Distance learning is seen as the obvious answer for remote learners, and the use of online media is expected to overcome any access difficulties imposed by geographical distance. However, this belief may be obscuring our understanding of the role that location and individual circumstances have in shaping student experience. This paper explores the…

We maintain that an understanding of the working contexts of staff is a critical consideration when designing for effective professional development. The process of embedding theory into good practice does not simply depend on the design of a good seminar, because it may also be affected by who else attends, or perhaps by who the participants talk…

There has been much discussion in this journal of the development of the scholarship of teaching and learning. Indeed the effective enhancement of teaching and learning is more likely to take place when generic lessons are contextualized within the language of the discipline, and adapted to the needs of the students. We describe here a study of…

Academic staff who work away from the university campus have few informal opportunities to keep in touch with their peers, and the provision of appropriate professional development for them can be problematic. At the Open University in Scotland an online forum provides a platform for the development of an informal community of distance tutors. It…

Professional development for distance tutors is traditionally delivered through texts or websites, supplemented by face to face workshops. However, one of the major challenges is to ensure that they engage with the materials and carry away something which is of value to their practice. At the Open University (UK) our 8000 tutors work from home,…

The introduction of new online technologies in Higher Education brings many challenges for staff, not only in learning new functionality, but in deciding how to use tools in pedagogically effective ways. This case study describes an initiative at the Open University (UK), which set out to provide professional development in the use of an online…

We know assessment plays a major formative role in driving student learning appropriately, but what implications does this have for online courses? Is it more important than in a face to face context, or less so? Should we reconceptualize the ways in which we assess students, or are existing methods, tried and tested in conventional teaching and…

The provision of a professional development programme for distance tutors can be problematic because of the need for flexibility to cater for a variety of working practices, or to overcome the hurdles imposed by geographical remoteness. At the UK Open University, online networks are widely in use for teaching and learning, and we are actively…

Discusses the results of an interview survey of 21 students enrolled in an Open University (Great Britain) course with a resource-based structure. The study examined use of CD-ROM materials, use of computer-mediated-communication as an information source, use of the Internet, and attitudes toward resource-based learning. (PEN)