Opening new doors - e-learning in Silves

“The Open University offers graduate degrees, Masters and Doctorates.

It also offers training courses for people throughout their lives. The sort that work under the European Credit Transfer System, and help people advance categorically in their professions”, adds Elsa Vieira.

To get an idea, the last scholastic year 2009/ 2010 ended with the graduating of 816 Open University students. This year (2010/ 2011), there are a total of 12,017 pupils on the books (nationally and elsewhere).

It goes without saying that the majority of these students wouldn’t qualify for courses offered by traditional universities – which is why so many of them have embraced distance learning in the digital age.

According to Else Vieira, “the Open University student is, in the main, someone who works - who is active in the job market. Our students are people of around 40 years of age, who want a chance to study”.

“The job market is very competitive. Employment is difficult. People want to invest in themselves because they know training is important, and they want to develop”.

Elsa Vieira has seen that “people often go for the active life, not the scholastic one” because they simply don’t have the resources to study. Re-capturing the possibility of further education is a question of opportunities.

But there’s a pejorative attitude to the “correspondence course”. Vieira recognises this stigma, but plays it down.

“What I can tell you is that the Open University, is very demanding of its students. Its graduates leave well prepared, as well as having a stronger kind of psychological make-up. They’re not like the 18 year olds who go into university and then leave for the workplace without any kind of real preparation – ready only to do what they’ve learnt, and nothing else. Open University students are much more mature kinds of people, already integrated into active lives, and there’s no reason to discriminate against them”.

With a Master’s in Portuguese Literature and Culture, Vieira testifies “from experience” that distance learning “is much more demanding that presential learning – much more intensive in terms of the work demanded by teachers. We have to be able to organise ourselves round work schedules. We have to demand more from ourselves”, she explains.

Although more and more people are interested, the way the Open University works is still a bit of an unknown quantity - shrouded in misconceptions and a certain amount of “information exclusion”. So, how DOES it all work?

Contrary to what happened in the past, this form of teaching uses up-to-the-minute Internet technology. So-called e-learning also has the advantage of promoting digital literacy.

“All pupils pass through an integration phase. They have an environmental-centering module that helps them get comfortable within this kind of system of education. They get used to the pupil platform, where they have an ID log-in and access password”.

“Then, pupils have access to the disciplines (curricula). Each one has its own learning contract – a document where everything that happens is explained: from the number of pupils, to the necessary documentation, the resources needed for studying, the books, objectives, etc.”

“We have students here aged 60! They may not be able to use a keyboard easily, but they know how to find out what they need”, Vieira adds.

An interesting aspect is the interactive form of the software used (in English, it’s called the Learning Management System, or to be more precise, Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment): the pupil is not alone and stays in contact with the teacher, and/ or other pupils. “Yes, and there are work projects that are distributed among pupils in the group”, tells Vieira.

And everything works via email. “The pupils is always kept up to date with everything – whenever it happens”.

And marking also takes place according to pupil availability. Someone who has a lot of free time can choose “continuous marking”, handing in work on a weekly or fortnightly basis.

It could be projects, experiments, the resolution of problems, or reports – and, at the end, there’s a 90-minute exam. Alternatively, “the pupil could opt to turn up and do a two and a half hour exam”, at the university centre, to conclude their course.

Exams are sat at the local learning centre (CLA). There are 13 of them scattered over the country – the nearest being in Grândola and Reguengos de Monsaraz. Silves’ CLA was due to open in 2008, but for various reasons, only began operating in 2010. Nonetheless, the protocol between Uab and the local council has been in existence for 15 years.

Next February, places open for the most “sought after” graduate courses. They’re not closed courses, as there’s no competition involved between those who want to enter. Pupils simply have to comply with certain formalities. They need to be over the age of 21, and, if they’ve got the 12th year, complete a specific exam for the course of their choice. If they’re over the age of 23 (and haven’t completed secondary education), they can do a general exam. All these tests are done online.

Graduate courses here last three years, according to the Bologna Process, and fees are fixed by the Government (at roughly two minimum salaries for the scholastic year). There are a large variety of subjects in humanities, social sciences and IT technologies. Masters degrees cost between 2000 and 3000 euros.

“Any pupil can candidate for internal scholarships offered by the university. Of course, the criteria are supplied by the Government”.

Founded in 1988, the Open University has already trained more than 10.000 students in 33 countries to a higher level of education. It has produced more than 400 books (many studied in traditional faculties), more than 3500 hours of audiovisual productions and 6000 hours of television – produced in its own studios.