Pryce

The University College of the Caribbean (UCC), through its Office of Distance Education and Global Learning (DEGL), says it has partnered with Jamaica Amalgamated Cable System (JACS) and Cornwall Communications cable companies in St. Catherine and St. James, respectively, to deliver the content of its distance education business administration degree programmes to UCC-registered students in the distance programme, beginning next March.

UCC says for the past two weeks, its DEGL office has been spearheading a pilot project in St. James and St. Catherine using JACS and Cornwall Communi-cations cable platform to deliver content to coincide with end-of-module examinations now in progress.

"So far we are very pleased with the result of the pilot test project", reports Everton Pryce, the UCC's director of distance education. "The aim is to see to what extent we are able to deliver high-quality content to our valued students in two specific rural locations, in the first instance via regular cable technology, to compensate for those prospective students in the distance in some areas of Jamaica who face signal challenges in respect of wireless technology," Pryce explained.

Pilot programme

UCC launched its revolutionary distance-education pilot programme in November 2006 using wireless digital satellite cable technology. Faced with increased demand, it saw the need shortly thereafter, to broaden the technology platform for content delivery. Since then it has been exploring the capacity for adopting a hybrid approach to open-learning delivery utilising the Internet, regular cable and wireless technology.

"We are patiently building the best possible mix of technology for servicing our students in the distance who have shown a remarkable capacity for endurance in face of technical glitches and who equally testify that our offering of open distance learning is both revolutionary and highly relevant," Pryce stated. "What we are learning is that there is no one methodology to open distance learning."