Dear Colleagues

Somewhat belatedly, here is my (rather lengthy) contribution to the debates on
learning technology and handouts, triggered by David Anderson and David
O Halloran respectively.

I see both of these as aspects of a much broader issue, namely the extent of a
tutor s responsibilities for learner support, particularly outside of the
lecture theatre, seminar room, computer suite, laboratory etc, and the
discharge of these responsibilities. In my view, this issue has been thrown
into sharper relief in recent years by the many changes we have been
experiencing in HE, especially the reductions in learner-tutor contact time.
The current position in my field (business and management) is that for a 20
credit unit, of  the 200 hours learning time that students are expected to
devote to their studies, 25% or less involves face-to-face contact with a tutor
(and even this is in relatively large groups). Thus, most of a student s
learning time is essentially self-managed.

Amongst my colleagues, there are many differences of view as to how much
support they should provide students to enable them to realise the full
potential of their self-managed learning time. At one extreme, there are those
who could be described as  minimalists  They take the view that students should
not be provided with anything (including lecture handouts) beyond a reading
list, since this undermines the principles of  reading  for a degree and of
 independent learning . At the other extreme are the  maximalists , who argue
that today students need far more support, both paper-based and electronic,
especially in coping with the transition from secondary/further education to
higher education. I tend to fall into the latter camp. Thus, for the unit I
lead, students receive a 48 page unit learning scheme, which explains how the
unit is delivered, including an explanation of the learning outcomes and their
relationship to the assessment arrangements, and 236 pages of open learning
style learning support materials, which provide them with the knowledge and
conceptual base of the unit. In addition, there is a unit web site containing
amongst other things self-assessment multiple choice questions, links to
relevant WWW sites  and power point presentations from the lectures. Having the
learning support materials means that lectures can be used for purposes other
than the dissemination of basic material, such as providing further guidance on
assessment tasks and exploring just one aspect of a topic in greater depth.

This mix of paper-based and electronic materials is intended to add value to,
not replace, face-to-face learner support and reflects the point made by
Sandra. Simply dumping materials/resources, that were previously paper-based,
on the web (which can happen when targets are set) does not, in my mind, result
in an on-line/e-learning facility. In my view, the web should only be used for
forms of support that it would be difficult or impossible to provide by other
means. Thus, I am very much in sympathy with the point made by A G White.

Because student self-managed learning has become such a big concern for us, we
have just embarked on a major research project. This involves looking
systematically at student self-managed learning time from the perspective of
both tutors as well as students. More specifically it is intended to:-

map the support, with respect to extent and format, that students taking our
business, management and finance units receive to help them in utilising their
self-managed learning time to best effect;

explore staff attitudes to student support of this kind; and

determine which forms of support are best for enhancing student motivation and
learning.

Any thoughts on this project would be most welcome.

Roger Ottewill
Centre for Business Education Research
School of Business and Finance
Sheffield Hallam University