2008 - 2013 Flexible Learning Course

Correspondence learners normally rely on materials sent through the postal service, for example people in prison. Online refers to learning methods that use the Internet either exclusively or along with other methods, such as this course. Distance learning is used by people who prefer or are unable to attend on-campus education. It can include correspondence and online methods.

To do

1. Read or listen to the article: Annand, D. (2007). Re-organizing Universities for the Information Age. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol 8, (3), 1-9. Audio version
2. Refer to the paper from the Commonwealth of Learning Vocational Education and Training - (Formally enrolled students will have received the printed article in the post by this week)
3. Answer the following QUESTION in a post to your blog:

• How can distance, correspondence and/or online learning create flexible learning opportunities in your context?

In your response try to turn problems into challenges and come up with ideas that get you past apparent barriers. We are looking for ideas with references to examples, and evidence that you have investigated the potential problems and advantages to your ideas.

extra resources

• Commonwealth of Learning, Knowledge series on Distance learning - topical, start-up guides to distance education practice and delivery.
• Wikipedia article on Distance Learning - is a work in progress but has some interesting and useful information.
• Wikipedia article on prison education.
• Wikipedia article about online learning.
• Gunawardena, Charlotte Nirmalani and McIssac, Marina Stock (2004). Distance education. In Jonassen, David (Ed) (second Edition) Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology. Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

• Open Polytechnic UK open, distance, online courses.