More than 600 students have signed up this month for a wide range of degrees and certificate programmes which will be delivered online at IT Sligo, bringing the total online student population at the Institute to almost 1,300.
Over 270 online learners took part in the two-day induction course at the Institute which saw, among others, a group of Irish workers and co-workers in the Antipodes also gear up for their studies from afar.
There has been a 15% rise in the annual online intake of students at IT Sligo, which reflects the growing popularity nationally and internationally of distance and online learning. The Institute received national recognition last year when its Online Delivery Service won the Taoiseach’s Award for Excellence.
Gavin Clinch is a Programme Manager in IT Sligo’s Centre for Online Learning and Course Coordinator of the online, Construction Management programme. He vouches for its popularity at home and abroad.
“Last year we had 25 students from 10 different countries studying the course. We have students in Barrow Island, a remote island off Western Australia, in Papua New Guinea and in Fort McMurray, Canada who are working on large scale, industrial construction projects. We’ve had students who have completed their degrees and have never come to Ireland, not even for their exams. They studied it all remotely and further, took their exams off-site.
“We still have those students there and we’ve a lot more applications this year from other countries in Africa and Asia.”
He added: “It’s interesting that we have Irish people who have had to go abroad to get jobs and they are working in construction, like those in Barrow Island, and yet they feel like they’re ‘studying at home’.. They are on the other side of the world but they still come to us. They see the opportunity to get a degree and maybe come back to Ireland to work.”
Most courses are two-year part-time, ranging from Certificate to Postgraduate level. The current list of courses includes one-year, Springboard-funded Special Purpose Award and Minor Award programmes.
The majority of the two-year programmes are accessed online, with students learning and communicating using web-based resources. A number of them combine web-based studies with hands-on experience gained in learning sessions at the Institute.
The popularity of Science courses, such as biopharmaceutical programmes, and Engineering courses, such as Mechatronics, has again been highlighted in applications this year. And for the first time, the Institute’s online portfolio also contains two new online Business degrees – the Bachelor of Business in Management Applications and the MSc in Marketing.
Ms Ann Higgins, Head of Department of Marketing, Tourism and Sport, said: “The move towards online delivery is in response to our changing student cohort for whom full-time class attendance is not possible, either due to family, work or financial commitments. The flexibility afforded by the online delivery mode means that students can, in effect, learn where they live or work and at a time that suits them.”
The students who gathered for introductory presentations by staff and familiarisation tours of the Institute and its laboratories, training areas and lecture halls, came from a wide mix of backgrounds.
Some, taking Special Purpose Awards, want courses as a stepping stone into full-time employment. Others are sponsored by their companies or pay their own fees. This provides a significant personal and academic opportunity for the individual while also adding to organisations’ professional profile as they compete for major contracts.
Students are also taking courses which will qualify them to progress in their careers or even switch careers and others are taking courses because they have a special interest in the subject matter.
For more information on the part time on-line programmes delivered by IT Sligo click here.
Caption photo (above): Students and staff from the online courses in business which are being offered online this year for the first time, the Bachelor of Business in Management Applications and the MSc in Marketing.
Caption photo (top): More than 600 students have signed up for online courses at IT Sligo, starting this month. Pictured here are some of the students and their lecturers at an induction day at the Institute.