Open University faculty create their own instructional materials for use in distance teaching. A methodology is described for evaluating the teaching effectiveness of the materials and the teaching methods used. It is applied to a unit of a materials science course written for a specific text. A small group of students in the course was surveyed…

The reason that Great Britain's Open University (OU) students elected to study D101, the Social Science Foundation Course, was studied to discover their aims, expectations, and attitudes to the Open University and the course. Attention is directed to the first interview conducted before the course started to assess student orientations to study,…

The Open University of Great Britain provides home-based instruction via broadcasts and correspondence. Since technical arguments for the superiority of open-network, cable, or cassette television systems are inconclusive, the university has been forced to develop a decision-making model to determine which system is the most cost effective. For…

The Open University of Great Britain relies heavily on broadcasting as a mode of instruction, but increased course offerings are making it impossible to broadcast each lesson more than once. To reach students unable to view the original broadcast, video cassette reorder systems were tested in six community study centers as part of a 1974 pilot…

The Open University of Great Britain is an open-enrollment, home-based institution in which the majority of instruction is conducted via broadcasts and correspondence. As part of an effort to measure the effectiveness of this program, 490 students in a course in mathematical analysis were surveyed to: 1) determine the amount of time students spent…

In a home-based institution like the Open University of Great Britain where enrollment is open and participation patterns are erratic, maintaining up-to-date, accurate records of students is imperative. A systematized data base is required for the administration of admissions, fee collection, materials distribution, monitoring and marking of…

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…

Describes a study which examined relationships between academic persistence and turn-around time, feedback interval, and contacts between student and institution beyond assignment submissions at Allama Iqbal Open University, Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education, Open Learning Institute of British Columbia, Tasmanian State Institute of…

Findings of this analysis of the effect of selected variables on attrition in the introductory course of the National Open University of Venezuela suggest that noninstitutional variables accounted for the largest proportion of variance of student completion. Counseling and course redesign are recommended to enhance student motivation to complete…

Investigates the environment of distance students with reference to the problems caused by "study plus work" and "study plus work plus family." Transcripts of extended interviews were analyzed to present a picture of the social and psychological environment of the students. (Author)

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…

Statistics and other information about dropout rates and characteristics at Britain's Open University are summarized and presented in question and answer form as a basis for informed discussion of the institution's dropout problem. Factors in dropping out (course, environment, motivation, other), dropout characteristics, course and discipline…

A regional program of pre-university courses in northwestern England open to adults with no entry qualifications is discussed. It uses some distance learning techniques but is investigating expansion to technical education through distance learning. The complexities and potential costs of such a substantial directional change are examined. (MSE)

A worldwide survey of 89 institutions teaching languages at a distance was undertaken to learn of alternative delivery systems and teaching methods (textbooks, workbooks, audiocassettes, radio, television, and others). Skills taught are compared with program components at Canada's Athabasca University. (MSE)

The Southeast Asian Ministers Educational Organization (SEAMEO) Center for Educational Innovation and Technology--a distance learning organization--has operated since 1965. Program implementation/evaluation in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines are discussed, with reference to the democratization of education…