Standards III : Support

A. The provider maintains and demonstrates a clear commitment to helping learners achieve their educational goals.

B. The learner has overall responsibility for his or her own learning, and is informed that the provider’s role is supportive.

Notwithstanding this, the provider offers to make a study agreement with the learner which specifies:

1. the nature and scope of the course;
2. the mutually-agreed anticipated outcome of the course, including any individual variations;
3. the services to which the provider is committed;
4. any disclaimers which protect the provider against changes in external circumstances which prevent him from delivering those services or realising the intended outcome;
5. the rights, obligations and commitments expected of the learner;
6. the financial agreement between the learner and the provider;
7. any allowance for special needs.

These matters may be covered by more than one document. The learner is made aware that this agreement may be legally enforceable.

C. Support offered is sufficient to meet the reasonable needs of learners, encourage the learning process and facilitate successful completion of the course.

In particular:

1. Guidance on study skills is provided for all learners.
2. Tutorial support is normally integral to all provision. Where this is not the case, the course material or other provision is capable of achieving its stated outcomes without such support, and the absence of such support is clearly indicated in all publicity and course material.
3. Where tutor support is offered, a good tutor will:
   1. have a sound understanding and up-to-date knowledge of their subject;
   2. know how learners learn, and help their students to learn how to learn;
   3. communicate enthusiasm for the subject, and for learning, to their students;
   4. show sensitivity to individual differences in ability and learning styles;
   5. understand the special requirements of open and distance learning;
   6. communicate clearly, consistently, conscientiously, constructively and quickly with their students;
   7. encourage their students at all times;
   8. provide feedback on overall progress in relation to the agreed outcome of the course;
   9. make effective use of feedback from learners to enhance their own performance as tutors.
4. Assessments are designed to support and encourage the learning process, as well as to monitor and establish the level of ability acquired by the learner.
5. If a significant element of the provision is technology-based, the provider ensures that the learner understands the system requirements, and has access to appropriate technical advice.
6. Appropriate administrative and academic advice and guidance is available to all learners. All enquiries from learners are handled promptly and sympathetically by a competent person.
7. Career counselling and placement services, if offered, do not make exaggerated claims.
8. Access to appropriate supplementary resources is facilitated.
9. Face-to-face or hands-on training is provided wherever it is a necessary to achieve the stated outcome of the course.

D. Support is offered on a prompt, timely and wherever possible personal basis.

Access to tutors is on a sufficient, regular, individual and flexible basis, which is known to both tutors and learners. Appropriate schedules for the submission and return of tutorial assignments are adopted and communicated to learners. Turnaround times are kept to a minimum.

E. Support offered is appropriate to the level of the course.

Peer group interaction and support for distance learners is encouraged and facilitated wherever possible through newsletters, new technologies or other means. Mentoring, and mentoring schemes, are encouraged and facilitated.

F. The provider has adequate procedures to handle any difficulties between the learner and the provider, and learners are made fully aware of all the avenues open to them to resolve those difficulties.

For example, if difficulties arise between a learner and a tutor, and an alternative tutor is available, this alternative is offered to the learner. Similarly, wherever possible, a learner has more than one point of access with the provider (for example through a tutor, or through an admissions officer or the principal), so that difficulties between particular individuals, should they arise, do not impede the learning process. In cases of serious difficulty, if no alternative is available, ODL QC can act as an access point.

G. Learners are encouraged to complete their courses. Progress is monitored, and learners are provided with prompt and helpful comments on their progress in relation to learning expectations and goals.

In particular:

1. Early contact with a learner is initiated by the provider whenever difficulties occur arising from the non-submission of assignments by the appropriate deadline, or the submission of unsatisfactory work. Providers are encouraged to investigate cases of learner withdrawal from a course.
2. Care is taken to support and encourage learners who submit unsatisfactory work;   learning support is only withdrawn after all reasonable efforts have been made to overcome their problems.
3. If the provider has significant doubts that the learner is ready to undertake a particular examination or piece of practical work, the learner is advised of those doubts. In cases where any risk to third parties is involved, the provider must reserve the right to prevent the learner from undertaking that piece of work, and the learner must have been informed of that right prior to enrolment.
4. All feedback maintains an appropriate balance between encouragement and realistic appraisal, and does not raise false expectations in the minds of learners.