Distance education institutions worldwide are adopting online learning to take advantage of its benefits. However, online learning is often seen as a mode of delivery that will work for any distance education institution in any context. The increased relevance of online learning during and after the COVID-19 pandemic has further exaggerated the…

Nowadays, the virtual learning environment has become an ideal tool for professional self-development and bringing courses for various learner audiences across the world. There is currently an increasing interest in researching the topic of learner dropout and low completion in distance learning, with one of the main concerns being elevated rates…

Online learning has attracted a large number of participants and is increasingly becoming very popular. However, the completion rates for online learning are notoriously low. Further, unlike traditional education systems, teachers, if any, are unable to comprehensively evaluate the learning gain of each student through the online learning…

Throughout 2020, and into 2021, national governments were forced at different times to impose 'lockdown' on traditional approaches to education to cope with the impact of COVID-19. Higher education institutions (HEI) with face-to-face models scrambled to 'pivot' to distance and online learning. Whilst originally conceived as a temporary measure,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate a model for facilitating employees' and full-time, non-business students' entrepreneurial capabilities during their optional entrepreneurship studies at one Finnish Open University. Design/methodology/approach: The case study investigates the course in which transitions from employees or…

Historically, in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, Standards 3, 4, 5 and 6 would teach during the school term and attend teacher training during the school holidays. This was mostly in Missionary institutions. Later, these organisations changed into full-time teacher training institutions. Then teacher training lasted two years. Students would…

SUNY-wide, the online horse has left the gate. Meanwhile, campuses contend with traditional means for evaluating teaching effectiveness that do not match up against the latest standards for online instruction. Following a discussion of some of the core considerations that individual campuses need to address in responding to Open SUNY, the author…

In independent learning contexts, the effectiveness of the feedback dialogue between student and tutor or, in the absence of a tutor, the quality of the learning materials, is essential to successful learning. Using the voices of participants as the prime source of data through a combination of data-driven and concept-driven approaches, this…

Education in the twenty-first century is underpinned by theories of inclusion and practices of open and distance learning (Aldrich, 2003; Richards, 2004). New concerns are replacing the traditional views on the impossibility of integrating pedagogy and technology (Barab et al, 2004; Roblyer et al, 2000). Supporting learning in the digital age…

This paper looks at how the concept of reusability has gained currency in e-learning. Initial attention was focused on reuse of content, but recently attention has focused on reusable software tools and reusable activity structures. The former has led to the proposal of service-oriented architectures, and the latter has seen the development of the…

Based on an extensive literature search and interviews with educators, government officials, distance education personnel, and students, this publication reviews the impact of geostationary satellite telecommunications technology on higher education in British Columbia. A systems impact perspective is taken which suggests the emergence of a new…

Describes Pakistan's Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), which reaches a mass student population through correspondence study, radio and television, tutorials, and course assignments. Descriptions of AIOU's course offerings, teaching methods, organization and administration, and an assessment of services are provided. (Contains 13 references.)…

Review of university provision of distance education in Asia highlights and illustrates major similarities and differences in the approaches used in different countries and institutions and compares the operations of national independent universities concerned only with external students and conventional universities which include a distance…

This report discusses forces that are shaping alternative approaches to the delivery of postsecondary education, particularly distance education and open learning. One of these forces is the ever-changing composition of the student body, whose demands are increasing and whose needs are becoming more disparate because of a more and more…

University distance and e-learning programs generally follow one of two models. Most dual mode institutions and some open universities follow a model of cohort learning. Students start and terminate each course at the same time, and proceed at the same pace. This model allows for occasional or regular group based activities. The second model,…