The University of the West Indies Open Campus and Athabasca University conducted a pilot workshop to see if open educational resources (OER) could be used to construct curricula. UWIOC was interested in increasing distance education offerings and Athabasca University was interested in expanding programming to offer an online graduate program in…

Based on work by the European Union's PHARE Multi-Country Programme in Distance Education, explores: (1) contextual issues related to the development of open and distance learning and the changing nature of higher education; (2) developments across Europe and associated problems; and (3) possible solutions in Central and Eastern Europe related to…

A 1993 study examined the range of opportunities that Open College Network (OCN) accreditation offered to learners with learning difficulties and disabilities in Great Britain. It examined OCN quality processes, including recognition panels, moderation, and internal quality systems. Information was gathered from the National Open College Network,…

Aspects of the development of the Open Learning Institute, a British Columbia program to accommodate the learning needs of adult and minority students, are described. Included are its early history and evaluation of its success according to four criteria: access, relevancy to needs and expectations, quality of program offerings, and learner…

Assuring the quality of education provision is a fundamental aspect of gaining and maintaining credibility for programmes, institutions and national systems of higher education worldwide. Despite a long and generally successful track record, open and distance learning (ODL) is still required to prove that the quality of student learning is at…

The objectives, curriculum, and role of higher education and key policy and practice issues were reassessed against the backdrop of recent and predicted demographic, economic, and political changes and trends in Great Britain. Special consideration was given to the fact that "mature" learners now constitute the majority of entrants into…

This article addresses the historical context, current development, and future challenges of distance education in Indonesia. Conditions related to the geography, demography, socio-economic and cultural situations, as well as the availability of technology have encouraged the use of distance education as a valid choice in providing access to…