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Supporting Students at a Distance
Global Threats, Local Protections, 
 and Ethical Obligations
Donald J. D. Mitchell, Union School of Theology

ABSTR AC T This paper looks at the experience of Union School of 
Theology, and specifically the library service, in supporting distance 
students studying at undergraduate, postgraduate and research 
levels. Consideration is given to the challenges of resource provi-
sion, copyright and information literacy. The case study explores 
solutions developed through practice and experience, notes the 
benefits of structures and technologies that engage the students, 
and considers lessons learned from the particular model adopted. 
The conclusion emphasises the necessity of equivalence of student 
experience, whether on or off campus. Emphasis is placed on the 
role of librarians and teaching faculty in theological institutions as 
partners in the development and equipping of students as life-long 
learners.

SEMINARY CONTEXT

Recent years have been hard for seminaries and theology depart-
ments in the UK. Recruitment, particularly, but not only, for non-
denominational institutions, has been variable and at times very 
poor. Reduced incomes from students, rising costs, and increased 
government bureaucracy (QAA, UK Border Agency visa regulations, 
and funding body requirements) have increased local administrative 
costs and further impacted recruitment, both domestically and inter-
nationally. Whilst one cannot ignore local, internal factors, these 
pressures must be considered major factors in the spate of closures 
and course revisions that affected our sector over recent years—the 
closure of ICC in Glasgow and the retrenchment of undergraduate 
courses at Redcliffe in Gloucester and St. John’s in Nottingham being 
clear examples.



Papers and Presentations  77

Union School of Theology (UST) has not been immune to these 
pressures and, indeed, there have been times over the seven years 
since I joined the institution when we have wondered whether 
we would survive. The school has a history going back to the early 
20th century when, following the 1904 revival, Bible colleges were 
established at Porth in the Rhondda and Barry on the S. Wales coast. 
These combined and then, in the 1970s, the college moved to its 
present campus at Bridgend between Cardiff and Swansea as the 
Evangelical Theological College of Wales (ECTW) and subsequently 
offered degrees franchised from various universities as the semi-
nary and university needs changed. A change in principal resulted 
in a further name change to Wales Evangelical School of Theology 
(WEST), with further shifts to other franchising institutions. As WEST, 
we also entered partnership arrangements with SaRang Community 
Church in Seoul, South Korea, which started to involve the school 
more directly in church planting and missions. Then, during the last 
three years, we became UST, part of a wider, more holistic ministry 
that looks beyond purely educating ministers and missionaries and 
seeks to provide wider support for the confessional church through 
resource creation, research, and support for church planting, as well 
as academic education up to and including PhDs. We currently offer 
our degrees through the OU at the taught level and through the Free 
University, Amsterdam at research (PhD) level.

Throughout this period, UST has sought to reach out to the church 
in a wide, non-denominational way and without geographic limits 
(as government regulations allowed). However, this did not result 
in the same level of recruitment as had obtained in the period up 
to circa 2010. Distance learning (DL) models had been developed 
that enabled students to study to degree level but, whilst they came 
to number about the same in absolute terms as campus students, 
they rarely formed a major element of provision from a library 
perspective, usually working alone and developing their own local 
resource support. Since 2010, student recruitment for both campus 
and DL declined markedly and the school’s management, in consul-
tation with faculty, sought to develop a model of provision that 
would appeal more to a demographic that was perhaps reluctant to 
move, engaged in existing ministries that they didn’t wish to leave, 
or simply unable to afford the cost of full-time study. As WEST, we 
had developed a one-year bridge course (Graduate Diploma (GDip)), 
campus-based and designed to lead candidates into our master’s 



78  AT L A 2020 PROCEEDINGS

programmes. This suffered the weakness of the longer BA/BD, in 
that it required physical relocation and all the consequent costs that 
went with it, although clearly benefitting from the access to faculty 
and library facilities on campus. In reflecting upon this particular 
element of our provision, it was decided to use it as the vehicle to 
deliver high quality, L6 (i.e., final year undergraduate teaching) 
theology at local level, but addressing the need for peer support and 
theological guidance through establishing regional learning centres.  

