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The purpose of this paper is to describe how the introduction of new technologies has affected student support at the United Kingdom Open University (UKOU) particularly focusing on face-to-face tutorials and online tutorials, what this impact implies for open universities and in what direction the innovations toward the sustainability of open universities should proceed.

Research on the historical development of UKOU and a literature review was conducted.

The rationale behind the foundation of UKOU has been to provide higher education to those who have time and physical constraints. There is no doubt that the introduction of advanced technologies has played a significant role in the growth of the university. However, when the university attempted to replace face-to-face tutorials with online tutorials on the basis of its purpose, a number of students and faculty members opposed the decision even though online tutorials fit within its original objective. This paper suggests that face-to-face tutorials have become the essence of the university through the process of identifying the university in the past and the university’s identity may need to be distinguished from the rationale.

This paper emphasizes the necessity of rethinking the Open and Distance Education rationale and, on the basis of past studies on UKOU, offers a unique perspective about the changes that have taken place at the university.

This paper aims to describe the implementation of a blended learning approach in a Stage 2 management accounting course at a university in New Zealand. The paper reports on student participation and engagement in the course and reflects on students’ learning experiences. The blended learning approach was implemented in response to low student attendance and poor preparation for face-to-face tutorial sessions, along with demand from students to be able to access learning resources off-campus.

Data were collected from formal course evaluations, the learning management system and a student focus group, with particular emphasis on three of the online activities introduced – lessons, quizzes and chat rooms.

The study finds that while learners value online activities, they are nevertheless still unwilling to forgo the opportunities which face-to-face contact with both peers and faculty members present. This finding provides support for the continuation of a blended learning approach in the course, as well as its implementation in others.

This paper has several limitations. These include the small sample size and the absence of reflection on the process and outcome(s) of implementation of the blended learning course by the responsible academic. Furthermore, the paper also did not consider the impact of blended learning on students’ soft, or generic, skills. These are topics for future research.

The findings highlight the importance of offering not only a mixture of online activities, but also a blend of face-to-face and online activities.

This study focuses on student participation and engagement in a blended learning accounting course.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of social and digital media in the business school and particularly to examine how such innovative technological processes can be leveraged to enhance teaching instruction and enrich learning about practice and research.

Taking a broad perspective on the range of social and digital media approaches, the paper discusses a series of extant models of technology‐based learning and conjectures about how they can be used creatively and meaningfully in business school teaching.

Despite the pioneering efforts of the Open University in modelling distance and blended learning, adoption of such models in the business school context has been quite slow. These technologies are used more frequently as support mechanisms for “face‐to‐face” learning in order to enrich the quality of conventional professorial instructional approaches. In many business schools “face‐to‐face” learning is perceived to be of much higher quality than on‐line learning approaches.

The paper notes the resistance to the adoption of new technology both by business school professors and deans. In the case of professors, there is inertia to change and a staunch defence of classic forms of “face‐to‐face” instruction. In the case of deans, few have sufficient courage or time (given the short average tenure of deans) to invest in and implement new technology strategies for teaching and learning. However, business school deans can no longer ignore the potentially disruptive innovations that will occur in teaching and learning processes.

This study envisioned plausible influential factors on service quality and academic excellence relatable to graduate self-confidence in an open distance learning (ODL) outlook. The objective was to expose the moderating role of academic excellence (graduate satisfaction) between service quality and self-confidence (engagement, achievement, loyalty and opportunity, EALO). It was also of interest to explore how, in what routines factors involved interrelated.

This study utilized exploratory design. Qualitatively, service quality included acclimation, advising, module, tutorial, assessment, feedback and referral factors. Service quality led to academic excellence (GPA, study length, relevance and recognition). Besides, academic excellence influenced self-confidence. Quantitatively, service quality, academic excellence and self-confidence were the independent, moderating and dependent variables. Respondents were randomly selected through a survey of eligible Universitas Terbuka alumni.

