Introduction

This section on flexible learning uses the term in its broadest sense to include all aspects of open and distance learning and issues related to life-long learning. It is concerned with flexible ways of delivering courses and instruction and, as a consequence, with the more flexible approaches to learning which learners have to adopt. An understanding of flexible learning approaches to education becomes ever more important as class size continues to increase and further and higher education becomes more readily available to a wider population, including adult learners. The resource materials which follow cover the many aspects and issues surrounding flexible learning.

Resource Materials

• Practical Pointers to Flexible Learning
  Higher Education consultant Phil Race originally hosted the pages on flexible learning. This link takes you to materials which were specially produced for Deliberations by Phil.
• Papers on Resource-Based Learning from the Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development (OCSD)
  Resource-based learning is closely linked to the notion of flexible learning. This link takes you to a list, which includes extracts from papers related to flexible learning published in Deliberations. The extracts are reprinted, with permission, from the OCSD Course Design for Resource-Based Learning series.
• Flexible Delivery - What is it and why is it a part of current educational debate?
  A paper by Ted Nunan delivered at the 1996 conference of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia. Various aspects of flexible delivery and flexible learning are discussed, such as the impact of information technologies and the competitive nature of flexible learning provision.
• The Critical Place of Information Literacy in the Trend Towards Flexible Delivery in Higher Education Contexts
  A paper by Rigmor George and Rosemary Luke delivered at at the Learning for Life Conference, Adelaide, Australia in 1995. It discusses various issues relating to flexible delivery of instruction, in particlar that of information literacy and the role of academic librarians.

Readers' Comments: A lively and continuous process of debate on learning and teaching in higher education is a key aim of Deliberations. We invite you to share your thoughts on this topic with other readers. Comments are posted in the comments archive.