Piloting a postgraduate distance learning course in Records Management for practising records managers

This article concerns the preparation and delivery of a part of an existing postgraduate records management course to a sample of records management practitioners at a distance. The project was a pilot study for the subsequent development of a distance learning course in records management in the Department of Information and Library Management at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle. The objectives were to investigate the practitioners' learning experience by analysing their thoughts and feelings recorded in a diary, to assess the suitability of existing learning materials and to identify appropriate delivery methods for different types of materials. Models of both learning and writing distance learning materials were adopted from the literature. Paper, audio and electronic materials were developed. The results will be used to make recommendations for developing the entire course.