Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Education, Fifth Edition, provides its readers with the most comprehensive coverage on the market today of information about distance education in the 21st century. Primarily written for pre-service teachers, corporate trainers, and staff development programs that discuss teaching distant learners or managing distance education systems. Readers will be better equipped with the knowledge and ability to select appropriate strategies for teaching the distant learner and how to implement this new knowledge in a distance learning program, so important to today's educational culture.

Five over-arching themes support the text: 1) defining distance education, 2) the importance of research development, 3) distance learning is a viable and increasingly important alternative for teaching and learning, 4) equivalency theory, and 5) the book should be comprehensive–which means it should cover as much as is possible of the various ways instruction is made available to distant learners.

Significantly revised and updated, the fifth edition now includes these noteworthy new features and more: chapter goals and objectives, chapter discussion questions, a look at best practice issues, new strategies and techniques, over thirty-percent new resources and references, and a stronger emphasis on how to design, deliver, and evaluate online instruction.

Table of Contents :

Part 1: Foundations

Chapter 1: Foundations of Distance Education
Chapter 2: Definitions, History, and Theories of Distance Education
Chapter 3: Research and Distance Education
Chapter 4: Technologies, the Internet and Distance Education

Part II: Teaching and Learning at a Distance
Chapter 5: Instructional Design for Distance Education
Chapter 6: Teaching and Distance Education
Chapter 7: The Student and Distance Education
Chapter 8: Support Materials and Visualization for Distance Education
Chapter 9: Assessment for Distance Education

Part III: Managing and Evaluating Distance Education
Chapter 10: Copyright and Distance Education
Chapter 11: Managing and Leading a Distance Education Organization
Chapter 12: Evaluating Teaching and Learning at a Distance

Index