Offering education by distance provides an important sociological tool for equalising opportunities in developed nations. However, for developing nations and more particularly some of the least-developed countries in the world, it has the potential to play a much larger role in providing both basic and advanced educational opportunities and,…

This paper explores ways in which virtual learning can facilitate improved access to information, promote openness, and encourage flexibility in an open and distance learning university. It reports on experiences and perceptions of students at an open and distance learning university, who study through virtual learning. The study considered two…

This paper describes an Open University eSTEeM project that gathered the experiences of computing and information technology tutors who teach an undergraduate module called "Web Technologies" with the intention of understanding more about how they and their students can be best supported. Twelve distance learning tutors were interviewed…

Higher education in Tanzania like in many other Sub-Saharan countries suffers from unavailability of quality teaching and learning resources due to lack of tradition, competence, and experience to develop such resources. Nevertheless, there are thousands of open educational resources (OER) freely available in the public domain that can potentially…

Innovations in learning with conscious thinking result in conceptual and effective learning. New strategies and techniques of learning aim at bringing about change in behavior that might help in solving problems of the individual at local and global level. This paper inquires into benefits of Reflective Practice in Open and Distance Learning in…

This report begins by briefly reviewing actions that have been taken since the idea of an Open University in Tanzania was first proposed in the late 1970s. The main body of the report begins with a discussion of the role of media technology in an open university with emphasis on delivery and support systems. The current situation in Tanzania is…

This report presents findings from the second national survey of distance education undertaken by the National Center for Education Statistics. The survey covers the 12-month 1997-98 academic year and includes data for higher education institutions as well as all 2-year and 4-year postsecondary institutions. Highlights of the report include the…

This 1995 federal survey designed to provide the first nationally representative data about higher education distance education course offerings. Data were collected in fall 1995 from 2-year and 4-year higher education institutions and were weighted to provide national estimates. The study includes information about the percentage of institutions…