Overview
Dr Maralyn Druce is a Clinical Reader in Endocrine Medicine and a Consultant Physician and Endocrinologist in the William Harvey Research Institute.
In 2010, she established a Postgraduate Diploma/MSc in Endocrinology and Diabetes. This was a distance learning programme from the outset, with no on campus equivalent.
From an initial cohort of 18 students in 2010 the programme has grown year on year with 49 students in the latest cohort. A total of 180 students have enrolled on the course overall.
Dr Druce was the recipient of a Bronze Award in the "Best online distance learning programme" category in the E-Learning Awards 2014.
In her talk she highlights what she has learned as part of her experience in managing a successful distance learning programme here at QMUL.
Useful links
Course description on the QMUL website.
Take a look at the taster course available on QMplus, use the guest login and the password "endocrinology".
Highlights
Dr Druce's key dos and don'ts from her experience. If you'd like to know more, you can listen to her talk below, timings indicate where she covered each point.
Dos
- Start for the right reasons (3:22)
- Get the processes right (4:30)
- Engage and educate your teaching faculty (5:01)
- Get the right help early (5:52)
- Engage with educational theory (6:46)
- Know and understand your potential market and what students will need (8:15)
- Think about accessibility (10:22)
- Build a community of learners (12:02)
- Give options for 'knowledge construction' (13:22)
- Get your assessment strategy right (and workable) (14:46)
- Try to create a community for 'after' (15:32)
- Be flexible, change things that don't work well (15:50)
Don'ts
- Assume it is less work just because people can't 'see' it (16:11)
- Be surprised that your students have other priorities (16:54)
- Have unrealistic expectations of central services (17:27)
- Let challenges put you off completely (18:02)
What would really help? (20:06)
Going forward, Dr Druce highlighted the things that would really help her to deliver her distance learning programme:
- Taking distance learning seriously as an institution. Being more than a strategy, a "community of interest" or relying on enthusiastic individuals
- Having proper distance learning guidance and real support
- Having Learning Technologists based in the School/Department/Institute
- Investing in infrastructure to support distance learning
- Having assistance with business planning
- Exploiting experience and economies of scale