Acknowledgements

A research project of this magnitude depends on contributions from a wide range of people for its success. We would like to take an opportunity to acknowledge the many people who have contributed in different ways to the compilation of this report.

First, thanks are due to the Department of Education, who initiated and generously funded this project. In particular, we have understood the Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Education as a joint research partner and have relied strongly on their support and input in completing this project. 

We have received ongoing support and advice from the Director of the Centre, Vis Naidoo, as well as from the Centre’s project leader Trudi van Wyk. In addition, we were very grateful for support and input from Ginger Bester and Busi Ndawo. Busi deserves special mention for her additional contribution of organizing our reference group meetings.

We are also particularly thankful to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for organizing and funding the services of a range of international consultants, whose work is contained in appendices to this report. This dimension to the work added tremendously to the final report, and to the ideas we have generated. We believe these case studies constitute important research contributions in their own right, and are very grateful for the work done by the individual consultants (listed in the table below).

In addition, however, we have relied very strongly on the input of a small reference group, and wish to thank all of the people who have participated in that process. We held two reference group meetings during our research process, the first focusing us in terms of research areas and the second helping us to shape our final recommendations. These processes have been critical to the success of this exercise. A detailed list of reference group participants is attached to this report as Appendix Fifteen.

In addition to these people, this research has relied on many people for research input. The final report does not reflect these individual contributions as clearly as it should, as the nature of the research has demanded that they be integrated to create a coherent document. Nevertheless, each has contributed an essential building block to the final product, and is worthy of acknowledgement. 

The table below summarizes who made contributions to which sections of the report, but we also wish to mention briefly the many people who participated in this process. Without their contributions, this report simply would not have been possible.

•     Jenny Louw and Thenji Mlabatheki – Jenny and Thenji are responsible for SAIDE’s resource centre. We have drawn extensively on the resource centre, as well as Jenny’s and Thenji’s expert assistance, in completing this project. Without this support base, much of our research work would not have been possible.

•     Kali Sachinis – Kali is SAIDE’s project manager. As such, she was responsible for a range of tasks, including: providing input to the project plan; monitoring budgets; contracting researchers; and organizing workshops. Her contribution has been essential to the success of the project.

•     We are also indebted to the many other people who contributed ideas through workshops, interviews, and e-mail and fax correspondence. In particular, we made extensive use of e-mail circulation of draft documents to test the ideas they contained and solicit further input. There are simply too many people to mention individually, but we are very grateful for their inputs.

The tables below summarize people responsible for compiling report chapters and appendices. This should be integrated with an understanding of the many contributions made by other people to each chapter and appendix.

Chapter	Title	Compiled By
One	The Concept of ‘Open Learning’	Neil Butcher
Two	Evaluating Open Learning	Tessa Welch
Three	Open Learning and ABET	John Aitchison
Four	Barriers to Learning in Schools	Ephraim Siluma
Five	Further Education and Training Policy and Open Learning	Rahmat Omar
Six	Achieving Development Goals: Expanding Education and Training Opportunities in Rural Areas	Adele Gordon
Seven	Learners with Special Educational Needs	Kali Sachinis and Trudi van Wyk
Eight	Open Learning and the Systems of GET and FET	Neil Butcher
Report Editor – Neil Butcher

 

Appendix	Title	Compiled By
One	Open Learning in Indian Education and Training	Mohan Menon
Two	The National Institute for Distance Education in Sweden	Ronny Knuttson
Three	A Personal Commentary on the British Columbia Distance Education System	Judy Dallas
Four	Reflections on the New Zealand Educational Environment and the Correspondence School	Sally Rawnsley
Five	Personal Experiences in the Open Learning Structure Designed by the University of Mons, Belgium	Benoit Vidouse
Six		Ephraim Siluma
Seven	The Learnership as a Mode of Delivery: Experiences of the Hospitality, Travel, and Tourism Sector	Tony Mays
Eight	The Technical College of South Africa	Rabia Dawjee, Glenda White, and Nicky Spurr
Nine	Pretoria Technical College	Glenda White
Ten	Rural Education Examples	Adele Gordon
Eleven	The Price of Lifelong Education	–
Twelve	SAIDE Submission to the Review Committee on Outcomes-Based Education and Curriculum 2005	Tony Mays
Thirteen	A Literacy Campaign in South Africa	Neil Butcher
Fourteen	An Educational Technology Network for South Africa	Neil Butcher
Appendix Editor – Neil Butcher  Project team leader – Neil Butcher