Media Production

BROADCAST WRITING: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES by Roger L. Walters (New York: Random House, 1988—$17.00, paper)

WRITING BROADCAST NEWS: SHORTER, SHARPER, STRONGER—A PROFESSIONAL HANDBOOK by Mervin Block (Chicago: Bonus Books, 1987—$22.95)

HANDBOOK FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS WRITING by Thomas Bivins (Lincolnwood, IL: NTV Business Books, 1988—$14.95, paper)

PUBLIC RELATIONS CASES by Jerry A. Hendrix (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1988—price not given, paper—also available is a 100 page instructor's manual for adopters)     

Learning pathways between and within vocational and higher education: towards a typology?

Promotion by governments of the provision of pathways for learners and the principle of seamlessness in post-compulsory education over the past decade may be perceived as both positive and problematic. Seamlessness can provide considerable choice and yet can readily lead to uncertainty and indecision. A number of studies have drawn attention to the phenomenon of indirect transfer, where the movement of tertiary students is not linear but involves several moves within and between sectors. This paper explores patterns in such movements and proposes a typology of five learning pathways. The research involved in-depth interviews held with 69 students in South Australia who had experienced both vocational and higher education sectors. Such research can help educators and researchers understand more fully the experiences in and reasons for moving within and between various pathways. It can also assist policymakers and institutional planners with insights into how best to fashion relationships between sectors and tailor policies and services that help learners navigate through education systems.     

‘Whatever you say,say nothing’: student perceptions of online learning and community in Northern Ireland

While there has been extensive research on online communities of enquiry, little work has been done on the extent to which cultural factors can inhibit student participation. In this study of a ‘blended’ model of learning in which students attended face-to-face lectures but were required to take part in online seminars, we found that although most students felt that they belonged to a community of enquiry, there were considerable obstacles to their readiness to respond fully to the views of others. We ascribe these difficulties to the particular cultural context in which the learning occurred in Northern Ireland and contend that course designers should take account of such ‘cultural inhibitors’ in designing online or blended courses.     

Rapid Prototyping as a Faculty‐Wide Activity: An Innovative Approach to the Redesign of Courses and Instructional Methods at the University of Twente

Abstract

At the Faculty of Educational Science and Technology (Toegepaste Onderwijskunde, T.O.) of the University of Twente a revolutionary process of institutional change is occurring. Under the banner of C@MPUS+, we have made a commitment to blend the best of our old values of good teaching and an attractive campus life with new didactics and advanced technologies so that we can extend our already unique curriculum and instructional practice over distance and time, as well as enrich it.