Distance students are time poor and some drop out of their studies because they fall behind with coursework. This raises the issue of how course teams decide upon how many study hours should be included in a course. This article presents a number of Open University projects that have addressed student workload management and relates how learning…

This article focuses on the potential of free tools, particularly inquiry tools for influencing participation in twenty-first-century learning in science, as well as influencing the development of communities around tools. Two examples are presented: one on the development of an open source tool for structured inquiry learning that can bridge the…

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…

Describes the distance education program at Anadolu University in Turkey and compares its problems and solutions with similar distance programs in other Asian countries. A brief history is presented, enrollment figures are given, and future directions are described. (Author/LRW)

Describes a study which examined relationships between academic persistence and turn-around time, feedback interval, and contacts between student and institution beyond assignment submissions at Allama Iqbal Open University, Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education, Open Learning Institute of British Columbia, Tasmanian State Institute of…