Published Article / Throughout history children have been taught by means of stories told by their parents, and for many centuries this was the primary method of transferring knowledge and information. As time progressed, we spent less and less time listening to stories, although to this day storytelling is still being used as an education methodology. People of our modern century are accustomed to receiving information in an audio format. It is natural for us to absorb information through an auditory medium, and since such information transfer takes place on such a personal level, we tend to form a personal relationship with radio presenters. They become like family members who visit every time one turns on the radio. Podcasting has grown over the past year and is seen as a major leap forward in mobile learning, or as we like to call it, "learning-on-the-go". The learner is able to download lectures or information to his or her iPod or any other MP3 player, and no matter where he is or what he is doing, he will be able to gain knowledge. Whether the learner is working out at the gym or driving a car, the lecturer is always there with him, allowing the learner to constantly absorb information as it is presented in an amazingly personal way. When lectures are presented in this way, it of course remains the learner's responsibility to absorb the information made available to him. The whole idea of self-regulated learning comes to the fore and learners actually take responsibility for what they learn and the pace at which they learn. Lecturers are advised to record their lectures and make them available online as an essential tool in the education process. Language lecturers in particular should use pod casting as the main feature of their courses. Providing learners with a podcast of information on the next face-to-face lecture and having them prepare according to what they have been told in the podcast will truly enhance learning in the lecture room and stimulate discussion. The main aim of all lecturers should be to have their learners prepare to such a degree that all face-to-face sessions become discussion sessions. The iPod and podcasting have changed the face of open higher distance education as we know it. All we need to do is jump aboard and make the most of the amazing opportunities this paradigm shift is offering.

Published Article / Accountants have been unfavourably stereotyped over the years, and this holds negative implications not only for the attraction of sufficient numbers of students, but also for the attraction and retention of high-aptitude students. Many studies have been performed on student's perceptions of accountants and the profession. A South African study at a residential university found that accountants are perceived as being structured, precise and solitary. This study provides a distance-learning perspective. By using an existing research instrument and applying statistical analysis, the study found that distance-learning students perceive accountants as exciting/interesting, precise/methodical, factual/predictable and structured/stable. Various areas for future research have been identified in the area of students' perspectives on the accounting profession, including a longitudinal study, studies on the work environment's impacts and studies to determine the motives or reasons for studying accounting.

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In this thesis are presented the Tully-Fisher (TF) relations for a sample of 99 galaxies within the four nearby dusters; Coma, Abell 2199. Abell 2634 and Abell 194. Each cluster was compromised of two samples. The first sample was drawn from either Zwicky or UGC catalogues based on a combination of magnitude, type and ellipticity. These provided spiral duster member candidates over the entire duster region to a magnitude limit of 16 in the b-band. The second sample was selected from published photographic plate scans of the central areas of each duster. This sample had a fainter magnitude limit of 18 b-band mags but covered a much smaller area (approx. 2ºx2º). The galaxies were observed over two observing runs in May and August of 1993 on the JKT and INT Isaac Newton Group Telescopes simultaneously. I-band CCD images and optical long-slit spectra were taken of 65% of the sdected objects. Isophotal ellipse fitting of the images was used to produce surface brightness profiles. From these, isophotal magnitudes and diameters woe extracted. From, consideration of the surface brightness, ellipticity and position angle a "disk region" of each profile was selected and used to calculate extrapolated total magnitudes. Gaussian fitting of Ha emission lines of the long-split spectra produced optical rotation curves for each galaxy. Maximum rotation velocities were calculated from these curves. Corrections found in the literature were applied to the total magnitude and rotation velocity of each galaxy. These compensated for internal dust extinction and the inclination of the disk to the line-of sight. Numerical simulations of the fitting procedures demonstrated that an inverse regression of log-rotation velocity on magnitude provided a fit tothe relationship free from selection bias. Residuals around this fit woe used to choose forms of the corrections that produced the minimum scatter. A fullerror budget was compiled and an error weighted fit to the data yielded relationships with a mean scatter of 0.35 mags rms. A combination of all sources of measurement error, considering inter-correlation, produced a value of 027 mags rms, as an estimate of the contribution to the scatter. It was shown that uncertain cluster membership was not a significant source of scatter. In addition, the "expanding duster" model correction suggested in the literature did not significantly reduce the scatter. The most important source of scatter in the relationship was found to be the symmetry and extent of rotation curves used. A significant correlation was shown to exist between rotation curve extent in terms of disk scale lengths and the TF fit residuals. When only the highest quality data were used, the typical scatter was reduced to 020 mags rms. Consideration of the remaining measurement errors produced an upper limit of 0.12 mags rms for the intrinsic scatter within the TF relation. Monte-Carlo modelling indicated that the observed difference in TF slope between the Coma and Abell 2634 samples was significant, The possibility that this difference is the result of systematic errors in the dataset was ruled out It is concluded that the change in gradients is due to real variations in the underlying slope influenced by differences in duster environment.

This research examines the usable knowledge gained or refined through Distributed Learning from Naval Postgraduate School for personnel serving in operational billets. The population studied was students currently enrolled or students that had completed the Information Systems and Operations certificate program. The study used a web based survey for data collection and used that data to answer four research questions. The data clearly demonstrates that Distributed Learning is equivalent to resident coursework in terms of usable knowledge gained or refined and distributes that usable knowledge quickly and efficiently to individual servicemembers. Beyond the individual, a direct transfer to the organization of a portion of the knowledge gained or refined occurs. The data suggest that frequency of use of skills can be used as a measure of effectiveness for the Distributed Learning program at Naval Postgraduate School, but more data are needed to be conclusive. Additionally, the results provide evidence that Distributed Learning provides a strong, social interaction learning context. This evidence challenges the assertion that social interaction between students and faculty is primarily a characteristic of resident coursework and a limitation of Distributed Learning. / US Marine Corps (USMC) author.