Access To HE: Diploma In Health Distance Learning with Middlesbrough College

The college’s subject matter experts and Discover eLearning worked together to decide that the course should offer a variety of digital learning methods and styles, including video, exercises and games, and live Skype sessions with tutors to cement key topics of learning and to acknowledge progress made throughout the year. These needed to be engaging to achieve retention targets, so were planned to be as fun and engaging as possible.

The use of a design framework and a clear focus on digital pedagogy ensured that the programme was delivered on time and in line with Middlesbrough College’s requirements and expectations on quality. This was imperative, as each module of the programme needed to be prepared and ready to welcome students on a bi-monthly basis.

The finished project reflected the excitement of starting a new course by taking students on a journey down ‘Access Street’; a virtual, animated 2D street containing interactive course materials, seminars and help areas all built inside of the college’s own virtual learning environment, Canvas LMS. The course also included elements of humour in response to previous access courses the college had seen, which they believed to be dry and disengaging for learners.

The tutors featured throughout the course threw themselves into the part of acting and presenting in many of the course videos. They became recognisable faces to the learners following their group and one-to-one Skype calls, and seeing the tutors in these videos provided more opportunities to build engagement and a learner-tutor relationship.