20 September 2010: Beyond Distance has won a major international e-learning award as a result of its work on an online course offered by the Department of Politics and International Relations.

The International E-Learning Association (IELA) selected the Dissertation Module as the winner of the Academic E-learning category.

Drawn directly from the Carpe Diem learning design process, the Dissertation Module is part of a highly successful suite of distance learning MA courses in International Relations at Leicester.

The Dissertation Module uses e-tivities - a key component of the Salmon 5-stage model - that incorporate Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs and wikis to scaffold learners towards a structured path to a coherent, interesting and viable dissertation topic.

The adaptability of the Dissertation Module has seen it adopted by other distance learning departments at the university. It is also available as a fully repurposable open educational resource as an output of the OTTER project.

The Dissertation Module is the result of successful collaboration between departments and services, and illustrative of what can be achieved by drawing upon skills and experience contained within the University as a whole.  

Please visit the distance learning pages of the Department of Politics and International Relations for further details on this and other modules on offer.