Enhancing educational opportunity for prisoners by providing a simulated online learning environment

Enhancing educational opportunity for prisoners by providing a simulated online learning environment

This paper outlines the development and trial of a project that aims to provide incarcerated students with opportunities to experience an electronic learning environment of a type increasingly used to deliver formal education programs online, especially in higher education. Generally, prisoners in Australian jurisdictions cannot directly access such learning environments. Consequently, they are experiencing increasing disadvantage regarding their opportunity to acquire advanced education and vocational qualifications. The positive relationship between prisoner acquisition of education/vocational qualifications and reduced recidivism has been well documented in the literature. The project involves use of an internet-independent version of StudyDesk, the Moodle-based learning management system of the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). This version of StudyDesk is referred to as Stand Alone Moodle (SAM). In the partnership project between USQ, Queensland Corrective Services (QCS), Serco Asia-Pacific, and Southern Queensland Correctional Centre (SQCC), a particular USQ course SAM is being trialled with students at SQCC. In addition to describing the initial development of the project, the paper briefly canvasses the difficulties that had to be overcome in implementing the trial including the modification of the online course StudyDesk so it could function as a SAM. It then outlines intended future development of the project.

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Workshop no. 4.