Learning resources
Students studying at ION have a wide range of learning resources available to them, most of which are available from your home PC.
Library service
ION maintains a reference library at Richmond which contains a wide range of books on human biology, food, nutrition, health, medicine and study skills. The library provides a quiet workspace which students can book to consult the library resources and use the online facilities.
Learning Management System
As many students live at a considerable distance from ION, we provide a virtual learning environment called Moodle that supports our students 24 hours/day. Moodle provides access to course documents, learning materials, interesting web links and student discussion forums. It is also an easy way of communicating with tutors and peers.
Subscription services
ION subscribes to Science Direct Health and Life Sciences and other resources, providing online access to more than 900 full-text scientific and medical journals and a range of online books.
All current students also have access to Optimum Nutrition Online Subscription.
Instruction and Support
Early in the NTDC course, students are given instruction in the IT skills required to find and evaluate research information from databases and search engines such as PubMed, Science Direct and Google Scholar. Ongoing support is provided by the Learner Support Manager and the Research Co-ordinator at ION, who run regular workshops for students on research and referencing, produce reference tools, and are available to answer students’ learning related questions.
Student Support
At ION we understand the importance of effective student support. Although the qualification requires only part-time attendance, the resources available to you ensure that you feel fully embraced by the course, with a personal tutor and fellow students to communicate with when you need to. Your tutor leads your seminar group, provides email and telephone advice for you, keeps an eye on your progress, and provides one-to-one tutorials for individual encouragement.
ION promotes equality, diversity and inclusion. We therefore welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, and are committed to supporting students with disabilities and learning difficulties. Our Learner Support Manager is able to provide learning strategies to meet your individual learning needs and help you get the most from your studies from the very outset of the course. Whatever your learning needs, we make every effort to help you develop the skills you need to be successful in your studies.
