Higher education institutions in Brazil are seriously behind in the use of distance education largely because of the highly centralized control by the Ministry of Education. Hybridization, or the combination of face-to-face and distance learning techniques, is not motivated by pedagogical choice, but rather the only legally permitted approach in…

In Canada, some distance education providers are starting to behave more like conventional educational institutions in terms of forming study groups and student cohorts. Conversely, new telecommunications technologies are causing conventional universities to establish administrative structures similar to those used by distance education providers.…

This case study provides a descriptive analysis of Web-based educational practices at 44 leading conventional universities in China in terms of five subsystems: course, student, regulatory, logistical, and technological. Intended and unintended consequences and problems are discussed, including poor access, shortage of online instructional…

Reviews developments in German distance education from the Fernuniversitat in the 1970s to the hybridized (face-to-face and distance education) programs at conventional universities. Discusses the work of the German Association for Distance Education and two dual-mode programs: the master of arts degree at the University of Koblenz-Landau and the…

The integration of information technologies (IT) into Israeli higher education through a top-down strategy has created systemic change. The use of IT in Israeli universities varies in terms of access-outreach, teaching-learning processes, study materials production, data and information retrieval, administrative functions, the creation of…

The development of distance education in Norway has had to bridge the gap between two systems: a large network of public universities and colleges and a small network of public and private agencies that included distance education and adult education organizations. This mixture of public and private sectors has led to new and more hybrid forms of…

Open and distance education in Taiwan has evolved into cyberlearning. Over half (56 percent) of the conventional universities and colleges have been upgraded to dual-mode institutions offering real-time multicast instructional systems using videoconferencing, cable television, virtual classrooms, and curriculum-on-demand systems. The Ministry of…

The success of Britain's Open University in some ways inhibited change in the mainstream postsecondary sector. As social and political pressures on the sector grew, higher education providers were forced to innovate and the distinction between distance and face-to-face delivery rapidly eroded. However, barriers still remain to a more radical…

Athabasca University has moved from mixed media course production and telephone/mail tutoring to a variety of electronic information and communication technologies for distance education. The parallel conversion of student services has been equally important to the effectiveness of these processes. The primary mandate of the process has been to…

Outlines the development of online programs at Empire State College since 1994, when the Center for Learning and Technology was established. Emphasizes the issues and challenges faced by the institution in seeking to provide high-quality, cost-effective distance education. (Author/SK)

Uses a systems framework to analyze the creation of student support services for distance education at Regents College: electronic advising, electronic peer network, online course database, online bookstore, virtual library, and alumni services website. Addresses the issues involved in converting distance education programs from print-based and…

Reviews of the theoretical contributions to distance education found the early primary focus was on organizational and structural constraints on delivery. The focus is shifting to teaching-learning, the diversity of communication technologies, the difference between asynchronous and real-time verbal communication, and the needs of new audiences.…

New ways of teaching online allow integration of different presentation methods, multisensory instruction, extensive interactivity, and improved support systems. The digital environment makes autonomous learning even more autonomous. There is a shift from instruction to enablement of independent and self-directed learning. (SK)

Early research on distance education compared it to face to face, invariably finding no significant differences. Recent research, grounded in the theory of transactional distance, uses such methods as discourse analysis and in-depth interviews to bypass limitations of other approaches, revealing the complexity of distance education. (SK)

Research on the purposes and methods of open and distance learning has been neglected compared to research on applications. Existing research suffers from an atheoretical approach. Such research should draw on theory from beyond education. (SK)