Examines the background of external degree programs in Germany and proposes a model that includes a critical discussion of various organizational forms for teaching university courses at a distance. (Author/IRT)

Focus is on adult education counseling. Models of collaboration are presented, counselling goals are defined, and the work of the Educational Resources and Information Centre of the Open University in Wales and other developments in adult counseling in the United Kingdom are described. (JMD)

A generalized procedure for interrelating possible research activities and decisions over the life of a course is proposed. The main levels at which research can contribute to the evaluation are discussed, and data are presented in relation to one particular program: the Social Science foundation course at the Open University. (Author/LBH)

Three challenges that face distance educators at the national, institute, and individual subject level in Australia are discussed in a set of Occasional Papers by the Riverina-Murray Institute of Higher Education (RMIHE). Australia is undergoing a period of major change. The binary system of universities and colleges of advanced education is…

This book challenges the notion that the open university is a recent invention and argues that in Britain there is a long and varied tradition of similar developments, and that there has been a significant 20th century reduction in the openness of universities, particularly in the period from the 1950s to the 1970s. Selected examples of open…

A model to describe how adults work on university courses at a distance from campus was developed at an Australian university. The model was designed to describe how students define the task/goal and plan their study, based on G. Ploya's (1957) Heuristic and A. Newell's and H. A. Simon's (1972) General Problem Solver. Verbal reports were obtained…

The Open University Younger Student Pilot Scheme, a five-year research project is discussed. Project objectives included: testing the suitability of students in the 18 to 20 year age group, developing predictive indices of success and failure, and assessing the level and nature of the demand for places. (Author/MLW)

An Open University course text, People in Cities--An Ecological Approach (Block 3), is presented. Three sections of the block are: the ecology of urban life, socialization and some implications for the urban child, and the compensatory debate. Some of the adaptive processes and ways in which failures of adaptation are distributed in different…

A multivariate model to explain student success and failure at the Open University of the United Kingdom is outlined. The model is based on the results of an evaluation study that explored the suitability of this teaching system for young people under 21 years old. Twenty-three characteristics were designated as social and psychological problems,…