by Distance Learning

Introduction

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This Distance Learning Information and Support for Staff handbook is designed to help you to locate the resources available at the University of Otago to support distance course development, teaching and administration.

This publication will be invaluable to any staff member who is involved in teaching or administering distance education programmes and papers. It is not a course writer’s guide, nor is it a manual for course development. It is a directory pointing you towards a range of facilities and people who can help support your work as a distance educator.

Facing the need to engage in distance teaching and/or administration for the first time can feel somewhat daunting. Regardless of why you are going to be involved in distance education at the University, it is quite likely you will suddenly feel the lead time available to develop a distance course, to find out how to teach at a distance, or to develop processes to enable distance courses to run well, is much too short.

Questions that come to mind might include:

  • Who should I talk to first? Who else knows how to do this?
  • Should all resources and teaching be online?
  • Should there be a residential component? A DVD? An audio or video-conference?
  • What about textbooks, library resources, other teaching materials?
  • Will all the students have personal computers and internet access? Will all the students have smartphones, tablets or other mobile devices? Will they be familiar with the online learning environment we’ll be using? What online learning environment should we use?
  • Who does all the non-teaching, administrative stuff?
  • How is material sent to students?
  • How do the students know about examinations?

Over the past 33 years, the University has acquired considerable expertise in the field of distance education and has developed an extensive infrastructure for supporting students and staff. The Otago Distance model is essentially Department-based. Therefore it is not always easy for staff to know where to find the expertise and infrastructure available in the University as a whole.

I hope this handbook will answer some of your questions and also introduce you to many of the people who constitute the University’s distance learning community. For this reason, where available, actual names and personal email addresses are given rather than those of sections or departments.

If in doubt though, AskOtago is thego-to place for all enquiries. Find answers instantly with AskOtago's searchable knowledgebase, or call, email or chat with them.

For those of you wanting a bit more background, Appendices I and II explain a little about the nature of distance education, and its background and recent history at the University of Otago.

Dr Sarah Stein
Director
Distance Learning Office
Tel 64 3 479 5809
Email sarah.stein@otago.ac.nz
Zoom https://otago.zoom.us/my/sarah.stein
Web distance.otago.ac.nz