Distance education has grown rapidly in the United States in recent years. Both private- and public-sector organizations have embraced the practice of reaching their clients, employees, and students at a distance via new technologies afforded them by the telecommunication and computer nexus. Distance education is grounded on technology, and its…

Examines concepts and ideas behind the practice of distance education, including commercialization; the role of public institutions and private sector firms; a vision to open the process of learning to new possibilities; and barriers to distance education, including legal, administrative, and financial. (LRW)

Examines factors that will influence how distance education is practiced in the first few decades of this new century. Discusses developments in digital technology; the exponential growth of knowledge about the brain, as well as physiology, chemistry, and psychology of learning; the system relationship between individual learners and instructors;…

Discusses the term distributed education and its relationship to distance education. Topics include distributed training on corporate intranets; distributed expertise, which refers to the use of mediated communication for education and training by experts in different locations; and distributed, or situated, cognition, which would include…

Discusses adult education and the demographic changes that will make corporate training and higher education more geared toward adults in the future. Discusses characteristics of adult learners; the concept of andragogy and instructional design models; and collaborative teaching and training. (LRW)

Discussion of the effectiveness of mediated education in distance education focuses on the effectiveness of educational television. Topics include mass media research; greater preparation by teachers using television that led to its effectiveness; research needs; attitudes of students and teachers; and aptitude treatment interaction analysis. (LRW)

Discusses the use of technology in higher education and cites statewide plans in California and Washington that have recently been criticized for an overemphasis on technology. Topics include knowledge as a static commodity and as a dynamic process; new paradigms of knowledge; and where information technology can make a difference. (LRW)

This special report includes five articles that discuss use of the World Wide Web in education. Highlights include higher Education uses, including linking faculty and students and what faculty need to put courses on the Web; a team approach to course development; using databases to support instruction; and enhancing Web-based instruction. (LRW)

Focuses on software for distance education. Discusses the cost of course development and highlights three classes of distance education tools: communication tools, course development tools, and digital imaging and video production software. Presents three scenarios that reflect the most likely approaches to course development and presentation.…

Discusses the need for students to take more responsibility for their learning when learning at a distance. Topics include metacognition, student journals to record their study habits, and the need to form some type of collaborative study groups for online learners by using collaborative software environments. (LRW)

Discusses the rise of computer networks, telecommuting possibilities, the growing global economy, and possible resulting trends in the population of cities. Implications for higher education are suggested, including the centralization of certain core operations and the decentralization of other services to address the varied needs of students.…

Presents design components to attain high standards in distance education, including defining goals, explaining the learning strategy, describing the learning activity, setting deadlines and due dates, explaining the use of media, and establishing personal-communication protocol. (LRW)

Discusses telecommunications developments that are affecting distance educators. Topics include bandwidth; educational radio and television; instructional television-fixed services (ITFS); cable television; communication satellites; computers; digital telecommunications; the Internet; other protocols; future systems; telephone switches and…

Discusses delivery systems in distance education and suggests that too much time is spent on choosing a delivery system rather than analyzing distance education as a whole. Presents a distance-education hierarchy that includes hardware systems, software systems, telecommunications systems, instructional systems, educational systems, societal…

Discusses limitations of "Comparing Distance Learning and Classroom Learning: Conceptual Considerations," Smith and Dillon's physical science view of educational technology. Suggests that a systems approach is necessary to describe distance education and define a set of principles and rules for its effective use, as well as a set of criteria to…