Scottish Castle Graduation Ceremony for E-Learning Students

An E-Learning course does not typically bring to mind a graduation procession in the stone halls of a Scottish castle. The Interactive Design Institute is turning the assumption that e-learning is a lonely enterprise done inside grey cubicle walls on its head.

E-Learning students – the majority of whom who have never met face-to-face with their tutors or classmates – will gather in the halls of Edinburgh castle on November 13th, 2015. Students will fly in from around the globe to Scotland’s capital from as far afield as Canada and the Philippines.

Vicki Cane will be traveling from Canada to attend her graduation ceremony and has been looking forward to it from the start of her programme.

At first she found the experience of online learning to be ‘isolating’: ‘’It was just odd to know that all over the world there were students working on the same work as me but we weren't communicating often.’’ She used the graduation ceremony in Scotland as a motivating factor to find time for her course amidst all of her family and work responsibilities. ‘’To be honest, in the beginning it was about going away on a trip but towards the end it became much more about pride and strong feeling of accomplishment,’’ said Cane.

The Interactive Design Institute chose Edinburgh castle for both practical and aesthetic reasons. ‘’We also felt that it was appropriate to hold our graduation event in the Castle because it brings together the old and the new; an ancient castle and a new, dynamic mode of delivering education internationally, namely online provision" said Michael Stewart, the director of IDI.