Drug and Alcohol Education from a Distance: a good reason for collaboration

Abstract

Education by distance learning is a rapidly growing industry. The main attraction for learners is the flexibility to study when and where they like. There are other significant advantages too; by taking the course to the student, equity of access to education is improved and educational choices are widened. Yet education at a distance does have important limitations; it can impose considerable demands and constraints on the educational process that are all too rarely addressed in the literature. This paper examines the challenges faced by institutions offering distance-based courses. Specifically, the authors share their separate experiences of producing distance learning programmesfor drug and alcohol workers. There are special complexities inherent in the design, delivery and operation of drugs courses by distance learning and these are examined. Parochial perspectives on drugs issues assume less relevance as the target group for distance learning courses widens notably to include learners in other geographical areas and in other countries. The authors begin to explore the case for seeking national, and even international, consensus on what drug and alcohol education programmes should comprise. Collaboration between the educational institutions could be an effective way of identifying quality standards in drugs education in general and could assist course organizers in avoiding unnecessary replication of effort. Further flexibility for students could also be introduced in the form of a national credit accumulation and transfer scheme. Faced with an even greater choice of educational products, learners should benefit too from collaboration and the assurance that the courses they purchase have been designed and tested to meet their educational needs.