The Use of Flexible Learning Resources for Geographically Distributed Rural Students

The focus of this paper is to describe and explain the evolution of teaching resources and tuition on the Rural Development Studies undergraduate degree programme at the UHI Millennium Institute. This degree was selected for development in a flexible style of delivery due to the curriculum contents and its delivery to a very scattered student population over a wide rural area. The degree has a multi-disciplinary approach with a variety of tuition styles, assessment mechanisms, and student support that have been tutored in both face-to-face and remote delivery, and this illustrates well the changing nature of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in student-tutor interaction. Increasing emphasis is on the simplicity of the application of new technologies to facilitate interactivity between students and tutors but, most importantly, on improving the optimum mixture of the different teaching media used. The emphasis is on consistency and quality in distributed learning to encourage the sustainable delivery of formal education in rural and remote areas where it is not normally readily available. Current course research is investigating the sense of online community identity exhibited by groups of students on different levels, different study modules, and using different blends of resources for tutor-student-student communication.

[1]  John Stephenson,et al.  Teaching & learning online : new pedagogies for new technologies , 2001 .

[2]  John O'Malley,et al.  Students Perceptions of Distance Learning, Online Learning and the Traditional Classroom , 1999 .

[3]  John Stephenson,et al.  Teaching & Learning Online: Pedagogies for New Technologies. , 2001 .

[4]  Chris Colbourn,et al.  Mindweave: communication, computers and distance education , 1990 .

[5]  Kay Perrin,et al.  The Reality of Designing and Implementing an Internet-based Course , 2000 .

[6]  R. Mason,et al.  Broadband: A Solution for Rural e-Learning? , 2004 .

[7]  Meg O'Reilly,et al.  Assessing Open and Distance Learners , 1999 .

[8]  Martin Oliver,et al.  An introduction to the Evaluation of Learning Technology , 2000, J. Educ. Technol. Soc..

[9]  Stephen F. Hallam,et al.  Twelve Important Questions To Answer Before You Offer a Web Based Curriculum , 2001 .

[10]  Steve Wheeler,et al.  Information and Communication Technologies and the Changing Role of the Teacher , 2001 .

[11]  Anita L. Blanchard,et al.  Virtual Communities and Social Capital , 1998 .

[12]  Joyce M. Gattas,et al.  The University of the Future , 1994 .

[13]  Robin Mason,et al.  Factors affecting students' satisfaction on a web course , 2000 .

[14]  Paul Bacsich,et al.  The costs of networked learning , 2001 .

[15]  Robin Mason,et al.  Models of Online Courses , 2001 .

[16]  Diana Laurillard,et al.  Rethinking University Teaching: A Framework for the Effective Use of Educational Technology , 1993 .

[17]  Bernard Scott,et al.  The Virtual University: The Internet and Resource-Based Learning. Kogan Page Open and Distance Learning Series. , 2013 .

[18]  Judith M. Scanlan,et al.  Planning and Managing the Development of Courses for Distance Delivery: Results From Qualitative Study , 2001 .

[19]  A. Dhesi.  Social capital and community development , 2000 .

[20]  Marc D Miller,et al.  Redesigning the Learning Environment for Distance Education: An Integrative Model of Technologically Supported Learning Environments , 1998 .

[21]  Noriko Hara,et al.  Students’ Distress with a Web-based Distance Education Course: An Ethnographic Study of Participants' Experiences , 2003 .

[22]  Howard Rheingold,et al.  Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution , 2002 .

[23]  Alistair R. Anderson.  Paradox in the periphery: an entrepreneurial reconstruction? , 2000 .