All Ireland Society for Higher Education
| Name: | Fox , Seamus |
|---|---|
| Email: | seamus.fox@dcu.ie |
| Institution: | DCU |
Traditionally, distance teaching/open universities have delivered tutorial support to their students by providing occasional tutorials throughout the academic year at a network of study centres. This support was backed up by allowing students to contact their tutors on a one-to-one basis with particular queries. While this level of support has sufficed for a substantial number of students, it was insufficient for many others and it was one factor which has led to a generally higher drop-out rate among distance education students as compared to full-time third-level students. The potential afforded by the online technologies to provide timely support to their students has been one of the driving factors behind a general trend among distance teaching/open universities to go 'online'. However, the distance teaching/open universities have realised (as have a number of campus-based universities who have attempted to offer online programmes) that the provision of high-quality and cost-effective online programmes is fraught with difficulties. Not least among these difficulties is the fact that the 'always-on' nature of online support can make very substantial demands on the time of the academics and other tutor staff involved in these programmes. This paper will review the approach to going 'online' adopted by Oscail - National Distance Education Centre. It will start by looking at the type of programme suitable for online delivery and then look at a number of strategies adopted to providing maximum support to students while not over burdening academic staff. Two critical factors that emerge are (a) the integration of assessment into the online activities and (b) the importance of learning objectives to the online teaching strategies adopted. The paper will finish by attempting to draw out some lessons that Oscail's experience may have for schools/departments in campus-based universities who are contemplating offering an online programmes. More generally, it will review the contention of some commentators that the increasing use of online technologies will lead to a convergence of campus-based and distance teaching universities and all universities will be offering their programmes partially online and partially campus-based.
(Abstract ref: #42.)