Working with student expectations of tutor support in distance education: testing an expectations-led quality assurance model

Abstract

In the early to mid 1990s, I was working as part of a teaching team with the Open University. An issue that we were trying to resolve led to a fruitful line of research which to collect students’ views or, more explicitly, their expectations of the teaching, learning and assessment aspects of their course. From this a model was suggested; the ELPO model (Stevenson, Sander and Naylor, 1997.) which was arguing that in the design of effective learning environments, teachers / tutors could do well to start with the expectations that students have. These expectations could be either met or managed, but one of these approaches is necessary in order to create satisfied students. This paper, some 10+ years on from the start of the research theme reports on a collaborative venture with distance educators in Ireland, implementing on a larger scale this approach to engaging with distance learners.