Funding synchronises remote learning for New England

The NSW government allocated $8.4 million for the New England Institute of TAFE, which will be spread between 11 campuses in the region.

"The allocation recognises the needs of rural TAFE students," said Cynthia Williams, relieving institute director for New England TAFE.

"We want to make it easier for people to stay in their local areas and study."

Ms Williams said a greater focus on remote learning would be one way of achieving this through the funding.

Using methods such as video conferencing, online resources and ADOBE Connect, Ms Williams said TAFE was looking to create an environment of "synchronous learning" for students off-campus.

Students from Armidale, Narrabri, Tenterfield and Tamworth who wanted to study a course could do so either from their own computers at home or by using the computers at their local TAFE campus, rather than having to travel to a different campus where there were enough students for a full class.

"We want to be able to beam out the widest array of possibilities," she said.

Ms Williams said this program of technologically advanced learning was under way, but the boost of funding would help take it to more areas and more students even faster.

"We want to roll that out in a larger way to connect with people in regional NSW," she said.

Ms Williams said the first step with the funding from the State budget was to form a masterplan for expanding the technologies of the TAFE campuses.

Practical improvements could be also made to the campuses to enhance remote learning possibilities, such as in classroom acoustics to help record the lessons at an online broadcast quality level.