CHArt Seventeenth Annual Conference

Sylvia Lahav, Tate Modern, London, UK, Mac Campeanu and Jean Kerrigan, City Literary Institute, London, UK
The Tate Modern and City Literary Institute online distance learning course about Tate Modern

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Tate Modern and the City Literary Institute have jointly devised, developed and produced an online distance learning course about Tate Modern. The course takes as its focus the theme of Landscape, looking first at Tate Modern within the London landscape and then at works on display in the Landscape/Matter/ Environment suite.

The course is eight weeks long and is intended for those for whom a gallery visit may be difficult or even impossible as well as in preparation for a future visit. So far, participants have been based in countries as far apart as Brazil and the Czech Republic.

The course is based around 8 weekly projects delivered on CD-Rom, making extensive use of specially prepared 360 degree QTVR virtual gallery views, video (with BSL interpretation), audio of curators and artists, and web links. Students then go online for seminars with other students and tutorials with Tate curators, and City Lit and Tate tutors. The project is currently in a pilot phase. It uses the internet, email and delivers its contents on a CD-Rom, through a web browser format.

This paper examines the process of creating and running an online course. It analyzes the experience of students who have so far participated and poses questions about the potential successes and failures of this type of distance learning. In particular it raises the following questions:

1. What makes this type of learning experience different and what are the benefits and disadvantages?
2. Are online students any different from those who attend conventional courses?
3. What new skills do tutors need?
4. What effect do the higher cost implications have?
5. What of the future for online and web based courses?

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