Publishing Ltd.
Elbow, P.(1998) Writing With Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process
Oxford: Oxford University Press
http://www.anu.edu.au/CEDAM/flexed/flexiblematerials.html
http://www.celts.monash.edu.au/staff/learn-mat/general-inf.html#2.3.2(date accessed 12/01/06)
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=97535
http://www.unesco.org/education/blm/chap5_en.php
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