This paper describes some of the issues involved in refining Internet-based, asynchronous conference forums to meet the learning needs of adult students in distant inservice and graduate courses. The paper focuses on an analysis of existing instruction delivery systems and explores identification of optimal environments for inservice professional…

Reform of the university is discussed taking the perspective that advances in information technology will have a substantial effect on the university system. It is suggested that within 20 years, the traditional university will become an anachronism, supplanted by a unified system of information exchange. The New Zealand context is emphasized.…

Discusses global, or virtual, universities and considers efforts to change the nature of higher education. Highlights include consortiums involving several countries; reasons for going global, including competition, generating new income, and increasing access to educational opportunities; meeting student needs; and improving employment…

Includes 21 short articles on a variety of subjects: Internet for management development, lifelong learning in virtual universities, high performance organizations, National Vocational Qualifications, cost effectiveness and training effectiveness, mind maps, Generation X training, Japanese vocational training, management development in Libya, and…

Provides an overview of developments in higher education internationalization, from traditional forms such as student/staff mobility to exporting via branch campuses, transnational university networks, and virtual delivery. Discusses quality challenges, particularly recognition of foreign degrees and credits. Suggests the solution is integration…

Discusses virtual universities and virtual classrooms, exploring both the benefits and the disadvantages of technology-based delivery systems. Highlights include competitive pressures to use technology; impacts on students; the need for flexibility to meet unique student needs and learning styles; learning environments; impact on society; and…

Despite the success that instructors and learners often enjoy with online university courses, learners have also reported that they miss face-to-face contact when learning online. The purpose of this inquiry was to identify learners' perceptions of what is missing from online learning and provide recommendations for how we can continue to innovate…

In the first decade of the 21st century, the nation, the states, and colleges and universities began to grapple with the challenges of globalization, changing demography, the implications of the digital era, and of a less expansive public sector. Although not a transformative period for higher education, the decade saw significant innovations in…

Lulea University of Technology (Sweden) has, for the last few years, deployed an Internet-based learning environment, mStar, to distribute courses to students independent of time and geographic distance. The mStar environment gives remotely attending students possibilities equal to traditionally attending students to take an active part in a…

Discusses computer-supported learning, cooperative learning, and virtual universities and links them in a way that reflects a vision of the future. Conclusions are based on results of student questionnaires and interviews with students and instructors involved in cooperative learning taking place at the University of Exeter's Computer Science…

Discussion of the changing role of teachers in higher education with modern technology focuses on open and distance learning and the concept of a peripatetic electronic teacher (PET) who would surf around the World Wide Web. Describes a PET-world paradigm, a global networked environment that supports advanced multimedia features. (Author/LRW)

Discusses the growth of electronic education and the need to educate in a new environment. Topics include ways to learn; knowledge workers; distance education and globalization; the online education market; government's role; foundations; accreditation commissions; future challenges; content provider versus context provider; profit versus…

The intersection of globalisation and information technology influences ethical positions and notions of responsibility within businesses and in distance education for school students. As the spatial and temporal distance between student and teacher increases, and is mediated by computers, there have been changes to the ways in which individuals…

The article discusses basic teaching-learning philosophies and experiences from the development and testing of mobile learning integrated with the online distance education system at NKI (Norwegian Knowledge Institute) Distance Education. The article builds on experiences from three European Union (EU) supported "Leonardo da Vinci"…

This document contains the following full and short papers on virtual laboratories, classrooms, and schools from ICCE/ICCAI 2000 (International Conference on Computers in Education/International Conference on Computer-Assisted Instruction): (1) "A Collaborative Learning Support System Based on Virtual Environment Server for Multiple…