Editorial |
VOL. 7, No.1, 1-2
This issue of the Journal of Distance Education reflects our usual attempt at offering a balance among a number of concerns: official language and gender representation, institutional level, as well as the authors' numerous interests and areas of expertise, in both a national and international context, and to do so without ever compromising the quality of the scholarship.
The first two articles, by France Henri on the one hand and by David Kirby and Kitty Chugh on the other, address the question of the use of teleconferencing in distance education. Henri describes the interactive process in the creation of knowledge and concludes that, contrary to the descriptions contained in most of the literature on this topic, this process is far more individual and collective. Kirby and Chugh analyze an instructional model for audio-teleconferencing and the findings of an enquiry focusing on instructors' perceptions and conclude that these perceptions determine to a great extent the instructional strategies of the process.
Students' learning styles and perceived barriers to their studies are next examined by Chère Campbell Gibson and Arlys O. Graf. Neither factors appear to have an influence on whether students are able to complete an external baccalaureate degree, and the authors suggest that additional multivariate studies focusing on motivation, expectancy, and locus of control would be indicated.
In the fourth article, Deschênes, Bourdages, Michaud, and Lebel focus on a long-standing research on the acquisition of knowledge through written texts conceived specifically for distance education. They analyze the content of four courses in terms of their general characteristics, the nature of their objectives, the nature of the question and the characteristics of the anticipated response, and the information provided by the course designer in the format of the question.
The Open Learning Institute of Hong Kong and the slow and painstaking process of its creation are next described by Mavis Kelly and David Kember. While both government policy and societal needs pointed to the need for a quick solution to the problems of establishing such an institution, the authors argue that, in fact, many obstacles intervened. They examine the Hong Kong education system in the context of economic laissez faire and political uncertainty.
For your information focuses on two interesting topics: the scope of U.READ's (University of Regina Education at a Distance) academic library support services to distance education students and instructors and the electronic "Site Tours" offered to Northern Ontario secondary school students through Contact North's audiographic teleconferencing equipment
Tony Bates begins in this issue his new responsibilities as book review editor. We wish to thank him for accepting so readily to ensure this important task.
As usual, it is our pleasure to thank our contributors and to iterate our appreciation of the editorial board's constant goodwill and scholarship. The efforts of both are reflected in the quality of the Journal. Thanks are also due to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for its generous grant and to Simon Fraser University for financial support that is much appreciated.