Distance education Web resources

Distance education sites abound on the World Wide Web (the Web). Several sites provide extensive information on distance education and lead, in turn, to hundreds of other resources, including everything from scholarly articles to personal success stories. Visiting the following sites should help you gain a better understanding of how distance education is developing today.

The University of Michigan Academic Outreach

URL: http://www.outreach.umich.edu/

According to the University of Michigan's Academic Outreach, "This site is a resource for administrators, scholars and decision-makers who...need background information and current perspectives on academic outreach topics." One of the topics the program treats in depth is distance education.

Hundreds of citations are drawn from the Education Resource Information Center (ERIC) database of over 800,000 documents and include information on:

* Access issues in distance education
* Adult education
* Computer-mediated instruction
* Computer networks
* Guides and handbooks
* Literature resources
* Research in distance education

The Academic Outreach site also provides links to other sites and information including T.H.E. Journal, which offers full-text articles to those designing distance education materials or electronic classrooms. You also will find Syllabus, a magazine that discusses technologies used to enhance education.

Distance Education Clearinghouse

URL: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/home.html

The University of Wisconsin-Extension sponsors the Distance Education Clearinghouse. Offerings include:

* An overview of distance education
* A glossary of terms used by distance educators
* The Bookshelf: descriptions of materials (books, tapes, conference proceedings, etc.) on distance education
* Listservs and online journals
* Distance education programs and courses
* Professional and related information

The Distance Education Clearinghouse also contains links to other distance education and information sources.

Other resources

There are thousands of other Web resources for distance education. Check out some of the following:

The Library of Congress Distance Education Resources

URL: gopher://marvel.loc.gov/11/global/socsci/edu/distance

Dr. E's Eclectic Compendium of Electronic Resources for Adult/Distance Education--Scholarly discussion lists and electronic journals about distance education

URL: http://www.oak-ridge.com/ierdrep1.html

Glen Hoyle's Distance Learning on the Net

URL: http://homepage.interaccess.com/~ghoyle

The National Distance Learning Center--Offers a free database of distance education information

URL: http://www.occ.uky.edu/

Educom--Transforming education through information technology

URL: http://www.educom.edu/

CAUSE--Enabling transformations in higher education through effective management and use of information resources

URL: http://cause-www.colorado.edu/

ERIC--A national network that connects educational information providers with educational information users

URL: http://www.aspensys.com/eric2/welcome.html

Yahoo--Educational resources

URL: http://www.yahoo.com/Education/