Search results

The global proliferation of distance learning programs has become a major phenomenon of our times. So rapid is the growth rate of distance learning options, that statistics on them are rendered out-of-date at the moment of publication. As soon as innovations in media and automation technologies have appeared, their new capabilities have been adapted to distance learning applications, fueling the growth of distance learning programs, and providing marketing tools for the promotion of newly upgraded or newly created distance learning programs and institutions. Rapid growth in a highly competitive market has led to the duplication and overlapping of new distance learning options both within institutions and across institutional and geographical boundaries.

Neither distance learning courses nor utilising information and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance these courses are new to sub‐Saharan Africa. “Long‐distance” training by correspondence has been practised here for decades. ICT as basic as e‐mail has the potential to enable the remotely situated student to interactively take part in a particular programme. Additional equipment can simulate the lecture environment by allowing the student to watch a video of a presentation while communicating via telephone. This article is an investigation of the status quo of ICT‐based distance learning in sub‐Saharan Africa. Broad trends were derived from the multitude of sources on the topic, depicting just as many examples of programmes currently being maintained. ICT inroads in Africa are addressed; the problems to acquire and maintain these are discussed, as well as ICT’s potential role in future distance learning programmes. Examples of public‐private partnerships are highlighted. It is emphasised that only through these partnerships will African tertiary institutions succeed in increasing the output of their much needed graduates.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the critical success factors for crafting a strategic architecture for e‐learning at HP University.

A descriptive survey type of research design was used. An empirical study was conducted on students enrolled with the International Centre for Distance and Open Learning who were attending personal contact programs (PCPs) in professional courses so as to elicit the importance of e‐learning in distance education programs.

From the research questions for implementing e‐learning it was found that the current practices of instruction are satisfactory, the centers where PCPs are not sufficiently equipped for the training of learners and resource persons at PCPs do not have interest in the ICT program although the learners are ICT savvy, but there is no regular electricity supply, sufficient facilities and consumables for the usage.

Although an empirical study was conducted, the respondents, the students, sometimes disclose the information and do not reply to the questions in good faith.

The article addresses the critical success factors in crafting a strategic architecture for e‐learning at HP University so as to implement e‐learning for the benefit of the staff and the students.

The article addresses the critical success factors for implementing e‐learning in a traditional university environment.

The paper reports the feedback collected from students of the Master of Social Work (MSW) Programme of the School of Social Work (SOSW), Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), through open and distance learning (ODL), in India. The paper discusses findings related to learner profile, student support services, assignments, academic counselling, fieldwork, audio/video/teleconferencing facilities, Internet access and challenges faced by the learners. The findings will be useful for researchers and practitioners, will help in improving the overall quality of the programme, in designing the delivery mechanism as per the needs of MSW learners and in preparing them to be trained professionals to work in social development sector in India.

For data collection, a questionnaire was prepared and sent to all the students of the MSW programme along with assignment, across India. Responses from 290 students were voluntarily received.

The research findings are that MSW (ODL) students are older, mostly married with the average male learners age being 35 years and that of female learners being 30 years, there are more female learners than male learners, majority of the learners are Hindu from general category, tend to be employed, mostly full-time and some part-time, with work experience. They are from urban, semi-urban, rural and tribal areas with Internet access. Most of the students preferred to read printed self-learning materials than digitally available on eGyanKosh or IGNOUmobile app especially in rural areas though with increasing access to Internet, students are gradually opting for online materials while filling up the admission form. Majority of students found the quality and standard of study materials to be very good. Though maximum respondents gave positive feedback about the student support services and their learning experiences, some of the learners faced challenges like unco-operative staff members, administrative delays, non-allotment of academic counsellor/fieldwork supervisor, irregularity, late reception of study materials, lack of staff members at study centre, far distance of regional centre/study centre from residence, etc.

The findings will help in designing and delivering the MSW programme in a more effective way. Based on the feedback received, the next revision of the programme will take into consideration the concerns of the learner. The limitation of the study is that not all learners responded to all the questions. Not all potential MSW learners filled the questionnaire and submitted it at the school. And those who responded had left some questions unanswered. Those who did not submit response may differ in their responses from what is received.

It is an original work and will be valuable in understanding the distance learner of MSW programme in India, programme delivery and challenges.

Universities are continually transforming its structure and governance in response to the new social, environmental and economic challenges. Particularly, there has recently been a growing academic interest for measuring sustainable practices of higher education institutions (HEI) aiming to monitor and reduce their carbon emissions, as well as transform them into more sustainable organizations. More recent studies began to focus also on the sustainable performance of distance education Universities. So it became crucial to evaluate their sustainability practices through sustainability assessment tools with the aim of improving their sustainability performance and boosting their role as agents of academic, social and economic change. The purpose of this study is to assess and compare holistically sustainability implementation in two similar distance learning universities and to evaluate their advantages and disadvantages.

One of the most rigorous and internationally used sustainability assessment tools was used – the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System, to evaluate and compare sustainability implementation in two distance universities, one from Spain and another from Portugal: the Madrid Open University and Universidade Aberta. Indicators of both universities were compared and ways of improvement in both universities were widely discussed.

The results of this research show that there is a similar pattern in both universities. Both have low performance in campus operations and low levels of community participation but good performance in sustainability courses and programmes offer. The results of both institutions were compared and allowed a learning process for improvement.

