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Overview
In 2004 Athabasca University published one of the first books on online learning to be distributed online, at no cost to the user. The first edition has been downloaded over 80,000 times in its entirety and individual chapters have been used in many online courses. This comprehensively revised second edition brings us up to date with the rapidly evolving world of online learning and includes four new chapters.
Like the first edition, it is a wonderfully perceptive and complete guide to the theory and practice of online learning. Most of the authors are from Athabasca University and their shared experience of developing online learning within that extraordinarily successful open university allows them to analyse online learning for the wider world in an admirably coherent manner.
Starting with a comprehensive summary of relevant educational theory, the book revisits, in a lively way, the great dichotomies that have marked the history of open and distance learning. How should we balance the social and individual aspects of study? What is the right mixture between independent and interactive learning? Should courses be paced for cohorts of students, or unpaced for the benefit of individuals? Succeeding chapters give helpful and well-informed guidance on vital aspects of online learning practice, such as copyright, multimedia editing, supporting asynchronous discussion, library support, and quality assurance.
I am delighted that educators all over the world will be able to enjoy this book at no cost because, in the true academic spirit of an open university, Athabasca has published it as an open access book under a Creative Commons license. The Commonwealth of Learning stronglyencourages this form of publication as a way of bridging the digital divide and thereby helping to bring online learning to all the world's people.
Synopsis
In 2004 Athabasca University published one of the first books on online learning to be distributed online, at no cost to the user. The first edition has been downloaded over 80,000 times in its entirety and individual chapters have been used in many online courses. This comprehensively revised second edition brings us up to date with the rapidly evolving world of online learning and includes four new chapters.
Like the first edition, it is a wonderfully perceptive and complete guide to the theory and practice of online learning. Most of the authors are from Athabasca University and their shared experience of developing online learning within that extraordinarily successful open university allows them to analyse online learning for the wider world in an admirably coherent manner.
Starting with a comprehensive summary of relevant educational theory, the book revisits, in a lively way, the great dichotomies that have marked the history of open and distance learning. How should we balance the social and individual aspects of study? What is the right mixture between independent and interactive learning? Should courses be paced for cohorts of students, or unpaced for the benefit of individuals? Succeeding chapters give helpful and well-informed guidance on vital aspects of online learning practice, such as copyright, multimedia editing, supporting asynchronous discussion, library support, and quality assurance.
I am delighted that educators all over the world will be able to enjoy this book at no cost because, in the true academic spirit of an open university, Athabasca has published it as an open access book under a Creative Commons license. The Commonwealth of Learning stronglyencourages this form of publication as a way of bridging the digital divide and thereby helping to bring online learning to all the world's people.