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Previous research studies (Stevenson, Sander and Naylor, 1996;Stevenson and Sander, 1998) have shown that students come to distance education courses with variable expectations of the levels of service and support they will receive from their tutors. It has been further suggested , that a specific expectations-led quality assurance process that enables the sharing of these expectations before a course starts could be of mutual benefit to the student and the tutor, as well as generally improving the overall quality of tutor support provided by the distance learning organisation. This process, it is argued, would be appreciated by the students and have beneficial effects on student satisfaction with tutor support and reduce student drop-out and increase course completion rates. Could such a process that asks tutors to collect student expectations before a course begins be instituted effectively into a distance learning organisation and how would students and tutors respond to it?This paper reports on a project carried out by Oscail (the Irish National Distance Education Centre) aimed at developing and testing how students and tutors valued being involved in just such an ODL expectations-led quality assurance process. In the study reported here, 96 tutors on an Oscail BA distance learning programme were asked, two weeks before their course began, to circulate a student expectations questionnaire to their students (a total of 950 students). Tutors were asked to collect the questionnaires, reflect on the expectations of the students and consider how their tutorial practice and student support might change as a result of the exercise. Tutor and student views on the effectiveness of the exercise were also gathered through questionnaires and focus group meetings. The findings suggested that the majority of students and tutors involved in the study did see the value of the process and that it did help tutors, (especially newly appointed ones), consider and respond to the type of support students hoped to receive. The practice of issuing student expectation questionnaires has now been embedded in Oscail introductory courses.Expectations and student satisfaction Some authors argue that the quality of the services provided by Higher Education institutions has largely been undefined and under-researched and that the usefulness of investigating students' expectations and preferences of service delivery has been neglected

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This paper outlines the way in which Oscail (National Distance Education Centre -Ireland) has developed its technology strategy, from the initial research on student readiness to learn using technology to more recent studies which have identified the need for a programme specifically designed to prepare students for learning in the online world.The skills for learning are not necessarily innate, and in particular, the skills for learning with technology need to be recognised and made more explicit. However, regardless of discipline, the development of preparatory courses for students to equip them with the skills for eLearning is essential if maximum benefit is to be garnered from the potential of this exciting means of teaching and learning.The Student Passport for elearning (SPeL) programme has been designed as a learner-centred pedagogically driven module using a scaffolding approach to gradually introduce students to use of electronic media. Crucial to the success of the SPeL programme has been the level of support offered to students in pedagogical, technical and administrative terms.