Flexible delivery
Flexible Delivery Plan (pdf, 140 KB)
Why flexible delivery?
The Australian National University is committed to achieving greater flexibility in learning and teaching. Today's students seek to combine study with paid employment, and demand greater flexibility in how and where they learn, and new, digital media give us the opportunity to better deliver courses in more flexible modes.
Postgraduate coursework (PGC) students, who are being strategically targeted by the University to become a larger proportion of the student body, particularly require flexible learning options. They will generally be seeking professional refreshment while working full-time and will need to be drawn from outside Canberra, if numbers are to be significantly increased. At the same time as students' needs and expectations are changing, developments in pedagogical philosophy and technology allow academic staff to be creative and innovative in modes of delivery without compromising academic standards. Flexible delivery does not mean “dumbing down” of education.
In moving towards more flexible learning, CASS is conscious that:
- Flexible learning at The ANU needs to recognize that it is, and will remain, primarily a campus-based University, with a strong residential component supporting a community of scholarship. This is one of its distinctive strengths.
- Good quality educational design is a key to flexible learning.
- Learning environments for students should move beyond ones in which students are seen as passive recipients of information communicated to them by the teacher.
- The use of digital technologies and communication should enhance rather than diminish the learning experience for ANU students.
The nature of flexibility: Blended Learning converging classroom and communications technology