ELearning and Distance Learning Symposium

1
E-Learning and Distance Learning Symposium
Second National Conference 1 March 2006

• Professor Roy Leitch, Chief Executive Officer
• Malcolm Payton, Head of Foundation Programmes

2
Speakers today

• Roy Leitch
• Deputy Principal of Heriot-Watt University
• Founder and director of the Intelligent Systems
  Laboratory at Heriot-Watt
• Consultant to governments in the UK, India and
  Italy.
• Fellow of both the Institution of Electrical
  Engineers and the British Computer Society.

Background Experience and Expertise

• Malcolm Payton
• Principal Teacher of Computing
• Director of Education
• Professional Advisor to the Scottish Executive
  Education Department
• Consultant to the National Curriculum Body in
  Scotland

Learning in theory and Practice
3
E-Learning
Distributed Learning

• Disadvantages
• Expensive to develop
• Presents a single way to learn
• Lacks personal interaction and intervention
• It is harder to develop the skills to apply the
  knowledge
• Learning environments require content as well as
  structure

• How to overcome?
• Economies of scale
• Use interactive learning
• Deliver through local teaching centres
• Use distributed learning, with teachers able to
  focus on adding understanding
• Develop full curriculum matched content

• Advantages
• Access anytime
• Access anywhere
• Allows self-paced learning
• Scalable (If it works with 20, it can work with
  2,000)

If content was King, the world would be full of
Libraries, not schools and universities. RRL
4
What do we mean by Distributed Learning?
Convert to Interactive form
No-one to inform about updates, no training in
delivery
Local development
Improved teaching methods Consistent
delivery Automatic updates
5
Distributed Learning
Content is central but is not sufficient Context
is crucial and creates meaning Communities are
captivating They increase motivation and the
ability to apply knowledge
If content was King, the world would be full of
Libraries, not schools and universities. RRL
6
Distributed Education
STUDENTS
ACADEMIC PARTNERS (The Scottish Universities)
INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS
STUDENTS
STUDENTS
7
Current Programmes
Masters College
Business
Life Sciences
Engineering
Health Studies
Medicine
Education
Creative Arts
Information Technology
Undergraduate coursesin
Foundation College
8
Strategic Projects

• Egyptian Scottish Universities Programme
• Sept 2006 start
• Campus Completed
• 10,000 Capacity
• Sino Scottish Universities Programme
• September 2006 start
• China Scholarship Council
• 15 Top Chinese Universities
• Scottish Universities in Dubai
• September 2006 start
• Academic City
• Jordanian Scottish Universities Programme
• September 2007 start
• Madaba University
• 8,000 capacity
• Under discussion India, Oman, Iran, Malaysia,
  Indonesia, Thailand

9
E-Learning and Distance Learning Symposium
Second National Conference 1 March 2006

• Professor Roy Leitch, Chief Executive Officer
• Malcolm Payton, Head of Foundation Programmes

10
Speakers today

• Roy Leitch
• Deputy Principal of Heriot-Watt University
• Founder and director of the Intelligent Systems
  Laboratory at Heriot-Watt
• Consultant to governments in the UK, India and
  Italy.
• Fellow of both the Institution of Electrical
  Engineers and the British Computer Society.

Background Experience and Expertise

• Malcolm Payton
• Principal Teacher of Computing
• Director of Education
• Professional Advisor to the Scottish Executive
  Education Department
• Consultant to the National Curriculum Body in
  Scotland

Learning in theory and Practice
11
E-Learning

• Disadvantages
• Expensive to develop
• Presents a single way to learn
• Lacks personal interaction and intervention
• It is harder to develop the skills to apply the
  knowledge
• Learning environments require content as well as
  structure

• Advantages
• Access anytime
• Access anywhere
• Allows self-paced learning
• Scalable (If it works with 20, it can work with
  2,000)

If content was King, the world would be full of
Libraries, not schools and universities. RRL
12
Distributed Learning

• How to overcome?
• Economies of scale
• Use interactive learning
• Deliver through local teaching centres
• Use distributed learning, with teachers able to
  focus on adding understanding
• Develop full curriculum matched content

• Advantages
• Access anytime
• Access anywhere
• Allows self-paced learning
• Scalable (If it works with 20, it can work with
  2,000)

If content was King, the world would be full of
Libraries, not schools and universities. RRL
13
What do we mean by Distributed Learning?
Convert to Interactive form
No-one to inform about updates, no training in
delivery
Local development
Improved teaching methods Consistent
delivery Automatic updates
14
Distributed Learning
Content is central but is not sufficient Context
is crucial and creates meaning Communities are
captivating They increase motivation and the
ability to apply knowledge
If content was King, the world would be full of
Libraries, not schools and universities. RRL
15
Distributed Education
STUDENTS
ACADEMIC PARTNERS (The Scottish Universities)
INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS
STUDENTS
STUDENTS
16
Current Programmes
Masters College
Business
Life Sciences
Engineering
Health Studies
Medicine
Education
Creative Arts
Information Technology
Undergraduate coursesin
Foundation College
17
Strategic Projects

• Egyptian Scottish Universities Programme
• Sept 2006 start
• Campus Completed
• 10,000 Capacity
• Sino Scottish Universities Programme
• September 2006 start
• China Scholarship Council
• 15 Top Chinese Universities
• Scottish Universities in Dubai
• September 2006 start
• Academic City
• Jordanian Scottish Universities Programme
• September 2007 start
• Madaba University
• 8,000 capacity
• Under discussion India, Oman, Iran, Malaysia,
  Indonesia, Thailand