This report describes the role of the Open University (OU) in providing technologically innovative opportunities in adult and continuing education in Britain. An introductory section explains the purpose of the Open University; its history and principles; its programs of study; its teaching methods and media; technology in its teaching system…

This paper discusses challenges to the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) in using technology. The first section deals with external challenges to EADTU institutions, including competition from new services, new funding programs, pressure from national governments, and the Europeanization of education. Internal…

This paper begins with a short description of the British Open University which covers the programs of study (undergraduate, continuing education, and higher degrees); mediums of teaching (correspondence texts, broadcast television, audiocassettes, radio, face-to-face or telephone tutorials, audioconferencing, summer schools, home experiment kits,…

This paper discusses four major developments in the use of media at the Open University: (1) the move from radio to audiocassettes; (2) use of broadcast television vs. videocassettes; (3) increased use of interactive video; and (4) CYCLOPS tutorials, which provide immediate two-way communication via the telephone together with visual pictures.…

This discussion of the usefulness of audiovisual technology for vocational training begins with a brief overview of changes in vocational training in Europe with the introduction of open learning and distance teaching methods and the increase in technologies available to trainers. Procedures for deciding on appropriate audiovisual media are then…

This paper provides an overview of new technologies likely to be widely available within the next 10 years for teaching in Europe. It begins by presenting a framework which draws distinctions between different technologies based on their educational applications, i.e., for teaching or operational purposes, for communicating within or between…

By the year 2000, European higher education institutions must achieve the following aims: resolve the conflict between the social demand for education and costs of higher education without lowering standards; provide continuing education to cope with rapid technological change and increased leisure and/or unemployment; build even closer links…

This paper argues that recent developments in technology hold considerable promise for distance education. Audiocassettes, audiographics (the combining of natural sound, via the telephone or audiocassettes, with computer-generated graphics), videocassettes, and computer conferencing are used as examples to identify factors that should be…

The Open University from its inception in 1969 has been a technologically based university. It uses technology to deliver high quality, specially designed teaching materials to large numbers of adult students throughout Britain, and increasingly abroad, who study at home. The Open University's teaching system has remained basically unchanged since…

The University of British Columbia and the Monterrey Institute of Technology set out to meet the challenging requirements of international information technology-based distance education in 1997 when they signed a collaborative agreement to develop a set of five courses in the area of technology-based distributed learning. This paper is an account…

This position paper explores the potential of new technology to radically alter both distance education and conventional higher education. It hypothesizes that technological developments could even lead to the demise of the conventional campus-based higher education institution by the year 2000. Instead, people of all ages would be able to study…

This paper describes how audiovisual media have influenced the way students have learned--or failed to learn--at the Open University at Walton Hall. The paper is based in part on results from a large body of research that has repeatedly demonstrated the interrelatedness of a wide range of factors in determining how or what students learn from…