Dual mode

It is a great pleasure to introduce this special themed issue on the subject of dual-mode universities. The topic is of growing importance in the context of rapid developments in information and communications technologies (ICTs) that drive the change from ‘distance education for some to flexible delivery for all’ (King, 2010, p. 136). Our guest editor, Helen Lentell, is particularly well placed to present such an issue. She has gained highly relevant experience within a wide range of singlemode and dual-mode organisations across the world, including the Open University UK, Deakin University, the UK National Extension College, the Commonwealth of Learning, the University of the South Pacific and the University of Leicester, UK. As Lentell notes in her guest editorial, Tait and Mills (1999) were among the first to note the ‘convergence of distance and conventional education’ as increasing numbers of institutions worked across distance and campus-based modes; and these developments were confirmed in the case histories provided by Cookson (2002) in his issue of the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning on the ‘hybridization’ of distance learning in 2002. Deakin University in Australia was among the first successful dual-mode universities, founded in 1975 with a regional campus in Geelong, Victoria State and providing distance education across Australia. Unlike some universities, the campusbased students were taught with distance teaching materials – and this was seen as an advantage in terms of maintaining high-quality materials (Davies & Stacey, 1998). Since then, two major developments have been the drop in numbers of singlemode distance teaching institutions in some areas – Canada, for example, seeing a reduction from three institutions to one in 2005 after 30 years (Abrioux, 2006); and the increase in campus-based institutions that offer blended or distance learning programmes. Examples of the latter are well illustrated in this issue of Open Learning. Within campus-based universities there can still be different organisational systems for teaching and supporting distance students. They may be structured through distance programmes taught by existing staff or through a dedicated distance education unit that employs different staff. Both systems have their advantages and disadvantages, perhaps particularly in relation to the marginalisation of distance education units within a larger conventional institution, where traditional, face-to-face encounters with students are perhaps over-rated – and indeed increasingly restricted in today’s economic climate. It is particularly refreshing therefore to consider the contributions to this issue, which provide such a range of issues and examples from dual-mode programmes: including the sustainability and costing of dual-mode delivery; examples from Open Learning Vol. 27, No. 1, February 2012, 1–2