Digital badges as a recognition for learning, can motivate, provide a means to demonstrate credibility and professional development, and allow learners to showcase their skills and interests. They are an important means to recognise non-accredited learning and can be delivered in agile, educational or professional settings. The Open University UK…

There is Individual variation in how people interact with videos presented in online distance education. Educational videos can be embedded with interactive content to increase engagement and make cognition more efficient. Accordingly, we predicted that embedding questions during videos (rather than after) would enhance the performance of…

Using multivariate linear regression models, this study estimates the relationship between graduates' self-reported skill improvements from attending a virtual university, the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), and their salaries after obtaining the degree. Our results show that graduates made considerable earnings gains and especially high rates…

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can appeal to very large masses as a distance education model and provide the same quality and standard education with large user groups worldwide via the internet. In MOOC systems, users can get the course they want for free or for a small fee in the application they are registered with, using videos, lecture…

Purpose: Lifelong learning needs to be visualized as the milestone for generating a progressive and knowledge society. Because it is through lifelong learning that one can continuously upgrade one's knowledge and acquire the relevant skills for getting livelihood opportunities. Moreover, for ensuring a sustainable and advanced society in the 21st…

Purpose: This research attempts to reveal ways of addressing challenges in open universities related to empowering lifelong learning; establishing policies and strategies in dropouts, student portfolio and support services for students with special needs; and implementing online instructional design and strategies. Two institutions were…

In 2019, The Open University (henceforth, The OU), based in Milton Keynes in the UK, celebrated its 50th anniversary. Since 1971 it has pioneered the delivery of Higher Education in prisons and other secure settings. Some 50 years on, in 2021 there is much to celebrate and still more to learn. In this article we briefly review the establishment of…

The implementation of learning analytics may empower distance learning institutions to provide real-time feedback to students and teachers. Given the leading role of the Open University UK (OU) in research and application of learning analytics, this study aims to share the lessons learned from the experiences of 42 participants from a range of…

The aim of this paper is to understand the emotions associated with the experience of teaching online in an online university and the factors that influence these emotions. A total of 965 online teachers at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (www.uoc.edu) were surveyed. Three emotions linked to teaching online were identified: satisfaction,…

This article intends to launch discussion and reflection on two main themes: lifelong learning and digital literacy in nowadays societies. In looking for the intersections between these concepts to connote them with a more humanistic and holistic perspective, we explore the potentials of distance learning in the lives of adult learners. The…

Global information resources and sophisticated technology have accelerated the availability and utilization of Online Information Resources (OIR) in the Open Distance Learning environment. The study examines the contributions of OIR to Open Distance and Lifelong Learning in relation to three purposively selected dual-mode institutions in…

Throughout 2020, and into 2021, national governments were forced at different times to impose 'lockdown' on traditional approaches to education to cope with the impact of COVID-19. Higher education institutions (HEI) with face-to-face models scrambled to 'pivot' to distance and online learning. Whilst originally conceived as a temporary measure,…

Open and Distance Learning (ODL) has a long history, one marked by the emergence of open universities, which was a critical development in the ecology of openness. Open universities have taken on significant local and global roles within the framework of meeting the needs of their respective regions of influence, and as such, their roles have…

In addition to the rapidly developed Internet information technology, the admission to secondary schools has changed from single entry to multiple entries, among which the performance of Basic Competence Test and at schools have replaced Joint University Programs Admissions System. Traditional instruction therefore could no longer cope with such…

The purpose of this article is to present the results of the qualitative research conducted in Detention Facilities in Greece in connection with the preparation of the thesis (Linardatou, 2012). This is a case study of two prisoners attending Open Universities. The study concerned the characteristics and peculiarities of Open and Distance…