Churches, church groupings, and other appropriate organisa-
tions can apply to be learning centres (LC). Each needs to have a 
lead mentor who is academically, theologically, and confessionally 
equipped to work with us and the students in pursuing not only the 
level of study, but also aligning with the core values and mission 
of the school. Students gather once a week to receive teaching via 
video sessions on the module they are studying, to use resources held 
centrally by the LC, and to discuss issues arising in their studies with 
each other and the lead mentor. Currently, we have about 13 LCs, six 
of which are overseas in Europe and North America.

CHALLENGES FOR THE SCHOOL & LIBRARY

Clearly, developing such a model, although not unique (it has strong 
parallels with Open University (OU) models, which make our current 
franchise arrangements highly appropriate), presents a variety of 
challenges at both the institutional level and for the library. Insti-
tutionally, the preservation of quality, particularly in the light of 
distance delivery higher education (HE) failures in previous years, is 
a major factor. The vetting of LCs and mentors is critical to the integ-
rity of the programme, equivalence of experience is a key element in 
ensuring quality, whilst the students work under different contex-
tual constraints their overall experience must equate to that of the 
campus based students.

As all the teaching comes from UST, there has been a heavy 
demand on central services to provide good-quality teaching mate-
rials, especially videos, and this has required staff to learn new skills 
in teaching through video, which, for those of you who haven’t tried 
it, is really not as easy as you might think! The lack of student inter-
action and feedback, requirements of pacing, physical stance, and 
facial expression all have a significant bearing on the quality—or 
otherwise—of the product, along with scripting and the ability to 



Papers and Presentations  79

read a script whilst appearing and sounding natural. Issues of the 
equivalence of learning experience must also be considered, and 
these have particular impact on library provision, of which more 
later. The integrity of an individual’s work, especially with reference 
to assessment, has also to be considered. 

LIBRARY RESOURCES & RESOURCING

The most obvious disadvantage for students who are geographically 
remote from UST is the lack of access to the physical resources of the 
institutional library. This is compounded by the inevitable limits the 
institution places on core materials that are either too scarce or too 
valuable to lend. 

The strategy adopted to deal with this developed as the model 
developed. Our initial partner centre was the North West (NW) Part-
nership, a co-operative of evangelical churches with a centre in 
Liverpool. Having previously partnered with Oakhill College, they 
already had a small, relevant collection of materials, along with a 
substantial collection from the Northern Evangelical Library and, 
subsequently, we were able to donate some titles. However, most 
LCs do not start up with such strength, so, early on, part of the part-
nership agreement was that the LCs should purchase one each of 
the core module titles to provide the GDip students with a central 
reference resource. Experience over two to three years has led us to 
amend this to require the students themselves to obtain (by whatever 
means) their core texts, whilst the LCs develop, wherever possible, 
a bank of wider resources. This has been partly, although patch-
ily, aided by the library’s ability to distribute surplus publications 
derived from a fairly prolific, if irregular, stream of donations.

For wider reading, mentors and students are encouraged to 
locate libraries that can provide practical support. If necessary, I 
will contact seminary libraries and establish the conditions under 
which they will allow (if at all) access to their collections. With larger 
HE institutions, the students are expected to explore the options 
themselves. Sadly, we no longer have access to the SCONUL scheme 
(an HE cooperative library scheme working amongst UK publicly 
funded and other institutions), which creates a greater burden on 
our DL students than would have otherwise been the case. Public 
library use, particularly interlibrary loans (ILL), with an emphasis 
on national- and British Library (BL)-level searching, is also advised. 



80  AT L A 2020 PROCEEDINGS

Public libraries may (for cost reasons) not make users aware of the 
higher level services for ILL; hence, part of my role has been to brief 
mentors and students on the availability of these options. In the last 
resort, and only where restrictions permit, postal loan is provided 
from the library at UST, or relevant sections (within copyright allow-
ance) are sent digitally.

