Conventional and Distance Education in a French Provincial University: A Modern Form of Personal Private Tuition

Abstract

In this short article, I intend, first to examine how the creation of a distance education department in a traditional university has been viewed and accomplished by its staff. Then, after discussing how this unexpected 'grafting' has taken root, with special emphasis on the development of a 'symbiotic' relationship between lecture theatre and distance education, I shall attempt to identify certain important aspects for the teacher of this two-pronged system. The Universite de Toulouse le Mirail enrols some 9ooo students in those areas of instruction served by the Distance Education Department, about 3000 of whom are rarely present at lectures or tutorials. Adopted as a starting point at the university has been the principle that this one student in every three ought to have the same lecturer and acquire the same level of knowledge as his more 'dedicated' student acquaintances. Living far from the university or any of many other possible material difficulties ought not to prevent him or her from bringing to the same courses of study the commitment expected of those able to attend teaching sessions regularly. This may be hazardous in so far as it is demonstrably easier to visualize a special curriculum for the ostensibly less assiduous, involving specialized teachers, suitably adapted courses and so on. Convinced that this strategy could eventually lead to an appreciable devaluation of the university's qualifications and to the onset of substandard education or of a 'fringe' group of under-educated students, the university decided in no way to distinguish between the 'zealous' or absent student, either in regard to allocation of teachers or examination assessment. Now yielding beneficial results, commitment to this approach has been maintained, although not without considerable effort. It is not intended here to dwell either on the material circumstances involved, since these are similar to those encountered in other comparable establishments, or on the institutional problems which this kind of system can create for an administrative framework not really designed to accommodate it. It is intended, instead, to focus essentially on the teachers, their general reaction to the novelty of the system and the difficulties they have had to overcome in adjusting to it, while attempting also a provisional assessment of the experiment both from the teaching and scientific points of view.