Distance Education Canadian Experience

In 1992 Athabasca University offered its Introduction to Labour Studies course at the Alberta Federation of Labour/Canadian Labour Congress (AFL/CLC) Spring School. The course used a mixed delivery mode (face-to-face teaching and distance learning with one week in the classroom and up to six months of home study). This course allowed for interactive and experiential classroom teaching and for some student-centred projects that asked students to relate the materials to their own work, union, family, and community.

Ten students enrolled in the course, eight manual workers and two clerical/administrative persons. There were four women and six men. They were quickly introduced to the course materials and the outline of the week’s work. A feature of the course was the reading time built into the program, which had a tight reading schedule set for the week. Students responded well to the course demands and took pride in keeping up with the reading and written work requirements. (For example, one student was “caught” reading at 7 a.m. while “walking” on the hotel exercise machine).

The students were team taught and covered the first two units and the first written assignment prior to pursuing home study to complete the course and the remaining three assignments. The union students were prepared for the home study element by an experienced tutor who is also a renowned union activist. One of the major problems that faced these very busy union activists was finding the time to continue with the course once they returned to work, home, and union commitments. Only 6 of the 10 completed all the assignments. As a consequence, AU faculty concluded that future courses would benefit from continuing interaction amongst students by way of audio, video, or computer conferencing. A computer conferencing version of this course is now available and has been successfully piloted with the Canadian Union of Public Employees on their SoliNet system (Taylor, 1996).

The mixed-mode delivery course and subsequent offerings in Alberta and at the Canadian Autoworkers Union (CAW) Family Education Centre, Ontario, demonstrated that part of an AU labour studies course could be delivered in a one week block, using adult participatory educational techniques, with the remainder of the course being completed through home study. It also demonstrated that motivated students (including some who may be described as previously educationally disadvantaged) could sustain a heavy reading schedule over the short period. The collectivism and shared experience of the first week of the course underlined the collectivist objectives of unionization, and the materials encouraged students to reflect critically on the context and content of unionism. Both students and the union have reported that the courses have resulted in increased union and community activity.