Dual tyrannies: breaking the chains of campus and distance education

Abstract

This paper is based upon a small scale research project (n = 122) concerned with identifying the experiences and learning support needs of students studying distance education modules for access with advanced standing to more traditional campus-based education and training for nurses. The context of the study is two-fold. The first context examined is the increasing concern at national policy levels in the UK of being able to identify the value-addedness of achievement in higher education. The second context is the development planning and goals of one campus-based institution of higher education to develop an approach to the provision of education and training that seriously confronts and overcomes the dual tyrannies of campus and distance education. Often, the two kinds of education are posited as diametric opposites, when the study shows that this ought not to be so. As part of the research, content analysis of the related study packages has been carried out to assess their relationship to learning styles, cognitive styles, personal constructs, past experiences and capacity to learn independently. Results suggest that flexible learning, which combines a range of learning, teaching and tutorial arrangements, both face-to-face and at a distance, is the most effective way of providing higher education. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for breaking current orthodoxies or tyrannies in higher education.