On October 4, 1914, The Norwegian Correspondence School (NKS) accepted its first student, a woman, who, for a fee of NOK 10, registered for two courses (Amdam and Bjarnar, 1989). Seventy-five years later, distance education has become an important part of Norwegian higher education. More...

Germany’s educational system has undergone a series of transformations during the last 40 years. In recent years, marked increases in enrolment have occurred. In response, admission requirements have been relaxed and new universities have been established. More...

With advances in information and communication technology (ICT), Web-based education has become an increasingly popular instructional mode all over the world. In recent years, the Chinese government has authorized a total of 45 universities to offer Web-based educational programs. One is China Central Radio and Television University, the Open University in China. More...

The primary purpose of Brigham Young University (BYU) is to provide students with a combination of sacred and secular education often described as the “BYU experience.” Achieving this purpose is challenged by the rapid growth in Church membership and an enrollment cap of 30,000 students. More...

To meet the need for flexible and interactive teacher training, the Korean government created a Cyber Teacher Training Center (CTTC) in the summer of 1997. The CTTC project developed a software platform for managing online inservice teacher training, eleven general training courses, with plans to add more courses each year. More...

This article discusses the topic of learning objects in three parts. First, it identifies a need for learning objects and describes their essential components based on this need. Second, drawing on concepts from recent developments in computer science, it describes learning objects from a theoretical perspective. Finally, it describes learning objects in practice, first as they are created or generated by content authors, and second, as they are displayed or used by students and other client groups. More...

This case study describes how Regents College (soon to be Excelsior College), an accredited, private, distance education institution with administrative offices in Albany, New York addressed the structural, management, and resource issues that came into play when converting distance education programs from print-based and telephone delivery to online delivery. More...

Empire State College was founded in 1971 to meet the needs of adult and other nontraditional student populations in the state of New York. Its initial delivery model was individualized instruction with a student working with a full-time faculty member to develop a unique plan of study and learning contracts to support that plan. By 1979, the College established the Center for Distance Learning, which developed and still offers structured, print-based courses to students with no requirement for on-site meetings. It began to experiment with computer-supported learning activities in the late 1980s, employing professional staff to support the exploration of technology and to provide assistance to faculty in instructional design. More...

The University of South Australia's (UniSA) approach to converting its distance education programs to online delivery is to manage it as a part of establishing an online teaching and learning environment for all of its programs. UniSA's move to online teaching and learning derives from a clear vision of its future, is informed and directed by a comprehensive framework for teaching and learning, and enabled by appropriate structures, processes and resources. More...

Deakin is a dual mode university with more than half of its students doing at least part of their study at a distance and with an entrepreneurial arm that provides distance education services for even larger numbers. Online provision has been developing over a decade, enriching traditional distance education in programs with mixtures of on- and off-campus students. More...