Integrating Service-Learning and Consulting in Distance Education by 
Supporting Students for Success in Online and Distance Education by
Supporting Students for Success in Online and Distance Learning, Third Edition, provides a comprehensive overview of student support both on and off campus. While online and distance learning are the world's fastest growing areas of educational development, they have a fundamental weakness--their graduation rates, which can be lower than 20 percent. In this powerful new edition, Ormond Simpson builds on a rich history of research in distance and e-learning to show how retention rates can be improved through tested support methods, often at a net financial profit to the institutions involved. By comparing the evidence as well as the cost-effectiveness of various support tactics, this book describes how to promote student success and encourage skill-development from a number of different perspectives: definitions and purpose, theory and psychology, ethics, costs and benefits, activities, sources, media, proactive and reactive, assessment and feedback, staff development, writing support into course materials, research, quality assurance and institutional structures. This concise, practical guide is informal and jargon-free, yet its approach to evidence is rigorous, making it invaluable reading for all those interested in recruiting and teaching diverse students for successful online and distance learning.
Online Distance Education by
Online Distance Education provides 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 relevant issue in online distance education, discussing theoretical insights that guide the research, summarizing major research on the topic, 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 takes care to address aspects of distance education practice that until now have often been marginalized, including issues of cost and economics, social justice implications, cultural impacts, 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.
Trends and Issues in Distance Education by
Over the last decade, the field of distance education (and e-learning) has substantially strengthened and assumed a more international scope. There has been an impressive growth in the conceptual, empirical and experiential foundations of the field. Trends and Issues in Distance Education: International Perspectives (2nd Ed) captures a representative snapshot of the breadth of current global trends and issues in distance education theory, research, and practice. Through 21 chapters (from over 30 international authors), the book documents new developments in distance education scholarship and practice, presenting a diverse set of viewpoints on the trends and issues affecting this increasingly central discipline. The book is for researchers, practitioners, and students. Chapters speak to the many creative ways in which distance education addresses learning and human development needs around the world. They focus on distance education in dissimilar settings that extend beyond the limitations of the dominating paradigms of the highly developed economies. Contributing authors touch upon conceptual as well as practical issues. They critically reflect on both large- and small-scale distance education initiatives, discussing the use of everything from the most advanced technologies (e.g., 3-D computing) to the most rudimentary technologies (e.g., wind-up radios)
