Project OWLink is a teledistance project linking Rice University (Texas) to five Texas schools (one K-8 and four high schools) with a two-way audio/video and Internet connectivity, creating an interactive electronic community of teachers and students. Initiated in June 1994, the project has experimented with nontraditional models of distance…

Intended to provide background information and preliminary policy options for the California Community Colleges' Commission on Innovation, this document explores the cost and practical feasibility of delivering distance instruction using pre-recorded broadcasts. Following introductory materials detailing the Commission's charge, the paper suggests…

The major negative factor to the full integration of televised instruction into the educational system has always been cost, either because of the initial investment or the time required to develop courseware. Resistance to change has always been and continues to be the greatest barrier to the use of all technologies in education. Countless…

In fiscal year (FY) 1989, students enrolled in telecourses at Howard Community College (HCC) were surveyed at the end of each semester to determine their enrollment patterns, goals, sources of information about telecourses, reasons for enrolling in and satisfaction with the course, interest in computer-based distance learning, and personal…

Three telecourse programs offering high school credit courses via interactive satellite communication are described and evaluated. German by Satellite and Physics by Satellite from Oklahoma State University feature biweekly 40-minute broadcasts with audio interaction via regular telephone lines and microcomputer voice recognition software at…

The most significant factor in developing the video design of a telecourse must always be the needs of the students who will view the program. In developing videotapes for a writing telecourse at a Texas community college, the instructors attempted to design programs to meet the special cognitive and affective needs of its nontraditional audience.…

Made up of four separate reports, this document presents comparisons and student comments for five Annenberg/CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting) telecourses offered in the fall of 1984: The Brain, Mind and Behavior; The Constitution: That Delicate Balance; The Write Course; The New Literacy; and Congress: We the People. Based on evaluations…

This guide was developed to help administrators and educators plan and implement videoconferences and credit courses using the Iowa State University studios (WOI). In a short narrative format, the guide leads the reader through the videoconference or course process. The guide is organized in three sections. The first section presents an overview…

A project was undertaken by the Iowa Valley Community College District (IVCCD) to provide information and instruction via cable television to persons eligible for Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) programs. The project sought to identify and enroll at least 15 CETA-eligible persons in each of 3 programs; "TV High School,"…

Community colleges offering or contemplating offering television-based courses will be successful in promotional efforts if the fundamental, philosophical purpose is built upon a need for expanding current educational services to a population thus far unaffected by on-campus programs. Efforts in promoting television courses should be made so that…

A model for a television consortium for Connecticut regional community colleges is presented. A successful consortium involves commitment to the purpose of providing access to higher education for nontraditional students, willingness of program developers and administrators to listen to and work with people having divergent viewpoints, adequate…

The Technical Scoool of the Air was developed to deliver video-based courses via boradcast and cable television. The system was designed to implement competency-based instructional courses and programs statewide. An audio visual material production consortium was established to facilitate joint production/acquisition efforts, reduce duplicate…

The history of instructional television, the development of the telecourse concept, current uses of instructional television, economic factors, and cooperative arrangements are considered. After the initial approach of presenting a professor lecturing as if before a class, producers of instructional television began to dramatize the subject, adopt…

The University of Mid-America's (UMA) goals and plans are reviewed in this evaluation planning paper. Several issues effecting the overall shape of external evaluation activities over a five-year period are described. Focus in this report is on UMA's philosophical orientation and future plans, the rationale for the open learning approach, UMA open…

Three objectives are examined in this report: (1) to outline concisely some of the educational questions that course planning teams may wish to address in the early stages of course planning; (2) to provide a short list of resources, principally from the Open University's Institute of Educational Technology (IET), that may aid in course team…