VOL. 6, No. 2, 1-2
As you may have noticed, this issue of the Journal marks a change in Editorship. June Sturrock, who served as Editor for the past two years, has left the Centre of Distance Education at Simon Fraser University and now holds a faculty position in the Department of English. At this time we acknowledge with gratitude the contributions June made to distance education and to the Journal and we wish her well in her new endeavours.
We must also bid adieu, with thanks, to Colin Yerbury, who has served as Book Review Editor since the Journal's inception. Colin's increasing involvement in international work has made it necessary for him to relinquish responsibility for this section of the Journal. John Bottomley has very kindly assisted with the Book Review section for this issue and we extend our thanks to him for his contribution. Having said our goodbyes, we feel fortunate indeed to extend a welcome to Tony Bates, who has agreed to serve as Book Review Editor for the Journal, commencing January 1992.
Moving to content, this issue begins with an article co-authored by John Viljoen, Dale Holt, and Stanley Petzall of Deakin University in Australia. In their paper they examine six critical issues surrounding the management of quality in respect to an MBA program offered by distance education. They argue that in defining quality the student's perspective, as well as the institution's, must be taken into account. The authors report that in the context of the Deakin University MBA program, quality is best understood in terms of the opportunities made available to students to interact with key individuals and resources in their professional, personal, and educational worlds.
The second article, by Marie-Paul Dessaint and Daniel Boisvert, reports on the development of an instrument to measure motivation to undertake distance study by those over the age of 55. Adapting existing measures to their own purposes, the authors generated an instrument that is particularly useful for distance education purposes.
The article by Eno Effeh contributes to our understanding of distance education as it is experienced by Nigerian women. The kinds of problems these women typically encounter when studying at home are discussed. The author suggests that establishing regional centres would overcome many of these difficulties and would thereby enhance the learning opportunities made possible by distance education.
Betty Cragg's article focuses on women learners as well, but in the Canadian context. She compares the learning experiences of 24 nurses enrolled in post-RN distance education programs. Two of the four programs examined made extensive use of teleconferencing, and two used a print-based approach to instruction. Often convenience rather than preferred mode of instruction determined the program selected. An interesting finding, and one that runs counter to current belief, is that the resocialization of nurses, an important goal of post-RN programs, can be accomplished via distance study. Typically, it is assumed that students must study on campus to achieve this goal.
The final article also challenges current belief. As Robert Sweet, Terry Anderson, and Martha Halenda note, the literature often characterizes women's relationship with technology as antagonistic. In this article, however, the authors describe the positive response of a group of women distance educators to the technical demands of a computer-mediated communication system. The authors claim that rather than presenting barriers, technology can provide a congenial setting for developing not only a comfort with the technology itself but also a sense of social cohesion.
Before closing, we would like to bring to your attention that 1993 marks CADE's tenth anniversary. To commemorate that event, the Spring 1993 issue of the Journal will have as its theme: A Celebration and History of CADE and Distance Education in Canada. Kay Rogers, CADE's first president, will serve as Guest Editor. A call for papers appears elsewhere in this issue and we encourage you to submit manuscripts focusing on the topics identified.