It is a university that never sleeps - thousands of students across the world studying remotely at the same institution 24 hours a day. Forget noisy classrooms with teachers trying to gain control; enter peaceful learning environments where the only noise is the hum of PCs and the occasional voice of students asking questions.
This is the objective of Edinburgh's Interactive University (IU), a teaching programme that, over the past 18 months, has attracted 75,000 students from more than 23 countries. In sharp contrast to the failure of its English counterpart, UkeU, which had signed up only 900 students when it was scrapped in June, the IU has seen a 75% increase in student numbers over the past year.
A spin-off from Heriot Watt University, the IU adapts courses from Scottish schools, colleges and universities, sell ing them online to partner institutions around the globe. Since its introduction early last year, courses have been successfully piloted in south-east Asia, China, India, the Middle East and south America.
"The IU enables international students to obtain degrees from Scottish universities without the expense of studying in Scotland," says Professor Roy Leitch, IU's chief executive officer. "The greatest uptake has been in foundation or undergraduate courses, with students enrolling in either business management or IT."
While undergraduate courses have the lion's share of students, postgraduate programmes are becoming more popular among international students; the University of Stirling offers an MBA in entrepreneurship and business venturing. At secondary school level, the most popular course has been the Scholar e-learning programme, which now has 60,000 students throughout Scotland. Created by Heriot Watt, Scholar provides e-learning materials to support conventional classroom teaching.
The courses have also been piloted in Cumbria, Kent and the Midlands, where 4,000 students have taken part in the scheme. "The key to the Scholar programme and the other IU courses is that the student enjoys more one-to-one attention from the teacher," says Leitch. "Conventional learning relies on a teacher doing all the teaching. The software does this by teaching modular subjects, with the teacher listening to the student and answering questions." He points out the system enables students to learn at their own pace, rather than trying to absorb information from the teacher.
Scholar works using two support services. The first is the Scholar forum, a network of regional user groups involving local education advisers and development officers. The second is the staff development programme, which introduces teachers to new material, classroom practices and, importantly, to the idea of working in a "listening" environment.
"The IU must have input from a teacher or it wouldn't work," argues Leitch. "The teacher's knowledge of how students learn is used to better advantage, while e-learning teaches the lesson. Computers will never replace teachers in motivating pupils to learn."
But while Leitch is at pains to point out the advantages of the IU, some sectors of the teaching profession have reservations. Clare Harris, a biology teacher at Harrogate Granby high school, says: "From a personal point of view, computer training is an extra hassle teachers can do without." She also believes the IU prevents students from developing the all-important social skills required in class interaction, as well as skills needed for practical subjects such as sciences.
Yet Scotland has seen the number of students opting for sciences increase by 10% over the past 12 months. Moreover, Scholar has seen a 100% take-up by Scottish local authorities, and average pass rates have increased from 84% to 92%.
Neil Johnson, a biology teacher at Robert Gordon's College in Aberdeen, is an advocate of the programme. "Scholar suits all learning styles as it enables students to learn from different materials in a self-directed way," he says.
Scholar, foundation and postgraduate courses are all assessed through written examinations, overseen by the British Council in foreign countries. Every course has exactly the same curriculum as offered in schools, colleges and universities in Scotland - this is seen as crucial to enable the IU to achieve the same teaching standards globally, regardless of whether the course is conducted in Dundee or Dubai.
The IU is promoting the reputation of Scotland's leading educational institutions. Heriot Watt, Edinburgh and Aberdeen universities are just three offering courses to other countries. Leitch says: "The primary focus for us now is in east Asia, providing management courses in areas such as hospitality, retail and tourism." He adds: "Our strategy for China is going to be at university entry level, where there is a large gap in English language and computer competence."
He perceives new markets in Europe and north America; the IU is also working with the World Bank to discover a financially viable solution to offering courses in Africa.
While Leitch freely discloses the IU is only "scratching the surface" of the £18bn global e-learning market, he is quick to mention the organisation is a not-for-profit enterprise.
As Leith sums it up, "we will continue to reinvest in programmes to deliver the high quality education for which Scotland is renowned".