Drawing upon cultural-historical activity theory, this research analyzed the structural contradictions existing in a variety of educational activities among a group of alienated adult students in Korea National Open University (KNOU). Despite KNOU's quantitative development in student enrollment, the contradictions shed light on how the…

Flexibility in learning provides a student room for volitional control and an array of strategies and encourages persistence in the face of difficulties. Autonomy in and control over one's learning process can be seen as a condition for self-regulated learning. There are a number of categories and dimensions for flexible learning; following…

Despite the increase in massive open online courses (MOOCs), evidence about the pedagogy of learning in MOOCs remains limited. This paper reports on an investigation into the pedagogy in one MOOC--Oxford Brookes University's "First Steps in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education" MOOC (FSLT12). FSLT12 was an open and free professional…

The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) is Nigeria's only university dedicated to providing education through the use of distance instructional methods. So far, however, the lack of availability and poor distribution of course materials, which underpin instructional delivery at NOUN, continue to be hindrances to achieving the university's…

The present study was carried out to determine the motivating factors for enrolling in an engineering study programme in open and distance learning (ODL) and the factors that affect the students' performance. The study was conducted with two convenient samples of students following distance learning courses in engineering technology, conducted by…

This study examines a) the methods used to structure the pedagogy necessary to underpin distance education delivery used by the Hellenic Open University (HOU); b) the adoption of pedagogical and epistemological conceptual systems HOU uses for the development of its pedagogical practices; and c) the role of information and communication technology…

This paper presents research on a convenience sample of the Open University of Sri Lanka's engineering faculty. Examined in this research are faculty's opinions on the instructional strategies they use to teach engineering courses at a distance. First, this paper details the pedagogical strategies used by the faculty, which is then followed by an…

This case study explores an open distance learning program offered by the Information Technology and Computing (ITC) department at AOUJ, a major university in Jordan. It provides an overview of e-learning in the Arab region and explores factors that affect ODL quality in the Arab Open University in Jordan (AOUJ). The research utilized a…

This paper presents a report on students who decided to drop out of the BSc program offered by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). This study was designed to determine the reasons leading to students' decisions to withdraw from the program. Identified and reported in this study are nine major reasons leading to drop out. Results of…

When faculty development is viewed as an ongoing need and when we approach faculty development as a long-term, continuous effort, community building becomes a part of the process. Carefully designed faculty development approaches can facilitate and create a culture that supports a thoughtful focus on teaching, while at the same time, nurture a…

In the West African Region of Africa, the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) is the first full fledged university that operates in an exclusively open and distance learning (ODL) mode of education. NOUN focuses mainly on open and distance teaching and learning system, and delivers its courses materials via print in conjunction with…