ABSTRACT
Students entering Higher Education now do so at a wide variety of ages and with different personal experiences. This increased accessibility to HE has resulted in an awareness that learning does not need to follow some predetermined path and that learning can indeed be a lifelong experience, not simply restricted to early adulthood. HE institutions need to determine how best to serve this new demand. The willingness to accommodate the changing student population can be seen in the increased number of modes within which a student can study: full-time, part-time and by distance learning. However, lifelong learning demands a flexible mode of delivery that spans all of these. Although distance learning has had considerable success, many students fail to complete courses. A key factor in this is the sense of isolation amongst distance learners and a perceived lack of support. Internet technologies offer a new range of opportunities to educators for the teaching and learning process. In this chapter we discuss one approach, using the VALIENT environment, which is being built specifically to support flexible and distance learning. This environment aims to offer the maximum flexibility to learners whilst maintaining a degree of support and interaction that will reduce the sense of isolation and alleviate the problems of studying primarily alone.
