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HOW TO WRITE SELF-STUDY MATERIAL IN DISTANCE EDUCATION
TjR. K. Mithal
The self-study material chiefly functions as a live teacher because a distance learner may have the learning experience similar to a student who may have in the classroom in the conventional system. It is meant for the distance learners to learn on their own. This mode of teaching stimulates independent study or learning. The distance learner has little contact with the institution or teacher and mostly depends on these prepared self-study materials.
Some terms and points should be kept in mind while writing such material : A. General
1. Course : Each course is divided into several booklets, i.e., blocks. Each block consists of 4 to 6 units. A unit usually refers to a lesson and is divided into sections and sub-sections. The length of unit should be around 4000 to 6000 words or approximately 15 to 18. pages of A4 size paper. There are two relevent points which should be remembered :
(i) Pedagogy: A pedagogical unit can be completed by the student in a reasonable time of 5 to 6 hours. The best unit is that which can be completed in just one sitting. However, the theme, content and consistency may force us ļo go for a larger size of the unit.
(ii) Uniformity: There should preferably be a uniform pattern in all the units.
2. Self-explanatory : The material should be designed in such a way that a distance learner go through it without much extra support. It should, therefore, be self
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