Current Issues in Distance Education: International Review

The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning
Vol 7, No 2 (2006), ISSN: 1492-3831

Good Stuff: Articles are available as MP3!!! Lets take dat on da bus!

These articles look interesting & relevant from the current issue:

A Multi-Island Situation Without the Ocean: Tutors' perceptions about working in isolation from colleagues
Ilse Fouche

Distance education is generally seen as a very isolating experience for students, but one often forgets that it can be an equally isolating experience for teaching staff, who sometimes must work in isolation from colleagues. This study examines the experiences of nine tutors at one of the 10 biggest universities in the world...


Adaptation for a Changing Environment: Developing learning and teaching with information and communication technologies
Adrian Kirkwood, Linda Price

This is an article seems like more of a big-picture article, something quotable in the first paragraphs of papers.

This article examines the relationship between the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and learning and teaching, particularly in distance education contexts. We argue that environmental changes (societal, educational and technological) make it necessary for Higher Education in general, and distance education in particular....


This Article below applies to the situation when faculty, as against students are geographically diverse. The author is trying to address the lack of research in this area. We have a faculty member who teaches geo-diverse students enrolled at SPH UM Ann Arbor, while working in Penn State and living with his family in the state's capital. This makes this reading relevant to me:

Academics Telecommuting in Open and Distance Education Universities: Issues, challenges and opportunities
Cheuk Fan Ng

Another relevant reading. Targeting faculty in Western Canada, an attempt made to create a culture of Faculty Development as Community Building in the context of distance learning:

Faculty Development as Community Building
B.J. Eib and Pam Miller

The following would be an interesting reading: watching the field for possible common apps for their portable versions, especially Camtasia Recorder so that settings are saved and there is no complication of dealing with settings as a user moves from computer to computer.

September – 2006
Technical Evaluation Reports
57. Portable Applications in Mobile Education
Jon Baggaley