E‐learning: new opportunities in continuing professional development
The growth in professional learning is opening up many new opportunities for the application of e‐learning to the world of continuing professional development (CPD). CPD programmes require professionals to engage in annual programmes of professional development, and in some cases revalidation or recertification. To date, most of this activity has been off‐line. Increasingly, CPD requirements will be satisfied through the use of learning resources available on‐line or packaged into specially tailored e‐learning courses. Societies and professional associations – as the primary managers and coordinators of CPD programmes – are in a strong position to expand upon their existing Web‐based initiatives to deliver a new generation of e‐learning services to their members.
PROMINENT FACTORS IN THE DISTANCE EDUCATION IN THE CONTEXT OF COVID-19: AN EXAMPLE OF A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY
The experience of Turkey and other countries on distance learning applications are quite deep-rooted; However, distance education in the COVID-19 period has been a process in which online education has completely replaced formal education in higher education without proper preparations. This study was conducted in a state university in Anatolia -which has been relatively successful at managing distance education period. The aim of the study is to identify the socio-economic factors affecting students' experiences with their perceptions about the distance education process, the aspects they find difficult and/or positive during the distance education process that started with COVID-19 pandemic. Another outcome of the article is underlining the socio-economic and gender-based factors that generate differences in students' motivation and success in the distance education. For these purposes, a questionnaire with 484 students and 3 focus group studies were conducted, and the results were shared in the article in a descriptive manner. The results are expected to be a resource for Higher Education Institutions, who are caught unprepared for the emergency distance learning period, in terms of understanding student perception and experience. At the same time, it is aimed to identify vulnerable student groups in distance education and to reveal the socio-economic inequalities affecting students in the distance education process.
A review of open and distance learning within management development
Surveys and evaluates the existing literature on open and distance learning, with particular emphasis on the management development field. Aspects of open learning terminology are clarified by reference to previous literature and by a diagrammatic synthesis of the different terms and concepts. Explores and summarizes in diagrammatic format the relationship of open learning and management development. A discussion of the existing models and frameworks supports the findings that there is a gap in the literature between what is happening in the market and what is represented in the literature. Argues in conclusion that there is a need for a market‐driven multiple stakeholders model of open learning in management development which would help to explain the interactions of the various different and competing actors. Such a model would help to explain the questions over the future direction of open learning in management development and would go some way to explaining more fully the phenomenon of open learning which is still not fully understood because of its continually developing nature.