ABSTRACT
In their introduction to Volume 4 of this World Review the editors assert that ‘Effective planning matters, and matters beyond the confines of a small handful of planners in open universities because of the growth and growing variety of uses of open and distance learning’ (Perraton and Lentell 2004: 3). We endorse that view, and would add our own assertion that the effectiveness of planning in turn depends on lessons to be learned from the implementation of policy and the operational practice of open and distance learning which are the subjects of this book.
