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Distance Learning – specifically online distance learning – is a cornerstone of Egyptology teaching here at the University of Manchester. And it will continue to be so with the recent addition of the world’s first online MA Egyptology programme.

Dr Joyce Tyldesley has spearheaded this development since the mid-2000s, working on the cutting edge of online learning technologies. Together with Dr Nicky Nielsen who joined the team in 2016, she has gathered a wealth of experience and data based on student feedback and many trials and errors.

Distance Learning can often be difficult for universities and faculties to grasp. On the surface it looks like a simple proposition – it’s just teaching but online instead of in a classroom. But effective online teaching requires unique knowledge and skills, including technological and pedagogical. The rapid development of Distance Learning in UK universities has meant that pedagogical methods and guidelines specifically designed for Distance Learning tutors have had to play a constant game of catch-up.

Dr Tyldesley and Dr Nielsen are hoping to change this by using the decade of experience at the University of Manchester as a case study for how to develop effective Distance Learning for the Humanities. They have now signed contracts with Routledge to publish their case study as a book in the Routledge Focus series. The book will be published as From Mummies to Microchips: A Case Study in Effective Online Teaching Developed at the University of Manchester. The book will be published in 2020 and will provide a research-based, but also user-friendly, guide to developing, maintaining and evaluating distance learning courses in Higher Education.