The main characteristic of Distance Learning is that the student is taught and learns without his tutor's physical presence in the classroom. The opportunity for a direct (face to face) communication between all members of the educational group [tutor counselor (TC) and students] in Distance Learning is offered by the Tutorials/Contact Sessions…

Action research studies in the United Kingdom with Open University students have shown that students come to distance education courses with variable expectations of the levels of service and support they will receive from their tutors. It has been further suggested that a specific expectations-led quality assurance process that enables the…

Normal practice in course and text book construction is to provide learners with pre-selected material chosen by the authors to illustrate a pre-determined grammar, content or teaching syllabus. This paper will discuss the effect of the reversal of this process at a pilot workshop session in which learners themselves were invited to select the…

This paper examines the contention that learning environments which use IMS Learning Designs can be created by plugging in different components, using generic service descriptions to create the interface between the Learning Design (LD) and the specific tools. There is an alternative viewpoint which claims that generic service descriptions cannot…

Instructional systems, both distance education and campus-based, may be viewed in terms of intrapersonal and interpersonal "instructional dialogues," that mediate and facilitate learning respectively, and "instructional resources" that enable such dialogues. Resources include self-instruction texts, tutorials, instructor…

The main objective of the research was to find out the correlation between the marks obtained by the students of Allama Iqbal Open University in assignments and final examination of M.A (Education) M.Ed in Autumn 2006. For this purpose, the result gazette of M.A (Education) M.Ed was obtained from the regional campus of Allama Iqbal Open…

The purpose of this study is to compare vocational school students' success at basic mathematics subjects with regard to their entrance to the university. The data were obtained by administering a "Personnel Information Form" and "the Mathematics Test" prepared by the researcher to 617 vocational school students and 26 two-year…

The aim of this study is to investigate the factors that affect students' participation in the online learning environment (OLE) for distance learning students of mathematics at the Open Learning University of Hong Kong (OUHK) and to find out the suggestions that can improve students' use of the OLE. A questionnaire was designed to survey to…

The UK Open University's second-level undergraduate course "Death and Dying" (K260) draws on personal and professional experience to explore the issues of loss, care, ethical practice, communication and grief. Students come from diverse occupational backgrounds (nurses, social workers, medical practitioners) but many study K260 for…

The Open University (OU) is the UK's largest university, with over 200,000 people studying, part time and at a distance, a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses and packs. Research and development carried out at the OU's Centre for Outcomes-Based Education (COBE), has provided a new way of enabling students to be accredited at higher…

A differential fee policy was adopted at the Open Learning Institute (OLI) of Hong Kong after a process of conceptualization, planning, proposal, approval and implementation. Under the differential fee policy different tuition rates were charged for different courses. The differential fee policy was conceptualized at OLI based on economics,…

This study investigated the characteristics of undergraduate students in Anadolu University's Open Education Faculty (OEF) courses in economics and business administration who successfully completed their bachelor's degrees in exactly 4 school years. Data on the personal and social characteristics of students who completed the bachelor's degree…

An investigation of the phenomenon of open education (OE) was based on three questions. To answer why OE has received so much attention, researchers surveyed and analyzed arguments that influenced thinking about OE and establishment of OE institutes. To answer the question concerning the defining characteristics of OE, researchers took the…

This is a publication of a 3-year Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications project, "Balancing Quality and Access: Reducing State Policy Barriers to Electronically Delivered Higher Education Programs," designed to foster an interstate environment that encourages the interstate electronic delivery of quality higher education…

Based on a November 1990 seminar attended by tutors and development workers from Open College Network (OCN) accredited programs, this paper describes principles and practice of assessment in OCN programs in Britain. The first two sections provide information on the seminar and define assessment. Section 3 lists assessment procedures for…