Until recently, my own misunderstanding of the e-book supply 
mechanisms, along with cost elements, precluded purchasing 
e-books. However, a highly constructive chat with a commercial 
representative in early 2018 led to further investigation. 60–80% of 
most core titles turned out to be available digitally, and a growing 
income stream through donation has allowed us to implement a 
purchase programme of e-books tailored to the module content. Prior 
to this development, e-texts were available, albeit of a somewhat 
elderly nature, through Theology-on-the-Web—an internet site digi-
tising older theological materials now out of copyright. More recent 
material was also obtained by direct permission from self-publishing 
authors such as Habermas to place their publications on our virtual 
learning environment (VLE). Additionally, the Copyright Licensing 
Agency (CLA) license scheme allowed the provision of many core 
readings through the VLE, although this could never be entirely 
satisfactory, as the extracts were limited and did not allow immedi-
ate wider contextual reading, and they place a considerable burden 
on my own role in terms of digitization and copyright compliance. 
Where available, e-books address both these issues! 

Journal access is less problematic. The library at UST offers both 
e-journals and a digitization service for items not accessible electron-
ically to all students. This has been underpinned by an active policy 
of obtaining as many hardcopy journal runs as I can, although the 
consequent pressure on space is something of an issue! When all else 
fails, I have appealed to the Association of British Theological and 
Philosophical Libraries (ABTAPL) network, and this has largely filled 
the gaps. I am extremely grateful to all who have responded to my 
pleas so positively over the years, including several US institutions!

Digital access has also been strengthened by the purchase of 
both Atla and ProQuest religion databases. We discovered about 
six years ago that the limitations on staff access to franchising HE 
digital collections was a hindrance to good pedagogical practice and 
so committed to the costs of these databases as a means of ensur-
ing parity of access across students and faculty. Subsequently, this 



Papers and Presentations  81

has placed us in a strong position when moving to the OU, who do 
not provide e-resources to their franchise partners. There are other 
resources I would like to subscribe to, but currently cost precludes 
further expansion. However, a variety of free journal gateways have 
been identified and linked through the UST VLE.

Before moving on to areas relating to copyright, information 
literacy, etc., I would like to consider the “cash value,” as it were, of 
my brief historical narrative:

1) Build strong relationships with faculty. They may well have 
knowledge of resources and access strategies that you and the 
students do not. They can also vet materials and e-resources 
you may discover for yourself regarding relevance, etc.

2) Develop strong relationships with mentors; there are several 
benefits:
a) They are the primary support person for the students in 

the LCs. If well-informed and familiar with support facili-
ties, they may well filter out the easy-to-handle issues of 
resource support, leaving the librarian only with those that 
are particularly tricky.

b) Their own skill sets can be developed, benefiting them not 
only as they mentor institutional students but also in terms 
of their own development as learners and in their minis-
tries.

c) They can provide an early warning system for major issues 
and a pool of consultants who, knowing what is happen-
ing on the ground, can critically inform and assess new 
support from the centre.

3) As an institutional librarian, take time to link to blogs, use 
social media, and read your journals to identify relevant 
resources. Social media is particularly good at pointing up 
free high-quality resources—for example, Chad Van Dixhoo-
rn’s site on the Westminster Assembly—and, as I have already 
noted, make use of Theology-on-the-Web!

4) It is also worthwhile, in making a case to management, to 
use the theological library networks to run surveys across 
institutions to generate benchmark data regarding subscrip-
tion-based resources. We have, in the past, relied on the provi-
sion through HE franchise partners, but this is becoming 