11 hypotheses were assessed under structural-equation modeling (SEM). Responses from 122 out of 500 graduates were completed. Eight hypotheses were validated by the analysis. The tutorial was the most influential factor followed by module, assessment and acclimation; advising, feedback and referral were excluded. Academic excellence also led to self-confidence. The study was able to visualize a substantial role of academic excellence in moderating service quality to EALO. Besides, important-performance analysis and customer-satisfaction index (IPA-CSI) recognized 21 out of 32 attributes as the pillars of academic excellence.

Three of the hypotheses were invalidated by the quantitative analysis. Further inquiry with much broader coverage is then required to diminish the variance to finally find the ideal framework.

The purpose of this paper is to examine post‐graduate health promotion students' self‐perceptions of information literacy skills prior to, and after completing PILOT, an online information literacy tutorial.

Post‐graduate students at Queensland University of Technology enrolled in PUP038 New Developments in Health Promotion completed a pre‐ and post‐self‐assessment questionnaire. From 2008‐2011 students were required to rate their academic writing and research skills before and after completing the PILOT online information literacy tutorial. Quantitative trends and qualitative themes were analysed to establish students' self‐assessment and the effectiveness of the PILOT tutorial.

The results from four years of post‐graduate students' self‐assessment questionnaires provide evidence of perceived improvements in information literacy skills after completing PILOT. Some students continued to have trouble with locating quality information and analysis as well as issues surrounding referencing and plagiarism. Feedback was generally positive and students' responses indicated they found the tutorial highly beneficial in improving their research skills.

This paper is original because it describes post‐graduate health promotion students' self‐assessment of information literacy skills over a period of four years. The literature is limited in the health promotion domain and self‐assessment of post‐graduate students' information literacy skills.

Face-to-face tutorial sessions remain an integral part of the delivery mode of distance education in Ghana. It is sometimes used as the sole mode of delivery of educational content in some distance education institutions. This study, therefore, investigated the interconnectedness of elements of face-to-face tutorials among distance education students.

The study adopted the positivist approach and used descriptive research as a design. Simple random and stratified sampling techniques were used, and a sample of 1,491 students was drawn from a population of 44,001 across all regions of Ghana. Data were collected with a self-administered questionnaire and analysed with descriptive and inferential statistics.

The study found that collaborative learning, counselling, self-directed learning, motivation and critical thinking had strong interrelationships as elements of face-to-face tutorials.

This quantitative study was limited to the views of students on the elements of face-to-face tutorials. It was envisaged, however, that the views of the tutors and administrators who conducted the face-to-face tutorials could have enriched the findings of the study. In addition, adopting a mixed design approach where both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from the participants could have given an in-depth and enriched perspective of the current study.

Management of distance education institutions need to focus on these important elements and their inter-relationships as they might lead to improved academic and social progress among students. In addition, institutions must also organise orientations and seminars for course facilitators and new students on the need to develop commitments towards the elements of face-to-face tutorials as requirement so as to succeed on their course of study.

This is a novel approach that will help improve the understanding of students on the importance of the activities they engage in during face-to-face tutorials. It would also help managers of institutions using face-to-face tutorials to focus on these important elements that might lead to improved academic work among students.

This article discusses the relationship between Customer Value and Customer Satisfaction in the context of face-to-face tutorials at Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia. In this study, the idea — which was derived from marketing theory for tangible products — was implemented for face-to-face tutorial services. The sample consisted of 200 students involved in face-to-face tutorials whose perceptionsof the tutors' performance,tutorial results,tutorial costs and students' satisfactionwere measured by using six scales.Customer Value consists of the tutors' performance, tutorial results and tutorial costs; and Customer Satisfaction was derived from SERVQUAL. The findings show that there is a significant positive correlation between Customer Value and Customer Satisfaction. This finding indicates that marketing theory for tangible product can also be used for face-to-face tutorials as an intangible product.

