This text reviews the strategies adopted in a range of behaviourist approaches to the setting and realization of standards - identifying the background from which they emerged and ways in which they might be further developed.

Online Distance Education: Towards a Research Agenda offers a systematic overview of the major issues, trends, and areas of priority in online distance education research. In each chapter, an international expert or team of experts provides an overview of one timely issue in online distance education, summarizing major research on the topic, discussing theoretical insights that guide the research, posing questions and directions for future research, and discussing the implications for distance education practice as a whole. Intended as a primary reference and guide for distance educators, researchers, and policymakers, Online Distance Education addresses aspects of distance education practice that have often been marginalized, including issues of cost and economics, concerns surrounding social justice, cultural bias, the need for faculty professional development, and the management and growth of learner communities. At once soundly empirical and thoughtfully reflective, yet also forward-looking and open to new approaches to online and distance teaching, this text is a solid resource for researchers in a rapidly expanding discipline.

This work provides overviews and summaries of the research and practice of distance education in the USA. It addresses such questions as how distance education is best practised at the level of the teacher, as well as the administrator.

Distance education is arguably one of the major developments in education during the 20th Century. This title explores the array of distance education theories and practices as they have been shaped by the late-20th Century and then positions these in terms of the contemporary circumstances of the 21st Century.

Award-winning in its first edition, this book is an essential guide to the use of technology in flexible and distance learning, weighing up the pros and cons of different media. Fully updated, this second edition: examines criteria and guidelines for the design and delivery of effective teaching, using modern learning technologies focuses on the use of the Internet for distance and flexible education considers the design and use of emerging technologies such as web-based video-conferencing and speech recognition places emphasis on organisational and management issues and how these influence the effective use of technology gives attention to the integration of online teaching with campus-based face-to-face teaching. With a focus on basic principles and general guidelines this guidance applies to existing and emerging technologies. It is essential reading not just for those specialising in flexible and distance learning and distance education, but anyone concerned with the integration of technology with teaching.

The second edition of this award-winning book continues the mission of its predecessor, to provide a comprehensive compendium of research in all aspects of distance education, arguably the most significant development in education over the past quarter century. While the book deals with education that uses technology, the focus is on teaching and learning and how its management can be facilitated through technology. This volume will be of interest to anyone engaged in distance education at either the K-12 or college level. It is also appropriate for corporate and government trainers and for administrators and policy makers in all these environments.