DISTANCE learning, as the phrase suggests, is studying at arm’s length from the place of instruction. However, many distance learning programmes, including MSc courses, do involve at least an element of face to face tuition.

Dr Christina Lloyd, head of teaching and learner support at the Open University (OU), says many of the OU’s programmes include face to face support, and some require attendance at residential schools.

MScs can involve anything from six to ten hours of such immediate contact. The more students on a course in an area, the more likely it is that tutorials will be offered locally.

When students are thinly spread, they are more likely to be offered support at a single location, to which they have to travel. If a student is doing a popular MSc and lives in London, the chances are that face to face support will be available locally. However, students in Dorset may have to travel to London or Southampton for help.

Over the years, the number of residential schools offered by the OU has diminished – partly because students have less time to attend them and partly because new technologies make it possible to support learning in other ways. New technologies can deliver simulation exercises, online case studies and interaction via conferencing.

Sometimes residential schools are the only way of providing a particular experience – for example visiting a museum or conducting fieldwork.

The OU’s business school still requires attendance at residential school but these tend to be shorter than in the past – a weekend or a few days midweek rather than a full week. If students enroll on a course that has a residential component, they are expected to make every effort to attend.

If attendance is impossible because of a disability or caring responsibilities, an alternative can sometimes be provided using simulation exercises. In the OU, face to face tutorials have been part of the teaching for 40 years. While they are voluntary, students are advised to attend.

Open University MScs with residential school components include the strategic management in life sciences and health care module in the MSc in science – two-and-a-half residential days; the shaping public policy module in the MSc in development management – four days; and the creativity, innovation and change module, which counts towards eight different MSc awards – two-and-a-half days.

“Although we are deemed to be a distance learning organisation,” Lloyd says, “our support structures are such that we offer more personal support to students through a named tutor than many conventional institutions because we also use a variety of channels: e-mail, phone, face to face and the old-fashioned letter.”

Leicester University has just launched a new distance-learning MSc in actuarial science. As part of this programme, the university offers residential schools twice a year, usually running them about a month before the students sit their professional examinations.

The residential schools allow students and tutors to engage with one another, take part in seminars and undertake intensive revision. The schools are not compulsory because it is not always practical for students to take time off work.

Tara Smith, administrator in Leicester’s mathematics department, says the university would like to think that the sessions help students to prepare for exams, and also to provide an opportunity to meet one another and share information about working in the profession and how to find jobs. SIMON MIDGLEY