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…

This paper offers insights into the establishment of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Chair of Open Distance Learning (ODL) at the University of South Africa (UNISA). The aim of the UNESCO Chair is to stimulate ODL research at UNISA. The paper briefly describes UNISA, which is the largest dedicated…

This report provides an overview of the nature of open universities derived from the responses from 28 open universities in the Commonwealth. The data not only provide a snapshot of the nature of OUs, but also show some evidence of the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on open universities where institutions had to move all their learning and…

This paper focuses on the experiences of out-of-school girls in Zimbabwe. It draws on a research strand of SAGE (Supporting Adolescent Girls' Education), a UKAid programme funded through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's (FCDO) Girls' Education Challenge (GEC) initiative. Using a digital storytelling approach the research…

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,…

The School of Languages and Applied Linguistics at the Open University (OU) radically re-designed its modern languages curriculum in 2014, launching its first suite of new modules in 2017. The institution as a whole has since also developed a new employability framework. Our paper describes the principles underpinning the design of the new…

This project aimed to explore how online open communities and resources could be used for language learning in a higher education context. Advanced language learners were introduced to translation and subtitling, and the use of open content to maintain their language skills post-graduation whilst engaging in a meaningful activity, namely sharing…

The first module of the online Master of Arts (MA) in Translation at the Open University, Introduction to Translation Theory and Practice, includes a language development strand which encourages students to diagnose their own language development needs and introduces them to tools, resources, strategies, and learning communities that will enable…

In the absence of comparative data about open universities, the current impact of ODL institutions is not clear. To develop a database of open universities in the Commonwealth, COL initiated a survey. The present report is based on the responses of 27 open universities that responded to our questionnaire.

Management education market has expanded enormously across the world. Business Schools in general and Open University Management Schools in particular have been at the forefront of introducing the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into knowledge dissemination. Technology enabled management education facilitates change in the…

Making universal access to education compatible with different paths of learning is one of the great challenges of the last century. Technology has provided solutions to access information, for communication and collaborative work. Blockchain emerges as a technology that can be useful for the development of an evaluation model of individualized…

Two free fully online courses were offered by Peoples-uni on its Open Online Courses site, both as self-paced courses available any time and as courses run over four weeks with tutor-led discussions. We tested the hypothesis that there are no measurable differences in outcomes between the two delivery methods. Similar numbers attended both…

Staff development plays a crucial role in Open and Distance learning programmes because most of the staff working on these programmes are products of the conventional face to face system. Lack of proper training of staff in ODL can lead to high dropout rate among distance learners. The purpose of this study was to investigate staff development…

The academic support system that is available online for distance students can prove quite beneficial to them before and especially during their course/programme of study. Potter posited that the goal of a programme's academic learner support services for distance learners must be to meet their needs by linking them with fellow students, faculty…

Distance students are time poor and some drop out of their studies because they fall behind with coursework. This raises the issue of how course teams decide upon how many study hours should be included in a course. This article presents a number of Open University projects that have addressed student workload management and relates how learning…