Scope: Meeting Needs Across Distance

Introduction

The 2011-2013 Strategic Directions document refers to "creative capability, being open to new ways of thinking and doing, innovative solutions, skillful communication, digital literacy, adaptability and autonomy" (for our students) and "leading our sector in the achievement of educational excellence" for the rest of us. With the imminent relocation of a member of staff to Japan (me!), Otago Polytechnic has the opportunity to improve its online distance learning support. This is an outline of a structured plan for innovation by the Learning Centre as part of Student Services to (1) enable students to access distance learning support, to (2) develop existing online resources and (3) upskill Student Services staff with their digital capability so that they will be able to provide wider support.

Student support

The goal is to offer more student support for them to access on their terms. Of the ten hours per week allotted to the overall project, about eight will be earmarked student contact. Students will be able to access online help at two or three fixed times per week, mainly in the afternoons and evenings, and possibly some weekend slots during the exam season (days of the week and time of day to be finalized). Cohorts of students will be targeted; groups already identified are 1st year nursing students (including the Timaru group), QuickStart groups 1 & 2, a general numeracy group, and possibly the 2011 IT Peer Tutors group (including IT). A survey will be conducted to determine how students prefer to access help online, and the most popular will be activated. Initially we will operate via email, Facebook, Elluminate and a chat interface. Other future possibilities include the creation of an LC Moodle shell. This blog (http://on-line-presence.blogspot.com/) shall also be maintained as a means of staying in the public eye, and several stand-alone pages of categorized links are planned.

Resources

Much has already been done by Helen Lindsay and others to identify and create online learning support resources. For the current project, the aim is to spend about two (of the ten) hours per week progressing this work so that the resources appropriate for each student's needs are made more easily available. This will involve consolidation of the Moodle, WikiEducator and other repositories that have been created.

Staff support

The third prong of this project will be to upskill Student Services staff in digital literacy. Using Skype to communicate with their colleague in Japan should enable them to become familiar with that tool and increase their range of student support.

Time-line

Prior to my departure on 7 April, 2011:

• Load Skype onto Student Services computers
• Obtain laptop installed with standard OP software,
• Establish contact with various student groups, evolve them, expand them and refer extra students to them
• Activate blog
• Prepare introductory video using webcam

By the end of April, 2011:

• Be up and running with times and dates of sessions announced.
  

October, 2011:

• Online review with Matt and Kitty
  

Feb, 2012:

• Return to Dunedin for several weeks
  
• Determine future direction.
  

Equipment and resources
Laptop computer with webcam to be made available through IT (Mike Collins and Ange). Skype, Facebook, Twitter, WikiEducator, Moodle

Personnel
Matt, Kitty, Sheena, Helen, Bronwyn, Terry, Leigh, Dave, Judy, Sonny, Ange Meikle, Mike, Sarah, Jean