Examines, in detail, the changing nature of the composition of the student body at the University of Birmingham, England. Discusses the institutional changes that occurred as the small provincial science college grew into a major state-supported university. Provides extensive data and interpretation as well as statistical tables and graphs. (MJP)

Discussion of distance education evaluation focuses on the differences between delivery technology and instructional technology. Offers brief descriptions of evaluation plans, questions, and examples associated with each type of technology and discusses issues related to the cost effectiveness evaluation of distance education. (Contains 50…

Explains Cultural Connections, a model for implementing constructivist, intercultural distance learning partnerships. Highlights include a theoretical framework; social constructivist pedagogy; intercultural communication; telecommunications; Web pages; and examples of a middle school partnership in Texas, a fourth-grade connection between Texas…

Examines current trends in educational telematics and presents frameworks, models, and guidelines for the design and evaluation of courses for remote learning delivery. Topics include technology-supported learning; the design of communication systems; student-centered learning; distributed methodologies; technology in curriculum development;…

This study compares student perceptions of interaction in interactive television courses with observations of that interaction. Discusses results of data gathered from videotapes of the classes, student journals, and student surveys; distance education; student-to-student interaction; teacher to student interaction; and interaction with the…

Discusses the rapid growth and expansion of distance education programs and provides a framework for defining, planning for, and achieving useful results from distance education programs today and in the future. Describes the Organizational Elements Model (OEM) that includes planning, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. (Contains…

Discusses personal innovativeness, perceived organizational innovativeness, and computer anxiety in relation to distance education. Investigates the reliability of measures used in relevant research studies, including the Innovativeness Scale, Perceived Organizational Innovativeness Scale, and Computer Anxiety Index. (Contains 12 references.) (LRW)

Describes efforts by a team of faculty, staff, students, and administrators at a small southwestern university to "Web-base" a graduate degree program. Identifies eight functional system components that must be addressed and aligned to promote distance learning. Discusses key issues and decisions made during development of the system in the…

This study sought to determine the academic, affective, and administrative support expectations of distance education students, and to compare actual expectations of distance education students with the instructor's perceptions of such expectations. Results demonstrated divergence between perceived and actual expectations of student support in…

Reports the results of a number of research projects undertaken by the Learning in Virtual Environment (LIVE) research group at De Montfort University (Leicester, UK). These projects included surveys of staff and student attitudes and their experience of videoconferencing. Results identify important issues, including technical, human,…

Examines administrator attitudes/perceptions about distance education and how this effects administrators' support. Findings indicate: attitudes varied significantly among levels of administrators; peers and personal experience influence attitudes; attitudinal differences not explained by any single variable; administrators, regardless of…

Describes an instrument developed to measure teachers' attitudes toward the use of Web resources in the classroom. A factorial analysis revealed an estimated alpha internal consistency score of .90 for a sample of United States teachers, .65 for teachers from Thailand, and an overall estimated alpha internal consistency score of .85. The…

Examines the position of distance education graduates in the job market after completing their education at Anadolu University's (Turkey) Open Education Faculty. Findings include: a general increase in graduates' job positions and status after graduation; most graduates' income increased; most felt their degree was equivalent to degrees awarded…

Investigates the learner variables that relate to academic achievement in a distance versus a conventional education setting. Participants were 500 undergraduate students from two Palestinian universities. Results revealed: prior high school academic achievement and specialization were correlated significantly with university academic achievement;…

Examines implications of the research regarding whether traditional "stand up" training will be replaced by "sit down" computer-based, online distance-delivered sessions. Concludes that they will coexist in the training environment of the next decade, that some organizations will gravitate toward one extreme or the other, but that most trainers…