Acknowledgements

This report is a stride towards increasing openness in learning and the ability to teach more people cost effectively through quality distance education. It provides an important set of quality standards for the use of distance education methods in South Africa to play a role in the continuous task of building and assuring quality of distance education provision. 

This report does not purport to have covered all aspects of quality in distance education.  As with any report of this nature, there are likely to be areas of work that require further investigation and research. The next few months will see the report being thoroughly discussed and debated. 

A report of this nature involves the active contribution of many participants. It is the culmination of  intensive research and consultation that was undertaken by a voluntary group of people that included Ms Trudi van Wyk and Mr Tebogo Phatudi (Department of Education), Mr Neil Butcher and Ms Tessa Welch (South African Institute for Distance Education), Dr Jane Murray and Ms Fransa Ferreira (Vista University),  Ms Elsabè Rall (ARET), and Ms Seipei Leluma (Soweto College of Education). 

We wish to record our appreciation and congratulations to Mr Neil Butcher and Ms Tessa Welch, the two report writers, for the enormous effort which they put into this project. They have developed an accurate, comprehensive, well-written, and visionary report. The entire team must also be congratulated on the work that they have done in completing the investigation and report within the set time-frame. 

Ms Trudi van Wyk (Deputy Chief Education Specialist) was the Project Co-ordinator, and her role was crucial to the success of the investigation.  She was assisted by Mr Tebogo Phatudi (Chief Education Specialist) and together they ably provided the necessary support for this project. Both Ms Van Wyk and Mr Phatudi need to be commended for the manner in which they carried out their tasks.   

I would also like to acknowledge the role of  members of the Planning Group who gave up many hours of their time to help shape and guide the Research Group.  Thanks are due to members of various student organizations and students from different institutions for their inputs on student needs.  Lastly, I would like to thank the members of the Reference Group, the representatives of various organisations for assisting the team in shaping its brief and for providing crucial input into the research.    

Vis Naidoo

Director:  Distance education, Media and Technological Services 

31 December 1996