In this paper, we discuss the skills required for academics to effectively utilize digital technologies within open distance learning institutions in South Africa. The growing prevalence of activities within these institutions has led to shifts in academic skill requirements, particularly as academics increasingly work remotely from home or in…

This article investigates the concept of flipped learning in an online learning environment. It evaluates the case study of the award-winning flipped learning project carried out in the context of a beginners' level German module at The Open University, UK, during the academic year 2017/18. In particular, the article focuses on the similarities…

COVID-19 marked the next year with unprecedented death tolls, millions of infected people, and the closure of almost all activities, including education. The UN 2020 report highlights that this pandemic has caused the largest disruption of education in history with a near-universal impact on learners and teachers around the world. A total lockdown…

This article discusses the practices followed by the youngest open university of South Asia and the only open university of Nepal for access and equity through online teaching and learning. Key initiatives that the university has undertaken in this regard are explored to understand how practices and strategies are applied by this higher education…

Massive open online courses (MOOC) constitute an emerging technology for distance and open education while interest in incorporating them in higher education is constantly growing. Due to the free and open access learning opportunities that they offer, they attract an immense number of learners from all over the world. Additionally, because of…

The access to university and the continuation of education for people in refugee situation are investigated herein as from four initial questions: how did COVID-19 find society and this is cause displacement cases?; what is a refugee's situation in the process of the world interruption of face-to-face education?; what are the conditions for…

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…

The study investigated the relationship between Canvas learning management system, Google Classroom, Zoom for online teaching and quality of distance education. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 750 lecturers in 75 centres of Open University of Nigeria. Data was collected using Access Management and Quality of Distance Education…

Blackboard Collaborate (BC), a synchronous, multimodal platform, has been incorporated into Open University Australia (OUA) students' online learning experiences. This study sought to investigate the perspectives of 134 interdisciplinary OUA students via an online survey and follow-up interviews. Findings revealed students' positive perceptions…

The context and tools used to create diagrams may hinder or help students in learning how to represent a situation and how to learn about diagramming and the situation at the same time. These equally provide opportunities and challenges to tutors in teaching, assessing and providing feedback on these diagrams, particularly for students studying at…

The main national distance learning universities were launched before the emergence of the Internet. In order to adapt to digital connectivity, these universities had to modify their organizational and methodological procedures. But in recent years important changes have emerged in the field of educational technology, and this has significantly…

Open and distance education has been playing an important role in China's development of higher education and lifelong learning. In 2012, the Chinese government approved six large-scale radio and television universities (RTVUs) to become open universities (OUs), including the Open University of China (OUC), Beijing Open University (BJOU), Shanghai…

Purpose: The Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) is the only institution to deliver legal education through Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in Sri Lanka. This study aims to analyze technology usage in learning and teaching law in the ODL under OUSL to evaluate the accessibility and also challenges. Design/methodology/approach: A combination of…

Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) has come up with the technology platform known as MyVista which can be used to fulfil teaching and learning activities online. However, it appeared that when the MyVista platform became fully operational from 2017, both students and staff members faced a lot of challenges. To investigate these challenges, this study…

With the development of online learning, LMSs accumulated huge amounts of students' interaction data. Unfortunately, with the support of LMSs data, few researchers put a sight on interaction research in MPOCs. Particularly, comparing interaction activity patterns of different achievement student groups and in different course processes in MPOCs…