Policy For Open And Distance Learning

We live in a society with ever-changing needs and expectations. Education practitioners and policy makers need therefore to face the challenges of new economic, social and technological conditions in their work. There is a global concern to develop forms of education and training which are open to the demands of needs of learners, and which are accessible at times and places suitable to those learners. Governments, institutions and practitioners are developing and implementing policies which reflect these trends. The overall theme of this book is the relationship between government and organizational policies and the work of practitioners in open and distance learning. The book does this by exploring a selection of international examples. The authors, many of them recognized experts, write from a wide range of international and organizational perspectives. Each one draws on significant experience within his or her field. Terry Evans is Head of the Graduate School of Education at Deakin University. He was the foundation director of the Master of Distance Education course there and has extensive experience teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students. Daryl Nation is Deputy Head of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Monash University. He is Associate Professor in the School and divides his time between policy development, research and teaching.

This book considers the questions that planners and policy makers in open and distance learning need to address at any level of education.

Following a foreword (Ross Paul) and an introduction (Robert Sweet), three sections on instituting postsecondary distance learning systems across Canada are presented: access and student support, educational technology, and institutional response. The first section contains the following: "Women in Distance Education: Towards a Feminist Perspective" (Rebecca Coulter); "Building Bridges: Northern Native Teacher Training" (Robert Paulet); "Le Tuteur et le Support a l'Etudiant en Enseignement a Distance" (Celine Lebel, Bernard Michaud); and "Provision of Student Support Services in Distance Education: Do We Know What They Need?" (Gordon Thompson). Papers in the second section are as follows: "La Formation a Distance: Des Choix Technologiques et des Valeurs" (France Henri, Therese Lamy); "Third Generation Course Design in Distance Education" (David Kaufman); "Contradictory Directions for Distance: Cultural Miscegenation, or Cultural Symbiosis?" (Gary Boyd); "A Philosophy of Distance Education: Perceptivism" (Charles Brauner); "La Technologie Educative dans l'Enseignement a Distance, Son Role et Sa Place" (Louise Sauve et al.); and "Distance Learning using Communications Technologies in Canada" (Barbara Helm). The third section contains the following: "Diversity or Chaos in Canadian Distance Education? A View from Overseas" (Anthony Bates); "Canada's Open Universities: Issues and Prospectives" (Ross Paul); "Involvement with Distance Education: Issues for the University" (Margaret Haughey); "Distance Education and Accessibility to Canada's Community Colleges" (John Dennison); "Being Responsible to the Adult Distance Learner: A Secondary School Example" (Norman McKinnon); "Canadian Private Sector Distance Education: A Preliminary Analysis of Organizational Structure and Governance Issues" (Kenneth Slade, Robert Sweet); "Collaboration in Distance Education" (Abram Conrad, James Small); "Collaboration in Distance Education: British Columbia's Open Learning Agency" (Ian Mugridge); and "Collaboration in Distance Education: Ontario's Contact North/Contac Nord" (Terry Anderson, Connie Nelson). (NLA)

This book has been designed for the orientation and training of specialists in open and distance learning methods in Asia. It is the outcome of the collaborative PANdora research and development initiative (2005–08) between 24 open and distance learning (ODL) institutions, government departments and non-governmental organizations in 13 Asian countries. The guidelines in the book have been designed in modular form so that selected sections can be combined according to users’ needs and translated into local languages in keeping with the PANdora network’s open resources philosophy.

This revised and updated edition of Open and Distance Learning in the Developing World sets the expansion of distance education in the context of general educational change and explores its use for basic and non-formal education, schooling, teacher training and higher education. Engaging with a range of topics, this comprehensive overview includes new material on: non-formal education: mass-communication approaches to education about HIV/AIDS and recent literacy work in India, South Africa, and Zambia schooling: new research projects in open schooling in Asia and subsaharan Africa, and interactive radio instruction in South Africa the impact of new technology and globalisation: learning delivered through the internet and mobile learning the political economy: international agencies, the role of private sector, and funding. With its critical appraisal of the facts and examination of data about effectiveness, this book provides answers to problems and poses key questions for the consideration of policy makers, educational practitioners and all professionals involved in implementing and delivering sustainable open and distance learning.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book describes the history, structure and institutions of open and distance education in six countries: China, India, Russia, Turkey, South Africa and South Korea. It describes how open and distance education is evolving in a digital age to reflect the needs and circumstances of the national higher education systems in these countries. It also explores the similarities and differences between how their open and distance higher education systems are managed and structured. This book is the second in a series, following Open and Distance Education in Australia, Europe and the Americas (Springer 2018). Both books compare and draw conclusions about the nature of open and distance education in the context of various national higher education systems. In a digital era characterized by the growing use of online, open and distance education, this book will prove particularly valuable for policy-makers and senior administrators who want to learn about establishing or expanding open and distance education services. In addition, it offers a valuable reference guide for researchers, academics and students interested in understanding the different approaches to open and distance education. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

The emergence of the system of open and distance education is an inevitable and phenomenal evolution in the history of education developments internationally. Access & Equity: Challenges for Open and Distance Learning crystallizes the emerging concerns of the open and distance learning institutions the world over. In the past few decades, a proliferation in the number of ODL institutions and courses/programmes offerings has resulted in exponential growth in student enrollment in the system. The system is poised for further expansion in the coming years as its virtually unlimited potential to impart education to anybody, anywhere and anytime is being recognised by educationists, policy makers and planners. There is however a large body of learners that has yet to be reached and providing access to them while ensuring equity poses definite challenges for the ODL system. The ODL system has the capacity to integrate the state-of-the-art technologies with the time-tested methodologies

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book describes the history, structure and institutions of open and distance education in six countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, the UK and the US. It discusses how open and distance education is evolving in a digital age to reflect the needs and circumstances of national higher education systems in these countries, and explores the similarities and differences between the ways in which they are organized and structured. It is the first book to make such comparisons and draw conclusions about the nature of open and distance education in the context of various national higher education systems. In a digital era with growing use of online education as well as open and distance education, this book is particularly useful for policy-makers and senior administrators who want to learn about organizing and expanding open and distance education provision. It is also a valuable reference for researchers, academics and students interested in understanding the different approaches to open and distance education.