Introduction

Distance education has evolved from traditional correspondence courses to online and networked learning-from the first generation to the fifth (Taylor, 2001, 2002). Today, a host of educational and training forms and processes are presented under the banner term ‘distance education’. It is practised through single-mode distance teaching institutions, distance learning/educational development/flexible learning centres of higher and further education institutions and business enterprises, individual courses of academic programmes and schools of studies, and national/ regional/international alliances and consortia. Not all mega universities (Daniel, 1996) are single mode, and as Harry and Perraton (1999) remark, both open universities and dual-mode institutions are now major players. Distance education today includes an array of organizational and delivery structures. This book takes the position that distance, open, flexible, distributed and online learning are all major forms in the emerging scenario, and therefore addresses planning and management issues and imperatives within this framework.