How Distance Learning works

We have created a virtual learning environment (VLE) which mirrors the learning experience of students attending Queen Mary. Students in attendance also use parts of the VLE which means that all students have the same access privilege and support.

Our virtual environment

On enrolment, you will be provided with an account to gain access to our Intranet as well as your personal homepage. All our module materials are made available on the Intranet, and you will be accessing these materials the same way as all our students.

All students have their own personal homepage where they can find information such as modules they are taking, deadlines for individual modules and coursework and examination marks.

Virtual lectures

DL students will be provided with recordings of live lectures within 48 working hours of the lecture taking place. These lectures will be made available for you to download via the Intranet. You will therefore hear and see exactly the same material as the students in attendance.

Please find below two sample lectures.

These are stand-alone files for download. Once you have saved it, you can watch it offline. File size ranges from 40MB to 80MB per lecture.

Lecture notes and supporting materials

Lecture notes and other supporting materials will be available via the intranet for each course and are accessed in the same way as internal students. By accessing the School network over a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection, you will have full access to all the electronic libraries to which the College subscribes, which includes IEE Explore.

Laboratory work

All the laboratory work on the DL programmes can be completed remotely, either on your own pc or via remote access to a designated server.

Coursework

The same coursework requirement applies to all students. You will be following each module at the same pace and similar deadlines for coursework apply. We use electronic submission for all coursework.

Message-boards

Here is where you can get help and ask questions. All modules have their own message-board and we ask all our students to post any enquires on these message-boards, so that everyone can see what has already been posted and the response. Message-boards have proven to be very successful and very useful for distance learning students. They not only provide a means for sharing knowledge and experience, but an effective way for all students to interact with each other.

Tutorials

You will be able to ask questions and discuss issues with your lecturers. To do this, "drop-in" video-conference sessions will be organised (please note: a webcam is required).