At the National Distance Education Centre (NDEC), located in DCU, they're keeping their fingers crossed.
The future of the sector looks rosy, if details of a draft copy of the White Paper on adult education are anything to go by. According to the draft, a remodelled National Distance Education Council will develop a plan for the development of distance education in Ireland over the next five years. The new council will support institutions in their distance education planning, co-ordinate the work of the institutions and govern the National Distance Education Centre, the draft suggests.
Meanwhile, a meeting between the universities, the ITs and the Department of Education and Science to discuss the future of distance education has already been organised for the end of this month, in Athlone. Dr Dennis Bancroft, who has succeeded Prof Chris Curran as director of Oscail, the National Distance Education Centre, foresees a bright future for the sector, but warns that distance education is not a cheap form of third-level provision. Vital to its success are the provision of adequate academic and administrative supports and the development of appropriate teaching materials.
"There's clear evidence to show that if students get tutorial and advisory support they can do well," Bancroft argues. "If you can get people through the early part of their studies, they are likely to continue. Support is needed at the front end. You have to convince mature students that they can do it, especially if they have no experience of third level." Before coming to Ireland, Bancroft was sub-dean of course production at the Open University's school of education. The fact that course development at NDEC is based on a co-operative model was a major factor in attracting to Bancroft to his new job.
"The Open University operates as a conventional university in that it has academic faculties," he notes. "It produces its own courses from its academic resources. That's not usual here. If we want to develop a course in history, say, we put together a team from the universities - history specialists from around Ireland will collaborate to develop teaching materials for the course."
Distance education can be a successful venture - or it can fall flat on its face. "A lot of people are getting into distance education, especially in the US," Bancroft explains. "Some are successful and others are not. The construction of appropriate learning materials is essential. "Academics write books for other academics. Distance-learning material can be used in teaching face-to-face, but academic books don't necessarily work the other way around." Distance education requires a system which provides educational materials, advisory supports to deal with students' queries and concerns and tutorial support. Essential, too, is a fast and efficient system to give feedback on student progress.
"Distance education materials are different from conventional teaching materials and require an expertise to develop them. You have to assume that the student has no other resources available. The material must give students everything they need. The texts promote active learning and are structured to encourage retention." When you think distance education, the chances are information technology (IT) will spring to mind. Surprisingly, the distance-education role of IT, including the Internet, is relatively small. There's a problem about building its use into a distance education programme, Bancroft explains - not everybody has access to the new technologies. "Part of our mission is about equality of opportunity and access," he says. "We don't want to exclude people who would benefit most. We have to work to the lowest common denominator of available resources."
The mission of the NDEC is to provide further educational opportunities for the workforce and first-time degree programmes for people who have been unable, for one reason or another, to avail of a university education - or who simply prefer to study alone. "Full-time study doesn't suit everyone. If you're in a job, you may want to acquire education and develop skills in a way that doesn't affect your working life, for example." People with family commitments may also prefer to work at home and, for some people, where they live means that they may have no choice but to opt for distance education. "There will always be people who can take a break and go to college, take evening courses or extramural studies, but there will also always be a largish number of people who can't avail of these."
The National Distance Education Centre now offers five undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, including a bachelor of nursing and two masters' programmes - in management of operations and management and applications of information technology in accounting. A new masters programme in information technology will be on offer later this year.
AGE IS NO barrier to distance learning. The 1,300 students enroled on the centre's BSc in information technology course are predominately male, with an average age of 30 years. Conversely, the BA in humanities course is 75 per cent female, with an average age of 40 years.
The upper age limit on all courses hovers around the 80 mark, Bancroft notes. A major feature of the humanities programme is the fact that it is based on a collaboration among NUI Maynooth, TCD, DCU, UL, UCC and NUI Galway. Students can chose the institution they wish to award them their degrees.
"It's a huge achievement," observes Bancroft. "I don't know anywhere else that has done anything like it and it is much admired by other distance education institutions in Europe." Other courses, meanwhile, are accredited by DCU.
Embarking on a higher education programme, either for the first time or after a long absence from study, can be a daunting prospect. The NDEC runs introductory modules for both the IT and humanities undergraduate programmes. At £100 per throw (regular modules cost £340), these give people an "affordable taste of distance education. If they are going to stay the course, you need to be able to give them information about what's expected of them before they begin the course."
Typically, students on the humanities and IT undergraduate courses take two of the 12 modules necessary to complete the programme, each year. There are four annual assignments, which account for 50 per cent of the final marks. While assignments must be delivered on time, tutorials, which are held in centres around the State, are voluntary.
With 3,000 students and a staff of fewer than 30, Bancroft says that student support is "manageable". Any increase in numbers, however, would require extra staff.
The centre's proximity to DCU has its downside, since in some quarters, at least, it is regarded as a DCU endeavour. The draft White Paper on adult education points to the reluctance of some institutions to become involved in distance education, as a result. Bancroft is reluctant to be drawn on the issue, but clearly hopes for more extensive collaborations in the future.
