This paper attempts to pinpoint some of the problems involved in designing mass-media courses for adults and some of the ways in which research can assist both producers and the users of such courses. (Authors)

There is no centralized policy for using television and radio for inservice teacher education in Britain. Teacher training colleges have their own low cost production units, two cities have all their schools linked on a closed circuit cable system, and the BBC broadcasts on open circuit one or two series for teachers each year. The largest user of…

This paper begins with a short description of the British Open University which covers the programs of study (undergraduate, continuing education, and higher degrees); mediums of teaching (correspondence texts, broadcast television, audiocassettes, radio, face-to-face or telephone tutorials, audioconferencing, summer schools, home experiment kits,…

This lecture discusses factors that would be involved if the British Open University's distance education program were to be extended to Western Europe through the use of satellite transmissions. The cost benefits of such a move are discussed, including the possibility of additional funding through the European Commission. Another factor…

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…

A discussion of the need to find an appropriate structure for decision making within the University, and the need for changes in the structure of higher and adult education generally. (Author)

This brief report on a visit to Athabasca University, a distance education institution in Alberta (Canada), and ACCESS-Alberta, an educational communications system, indicates the numbers and types of courses offered by the University, and describes the types of media used in the program. These types of media include: print-based, telephone…

This report on the organization, development, and dissemination of educational and commercial radio and television programs by the Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company includes some of the research being done at the Open University. A planned reorganization of Sveriges Radio into two separate television channels and several channels for local…

This discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of using television in an open university's distance learning program begins by examining the parameters of the use of television in distance learning, i.e., distribution, utilization, and production. It is suggested that television provides two unique presentational characteristics when used in…

This paper discusses four major developments in the use of media at the Open University: (1) the move from radio to audiocassettes; (2) use of broadcast television vs. videocassettes; (3) increased use of interactive video; and (4) CYCLOPS tutorials, which provide immediate two-way communication via the telephone together with visual pictures.…

This report makes recommendations for the establishment of an active research and evaluation program for the Open Learning Institute (OLI) and the Knowledge Network (KN) of British Columbia (Canada). It is suggested that the OLI and KN programs develop a framework for evaluating their own performance, that the database be improved to provide…