Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, May, 2001. / Title from title page display. Bibliography: 266-273 (leaves).

A national survey was conducted to assess student perceptions of the helpfulness of specific instructional development factors in a distance education print-based program. Participants were all students who had successfully completed at least one distance education correspondence course with Global University or were currently enrolled in their first course. Instructional development factors studied included lesson openers, lesson outlines, lesson artwork, written objectives, amount of information presented before a study question is asked, typographical features, graphic art, study questions, answers to study questions, self tests, and unit progress evaluations. Basic demographic information was collected and survey respondents located their perceptions of instructional development factor helpfulness both on a Likert scale and on a rank-order scale. Respondents also were asked for comments on the instructional development factors studied. Differences among respondent groups were examined. Major findings include a tiered ranking by all groups showing formative evaluation factors to be the most helpful, content organization and presentation factors next most helpful, and visual enhancement features (graphic art, typographical design) the least helpful. Overall, perceptions of the facilitative nature of the instructional development factors were similar among most groups. Older students seem to focus more on organization while younger students exhibit a balance between their perceptions of the facilitative nature of content and testing. Students enrolled in their first course perceive several of the formative evaluation factors to be less helpful than do more experienced students while at the same time perceiving content pacing to be more helpful than do more experienced students.

The 'university' has been around for centuries, and yet the majority of British Universities have yet to reach their 50th birthdays. The higher education sector has been through extensive change over a relatively short period of time, and will continue to do so as the future requires it. This thesis briefly maps the residual and dominant models of the university before examining the emergent model and drawing out a future model. While much of the history is based in Britain, the emergent and future models draw on examples from all around the world. Essentially the future model of the university will have three core elements. It will be corporate, global, and virtual. Each of these is examined in detail in the thesis, and thought is also given to the potential impact of these developments on academics within universities and potential future students. The models presented here may cause concern and some resistance in the higher education community. It is hoped that they will stimulate debate and action regarding the future, rather than encouraging people to stand their ground and defend the dominant or residual models. The emergent model is already upon us. The future model is there for us to shape.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Reformed Theological Seminary, 2006. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 149-155).