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The on-line PPLATO Foundation Programme
In
October 2004 the Physics Department at the University of Reading plans to pilot
an on-line Physics Foundation Programme for students wishing to study physics or
mathematics from home to prepare for entry into degree courses.
The programme is also suitable for personal or career development for
those who may have no intentions of further degree level study.
In this case the programme is free-standing.
Students work either full-time (about 30 hours per week) or part-time
(about 15 hours per week), with on-line tuition provided by experienced
university tutors. A one week
residential laboratory school is available as part of the physics programme.
The October 2004 programme will be a pilot for future years, so numbers
must be restricted. Also, for this
year it is possible to study this as a free-standing programme as well as part
of a degree course.
This
innovation stems from the Department’s lead role in a major national research
project that is developing resources to widen participation in physics.
The project is called PPLATO (Promoting Physics Learning And Teaching
Opportunities) and the PPLATO Foundation Programme (PFP) is one outcome of this
project. The programme will be taught by members of the project team led by Dr
Mike Tinker, who is the Director of PPLATO, a National Teaching Fellow and a
holder of the Institute of Physics Bragg Medal and Prize for Physics Education.
He developed the original on-site Reading Foundation in Physics programme
in 1993 and has directed it since then. PPLATO teaching materials are at the cutting edge of learning
technology, including unique interactive teaching texts and computer-aided
learning.
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staff
The Team