DISTANCE LEARNING

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DISTANCE LEARNING

• THE IRISH EXPERIENCE

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TERTIARY EDUCATION IN IRELAND

• Universities
• Institutes of Technology
• Colleges of Education
• Specialist
• 90 State Funded
• Significant Growth in numbers
• Full-time students do not pay tuition fees

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WIDENING ACCESS FOR MATURE STUDENTS

• In 1999 lt 5 over 23 in Tertiary Ed
• Government/Social partners committed
• Target - 15 by 2015

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DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS

• By 2015 drop to 50, 000 qualified school leavers
  for 3rd Level
• Can be countered by
• More qualified school leavers
• More attending 3rd Level
• More adults
• More international students

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OECD 2004

• That every effort be made to increase part-time
  student numbers as a proportion of total numbers
  in tertiary education and to this end
  distinctions between part-time and full-time
  students be removed for the purpose of the
  obligation to pay fees and receive maintenance
  support

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OBSTACLES TO PARTICIPATION

• Time from employment or resignation
• Reduced income
• Costs fees/living/travel
• Disruption to family/social life

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CHARACTERISTICS OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

• Flexibility in time and location
• Addresses attendance issues
• Modular with credit accumulation
• Students progress at their own pace

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DCU and DISTANCE EDUCATION

• DCU established in 1975 as NIHED
• Distance Education Unit in 1982
• Designated the National Distance Education Centre
  in 1984
• Retitled Oscail
• Faculty DCU
• Separately funded

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OSCAILS PROGRAMMES

• BSc in Information Technology 1986
• MSc in IT for Accountants 1990
• BA in Humanities 1993
• BNS in 1997
• MSc Management of Operations 1997
• MSc in Internet Systems 2001

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OSCAILS OPERATIONS

• 2000 students 20 DCU population
• 4000 awards
• Programmes uniquely distance education
• All postgrad programmes fully on-line
• All design in-house
• Printing/despatch outsourced
• Adjunct faculty of 380

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THE FUTURE OF DISTANCE LEARNING IN IRELAND

• E-Learning
• DCUs strategic plan 2001 to 2005 committed to
  e-university strategy and to enhance lifelong
  learning and access

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USE OF ICT

• An integrated student portal system
• E-mail conferencing on a programme and module
  basis
• All assessment results on-line
• Archive of examination papers
• Use of VLEs - WebCT to 2004
• Moodle open source - from 2005

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IMPLEMENTING ACCESS AND LIFELONG LEARNING
STRATEGIES

• More flexibility
• Remove year-on-year progression
• Credit accumulation policy
• Greate student choice
• Move to greater use of e-learning university-wide

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OPPORTUNITIES OF E-LEARNING

• Easier access to information resources
  facilitated by technology
• New teaching paradigms
• Wider learner base
• Facilitates independent and self-directed
  learning skills
• May address quasi full-time student issues

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CHALLENGES OF E-LEARNING

• Cost
• Access
• Quality
• Change Management

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COST OF E-LEARNING

• Not cheaper than traditional methods
• May be some cost efficiencies in management and
  administration
• Teaching cost preparation of materials,
  tutorial support
• Technology cost technology support, training,
  upgrading
• Student cost

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WIDENING ACCESS

• Need to widen access to technology
• Need to develop student skills
• Need to address the digital divide

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INPROVING THE QUALITY OF LEARNING

• Pedagogy not technology
• Off campus access to campus-based resources
• Developing higher order cognitive skills
• Collaborative learning
• Peer tutoring

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CHANGE MANAGEMENT

• e-learning will force a change in the way we
  teach 
• Only higher educations bureaucratic processes
  have proved more immutable to fundamental change.
  Even when they use e-learning products and
  devices, most faculty still teach as they were
  taught that is they stand in front of a
  classroom, providing lectures intended to supply
  the basic knowledge the students need

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IS E-LEARNING THE SOLUTION TO ACCESS?

• Addresses the issue of cost and employment
• Digital divide
• Not just access to technology
• Attitudinal barriers and differential competence
• Needs substantive user training

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BEST LAID PLANS..

• ...had launched extensive programmes of
  distributive instruction that used web-based
  e-Learning modules as the principal means of
  instruction. By intention and design they were to
  be outreach programmes capable of enrolling
  part-time adult learners who were distant from
  campus. What each of these universities
  discovered, however, was that better than 80 of
  those enrolling in the e-Learning courses were
  full-time students living on campus.

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BUT!

• Real University
• Real Lectures/Tutorials
• Real Library/Books
• Real People social interaction

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