8.4 How to adapt

The sequence of activities for adaptation is similar to that used in any materials development. Large scale adaptation may include virtually all the steps involved in development, but most involve a smaller number of stages. The starting point and most important stage is the specification of what needs to be adapted and the form this should take.

In this section, we survey the steps needed in each of the types of adaptation we have identified and highlight the main issues involved.

Translation and cultural adaptation

In cases where translation only is required, this can be relatively straightforward. However, you need to pay particular attention to:

• terminology

• checking and proof reading

• confusing content in any non-text elements e.g. photographs where some elements may not be familiar to the new audience

The deeper form of adaptation often needed to alter content to meet the needs of a new audience in a different country will involve more tasks and these may often follow the sequence below:

GRAFIK?

Note: Where new material is around 50% or above, then you may find the adaptation cannot be justified economically. In practice, you are then moving closer to the work needed for a new set of materials

Specific issues when preparing a 'cultural' adaptation are:

• very specific details relevant to one country but not another

• underlying assumptions and expectations about the learner

• suitability of the approach adopted by the initial materials

• potential problems of finding equivalent examples and case studies.

Badging

Badging ie. adding the buying organisation’s visual style to the material, is the simplest form of adaptation and has a small number of stages.

Although badging is usually straightforward, you will need to ensure any new design and/or packaging meets the needs of your organisation and its learners.

Converting to open learning

In practice, converting existing material usually means regarding the existing material as source material. Although some organisations do attempt to edit existing material, this will not usually produce satisfactory results. Open learning materials need to be structured and designed to promote individual learning and this will usually require a complete rewrite or reworking. It is not usually possible to insert open learning features into existing source material. However, the availability of substantial source material provides a basis for the adaptation and will usually allow it to be viable financially.

The steps involved are likely to be:

Adding a study guide

Adding a study guide does not involve physically modifying the existing material. However, it can involve a number of relatively complex decisions about the learning strategy and how to use/refer to the existing material.

The sequence of activities will need to include the following:

Adding learning material

You may add material in either the same or different media to update or expand content. Development activity is in effect similar to creating new material, but matching to existing approach and style. The extent to which you are bound by the existing approach is an important factor to consider. You will need to weigh the advantages of any modification with the benefits of consistency of style.

The development process will include:

GRAFIK?

Creating multimedia

Bringing together different material in a range of media is likely to become the dominant form of adaptation over the next few years. The scale and complexity can range from adding small segments of material to a simple sequence of computer based material through to sophisticated programmes involving several integrated and inter-layered media.

A number of aspects of creating multimedia are covered in Unit 4, but you will also wish to consider:

• copyright – this can be a major issue as you will need full permission from the owners of the material

• time and resources – major projects will require a significant amount of resourcing and you may need to call on a range of skills

• planning – the complexity of multimedia production means that you will need to allow for a very substantial and detailed planning phase. If you are using existing source material and integrating this with new materials, then sequencing is a particularly important task.

Typically, an adaptation to multimedia will include:

GRAFIK?

Creating a new version

An adaptation often involves taking suitable, but out of date material or altering existing material to meet the needs of your organisation. In text material, this can mean a series of small but important rewrites. In other media it can be difficult to add new material so may mean recreating a new version.

A possible sequence of activities will be:

TEXT or NON-PRINT MEDIA

Summary

The unit has identified some of the most common and useful methods of adaptation and has highlighted the main activities involved in each.

Three central processes are common to all:

• defining the approach and form of adaptation

• matching existing style as appropriate

• specifying content.

You will notice that some forms of adaptation are relatively simple whilst others involve either complex forms of production or similar activities to develop from 'scratch'. Organisations will need to consider whether the extent of adaptation is viable in terms of resources and quality of finished product.

However, one of the impacts of information technologies will be that it makes many forms of adaptation more feasible and cost effective. Customising and adapting materials may become a central method in many organisation's development and use of materials for open learning.