As a Brit, can I sing the praises of an experiment that must be over 25
years old by now. I think it was the Labour Government in the 1960's
who initially brought into being the Open University.
This is essentially a distance learning operation. There are standard
texts, OU had commissioned and written its own, and much of the 2nd
channel of the BBC during Saturdays and Sunday mornings has been given
over to broadcasting OU courses. With the advent of video recorders,
most students can record programmes in the middle of the night. Of
course many courses have residential weekends or even weeks. Tutorials
are provided but most students have to drive, or use public transport to
travel sometimes 50 miles. My own recent course had tutorials 65 miles
away. Students have a "remote" course tutor .. at the end of the phone,
or via email.
The OU has had tremendous success. I cannot comment on the assistance
given by traditional universities or their teachings staffs, but OU is
an accepted form of tertiary education in the UK.
The use of CBT modules has grown. Courses on CDs are becomming common.
Because of this adoption of newer teaching media, I think the UK is
using Distance Learning succesfully. It is acknowledged that a course
related to computing .. operating systems, network design and
management, etc and the basic utilities such as word processing, spread
sheet usage, etc are now being provided on CD. My own employer uses CD
base courses for introduction and use of Lotus Notes.
What I await are very low cost courses offered on the internet. Can
anyone point me at a Web site?
Roy Greenhalgh
--Roy Greenhalgh <rgreenh@ibm.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>