TOWARDS A STRATEGY FOR SUPPORTING DISTANCE-LEARNING STUDENTS THROUGH NETWORKED ACCESS TO INFORMATION - ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN PREPARING TO SUPPORT THE DOCTORATE IN EDUCATION

This paper seeks to address the issues of supporting the Open Universi ty's postgraduate students through networked access to information. Th e paper positions the Open University, since it is at this point still a unique facility in terms of size and standing within the UK higher education system, in order to establish the need for quality Informati on Services, and for a scaleable model which can be applied to other p ostgraduate courses. The paper describes the support planned for the f orthcoming Doctorate in Education, the importance of a collaborative a pproach to the delivery of distance education, and the issues surround ing the evolving strategy for networked information provision.