Description
This text summarizes the current status in the late 1990s of both open universities and dual mode institutions. It opens with a review of developments over the last 20 years, taking as a starting point the analysis in Rumble and Harry’s “The Distance Teaching Universities” 1988 and examining, in relation to the eight institutions discussed in that volume, how they have developed and changed over that period. The following group of chapters looks at open and distance learning in an exemplary group of countries, ensuring that we have a balance in terms both of geography and of economic development. Each author of one of these geographically oriented chapters also takes some account of development in other countries where there is a point of comparison. The book concludes with a set of thematic chapters on student support, internationalization, the impact of communication technologies, and cost effectiveness.
