Distance and campus universities : tensions and interactions : a comparative study of five countries / Sarah Guri Rozenblit

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. The Idea of a Distance Teaching University -- 2. Distance Teaching Universities in Their National Settings -- 3. Students and Academic Faculty -- 4. Academic Curricula -- 5. Technologies in the Service of Distance Teaching Universities -- 6. Governance, Funding and Organization -- 7. Distance and Campus Universities: Scepticism, Collaboration and Competition -- 8. Lessons from the Past and Trends of the Future.

This book compares the emergence and development of autonomous, fully fledged distance teaching universities (DTUs) in five higher education systems: the UK, Germany, Spain, Canada and Israel. It examines the evolution and the functional roles of the DTUs as they faced and dealt with challenges such as open admission, unprepared students, part-time students, flexible curricula, innovative learning/teaching, modes, making use of advanced technologies, creating 'virtual classrooms', modularization and international cooperation - issues which appeared on the agenda of 'traditional', 'conventional' campus universities within a decade or two. It provides a synthesis of higher education literature and distance education literature, which are currently almost totally isolated and which rarely refer to one another. It examines the commonalities and divergences between the five DTUs - a timely observation, after two decades of operation, of the unique and variable national impacts on the nature and profile of each DTU, and ends with an analysis of the main lessons to be derived from past experiences of the DTUs as they might apply to the future planning of both conventional universities and providers of distance higher education.