What are the main student policy issues in distance education?

In providing student support, distance education institutions often face issues relating to:

• The idea of "openness" in admissions
• The special needs of distance students in such areas as counseling and advising, registration and other procedures, and development of study skills
• Transfer credit (particularly for nonformal learning), time limits for completing credentials, and the like.

Issues such as open admissions and use of transfer credit will often affect the way distance teaching institutions relate to other institutions in the same system or in others.

Issues such as those listed here are likely to be easier to resolve in single-mode than in dual-mode institutions, where existing policies for conventional delivery may conflict with the needs of a distance education program.

• Peter J. Scott, Marion Phillips, Judith Fage, Katy Jennison, Roger Webb. The Open University, UK. Towards the Integration of student support sytems via the Internet. Available at http://kmi.open.ac.uk/~peters/edmedia97.html. Permission to link granted.