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from 2 - Distance Learning and Electronic Media in Teaching Astronomy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2011
Background
The Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) in the UK was launched in 1992 to “develop innovations in teaching and learning through the power of technology”. Increasing numbers of students with mixed abilities and backgrounds were entering into higher education. Flexible course structures and the need for remedial teaching added further motivation in the search for methods of improving productivity and efficiency.
Since 1992 over 33 million of funding has been awarded to 76 projects spanning the university curriculum. When support from host institutions is taken into account, overall funding for the TLTP is estimated at 75 million. TLTP materials are now becoming available to assist institutions in maintaining and enhancing the quality of their teaching provision. The successful implementation of this new technology is requiring each institution to rethink its teaching and learning strategies (Laurillard, 1993).
Approximately one quarter of the projects are based on a single institution and are concerned with the culture change, the integration of technology and staff development. The remainder are consortia concerned with courseware development and involve staff from between two and fifty universities.
Astronomy is represented within one of the largest consortia, the UK Mathematics Courseware Consortium (UKMCC), which has received 1.3 million of TLTP funding. Other projects include Software Teaching of Modular Physics (SToMP) and Statistics Education through Problem Solving (STEPS).
UK Mathematics Courseware Consortium
Mathwise, the product of the UKMCC, is an exciting new computer-based learning environment for students of mathematics in the sciences and engineering (Beilby, 1993 and Harding, 1996). A set of fifty modules in foundation mathematics and its applications are being developed.
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