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No internet?
No problem!
Val Hancock
COLMSCT Associate Teaching Fellow
vyh3@tutor.open.ac.uk
Centre for Open Learning of Mathematics, Science, Computing and Technology (COLMSCT)
Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302).
The OU
Associate Lecturer
(AL)
Student
Student in prison
COLMSCT
I've rumbled on
enough, but what a
superb new forum, just
what is needed.
I have also had a quick
look at the prison wiki great idea.
Just wonder what
colleagues do in this
situation?I hopefully
can and will see the
students F2F but what
about all the online
stuff?
Prison Tutors Forum
Are you allowed to take CDs or
USB sticks into the secure unit?
This is often a problem in prisons
and so in the past I've had to resort
to printing off things that would be
easier to transfer digitally
(assignments, CMAs etc). If you
can create a CD-R with all the
course website material on it
makes life much easier.
I taught in the library side room and a lot of other
prisoners would come to have a look and offered tea
regularly! I did have a panic button in there and found it
better to sit with my chair near the door and student
behind the table away from the door.
I know that I should not give out
my address/ phone number etc,
but I assumed that I should still
use my name when completing
pt3s and in correspondence.
Then I read somewhere that
name should perhaps not be
given. Do others use their name?
I am now a bit worried that I
have, particularly as my name is
quite unusual
There is no alternative to
electronic submission of the
ECA and if it can't be
submitted electronically he will
fail the course
Prison Tutor Support Wiki
Advice & Guidance
Practical advice for
tutors who have
students in prison
Alternative Approaches
Solutions for overcoming
problems due to lack of
internet access in prison
Prisons
Guidance on the
facilities and
requirements of
individual prisons
Tutor Pack
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Getting started
TMA00
M150 course website
General support
Useful forums
Useful sites
General Advice
TMA01
• Question 1 (i) (b)
• Question 1 (i) (f)
TMA02
• Question 2 (v)
• Question 3 (i)
• Question 3 (iii)
Specific Advice
Tutor questionnaires - design
Tutor questionnaires - results
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No student had access to the internet
2 prisons provided internet access to their staff
All the tutors would be happy to have another student in prison
Open-ended questions:
Emails to Learning centre staff and material sent
were passed on with minimal delay.
Access to the podcasts was difficult - in the end I
downloaded them to a CD and then had to post it
to the LC, as I wasn't allowed to take the CD into
the prison myself.
It is important for the tutor to know initially what
the student can and can't access
I wanted to do a Computing
degree but I have to do
Sociology instead because you
don’t need internet access for
that
We have to ask [prison
education employee] to print
things off at home and bring
it in for us
Not having internet access slows you
down. You have to get a book from the
library which they might have to get in
for you.
Student interviews (formal)
Prison education staff interviews (informal)
He can stand behind me and
tell me what to type in and
print off but he’s not allowed
to do it himself.
I didn’t know you could
submit assignments by email,
I thought you needed to go
to the website
We’ve got an intranet with Moodle.
Can we load the course website on it?
Student questionnaires
Further information
• Alternative approaches to online activities for prisoners
and others without access to the Internet (COLMSCT
project):
http://www.open.ac.uk/colmsct/activities/details/detail.php?itemId=474c44f736651&them
eId=48a9748015077
• An Objective Evaluation of Online Forum Usage
Amongst Prison Tutors in a Distance Learning
Environment (EISTA 2009 conference paper):
http://www.iiis.org/CDs2008/CD2009SCI/EISTA2009/Abstract.asp?myurl=E362EX.pdf
• Val Hancock: vyh3@tutor.open.ac.uk