Collaboration: a key principle in distance education

The University of Paisley has been supporting distance learning students on online supported courses for nine years. Its largest programme in this form is the B.Sc. Health Studies degree for health professionals. The delivery of this programme is dependent on the use of information and communications technology. But the essential ingredient for successful distance education is not the technology: it is collaboration between the key participants using that technology. In this case study the authors identify these key participants as administrators, teachers, technical support staff, librarians and students. They outline the collaborative processes that they believe are essential to a networked learning course. They draw lessons from their experience about the key role that collaboration plays in successful distance education.