Open and Distance Education in Asia, Africa and the Middle East: National Perspectives in a Digital Age

This book describes the history, structure and institutions of open and distance education in six countries: China, India, Russia, Turkey, South Africa and South Korea.  It describes how open and distance education is evolving in a digital age to reflect the needs and circumstances of the national higher education systems in these countries.  It also explores the similarities and differences between how their open and distance higher education systems are managed and structured. This book is the second in a series, following Open and Distance Education in Australia, Europe and the Americas (Springer 2018).  Both books compare and draw conclusions about the nature of open and distance education in the context of various national higher education systems.  In a digital era characterized by the growing use of online, open and distance education, this book will prove particularly valuable for policy-makers and senior administrators who want to learn about establishing or expanding open and distance education services.  In addition, it offers a valuable reference guide for researchers, academics and students interested in understanding the different approaches to open and distance education.

Olaf Zawacki-Richter is a Professor of Educational Technology at the University of Oldenburg (Germany), where he teachers at the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences and the Centre for Lifelong Learning. From 2008 to 2010, he held a fixed-term professorship in Educational Technology at the FernUniversity in Hagen, Germany’s Open University. He serves on the editorial board of the International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (IRRODL), Distance Education, Open Learning and the Open University of Sri Lanka Journal. He has been an invited keynote speaker, chair and reviewer at many international conferences. Together with Terry Anderson, Professor Emeritus at the Centre for Distance Education, Athabasca University, Canada, he edited the book Online Distance Education: Towards a Research Agenda.  He also co-edited Open and Distance Education in Australia, Europe and the Americas: National Perspectives in a Digital Age, with Adnan Qayyum.  He is Director of the Center for Open Education Research.

Adnan Qayyum is an Assistant Professor of Lifelong Learning and Adult Education at the Department of Learning and Performance Systems, Pennsylvania State University. His areas of expertise include open and distance education, adult education, comparative and international education, instructional design, curriculum planning, educational planning, and evaluation.  He is an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Distance Education, and was formerly an Associate Editor for the international journal Distance Education.  Together with Olaf Zawacki-Richter, he edited Open and Distance Education in Australia, Europe and the Americas: National Perspectives in a Digital Age.  He is a founding member of the Center for Open Education Research.