DELIVERY OF DISTANCE LEARNING

CoLT has developed an online system for the delivery of distance learning which is tailored to the needs of course tutors and their target audience of learners.

This system is called PILL - The Plymouth Internet Learning Lab.

PILL's main features are:

Standards: to deliver distance learning according to a set of standards. These standards have been developed by building on best practice as identified within the University of Plymouth and by external agencies such as HEFCE and JISC.

Interactivity: PILL encourages and supports interaction between students and tutors, through the use of Bulletin Boards, online Tutorials and Seminars and email.

Management and administration: PILL allows for a great deal of control and flexibility over how a tutor can run a course and has system administration features which allow for aspects of course design such as web site promotion, server statistics and error checking.

Tracking: provides a range of tracking statistics and summaries based on the activity and needs of learners and tutors. For example, at any one time a tutor can ask for the socioeconomic breakdown of all students who have enrolled on a course and compare this with the pathways taken by learners through the programme of study.

Registration: provides a flexible and creative approach that allows tutors and/or providers of web based materials to choose from a wide range of options (such as email confirmation, web based confirmation, use of cookies, etc.).

Integration: PILL has always worked with supporting systems such as library and registration to produce an integrated distance learning system.

This PILL system has evolved over four years and has supported over 20 tutors and 1500 learners. Courses which have run through PILL include:

• People Management
• Headstart in Biology
• InPlaid
• Ship Resistance
• Using the Internet for Research
• Using the Internet for Business
• Learning to Learn On-line

 

DELIVERY OF e-BUSINESS AND e-COMMERCE WEB SITES, CD ROMS AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS

CoLT has developed web sites, CDs and information system products with a wide range of clients.

The approach to delivering a project for clients is based on a six step model. This model ensures that any web site, CD ROM or information system is popular and productive:

1) Audience - who will use the product.
2) Goals - what the product is for.
3) Planning - what can be expected in terms of time and money.
4) Design - a unique combination of interactive hooks, information, entertainment, image and other "essentials" of design. Our design portfolio is based on experience with working with over 1000 SME's and other groups both within and outside the academic sector.
5) Launch - how the audience will discover the product. As a group we are specialists in Web Site Promotion, and have developed our own database of key referrals from search engines and have carried out research on the effectiveness of a range of promotion strategies.
6) Maintenance - for example continued promotion and analysis of web server statistics.

The CoLT team aim to produce a solution that integrates the appropriate technologies for the needs of the client and the end user.

More information about our work is detailed in the CoLT portfolio.