DOUBLY INVOLVED OR DOUBLY ISOLATED?: LEARNING THROUGH FULL TIME DISTANCE STUDY. WHAT THE STUDENTS SAY.

This paper reports on one aspect of a small study which is part of a larger project concerning the ways distance students make supportive connections with other people and build them into support networks. The paper notes how full time distance students perceive themselves as different and reports on experiences at either end of a continuum of engagement involving two communities that provide the primary contexts for full time distance students – the close community of family and friends and the more distant community of fellow students. The paper maps the breadth of contexts in which full time distance students are undertaking study as the starting point for ongoing investigations. The evidence for the extremes of involvement was taken from interviews with a small number of full time distance students who were studying for Bachelors or Masters degrees. The data made clear that students experienced considerable variation in levels of engagement with each other and with family and friends and this translated into markedly different levels of support. Possible reasons for and the implications of this variation are examined in the presentation