Distance education. Part 1. Conceptualization and development.

INTRODUCTION

The Graduate Diploma/Masters in Family Medicine were developed at Monash University as distance education courses from a previous on-campus version of a Masters course in response to real and perceived needs for more flexible forms of delivery.

METHOD

Conceptualization and development involved consultation with experts in distance education and the application of adult learning principles, phenomenology and constructivism in course design.

CONCLUSION

Despite initial difficulties and delays, course objectives were met through the application of standardised distance learning and teaching methods applied to four core and 15 clinical elective subjects. These were developed within a three year period for delivery in a predominantly paper based format.