Distance education: strategies for maintaining relationships.

Experience with Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in the Bachelor of Applied Health Science (BAppHSc) course suggests that one of the key elements for students is the sense of relationship built up through Problem Based Learning (PBL). Failure to retain students is more likely to be related to personal than academic concerns. The low attrition rate is largely attributed to the sense of community and support the course generates. In 1997, the Centre for Indigenous Health, Education and Research offered the BAppHSc to rural Queensland. Campuses were opened in the Torres Strait and Cairns, with 9 and 5 students respectively. The course consisted of PBL sessions, fixed resource sessions provided by local staff or guest lecturers, video-conferencing and the use of videos, or text. Face-to-face contact hours were concentrated into two blocks of one and two weeks respectively, plus one day per week. Course materials such as journal articles and texts were provided. The nine Torres students and three Cairns students completed the first semester. This paper discusses the differences between the centres and examines strategies for maintaining the sense of relationship in distance education settings. In 1999 applications from other remote areas are challenging the model further. Multiple technologies are envisaged and discussed. In addition, similar methods are being applied to post graduate courses and collaboration with other institutions in the Pacific suggested. This would allow cross crediting of such course-work into a range of courses and institutions, reducing duplication and increasing options.