Copyright 1991 DEOS
The Distance Education Online Symposium
The American Center for the Study of Distance Education
The Pennsylvania State University
College of Education
403 South Allen Street, Suite 206
University Park, Pennsylvania 16801-5202, U.S.A.
Telephone: +814-863-3764      Fax: +814-865-5878

DEOS Editor: Morten Flate Paulsen
Compuserve: 76436,350
Bitnet: MFP101@PSUVM

DEOS Review Committee: Philip W. Pinder
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EDITORIAL

The DEOSNEWS distribution-list was established just ten days ago. Since then, we have barely explored the medium and tested its capabilities. So, please have patience with us if we act like amateurs - for a while we will be listowner neophytes. Although I have several years of experience with other forms of computer communication, I am awe-stricken by the overwhelming response from the few Bitnet messages I posted to inform you about DEOS- NEWS. In three days we welcomed sixty subscriptions!

The contents of this file is not representative for the articles you will receive in the future. But as a first note, we have chosen to send you some information about our organization and activities:

THE AMERICAN CENTER FOR STUDY OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

Michael Grahame Moore
Director

The American Center for the Study of Distance Education (ACSDE) consists of a core group of academics and students in the Depart- ment of Adult Education and Instructional Systems at Penn State University, together with a network of academics, students, and other scholars elsewhere throughout North and South America. Our common interest is the theory and practice of distance education. Distance education includes all kinds of learning and all forms of teaching in which the learners are normally separ- ated in space or in time from their teachers. Under such condi- tions the communications are transmitted by mail, broadcasting, recordings, audio, video or computer teleconferencing, or any combination of these or other communications media.

Members of The Center are interested in questions concerning the place of distance education in educational theory, its educa- tional philosophy, its history, social context and impact, the psychology of distance learning, the design and development of courses, and above all on the evaluation, analysis, criticism, and improvement of instructional and learner support in distance education.

The Center aims to be a communication center, a teaching center, and a center of research and scholarship that provides leadership for American educators engaged in creating knowledge about distance education, especially by facilitating communication among them, and between them and the world beyond.
The Center is pleased to receive inquiries from American and foreign scholars with an interest in distance education, as well as from potential doctoral students and from organizations with training, evaluation, and consulting needs in distance education.   Inquiries concerning publications in and subscriptions to AJDE and The Distance Education Online Symposium are also welcome.

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

The American Center for the Study of Distance Education publishes
The AJDE. This is America's leading journal of scholarship and research in distance educa- tion, with approximately 1200 subscribers throughout the country and the world - mostly institutions such as university libraries, college media centers, and the training divisions of major corporations. In 1989 AJDE was the recipient of an award from the National University Continuing Education Association.

In association with The Journal, a monographs series has been established. Four monographs have been produced so far.

DEOS - THE DISTANCE EDUCATION ONLINE SYMPOSIUM

DEOS was established with a grant from the Annenberg/CPB Project. Our aim is to create a vivid, professional, and international computer conferencing system, open and affordable, for all professionals and students in distance education.
DEOS is originally a CompuServ based service. In addition, we recently have started a Bitnet based distribution list called DEOSNEWS, which will provide similar services.

SEMINARS, CONFERENCES, AND WORKSHOPS

Our most important efforts are the National Symposia on Research in Distance Education hosted at Penn State campus in the summer 1988 and 1991 and the International Workshop on Research in Distance Education held in Macuto, Venezuela in the fall 1990.

The National Symposia bring together leading practitioners and researchers from North America to analyze the state of the field and to discuss a national agenda for research. The results of the first Symposium were reported in Contemporary Issues in American Distance Education, published by Pergamon Press in the fall, 1990.

The Macuto workshop resulted in an international research agenda that contributed to research activities for The International Council for Distance Education.

Other noteworthy events include the Atlantic Seminar - a telecon- ference that linked groups in Canada, Venezuela, Finland, Eng- land, and the United States, held in the fall 1988, and the Finland Series, in which distance educators from three cities in that country joined with the Penn State students in a series of seminars/workshops on distance education course design.
COURSES

Since 1986, graduate courses in distance education have been taught by audio conferencing, and are increasingly linked to
computer conferencing. These are usually taken by about 15 Penn State students located throughout Pennsylvania, and have been joined on a number of occasions by groups of educators overseas.We continue to attract interest from foreign countries in this teaching approach.

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The American Center for the Study of Distance Education (ACSDE)
The Pennsylvania State University
College of Education
110 Rackley Building
University Park, PA 16802-3202
Phone (814) 863-3764  FAX (814) 865-5878
ACSDE@psu.edu
www.ed.psu.edu/ACSDE

©2001 The Pennsylvania State University
College of Education