DL TEACHING EXPERIENCE
#1
It’s not too long ago that Richard Coleman Douglas called me a LIAR when I said that I had been teaching by distance learning for 37 years. It will in fact be 40-years in September 2008!
For close to 24 years I worked on-campus for The Open Polytechnic of NZ as a Tutor, mainly in the mechanical engineering distance learning arena, having qualified in the UK as an engineering designer before emigrating to New Zealand.
In 1986 the Principal of TOPNZ, who just happened to be a shooting sports person, suggested that the time was right to introduce some non-vocational distance learning course – courses that would be of benefit to the country.
So, I suggested that TOPNZ should introduce a distance learning course in Firearms Safety. The Principal liked the idea and stated that if I could gain support from the NZ Mountain Safety Council and Police National HQ he would approve the course preparation. This was not difficult as at that time I was a member of the NZ Mountain safety Council’s FIREARMS SAFETY COMMITTEE and there were two senior HQ police officers on this committee!
The NZ Arms Act was drastically re-written in 1983 and required that everyone wanting a firearms licence must take a course of study, pass a test and then be considered as a FIT & PROPER PERSON to have a firearms licence.
So, I wrote the five module course covering:
FIREARMS LAW & SAFETY
TYPES OF FIREARMS USED IN NEW ZEALAND
FIREARM USAGE IN NEW ZEALAND
RELOADING RIFLE AND PISTOL AMMUNITION
RELOADING SHOTGUN AMMUNITION
The course was launched in 1987 as the first non-vocational course ever offered by the Technical Correspondence Institute.
Very rapidly successful completion of the course gained approval for the study and test requirements of the Arms Act, and today remains the only other means of complying with the Arms Act. The other method requires applicants to complete a NZ Mountain Safety Council lecture – and pass the NZMC examination.
On top of this recognition the NZ Government and the NZ Qualifications Authority put in place a process where a student completing the TOPNZ Firearms Safety course would be awarded seven Units on the NZQA National Framework (see www.nzqa.govt.nz ). I believe that such recognition is a ‘world first’ and clearly recognises the value of having sound firearm safety educational programmes. In fact this policy, when coupled with the requirements of the 1983 Arms Act and resulted in very little crime with firearms in New Zealand.
Some 20-years on we have seen over 5,000 Kiwi’s enrol for the TOPNZ course and the completion rate of over 70% is the highest for any distance learning course offered in New Zealand.
New Zealand has a long history of firearms usage and there are close to 300,000 firearms licence holders, with around 5000 new firearm licence applications each year.
Continual strong support for the TOPNZ DL course has come from the NZ Police, the Secondary schools, the NZ military, by the large numbers of shooting sports people who already have a firearms licence, and by people wanting a firearms licence.
In 1992 I opted out of on-campus teaching to pursue other interests, but I still handle and teach all TOPNZ Firearms Safety students – off-campus.
Later on I’ll provide some info on the course content for TOPNZ’s highly successful firearms safety course.
So Richard Coleman Douglas can put that in his pipe and smoke it!
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#2
Rich would first have to figure out which end of the pipe to stuff the tobacco. Maybe he could ask John about it. We all know Rich has an answer for every question whether he knows the answer or not. Hell, he may not even know what the question was.

He doubts what you say and he doesn't even know you and has never met you in person, and yet he claims to know all the places you have worked and all you have done and why you did it, now isn't that strange? An all knowing knowledge of what he doesn't know or even suspect.

I read the material you presented for your Doctorate and I read his. Yours was by far the more in depth and done in a more professional manner. In reality I did not find his that bad, but yours was better. In truth he did two things I will forever be grateful for. He wrote a dissertation proving himself wrong in all his public statements about the usability of unaccredited degrees, and, he proved US right.  Now that's not a bad days work for a former MIGS / Greenwich / VIU, employee. Smile
James
A.S., B.S., M.B.A.
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