Preface

This CD ROM contains 2 keynote and 40 refereed papers presented at the 16th Biennial Forum of the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia (ODLAA) held from October 1 – 4, 2003 in Canberra, Australia.

Like previous volumes and papers published by ODLAA, this collection reflects the international scope of the organisation and its wide scope of coverage. Each of the papers has been classified within a series of emerging themes that impact on the sustainability of quality open, distance, distributed and flexible learning environments.

• Leadership and change management
• Evolving organisations
• Learning objects and resource sharing
• Sustainable e-learning
• Communication and learning communities
• Sustainable international development

The papers have the underlying theme of sustaining quality yet are wide ranging in their focus, and reflect current practice and research nationally and internationally.

Both full and short papers (defined largely by word length) were subjected to a double blind peer review process and each paper was reviewed by at least two referees. The papers were reviewed according to published criteria including relevance to the conference themes, academic merit (including quality of research) and utility to conference delegates. In the editing process, the editorial committee maintained the character and content of the papers but made some modifications for consistency, style, grammar and format.

Referees were generous with their time in reviewing papers and provided constructive comments to authors. We have listed all the referees below and acknowledge their contributions to these proceedings.

We encourage you to read these papers as they make a valuable contribution to enduring themes in open, distance and flexible learning.

Catherine McLoughlin, Peter Le Cornu, Wanda Jackson (Editors).