This paper compares the effectiveness of in‐house developed computer‐based learning (CBL) materials with face‐to‐face teaching. Two groups of higher education students were randomly assigned to complete tutorial work in one highly structured topic of introductory accounting using either CBL materials (treatment group) or face‐to‐face teaching (control group). The effectiveness of both approaches was measured according to the students’ performance in a class test, in relation to their prior accounting knowledge and gender. The results showed that the students with no prior accounting knowledge who completed the CBL materials achieved a significantly higher test mark than the face‐to‐face teaching group. However, there was no significant difference in the marks of the students with prior accounting knowledge, and there was no difference on the basis of gender. The results of this South African study correspond to results in existing literature in other countries, and contribute to the overall knowledge of the effectiveness of CBL materials with respect to prior accounting knowledge and gender.

This paper aims to describe the MacEwan University Library’s successful pilot of a fully blended information literacy (IL) instruction program for first-year English courses. Development, implementation and assessment of the pilot prior to full implementation are discussed.

The new sustainable blended model for the English Library Instruction Program reduced duplication of content and effort, incorporated online and in-person instruction and promoted self-directed learning opportunities through a new Learning Commons. This model places essential instruction online while maintaining personal relationships for students with the English Librarian and the Library through multiple points of interaction. Face-to-face instruction efforts were concentrated on developing critical thinking skills through a hands-on source evaluation activity and on providing point-of-need support. Librarians worked closely with English faculty to encourage early voluntary adoption of the new model for the Fall 2013 pilot.

The voluntary early-adopter model worked well for garnering and maintaining support from the English department: the authors had 42 per cent of English sessions piloting the new model for Fall 2013, surpassing the initial target of 25 per cent. Students scored well on an assessment of their ability to identify scholarly sources. Librarian preparation time has been greatly reduced.

Many academic libraries are looking to asynchronous online tutorials as a more sustainable model for delivering IL instruction. This case study demonstrates that it is possible to move some instruction online while maintaining the personal relationships librarians have forged with students and faculty.

Unlike distance education institutions in developed countries Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University makes very limited use of assignments in its teaching programs. The main means of interaction between tutors and students consists of free face-to-face tutorials conducted three times per semester in provincial centers throughout the country. In courses with low enrolments (less than 1000 students) such tutorials have recently been deemed not to be cost effective. Alternative regional or central intensive programs have been developed. These involve 20 hours of tutorial classes and assignment work over two weekends in the final month of the semester and count for 30% of the assessment. A small charge is made for registration. The Mathematics for Social Science course was affected by this change. Since mathematics is a difficult subject for students, (only about 30% normally passed the course) the special tutorial program was used to help students in the second semester of 2006. Students were more interested in this approach than in the regular face-to-face tutorials. After the project was advertised, 98 students applied. While this was more than three times the number who had attended the free tutorials in the previous semester, it was not sufficient to justify tutorials in the four regions. Instead, three classes were conducted in Bangkok. Only 71 of the original applicants attended. During the program the better students were asked to assist those who needed help. Student questionnaires indicated that more than half identified themselves as weak in mathematics, most had completed year 12 and just over three-quarters had never attended regular face-to-face tutorials. They were asked to rank items about the classes on a five-level scale. The availability of up to 30% of the marks for the course was the major attraction. Most indicated that they were pleased with the classes, and gained more knowledge; while assignments, as well as the solutions given after submission, helped them understand the contents. Having classmates help them with learning also encouraged them with their study. They felt that they needed more time to study and do assignment work, and would like more marks to be allocated for the assignments. It was found that the achievement of students who attended the special tutorial classes was significantly higher than that of those who did not. The pass rate in this semester dramatically increased compared to the previous semester, 50.72% and 30.34% respectively. But when comparing students' final exam scores for both groups, it was found that there was no significant difference in the scores. However students were satisfied with these special tutorial classes.