"This book uses a flexible learning framework to explain the best ways of creating a meaningful learning environment. This framework consists of eight factors - institutional, management, technological, pedagogical, ethical, interface design, resource support, and evaluation;a systematic understanding of these factors creates successful flexible learning environments"--Provided by publisher.

"This book uses a flexible learning framework to explain the best ways of creating a meaningful learning environment. This framework consists of eight factors - institutional, management, technological, pedagogical, ethical, interface design, resource support, and evaluation;a systematic understanding of these factors creates successful flexible learning environments"--Provided by publisher.

Flexibility has become a watchword in modern education, but its implementation is by no means a straightforward matter. Flexible and Distance Learning in Higher Education sheds light on the often taken-for-granted assumptions that inform daily practice and examines the institutional dynamics that help and hinder efforts toward flexibility. Contributors to the volume were asked to reflect critically on a series of questions, including: - What precisely is flexible learning? - Who or what is driving the flexibility agenda, and for whose benefit? And who or what is resisting it? - What challenges must be overcome in order to achieve flexibility, and what are some of the compromises it can entail? International in scope, with authors from North America, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, Singapore, and Japan, Flexible and Distance Learning in Higher Education offers a wealth of theoretical insights and practical experience that will be invaluable to anyone seeking to extend the reach of higher education.

At the end of the twentieth century, the concept of knowledge advanced to become one of the central factors of society and seemed to gain in importance in the twenty-first century, mostly understood as know-how and technical knowledge. Next to globalisation, knowledge seems to be the leading term both in public, as well as in scientific, discourses. What is more, the prominent status of knowledge is also reflected in the fact that it is used particularly in social sciences to explain complex social transitions and changes. Thus, one of the most widely discussed and debated social diagnoses takes place under the term Knowledge Society. However, the academic discipline of adult education has not yet profoundly engaged in the discourse on Knowledge Society. This book brings together a cross-section of European researchers in adult education who have contributed to the discourse on Knowledge Society from various perspectives. By presenting their recent research results, the book provides an overview of key concepts within the European discourse which, according to observations, is only at the beginning.

"This comprehensive, six-volume collection addresses all aspects of online and distance learning, including information communication technologies applied to education, virtual classrooms, pedagogical systems, Web-based learning, library information systems, virtual universities, and more. It enables libraries to provide a foundational reference to meet the information needs of researchers, educators, practitioners, administrators, and other stakeholders in online and distance learning"--Provided by publisher.

As institutions and organisations around the world move to more open and flexible delivery of educational and training programmes, there is increasing need for effective forms of staff development to encourage and support change. Staff development is not only critical in helping teachers and trainers acquire and improve their knowledge and skills in alternative modes of delivery, but in helping to shape the policies, procedures and attitudes that are needed for more learner-centred approaches. This book draws together the experiences, insights and findings of some of the world's leading staff developers in open and flexible education. It is designed to provide an overview of the trends, influences and events which are shaping the work of these professionals, and the policy changes, processes and outcomes they are helping to bring about in this expanding field. The book offers various frameworks and strategies for staff development activities, with examples from commercial, professional and educational settings, and shows how these can be refined and adapted to more specific contexts.

This text offers an examination of a range of technological issues at stake in the European Union. It discerns social trends but finds there is considerable room to use the technologies as a force for social change.