It is with much pleasure that I welcome all prospective cohort
for the BEd Secondary (Distance) Programme. Today November 8,
2003 marks 2 years since the launch of the BEd Secondary (Distance)
Programme. The first year, 2002 was a Planning Year and the second
year, 2003 has been the first year of Programme Delivery.
The first cohort of students will tell you that
there have been some teething pains. I wish to commend those students
who took responsibility for their learning and helped with the
Problem-Solving Process every step of the way from January 2003
through to our present stage – that of term 3 of Year 1.
One of the main challenges of this programme is that its implementation
is aligned to the Calendar Year and not to the regular Academic
Year of the University [August-June]. In other words, when the
BEd Secondary (Distance) Programme students are experiencing semester
1 in January, regular University students are experiencing semester
2.
The BEd Secondary (Distance) Project Unit greatly
appreciates its many business partners at UWI. Without them, your
programme would not have taken off as smoothly as it did in January
2003. Some of these parties are – Special Projects Office,
The Bursary, The Registry, Purchases Department, Teaching Departments,
UWIDEC [including the local sites], and the Main Library.
We are pleased to inform our students that as
of January 2004, most of the Distance-Taught courses will be delivered
On-Line. This means that each student must have access to a personal
computer and internet service. This also means that there will
be much less teleconference sessions to attend [in some cases
there may be none], hence less headaches for students and their
school Principals in terms of release from school during the workday.
We implore you to take full responsibility for
your learning. Register early, read your handbook carefully, monitor
your status on the Student Registration System [SRS] regularly,
read notice boards at the local sites and keep in touch with us
at the Project Unit.
Best wishes
Gloria M. Morgan [Mrs.]
