ASSESSING OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNERS - Chris Morgan and Meg O'Reilly - This exceptional work tackles the issue of how to design and deliver assessments for distance learning students. The essay is the most common form of assessment used in North American distance learning. An over-reliance on the essay format, at the expense of other forms of assessment, is, the authors argue, robbing distance students of the opportunity to development important skills such as debate, oral communication, research and the extended creative application of ideas. Divided into 3 parts, this book addresses how adult distance learners experience and respond to assessment and how to design and assess complex assessments. The book concludes with a series of case studies that demonstrate how varying modes of assessment - the diary, the contract for personal change, project design and the audiotape interview, among others - can be utilized in the field to strengthen and reinforce a diverse range of intellectual skills.

The authors, Chris Morgan and Meg O'Reilly are course designers and lecturers trained in the trenches of open learning at Southern Cross University in Australia. This book is a thorough look at the often- neglected importance of the assessment function in open learning. It is the best book on this topic to come across our desks in years. The book is both lucid and lively, offering an impressive array of case studies that will help practitioners understand and implement more complete and far-reaching assessments than historically provided for by the safe default essay method. "Assessing Open and Distance Learners" should be required reading for distance learning practitioners on all continents. (ISBN# 0-7494-2878-3; Publisher: Kogan Page Publishers/UK 19.95 pounds; Order from Kogan Page in the United Kingdom, http://www.kogan-page) (Virtual University Gazette VUG, Vol. 3, #9, 5 Nov 00 ISSN #1099-4262) at CLICK: http://www.geteducated.com)

EVALUATION OF LEARNING TECHNOLOGY is the theme for the latest issue of EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY (vol. 3, no. 4, Oct 00). Articles include:

"An Evaluation Model for Supporting Higher Education Lecturers in the Integration of New Learning Technologies," by Gordon Joyes, Teaching Enhancement Advisor and Lecturer in Education, School of Education, University of Nottingham

"Evaluating Information and Communication Technologies for Learning," by Eileen Scanlon, Ann Jones, Jane Barnard, Julie Thompson and Judith Calder, Institute for Educational Technology, The Open University

"W3LS: Evaluation Framework for World Wide Web Learning," by Jan van der Veen, DINKEL Educational Centre, University of Twente; Wim de Boer, Faculty of Educational Science and Technology, University of Twente; and Maarten van de Ven, Centre for Didactics and Education Development, Delft University of Technology

These and other articles can be read at CLICK: http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/vol_4_2000/v_4_2000.html

Educational Technology & Society [ISSN 1436-4522] is a peer-reviewed quarterly online journal published by the International Forum of Educational Technology & Society and the IEEE Computer Society Learning Technology Task Force (LTTF). It is available at no cost in HTML format at CLICK: http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical