Open online courses are becoming more prevalent at local level and for professional development objectives. Proper instructional design combined with use of online tools can promote learner interaction in online environments. Using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, this study aimed at examining learners' interaction and their perceptions…

Although less well established than in other parts of the world, higher education institutions in German-speaking countries have seen a marked increase in the number of open educational resource (OER) initiatives and in government-supported OER funding in recent years. OER implementation, however, brings with it a unique set of challenges in…

The paper posits the Regional Training and Research Institute for Distance and Open Learning (RETRIDAL) as an institution established for the purpose of enhancing Open and Distance Learning in the West African sub-region. The institute has pursued this mandate with an unparalleled vigour since its establishment in 2003--a partnership of the…

This case study examines the policies formulated by the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), an open and distance learning university of India for regulating the practices related to the assignments of its Bachelor of Education programme. Following the examination it argues that some policies are formulated in the context of the…

Learning analytics focuses on extracting meaning from large amounts of data. One of the largest datasets in education comes from Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that typically feature enrollments in the tens of thousands. Analyzing MOOC discussion forums presents logistical issues, resulting chiefly from the size of the dataset, which can…

This study aimed to evaluate the Public Relations and Publicity associate degree distance program available to students through Open Education Faculty at Anadolu University, Turkey. The study used Erden's (1998) component-oriented model and a convergent mixed methods design employing an online questionnaire form. The study population included…

This paper sought to investigate the extent to which selected quality factors influence e-Learning implementation, which the current body of knowledge purports to be an alternative way of leveraging the provision of support for effective teaching and learning in the new millennium. The study is a case study of Botswana College of Distance and Open…

This paper is based on a keynote talk delivered at the biennial DEANZ Conference at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand, in April 2016. As highlighted in that talk, we have entered Education 3.0--an age of vast resource abundance and extensive opportunities for learner empowerment. During the past decade, we have seen the emergence…

The war for talent remains a challenge that many organisations face but more so for distance education institutions to deliver on its mandate to provide effective online academic offerings. The question that remains is: How can intellectual capital be managed effectively in order to recruit and retain talent that is necessary for success? This…

Many African countries have developed policies to reform their education system in order to widen participation in higher education. To achieve this, open, online and distance education based models have been advocated as the most viable delivery tools in expanding access to higher education. However, the policy analysis of Kenya, Rwanda and…

Most educational institutions adopted the hybrid teaching mode through learning management systems. The logging data/clickstream could describe learners' online behavior. Many researchers have used them to predict students' performance, which has led to a diverse set of findings, but how to use insights from captured data to enhance learning…

Purpose: Inquiry-based approaches can potentially enrich sustainability learning in any educational context, more so in open and distance learning (ODL--perceived as theoretically inclined) and in regions of educational need (such as the Global South, of which Africa forms part). The purpose of this paper is to map the benefits and challenges of…

Open Assessment of Learning (OAoL) is an emerging educational concept derived from the incorporation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to education and is related with the Open Education Movement. In order to improve understanding of OAoL a literature review was conducted as a meta-synthesis of 100 studies on ICT-based assessment…

The global open education movement is striving toward openness as a feature of academic policy and practice, but evidence shows that these ambitions are far from mainstream, and levels of awareness in institutions is often disappointingly low. Those advocating for open education are seeking to widen engagement, but how targeted and persuasive are…

ASCUE, the Association Supporting Computer Users in Education, is a group of people interested in small college computing issues. It is a blend of people from all over the country who use computers in their teaching, academic support, and administrative support functions. Begun in 1968 as CUETUG, the College and University Eleven-Thirty Users'…