This article discusses the role of open and distance learning to widen participation and promote social inclusion within Australian higher education, as well as the benefits that open educational resources (OER) could bring to that context. It also explores some of the most relevant social inclusion policies and related initiatives developed in…

Success in open educational resources (OER) has been reported by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA and the Open University in the UK, among others. It is unclear, however, how valuable OER are in learning and teaching. Approaches to OER policy and sustainability are just two other key aspects that remain unresolved across the…

Our universities are becoming increasingly diverse at the same time as online asynchronous discussions (OADs) are emerging as the most important forum for computer mediated communication (CMC) in distance education. But there is shortage of studies that explore how graduate students from different ethnic, linguistic and cultural backgrounds use…

Like many universities worldwide, the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa has joined the open educational resources (OER) movement, making a selection of teaching and learning materials available through its OER directory, UCT OpenContent. However, persuading and then supporting busy academics to share their teaching materials as OER…

In South Africa, poor performance of learners in mathematics across the school system is a problem demanding new solutions. One possible solution is to try to raise standards through the use of open educational resources (OER). This article presents and discusses findings from a case study of a collaborative OER development project initiated by…

Discusses the evolution of multimedia instructional approaches and users' expectations. Highlights include how educational software fits into the existing media-mix, restrictions users face, the didactic concepts, educational software development, what systems should be used for programming, how to build human resources, and the future of…

Describes the development of an interactive teaching and learning model involving Desktop Videoconferencing (DVC) and other audiographic facilities for undergraduate mathematics. The experiment demonstrated that it was possible to integrate DVC with computer applications/graphics software to represent algebraic, geometric, and numeric concepts.…

Presents results of a survey that was conducted to examine the use of computers in the instructional process of Australian distance education. Highlights include computer-managed learning; computer-marked tests; computer-aided learning; expert systems; and relationships between the type of computer usage, the instructors' expectations, and…