82  AT L A 2020 PROCEEDINGS

increasingly limited, and we all face a requirement to supply 
commercial, digital resources directly; increasingly a neces-
sity rather than a luxury, even for campus-based students. At 
a seminar a couple of years ago, the librarian from Cardiff 
Metropolitan University demonstrated the greater reach and 
impact of digital resourcing as compared to print resources—
if I remember correctly, by a factor of something between 5 
and 10 times.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright is a major issue in supporting DL, particularly in the model 
we have developed at UST. Naturally, students tend to be ignorant 
of the finer points of correct practice and can collectively be quite 
inventive at circumventing difficulties they find in access. Essentially, 
all the distance students are subject in the use they make of digiti-
zation to British regulations. This inevitably means that students in 
the same LC may only collectively receive one copy of any particu-
lar item and that care must be taken in assessing who is requesting 
successive segments of core texts—I am absolutely convinced that, 
several years ago, one LC managed to obtain an entire book digitally 
by each student requesting a different chapter. The issue came to 
light during a review of provision and, in subsequent years, great 
care has been taken to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. Without 
a definitive “public” guide, I am probably more cautious than neces-
sary in controlling this aspect of DL support.

STUDENT RESEARCH SKILLS
Student research skills programmes have been established as part 
of the personal development programme of UST’s provision. Prior 
to my appointment, there had been no impetus to formally equip 
our students with IL skills as independent learners for lifelong study, 
despite the recognition that the best pastors and ministers need such 
ability, and increasingly so, as was noted at the LILAC conference in 
2011. As a conference report noted,

The first keynote speaker, Professor David Nicholas, 
described the move away from researching in the library to 
researching online, anywhere in the world, at all times of 



Papers and Presentations  83

day, and completely unsupported. Information professionals 
need to re-embed themselves in peoples’ research behaviour, 
and this means getting there first. (Harvey 2011, 89).

The 2015 LILAC conference offered complimentary perspectives,
Barbara Fister’s keynote . . . expanded upon this thinking, 
stating that part of librarians’ role in education is to encourage 
learners to change their relationship with information, to 
understand the social nature of sources and place their ideas 
within that context. . . . Critical IL empowers learners and 
gives them the freedom to deviate, enabling them to discover 
and create knowledge within and beyond formal education. 
(Nagle 2015, 108)

These perspectives underpin the programme in which campus 
students receive four sessions of formal teaching alongside the more 
informal guidance offered on an ad hoc basis, and the option of book-
ing formal research tutorials with the librarian. Clearly, such face-to-
face provision is not necessarily accessible by the LC-based students, 
who, as the network extends, may be meeting at times when the school 
is closed (we already need to timetable with care for the LCs in North 
America), but is just as critical for their on-course performance and 
future ministries.

Our academic year starts with a conference to which mentors and 
students are encouraged to come. As part of that programme, a basic 
orientation session on the library is provided and, as far as possible, 
this is reinforced by individual conversations with mentors at which 
issues like digitization, copyright, and ILL are discussed. Inevitably, 
there are issues in the longer-term implementation of the advice as 
time and demands of ministry, etc. impact the life and work of the 
LCs. A satisfactory method of reinforcement and updating is need, 
but as yet undeveloped.

To address student research skill needs in the LCs an online, self-
directed tutorial on the practical aspects of locating resources has 
been developed. The original had been developed by the University 
of London, so, having obtained their agreement, I re-skinned and 
adapted it to fit our context. The initial version proved clunky and 
unsatisfactory owing to the web platform used, so it was removed, 
but the growing need of the LCs generated a need to provide a newer 
iteration, giving the opportunity to check and correct broken links as 
well as revise the OS and appearance. This is available via the Union 



84  AT L A 2020 PROCEEDINGS

Digital Library pages to all students. However, such mechanisms on 
their own are not enough; the librarian as facilitator/mentor, embed-
ded into online delivery, has proven very effective in supporting and 
developing students engaged in online and independent learning 
(Kumar and Edwards 2013, 3). This has yet to be addressed as part 
of the tutorial, but mechanisms such as “Ask the Librarian” pages in 
the tutorial may address the issue of embedding human interaction 
in what is otherwise a digital environment.

The taught programme will also be made available through videos. 
An early attempt at producing the videos has failed to meet the neces-
sary quality standard for all the reasons I have already outlined in 
relation to teaching videos, but the plan is to make these sessions 
available through the VLE (they have already been recorded) in time 
for the September 2020 start at the latest.

