We know assessment plays a major formative role in driving student learning appropriately, but what implications does this have for online courses? Is it more important than in a face to face context, or less so? Should we reconceptualize the ways in which we assess students, or are existing methods, tried and tested in conventional teaching and…

This lecture considers the effectiveness of television as a medium for distance education in light of the experiences of the Open University in Great Britain. The main theses of the paper are that television is an important component of high quality open and distance education, but only when its unique teaching characteristics are exploited, and…

Notes difficulties encountered teaching history in an open university. Describes methodology used in a twentieth-century history course, combining current events with the course content. Using a major continuing news story as the basis for a semester project, students are asked to consider multiple scenarios and to predict outcomes of current…

Development of a national higher education market in Australia provides the opportunity for open-access universities to develop recruitment strategies based on the experience of North American institutions. Implications are drawn for focusing on student learning potential, reorganizing the curriculum, integrating recruitment and teaching/learning…

Reviews the historical development of adult and continuing education as provided through the Open University system of Great Britain. An interview with the librarian for Oxford's Department of External Studies examines the current status of the program and describes the library services available to participants. (8 references) (CLB)

Describes an open admissions program, a public university's nontraditional population, and their unique academic needs. Provides a political science briefing book assignment in which students research and write about one country. Claims the book is effective in helping students to organize and focus their thoughts and to improve their research and…

This document contains six case studies of Chinese adult education: (1) China's Adult Education at Present and in Prospect (Mingchuan and Zhongdan); (2) Aging Issue and Education for the Aged in China (Mingchuan and Zhongdan); (3) Adult Education in Beijing Municipality (Youren); (4) A University without Campus: Introduction to China's Higher…

Asserting that the traditional system of higher education is not capable of meeting the ever-increasing demands of a developing country such as India, this paper suggests possible alternative methods of higher education. In addition to in-depth descriptions of the United Kingdom's Open University at Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, and the Regional…

This information sheet defines teleconferencing as a meeting of three or more people at different locations by telephone and communicating via audioconferencing, audio plus graphics, slow scan television, or full motion video conferencing, and discusses some of the advantages and various applications of this technology. Three major projects that…

Attempts to draw comparisons between the different ways that distance education methods have been used for postsecondary education. Emphasizes the differences in scale, curricula, teaching approaches, and resource levels at different institutions in different nations. Explores problems such as lack of discussion, inflexibility, high cost of…

The 16 conference papers in this collection describe various ways in which counselling is used in distance education in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Thailand, the United Kingdom, West Germany, and Zambia. Following an introduction by Alan Tait, the following papers are presented: (1) "Counselling in the Open University of the…

This document contains the following case studies of West German adult education projects: (1) Counseling Courses in Agriculture (Bugl, Fehrenbach-Neumann); (2) The State Center for Political Education in Baden-Wurttemberg (Schiele); (3) Catholic Educational Organization Rottweil (Muller); (4) Adult Education Center--Herrenberg (Werner); (5)…

The Regional Tutorial Services Unit of Great Britain's Open University links the school's regional educational programs with the central office, provides for student counseling, and maintains enrollment. This article reviews the unit's first 10 years, its present structure and operations, and the factors underlying or inhibiting its notable…

Maintains that open and distance education represents contemporary education forms that respond to the shift to late-modernity, especially in educational technology and student-teacher relationships. Drawing on the work of Anthony Giddens, uncovers relationships among distance education, late-modernity, and the self. (CFR)

One way for colleges to meet the demand for a wider range of learning opportunities for adults in Great Britain is to provide more flexibility within the further education system. The concept of flexible learning involves the modification of delivery systems, specific providing agencies, target populations, specific determinants such as geographic…