The Distance Learning Office provides a range of support for staff, from professional development workshops to email templates for sending to your students.
Staff newsletter
Distance staff have their own newsletter! The newsletter, called 'Your Distance Campus', is produced monthly from February to December, and will arrive early each month as a link in an email.
The newsletter contains reminders and notices about events and happenings, as well as important information for your distance teaching.
To sign up to get the newsletter or send us feedback and ideas, please email distance.learning@otago.ac.nz
Professional development
Find out what's on offer in the 2024 Distance Learning Professional Development Programme through the Distance Learning Office.
Staff forums – Teaching and administrators' forums
Distance Learning Advisory Committee
At a strategic level, the distance learning community at Otago is represented on the Distance Learning Advisory Committee. Meeting four times a year, the Committee comprises representatives from each of the divisions and is convened by the Dean, Learning and Teaching.
Full membership, meeting dates and terms of reference are on the University of Otago Council website:
Distance Learning Advisory Committee
You are welcome to raise issues with your divisional representative.
Useful resources
Student questionnaire
At the start of any paper it is always very useful to find out a little about your students. This resource is a series of questions that you might like to use as the basis of a questionnaire to help you gather some information about your students' experience, background and expectations. The students will be prompted to think about why they have enrolled for the paper and to clarify their expectations. Building students' self-knowledge is a good step in helping them to prepare for their learning, and knowing this information will inform your teaching.
Student Profile Questions (PDF)
Student support email templates
This resource outlines an easy and quick way to build engagement with distance students and to tell them about the range of information and support resources that are available at the University. Messages do not need to be sent individually to be effective. A "class" message - the same to every student – will do. Although the resource is called "Email support", any technology is okay. Use Blackboard, email, even Facebook to send the messages.
Rationale and sample messages (PDF, 339.9 KB)
Contact the Distance Learning Office - distance.learning@otago.ac.nz for the full range of support messages.
Support books
We have three support books to help staff and students involved in distance education at the University of Otago. They are:
- The Distance Learning Information and Support Book for Staff
- The Distance Learning Information and Support Book for Students
- The Distance Learning Guide to the Library
To request the link to the support books, please email us at distance.learning@otago.ac.nz.