Thursday, March 5, 2026
Online Learning and Distance Education Resources — Moderated by Tony Bates, Research Associate, Contact North | Contact Nord

A United Nations online university for the poorest countries in the world: dream or...

Reference: United Nations (2025): 'Online university or other equivalent platform to support university-level science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in the least developed countries' New...

Book Review: Mega-Universities and Opening Education by Design

Nichols, M. (ed.) 2025 Mega-Universities and Opening Education by Design ICDE, Oslo, Norway Preliminaries I haven't been posting much recently, reflecting my fully retired status. However,...

Book review: Handbook of Open Universities Around the World

Mishra, S. and Panda, S. (eds.) (2025) Handbook of Open Universities Around the World New York: Routledge, 692 pp. Who are the authors? Sanjaya Mishra is...

A personal history: 31 – Learning Catalan – and about Catalunya

I am writing an autobiography, mainly for my family, but it does cover some key moments in the development of open and online learning....

A personal history: 30. A (history) lesson on e-learning research from the Open University...

I am writing an autobiography, mainly for my family, but it does cover some key moments in the development of open and online learning....

Some thoughts on the implications of AI for teaching and learning in higher education

What a co-incidence! A few months ago, I wrote a series of blog posts on the crisis in higher education, arguing that it had become...

A personal history: 29. Strategic planning for e-learning: a personal case-study

I am writing an autobiography, mainly for my family, but it does cover some key moments in the development of open and online learning....

A personal history: 28. Croatia and Chile

I've been a bad blogger. It's over a month since my last post. Put it down to being fully retired and having other interests....

A personal history: 26. How to be an independent consultant in online and digital...

  I am writing an autobiography, mainly for my family, but it does cover some key moments in the development of open and online learning....

A personal history: 24. A Ritual in Borrowed Clothes

I hope you are now settled back in the saddle after the hectic opening of the new semester. (At last, I can get on...