TECHNOLOGY

Although issues of time zones affect some of the LCs as already noted, 
work on widening the Greek-language delivery of the school has 
enabled a widening of access to live teaching on campus for the LCs. 
Skype offers options for individual support but has proved limited 
in relation to multiple participation across several centres. However, 
the Zoom facility has proved highly successful, and I plan to explore 
how this might be used as a mechanism for “live” IL classes with LCs.

CONCLUSION

Digital solutions are clearly the only practicable way forward for a 
small (at least in staff terms) library to service the needs of a diverse 
and geographically globally scattered student body. Thornes (2012, 
93), reporting on online literacy tutorials, noted a number of factors 
that cover issues around resource provision as well,

• Is this the most appropriate method of delivery to meet the 
needs of the students?

• How will elements for interaction and reflection be incorpo-
rated?

• How will the design allow for a balance between content and 
look and feel?

• How much time is required for the development?



Papers and Presentations  85

• Who is the most appropriate person to create the resource, in 
terms of skill set, time, and money?

• How will feedback be obtained, especially when there is no 
impetus for students to provide this?

• What are the options for collecting statistical data on usage?
• Can it realistically be maintained over a longer period of time?

One of the strengths of the UST LC model is that students can discuss 
and reflect in the group situation that which they have studied indi-
vidually—an advantage that has been noted in IL literature (Webster 
and Whitworth 2017, 72–3). We are not there yet in the DL support 
the library offers but will hopefully, as I draw on both theory and our 
own experience in subject teaching through Zoom and other means, 
build structures that offer the GDip students working in the LCs a 
real equivalence of learning support and opportunity.

All of this is only achievable if we are seen by our institutions and 
faculty as partners in the educational process and not merely tech-
nical support ancillary, and inferior to, the business of teaching. If 
a theology department or seminary is truly committed to prepara-
tion for a life of ministry, it must see the requirement not simply to 
provide foundations in theology but to equip the students to be life-
long learners with skills of criticality with respect to the information 
environment and understanding of the range and validity of sources 
they face. Librarians bring skillsets that support and develop such 
understanding as fellow educationalists and with a rich resource of 
experience and practice mediated through professional organisa-
tions like ABTAPL and Atla and through professional literature of 
the sort I have cited here. Can I encourage you all, whether serving 
DL communities or not, to lobby for this recognition (if you do not 
already have it) within your own institutions?

WORKS CITED

Harvey, M. 2011. “LILAC Goes to London. Journal of Informa-
tion Literacy, 5, no. 1: 89–90. ojs.lboro.ac.uk/JIL/article/view/
CC-V5-I1-2011-1/1887.

Kumar, S. and M. Edwards. 2013. “Information Literacy Skills and 
Embedded Librarianship in an Online Graduate Programme.” 

http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/JIL/article/view/CC-V5-I1-2011-1/1887
http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/JIL/article/view/CC-V5-I1-2011-1/1887


86  AT L A 2020 PROCEEDINGS

Journal of Information Literacy 7, no. 1: 3–17. ojs.lboro.ac.uk/JIL/
article/view/PRA-V7-I1-2013-1/1791.

Nagle, M. 2015. “Where the Buses Don’t Run: A LILAC 2015 Confer-
ence Report.” Journal of Information Literacy 9, no. 1: 108–10. ojs.
lboro.ac.uk/JIL/article/view/CC-V9-I1-5/2144.

Thornes, Sara L. 2012. “Creating an Online Tutorial to Support Infor-
mation Literacy and Academic Skills Development.” Journal of 
Information Literacy 6, no. 1: 82–95. ojs.lboro.ac.uk/JIL/article/
view/LLC-V6-I1-2012-3/1749.

Webster, L. and A. Whitworth. 2017. “Distance Learning as Alterity: 
Facilitating the Experience of Variation and Professional Infor-
mation Practice.” Journal of Information Literacy 11, no. 2: 69–85. 
ojs.lboro.ac.uk/JIL/article/view/PRA-11-2-4/2575.

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