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Open and Distance Education in Australia, Europe and the Americas

National Perspectives in a Digital Age

  • Offers authoritative and up-to-date accounts of provision and trends in open and distance education
  • Identifies national approaches and policies for open and distance education as well as the similarities and differences between various countries
  • Provides a framework of theory, research and practice in the organization of open and distance education around the globe

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Education (BRIEFSEDUCAT)

Part of the book sub series: SpringerBriefs in Open and Distance Education (BRIEFSODE)

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-vi
  2. Open and Distance Education in a Digital Age

    • Adnan Qayyum, Olaf Zawacki-Richter
    Pages 1-8Open Access
  3. Australia

    • Colin Latchem
    Pages 9-24Open Access
  4. Australia—Commentary

    • Som Naidu
    Pages 25-27Open Access
  5. Brazil

    • Fredric Litto
    Pages 29-43Open Access
  6. Brazil—Commentary

    • Maria Renata da Cruz Duran, Adnan Qayyum
    Pages 45-47Open Access
  7. Canada

    • Tony Bates
    Pages 49-62Open Access
  8. Canada—Commentary

    • Terry Anderson
    Pages 63-64Open Access
  9. Germany

    • Ulrich Bernath, Joachim Stöter
    Pages 65-79Open Access
  10. Germany—Commentary

    • Burkhard Lehmann
    Pages 81-83Open Access
  11. United Kingdom

    • Anne Gaskell
    Pages 85-98Open Access
  12. United Kingdom—Commentary

    • Alan Tait
    Pages 99-101Open Access
  13. United States of America

    • Michael Beaudoin
    Pages 103-116Open Access
  14. United States—Commentary

    • Gary E. Miller
    Pages 117-119Open Access
  15. Distance Education in Australia, Europe and the Americas

    • Adnan Qayyum, Olaf Zawacki-Richter
    Pages 121-131Open Access

About this book

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.



This book describes the history, structure and institutions of open and distance education in six countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, the UK and the US. It discusses how open and distance education is evolving in a digital age to reflect the needs and circumstances of national higher education systems in these countries, and explores the similarities and differences between the ways in which they are organized and structured. It is the first book to make such comparisons and draw conclusions about the nature of open and distance education in the context of various national higher education systems.  In a digital era with growing use of online education as well as open and distance education, this book is particularly useful for policy-makers and senior administrators who want to learn about organizing and expanding open and distance education provision. It is also a valuable referencefor researchers, academics and students interested in understanding the different approaches to open and distance education.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Pennsylvania State University, State College, USA

    Adnan Qayyum

  • University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Olaf Zawacki-Richter

About the editors

Adnan Qayyum is an Assistant Professor of Lifelong Learning and Adult Education at Pennsylvania State University.  His areas of expertise are open and distance education, adult education, comparative and international education, instructional design, curriculum planning, educational planning and evaluation.  He is Associate Editor of the American Journal of Distance Education, and is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education.

Olaf Zawacki-Richter is Associate Dean and Professor of Educational Technology at the University of Oldenburg (Germany), where he teachers at the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences and the Centre for Lifelong Learning. His areas of expertise are distance education, e-learning, instructional design, online student support, and educational technologies in higher education and K12 and human resource management. Between 2008 and 2010, he held a fixed term professorship in educational technology at the FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany's Open University. He is a member of the editorial board of the International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (IRRODL), Distance Education, Open Learning and the Open University of Sri Lanka Journal. He has been an invited keynote speaker, chair and reviewer at numerous international conferences. In 2014/2015, he was a guest professor at the National Centre of Educational Computing and Online Learning at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Together with Terry Anderson, Professor Emeritus at the Centre for Distance Education, Athabasca University, Canada, he edited the book Online Distance Education: Towards a Research Agenda published by Athabasca University Press (open access).

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Open and Distance Education in Australia, Europe and the Americas

  • Book Subtitle: National Perspectives in a Digital Age

  • Editors: Adnan Qayyum, Olaf Zawacki-Richter

  • Series Title: SpringerBriefs in Education

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0298-5

  • Publisher: Springer Singapore

  • eBook Packages: Education, Education (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-981-13-0297-8Published: 05 July 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-981-13-0298-5Published: 26 June 2018

  • Series ISSN: 2211-1921

  • Series E-ISSN: 2211-193X

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VI, 131

  • Number of Illustrations: 6 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Learning & Instruction, Educational Technology, International and Comparative Education, Higher Education

Buy it now

Buying options

Softcover Book USD 24.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access