'From Competence to Excellence': A systems view of staff development for part-time tutors at-a-distance

The practices of part-time teachers in higher education are often different and sometimes divorced from the activities of their full-time colleagues. This is particularly true in the UK Open University where course design and production are the domain of full-time academics, and student learning is traditionally supported by part-time teachers. Higher education in the UK is increasingly responding to quality agendas that demand evidence of competence in teaching together with coherent learning and assessment strategies for students. Such demands can have positive benefits for learning across an institution, but introduce particular challenges wherever universities rely on part-time tutors to supplement full-time academics' work; they present even more difficulties where the tutors are geographically dispersed. One idea emerging from a 3-year research project in the Open University draws on theories of activity and practice to suggest that, even in a distance-learning context, staff development for part-time teachers should be embedded in conversations with the academic practices of full-time staff. Such connections would enhance the coherence of student learning in line with quality agendas.