Recent government-led initiatives are changing the nature of the UK PhD to support the greater development of transferable skills. There are similar initiatives internationally. A key requirement and challenge is to effectively assess the "baseline" skills of a cohort on entry to a research programme and then monitor their progress in…

Distance Education has globally become one of the important solutions for increasing admission into the universities, decongesting campuses and efficient utilization of time and space. To ensure the sustainability of the programmes' noble objectives calls for periodic re-evaluation of its modus operandi including the assessment of the perception…

A discernible difference, attributed to the digital divide, is evident between the adoption and implementation of distance education technologies in institutions of higher learning in low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in high-income countries in America and Europe. A review of the literature revealed a rural-urban digital divide…

The expanding field of adult learning encompasses the study and practice of utilizing sound instructional design principals, technology, and learning theory as a means to solve educational challenges and human performance issues relating to adults, often occurring online. This book disseminates current issues and trends emerging in the field of…

Minnesota Adult Basic Education (ABE) providers are mandated to use CASAS (Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System) Reading or Math or TABE (Tests for Adult Basic Education) Reading or Math. This issue of "NetNews" introduces the Test Bank: a variety of informal reading, spelling, and writing assessments available for Minnesota ABE…

This research investigates the life, work, and education of students in Human Resource Development (HRD) Cohort Ten, a distance learning program for non-traditional undergraduate students in Arkansas. The study has identified commonalties in perceptions regarding accessibility, sense of achievement, and other themes related to the program. The…

The hypothesis in this study was that different types of multiple-goal learners would have different patterns of learning. A sample of 797 adult distance learners enrolled in different programs offered by a distance learning university in Hong Kong completed a questionnaire assessing their goals, use of strategies, motivational beliefs, and…

This article presents an interview with Chere Campbell Gibson, a professor emerita in the School of Human Ecology and graduate program in Continuing and Vocational Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Gibson shares her years of experience in distance education, discusses her book titled "Distance Learners in Higher Education:…

This report provides an overview of the continuing development and use of the computer-assisted career guidance systems at the Adult Career Counseling Center of Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan during its 10th year of operation (September 1992-June 1993). The report includes a brief history of the development of the center and of…

This document consists of three year's worth (18 consecutive issues), 1995-1998, of the periodical "Hands-on English." This serial publication is intended for teachers and tutors of adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL). Each issue contains editorials, letters to the editor, teaching and learning activities, teaching tips,…

In collaborative learning, both facilitators and learners are active participants in the process, a sense of community is created, and knowledge is considered to be located in the community rather than the individual. Its guiding principle is that learning is enhanced when knowledge that is created and transmitted is shaped by the activities and…

A plan to provide more complete information regarding Continuing Education courses was initiated at Pennsylvania State University in order to facilitate student decision making. The expanded course descriptions were posted at registration sites and included information regarding instructor, catalog description, course objectives, instructional and…

The teacher who effectively directs the learning of the special needs adult (personal, emotional, and skill development) carefully plans the course of action to be implemented in his classroom. The methods and techniques used must contribute directly to the successful accomplishment and achievement of the specific goals of each individual student.…

Adult students learn effectively only when there evolves, in the course which they attend, a framework of reference to experience of the world outside the meeting room by which they can orient, assimilate and make use of what it is they are learning. (Author)

Fairleigh Dickinson University developed a University Core Curriculum which it initiated in the 1987-1988 academic year (the pilot program was operational in the fall 1986 semester). The University Core is composed of four 3-credit liberal education courses: "Perspectives on the Individual," which deals with works ranging from Plato's "Crito" to…