Opportunities and challenges in open distance postgraduate student training in chemistry: Unisa’s experience

Abstract

The Department of Chemistry at the University of South Africa (UNISA) has a proven track record and culture of research and postgraduate student training dating back to the correspondence era. The practice of offering postgraduate programs in laboratory-based disciplines within the Open Distance Learning (ODL) context as practiced in UNISA is discussed in detail. The authors use their experience to shed light on the models that work well for  laboratory-based postgraduate student training within the ODL framework. [AJCE 4(3), Special Issue, May 2014]