Distance Learning
Introduction to the Courses

Everybody joining one of these Distance Learning courses in Scottish History becomes an enrolled part-time student at the University of Dundee. The fees are paid to the University of Dundee, and the student receives extensive guidance material produced under the direction of the staff of the Programme located within the History Subject Area of the School of Humanities there. The staff on the Programme act as co-ordinators and directors of the course, and supervise the work of tutors selected from experts in Scottish History from around Scotland. They provide guidance and support to the learning of students wherever they may be in Scotland, England, Wales or Northern Ireland, or in Europe or the rest of the world. Through the use of email or telephone, with the postage of materials (including course books), the student receives regular contact with those skilled in providing supported learning. Each student sends essays (known as Tutor Marked Assignments - TMAs) to their assigned tutor, and receives comments and marks back from them. At the end of the course, each student's grades are calculated in a University of Dundee examination board.

Students who are enrolled with the Open University can take these courses as part of their degree study with the OU. The courses are scheduled to the same programme as that of the OU, and the material supplied to students (such as study guides, course guides, TMA materials and other support material) will be highly familiar in format and design to those which will have been encountered on OU-originated courses. Indeed, the courses have been designed and are operated with the full knowledge and approval of the Open University as part of the collaborative programme that the OU has been developing. In this way, students on the OU should find the courses familiar, and should fit comfortably into the learning regime that they have previously encountered. The courses begin in February each year and last for 33 weeks. They are equivalent to junior honours/ OU Level 3 and carry 60 SCOTCAT points. They are available to students throughout the world.

For non-OU students, the courses should be equally appealing. Provided that you meet the entry requirements, and are accepted on the course of your choice, the learning regime, materials and support provided by tutors should make for a pleasing, challenging yet fascinating programme of learning about Scotland's past. The materials have been carefully prepared, tailored and trialled. The books which accompany the courses are high-quality publications, the product of meticulous research by large numbers of scholars, and with carefully-crafted exercises, bibliographies and guides to all aspects of the subjects covered.

The result is a comprehensive programme of study that, in its coverage and in its depth, is the leading Distance Learning programme available anywhere in Scottish History.

The historians.
The courses are based around the scholarship of the leading historians in Scottish History. The number, quality and diversity of researching historians has grown tremendously in the last decade, and the ten volumes of books reflect this. The Course Directorate commissioned specially-written essays, collections of readings and documents from the Scottish past from scholars from the world's leading centres of Scottish historical research and writing. The historians who have written for the course have each published in their various fields, usually in book monograph and article format in learned journals. The scholars (whose names are listed below, ext to the contents of the volumes) are or have been attached to the following institutions:

• University of Dundee
• The Open University
• University of Aberdeen
• University of Edinburgh
• University of St Andrews
• University of Stirling
• University of Strathclyde
• University of Glasgow
• University of Paisley
• University of Guelph, Canada
• University of Tübingen
• National Museums of Scotland
• University of Münster
• NHS Tayside
• Scottish Urban Archaeology Trust
• Brock University
• Lancaster University
• University of Nottingham