Sean has a 50-acre farm near Kilfenora, Co Clare. He left school when he was 16, and is now upgrading his farming skills through an Internet course on organic farming. As a student of West of Ireland Virtual University (WIVU) he communicates with his tutors by email and completes all course assignments online.
WIVU may not exist just yet but educationalists in the Objective 1 region, comprising the Border, Midlands and West, believe information technology makes such a project perfectly feasible and an ideal "industry" to locate in a remote region.
"We could use this technology to have a tele-based institute of technology and an open university, based in Sligo, providing information through the Internet to large urban centres. The technology is there, we just need the expertise and the funding," says Brian Mulligan, a lecturer in engineering computing at Sligo Institute of Technology.
He is also the institute's education technology officer and recently organised a seminar on education technology and third-level education - which discussed the practicalities of setting up a virtual university (VU).
There are numerous models around the world for such Internet-based education. Magellan University, for example, is not geographically-based but operates totally online. Administrators don't meet teachers or students but pay trainers a fee per student and an additional fee for getting them through the course.
The Graduate School of America (GSA) is an online university based in Minneapolis. Larry McNutt, head of the school of informatics and engineering in the Institute of Technology at Blanchardstown, Co Dublin, has delivered modules on multimedia instruction for one GSA course. Based in Maynooth, he had 20 students around the world who communicated with him solely by email.
Closer to home, Clyde Virtual University, Europe's first virtual university, was set up as an Internet-based link between colleges in the Strathclyde region of Scotland. The Highlands and Islands Virtual University in Scotland is based in Inverness and runs study centres in places such as Perth, Shetland, Skye and Stornaway. It has developed courses relevant to local needs, such as fish farming, forestry and tourism.
The co-founder of Clyde Virtual University, Niall Sclater, told the Sligo seminar that a virtual university makes geographic location and the physical limitations of a campus irrelevant. There is no need for a major building programme if every student has a PC. Only a relatively small investment is needed in software, since the main tool is the browser and the student provides that.
There are two facets to a virtual university or institute of technology in the West - catering for educational needs within the region, and selling education to the rest of the world.
"Sligo IT is a leading centre for courses in environmental science, quality assurance, precision engineering, international marketing and languages marketing. We could be selling this expertise to the rest of the world," says Brian Mulligan. More locally, as Niall Sclater says: "If you improve your higher education, it attracts people into an area and helps prevent people leaving and creates spinoff industry, so there would be advantages in expanding the higher education system." In Scotland, he says, it has been found to be "very good for people's motivation. People become very enthusiastic. It can change an area's view of itself so there are psychological benefits".
There are also tourism benefits. Although location is not important to a virtual university, many people like to attend face-to-face learning sessions in a place with which they can identify. Having a VU based in a scenic area could help attract students, he believes.
Larry McNutt worked for five years with the University of Western Australia, 300 miles from Perth at Kalgoorlie. "It is as remote and as rural as you can get, but you could sign up to a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses there. In 1988, there were 42 distance education providers in Australia." What a VU does need is a network of learning resource centres: "Towns in Western Australia have education resource centres which act as brokers for all education providers. They arrange access to courses, provide study materials and tutors. The libraries could perform that role here," he says.
Infrastructure and access are crucial, since the feasibility of a VU depends on communications. Other impediments, Larry McNutt said, are the cost of Internet access and of computers. "Even local call charges for the Internet are too high. PCs should be tax-deductible resources for students. You also need training in IT skills to allow people use online learning."
He believes the infrastructure of education needs to be tackled. If everybody in the West had a PC tomorrow, he adds, they could do a degree with the Graduate School of America. But they couldn't do an online course in Ireland, says Larry McNutt.
Tackling that infrastructure gap is the aim of Institute of Technology in Sligo. According to its registrar, Maurice Doran, the institute is already developing the groundwork for such a system. Its education technology office is seeking the support of other institutes and universities to progress to the next phase.
"My brief for next year includes forming a group of people within the institute of technology sector to organise the collaborative development of distance learning on the Internet," says Brian Mulligan. "This will be operating under the working title of the Virtual Institute of Technology."
Peigin Doyle (pdoyle@tinet.ie) is a journalist based in Sligo
Resources on the Web
Institute of Technology Sligo: www.itsligo.ie
Magellan University: http://Magellan.edu
Graduate School of America: www.tgsa.com/online/online.html
Clyde Virtual University: cvu.strath.ac.uk
Highlands and Islands Virtual University: www.uhi.ac.uk