This research hopes to contribute to the continuous research about the usefulness of sustainability assessment tools in particular when applied to distance universities at the time that offers new paths to carry out improved sustainable practices in crucial areas of interest such as research, administration, education and resource-saving. This research also highlights the value of distance learning universities and their ability to be more sustainable after the advent of COVID-19.

The information needs and practices of part‐time and distancelearning students in higher education (HE) in the UK outside the Open University (OU) have been evaluated. In recent years, the government has pointed out the importance of individuals engaging in lifelong learning initiatives, in order to remain competitive in a globalised economy which draws increasingly on cumulative knowledge creation. In response, the HE sector in the UK offers a growing number of its programmes on a part‐time and/or distance‐learning basis for students who can remain in full‐ or part‐time employment while studying for their qualifications. We trace the history of adult education with its corresponding study modes, and set the experience of students within the wider framework of educational change in the information society. We distributed a questionnaire and conducted telephone and face‐to‐face interviews with a substantial sample of part‐time and distance learners. Based on our research findings, we question whether the information‐gathering practices of part‐time and distance‐learning students best reflect the pedagogical concept of lifelong learning. Our results show that university libraries considered in our sample often do not cater for the specialised needs of part‐time and distance learners, which leads to an increasing use of the Internet and employer resources as a substitute for traditional information channels. Students have major problems coping with the complexity of the WWW, and we make recommendations on how to improve existing information services in HE.

The purpose of this study is to examine quality assurance for archives and records management (ARM) education in an open distance e-learning (ODeL) environment in Eswatini with a view to conceptualise a framework for quality assurance in the development and implementation of an ARM programme in the context of ODeL.

The study is anchored on the interpretive research paradigm, which surrounds a systematic literature review. The researcher searched for literature online, using scientific databases such as Ebsco, Scopus and Google Scholar. The search applied the publications from 2005 to 2019. The main search keywords are “archives”, “records management”, “open distance e-learning” and “quality assurance”. A total of 15 articles, which included documents, journal articles, reports, web pages and monographs, were retrieved, reviewed and analysed in this study. This conceptual study was preliminary, and the researcher hopes that further empirical studies based on the findings of this study could be pursued in future.

ARM as a form of study and delivered on ODeL platforms have been proposed in Eswatini. The major concern among stakeholders is how to ensure the quality of such programmes.

This conceptual study was preliminary, and the researcher hopes that further empirical studies based on the findings of this study could be pursued in future.

The findings and recommendations will help in the development of ARM programmes to be offered effectively by way of ODeL, there is a need to develop a transparent quality assurance framework for such an application and its implementation.

This is the first study on quality assurance for ARM education in an ODeL environment in Eswatini. As part of the study, a quality assurance framework was designed for the implementation of ARM education on an ODeL platform. This quality assurance framework is intended to help higher education institutions in Eswatini such as the University of Eswatini as well as stakeholders such as the Eswatini National Archives and others to design ARM education and deliver it on an ODeL platform in a manner that guarantees adequate quality.

The choices facing a management developer in using open and distance learning are described. The three identifiable types of programme are materials based for solo learners, learning‐group based for two or more learners, and materials and learning‐group based, depending on both materials and learner interaction. The options are explored, and guidance given on how to evaluate them for the organisation's particular needs.

This chapter reflects on a recent initiative as authors and tutors for the first module of a new online Masters in Public Administration (MPA) programme now offered by the University of Birmingham for public sector professionals around the world.

Our focus is particularly on the key lessons with regard to using the ‘online’ mode for ‘experiential learning’ – that is, facilitating our mid-career practitioner students in the acquisition of added management learning through critical analysis of, and structured reflection on, their work-based experience.

Three particular challenges for online programme designers are identified as follows: the challenge of achieving a ‘learner-centric’ online design (rather than a teacher-centric one); the challenge of facilitating effective communication (within the student group as much as between students and teachers); and the challenge of building an effective online learning community.

The chapter concludes by proposing strategies for approaching and mediating these three challenges in turn. With regard to ‘learner-centricity’ we advocate an approach that promotes in the students a spirit of inquiry and which encourages conceptualisation on the basis of their existing knowledge and experience, rather than following a traditional ‘teacher-centred’ and lecture-dominated pedagogy. In relation to communication, particularly critical is the choice of a high quality course management system (CMS) and exploitation to the full of the system’s capabilities in relation to computer-mediated communication (CMC), both within the student community and through ‘synchronous interaction’, between students and staff. Finally, on the building of a ‘learning community’ of students, we emphasise the importance of facilitating students’ cognitive and social presence throughout the modules and programme through the promotion of active engagement and critical reflection on the key issues in the curriculum.

The purpose of this article is to conduct a formal study of how the prices for online MBA programs in the USA are determined. The paper examines the effects of perceptual (e.g. rankings and accreditation) and structural characteristics (e.g. program length, program format) of online MBA programs on tuition levels charged.

Publicly available secondary data from a sample of 115 online MBA programs in the USA, including program characteristic information and prices, is used. Regression analysis is used to uncover the underlying pricing model.

Perceptual variables are found to have significantly greater effect on prices charged than structural variables, at times enabling institutions to nearly double their revenue stream on a per‐student basis.

The research approach can be extended to uncover the pricing models used in distance learning programs in fields other than business, and to examine such relationships outside the scope of American institutions.

The use of distance learning methods for delivering course instruction in degree‐granting institutions has witnessed significant growth over the last decade. This trend has enhanced the ability of business schools to serve students that are geographically dispersed, and today nearly 400 such programs are offered in the USA alone. Despite the growth, no formal study has examined how prices (tuition levels) for such programs are determined.