Discusses performance indicators in distance education: micro, macro, and mega indicators as tools for quality assurance; entry and exit indicators, with special reference to open universities in India; and concepts and research within learning materials development, course development and evaluation. (PEN)

Over 16,000 students are enrolled in Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Spain), a virtual university that has agreements with public and private institutions to provide resources in students' communities. Because student service is the staff's vocation, student satisfaction is high. Ongoing research focuses on continuing innovations. (SK)

Describes the development of a distance education program within one Slovenian university's department of economics, showing how the synergy created through the combination of existing resources as well as the local and social educational environment with outside expertise brought about a self-sustainable distance education program and improved…

Reports on ongoing development of the University of the Arctic--a network of institutions of higher education in eight polar countries--in the context of the changing nature of distance education in Canada. Discusses Canadian access to telelearning, institutions of virtual education, related research and supportive organizations, and course…

The present paper gives an overview of some of the modular day courses offered and, in some cases, developed by tutors at a former hospital school providing education to adults with severe learning disabilities. The aims of the courses were cognitive and personal development, as well as aesthetic and spiritual enrichment. Art history was offered…

The internet offers considerable potential for open and distance learning in psychology. Research reveals an abundance of psychology demonstrations and experiments available online, directed both at students and potential research participants. Although expertise is being developed to overcome the technical problems associated with this medium,…

The cell phone, now the most widely used medium in Asia, has major educational implications. Most users, however, do not realize the cell phone's potential for education, nor even for the communication functions for which it was originally designed. Most educators still see the computer and the cell phone as unrelated devices, and the tiny cell…

This paper describes the efforts of the director of a composition program who is also a teacher of composition at an open admissions college to teach critical thinking by showing students how to use content rather than just acquire it. Applying Jean Piaget's learning theory to classroom teaching, the director attempts to create an active learning…

There is an urgent need to restructure universities in Africa; current problems include the loss of autonomy, a decaying infrastructure, inadequate salaries, an internal job market void of opportunities, brain drain, intellectual isolation, diminished research, and fossilized curricula. There is an equal need for a stabilized funding source and…

Educational opportunity for growth and self-fulfillment should remain open to people of all ages. In Great Britain there are several higher and adult education systems to encourage and fulfill the talents of youth, adults, and older students, including open learning systems, youth services, flexistudy, open universities, adult education, and…

Suggests individual educational technologists have developed a variety of work styles including those characterized as: knowledge expert, executive manager, social-analyst, and specialist. These styles of working, based upon work behaviors of educational technologists at Great Britain's Open University, are compared in terms of practices, focuses,…

Discusses development and use of Open Learning Institute's computerized course development and production systems which solved some of the inherent problems in course writing. A network of microcomputers which facilitates preparation of production-ready manuscripts and course authoring templates constructed from word processing software is…

Today's economy demands a much greater commitment to adult vocational training. Both conventional British universities and the Open University serve this need, but there are areas where more needs to be done. Commitment of substantial resources is necessary and this probably cannot be achieved from fee income alone. (Author/MSE)

The American Open University idea was conceived as a logical follow-up to the University of Mid-America which had started in Nebraska, spread to a large geographic region, and began to market its media materials to colleges and universities throughout the nation. (Availability: Open University, 70 Manchester Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester,…

The Open University set out ten years ago to solve the problem of dropouts in external degree programs. The importance of its success for itself and other institutions is discussed, although there is caution due to the lack of unanimity in terminology in dropout research, and the danger of using dropouts to compare institutions. (MSE)