University of East London

The University of East London (UEL) identified expansion of distance learning as a key institutional priority in 2004. Strong institutional leadership and high-level commitment to ensuring the university’s strategic approach to the development and provision of distance learning was, and still is, fundamental to: achieving changes to institutional policies and procedures; the creation of a centralised unit 'UELconnect' with responsibility for all distance and e-learning provision; and the partnership with commercial organisations.

Distance learning at UEL is managed on a commercial basis and therefore has to demonstrate financial viability. Creating a centrally managed operation was felt to be one of the key factors required to develop and implement a financially viable enterprise.

Although some of UEL's distance learning programmes are delivered entirely online, UEL also provides text-based materials in response to learner demand. Students use the university's VLE to: engage in discussion forums; access their course content, student handbooks and additional learning resources; chat; and undertake group work. The university also utilises a wide range of learning technologies to enhance the learning experience – including virtual classrooms, lecture capture, podcasts, wikis, virtual worlds, immersive learning scenarios.

The university has been enrolling approximately 1,000 students per year on the distance learning undergraduate programmes, with between 700 and 1,000 module examinations being successfully completed at each assessment point.

Vital to the success of implementing distance learning provision at UEL was the decision to partner with private sector organisations experienced in distance learning operations. Of these current providers, ICS (International Correspondence Schools) is UEL's major partner. This case study examines the partnership between UEL and ICS for delivery of undergraduate programmes by distance learning.

The UEL/ICS partnership allows a blending of the core competencies of each organisation. UEL contributes the academic expertise and understanding of the requirements of offering higher education qualifications, whilst ICS contributes its experience of a long history of marketing, developing and delivering distance learning.

The establishment of this partnership was crucial in order to achieve a rapid and viable entry to the distance learning market. There were benefits in several key areas:

• Programme development: 20 undergraduate programmes were designed, developed, validated and launched within a 24-month period. The timeframe for development was significantly shortened through the use of ICS development processes and commercial expertise. UEL academics contributed their expertise to the curriculum design, and retained the overall responsibility for quality assurance, but were not required to author the actual materials.
• Marketing/recruitment: the strength and reach of the ICS consumer marketing operation was probably the most significant benefit offered to UEL by this partnership. Without access to ICS's sophisticated marketing operation UEL could not have achieved the recruitment levels required to ensure the financial viability of this new strategic initiative.
• Learner support: ICS provides a streamlined and highly focused, non-academic, online support service to students using their team of mentors.

Following a recent review of the collaborative partnership, UEL and ICS have agreed to revise the roles and responsibilities of the partnership to ensure each partner is more fully focused on specific areas of organisational competence.

One major area of change has been the decision to focus ICS on delivering the academic and pastoral support of students solely on the first two open access modules of the programme. ICS have extensive expertise in supporting returners to learning, and providing the support and motivation which builds self-confidence in the unsure learner. UEL will focus on providing the academic and pastoral support to learners who have successfully completed the entry modules and who now aim to progress further through the degree programme. These students will be better placed to benefit from the wider opportunities offered by being a university student.

Another key area of change relates to the flexibility of study pattern within a programme. Experience has indicated that distance learners benefit from a structured approach to guide them through their study: students learning in cohorts perform better than learners following their own personalised track. Establishing learner commitment to assessment dates at the beginning of their studies seems to provide more motivation when compared to learners being able to self-select their assessment point.

The initial development of all learning materials by ICS, in collaboration with UEL academics, enabled development of course content much more rapidly than would otherwise have been achievable. However, UEL has now completed the transfer of ownership of the IPR of all the materials to the university. UEL ownership of all content enables much closer academic engagement with the distance learning programmes than was previously the case. UEL expects to now manage curriculum change much more effectively, and achieve closer integration between onand off-campus programmes, thus offering greater flexibility for all learners, with the choice of modes of study to meet a range of needs.