Tuesday, October 23, 2001

University of Ulster Opens Online Portal in Bid to Draw Distance-Education Students By DOUG PAYNE The University of Ulster has created an online portal that makes available all of the institution's e-learning courses, including innovative biomedical and nursing programs. University officials say they hope to enroll at least 1,000 American students in their distance-education programs. The portal, called Campus One, was developed in association with academic partners in the United States and Hong Kong. It also makes available to online students all of the university's auxiliary services for students -- including libraries, academic- and student-support programs, counseling services, and career guidance. Because online learning requires different skills than its classroom counterpart, Campus One includes an introduction to online learning that students start two weeks before beginning a course. The introduction includes information on learning skills, time management, and coping with stress, as well as on communication, teamwork, problem solving, and learning to learn. Clive Mulholland, the university's director of lifelong learning, is in charge of the project. He says the university's master's program in biomedical science was the world's first master's program in the subject to be delivered entirely online. "Our master's in disaster-relief nursing by e-learning is also a first," he says, adding that the university is working with the University of Rochester to deliver the program in the United States. "At Rochester, we are working with the faculty of medicine and nursing to adapt the program to include nursing disasters that involve weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical and biological agents." Campus One currently has more than 1,100 online students. Few, so far, are from the United States, but, says Mr. Mulholland, "we plan to have over 1,000 American nursing and allied-health students online within the next 12 months." Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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