This paper discusses the critical situations I have been asked to "improve" by providing professional development for teams of adult numeracy and functional mathematics teachers in the post-16 sector in London. These situations have not been identified through any research process, but arise from internal management reviews of course…

There is surprisingly little analysis of the employment and earnings impact on students of taking and completing Internet-based programs and of how it compares with earnings outcomes for graduates of face-to-face universities. This paper analyzes a follow-up survey of students who began attending the virtual Internet-based Open University of…

The Open and Distance Learning (ODL) has come to stay as an alternative mode to meet the higher educational requirements of diverse groups. Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), a system leader in India, plays a major role in giving access and equity, besides maintaining and coordinating standards of distance education in the country.…

This article problematises certain aspects of methodology used for speaking practice and commonly applied in contemporary language teaching classrooms. It examines these particularly with relevance to diversity in adult learning groups. The aspects under scrutiny include the use of personal information in tasks, pair and group work, target…

This paper examines the origin and implications of adult learners' emotions in the context of an online distance learning programme at the Open University of Cyprus. Various methods for gathering data about learners' emotions related to online learning are used, such as emotion diaries, semi-structured interviews, and email messages. The paper…

The open university teaching system is grounded in an inappropriate theory of learning, with too much emphasis placed on the didactic approach to the presentation of knowledge and the student's ability to memorize it. Andragogic and pedagogic perspectives should be combined in designing courses. (MSE)

Why do some of adult learners successfully accomplish their learning while the others drop out? This has been an important question in the field of adult learning. For a long time researchers have been exploring this subject around learning barriers as well as motivations. Not until lately did some of the adult and distance scholars start to pay…

Research evaluated the effectiveness of varying television (TV) lesson formats. Adults ranging in age from 17 to 58 viewed lessons in accounting and psychology in four formats featuring: 1) a storyline running through a lesson; 2) a news magazine format dealing with different concepts in one lesson; 3) a non-authoritarian narrator; and 4) an…

This discussion of the relationship between self-directed learning, adult development, and distance education presents findings from researchers in the field of autonomous learning. In addition, the implications of self-directed learning for the curriculum and teaching methods in distance education are considered. The document is divided into the…

This book examines the effects of a 1988 policy decision of the British Open University (OU) requiring all distance learners to acquire a personal computer (PC) on their own and use it to conduct their distance education as OU students. The following topics are discussed in the book's nine chapters: potential, history, and development of computers…

This document contains 43 papers from a conference on researching inclusion. The following are among the papers included: "Include Me Out: Critique and Contradiction in Thinking about Social Exclusion and Lifelong Learning" (Paul Armstrong); "The Linking of Work and Education To Enable Social Inclusion" (Dave Beck);…