Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

The development of DE and proliferation of e-learning would not have been possible without the vision and funding provided by Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology. It also owes much to the efforts of the universities and DE researchers and practitioners. For example, the Institute of Distance Education at KNOU which was founded in 1977 and the centers for teaching and learning that were established from 2003 onwards in all traditional and cyber universities as a consequence of these government interventions hired professionally trained instructional designers, e-facilitators and researchers to assist in developing, delivering and evaluating their DE courses and programs. Again, as a consequence of government policy, Korea has many DE researchers and developers who have majored in instructional design and technology at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, many doing so overseas. These professionals have contributed greatly to the rapid growth and quality improvement of DE and have also persuaded the government to include quality of ‘instructional design effort’ as an important criterion in the evaluation of all cyber and traditional universities and KNOU.

This chapter provides an overview on the organization and practice of open and distance learning (ODL) in the context of higher education in Turkey with regard to its historical, legal, organizational and social context and role. Also addressing current student enrolments in ODL and touching upon its major institutions, this overview closes with a brief discussion on future perspectives for ODL in Turkey. It needs to be noted that a main line of differentiation occurs between open and distance education due to the fact that while open education constitutes a specified form of distance education, it follows different regulations in the Turkish case (cf. Section “”). ODL, on the other hand, is an umbrella term that refers to formal, informal and non-formal learning processes in which learners are separated from each others and learning resources (including instructors, materials, etc.), interaction among learners as well as learners and resources happen via telecommunication technologies.

New possibilities offered through the Internet and other technologies have become a challenge for higher education institutions, yet providing brand new opportunities for learners. In the mid-2000s, many traditional universities in Turkey made initial efforts to integrate online education modules in response to the needs of geographically dispersed students with a different profile from traditional students, offering them multi-dimensional interaction opportunities between and among others learners and instructors, as well as a variety of media, flexibility, individualisation, and cost-effectiveness. Online distance education is now prevalent in Turkey among state and private universities. Successful integration of Internet-based distance learning programmes depends on thorough planning, a sound technological infrastructure, high-quality content, and most importantly, acceptance, readiness, and active involvement of administrators, instructors, and learners. If Turkey wishes to reach the greater masses, providing them with effective learning opportunities and not merely ticking the boxes for the required numbers, the next step in Turkey’s Internet-based distance education journey needs to focus carefully on quality assurance, considering all factors that impact on both educational settings and products at all stages of e-learning.

In this chapter, we compare and analyze the main findings from the 12 countries examined in the two book volumes on Open and Distance Education (ODE). Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States represent 51% of the world’s population. As such, the two volumes about provide a portrait, though not exhaustive, of open and distance education in a large part of the world. We discuss growing enrollments in ODE, ODE as part of educational growth at all levels of education, the ascendance of online education globally, the mainstreaming of distance education, the digital transformation of education, and growing competition in ODE. We propose that values, environment, demand and ICTs (VEDI) are the main drivers of change in open and distance education in the world today.