This study was conducted to increase our understanding of learners' perceptions about how the first "class" in an online course should be and to further understand how learners' experiences in the first class contribute to their sense of well-being and engagement in online courses. The study revealed that learners' sense of engagement with courses is more dependent on their connection with the learning materials than with instructors or colleagues, that learners are most comfortable with a generous amount of time to prepare in advance for courses, and that the role of instructors at the beginning of courses is very much a functional one. Instructors are judged on the clarity and completeness with which their course details are presented.

Moving from traditional face-to-face teaching to teaching online can be a precarious process for instructors. In this qualitative study, I interviewed instructors who were engaged in online teaching, for the first time, in a graduate program at a Canadian university. All instructors had some postsecondary face-to-face teaching experience. In-depth interviews with the instructors showed that they had very little knowledge of the new medium they were entering and relied heavily on their face-to-face experiences and their own pedagogy. Instructors’ reflections on their performances centered largely on their roles as deliverers of content. They revealed very little awareness of issues of collaborative learning, of learners’ social presence, or of the role of community in online learning environments.

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This paper explores elements of open education within the context of higher education. After an introduction to the origins of open education and its theoretical foundations, the topics of open and distance learning, international education issues in open education, open educational practices and scholarship, open educational resources, MOOCs, prior learning accreditation and recognition, and learner characteristics are considered, following the framework of macro, meso, and micro levels of research in open and distance learning. Implications for future research at the macro, meso, and micro levels are then provided.