Distance Education: The Complete Guide to Design, Delivery, and Improvement. (2003). Judith Johnson. Teachers College Press. 240 pp., $32.95. ISBN 0-8077-4373-9.

Review by: Jennifer A. Woltjen

Staff Associate to the Dean of Business

Broome Community College , State University of New York

Drawing from her 16 years of research and experience as Director of the Office of Institutional Research at the University of Southern Maine , Judith Johnson provides this excellent resource for academic advisors, administrators, and those involved in the development of distance education. This book offers a broad overview of the design, delivery, and improvement of distance education and offers a good starting point for a reader in need of an overall understanding of this dynamic field.

As an academic advisor, I found Johnson's chapter on student support services an excellent resource covering all the essentials. Topics encompass placement testing, orientation services, course syllabi, course management software, and academic advising (to name a few). Johnson offers excellent tips for designing Web-based student services, including the recommendation that an institution "feature online and distance learning opportunities prominently on your home page" (p.132). This may sound like a no-brainer, but many colleges fail to do this.

The case study analysis provided for distance learning in the Oregon Community College system is valuable to both academic advisor and administrator alike. Johnson uses a sample student named Amy and shows how Amy would use the on-line advisor at www.oregoncolleges.org. On this Web site, Amy can access in one stop all the information needed to "make informed educational decisions" (p. 29).

For the person unfamiliar with the technology behind distance education, the author supplies information on each piece of technology in use today. She compares two of the most popular course management software packages currently available, WebCT and Blackboard, and refers the reader to www.edutools.info, a handy tool that can be used to compare software. She includes numerous appendices, such as useful assessment tools that potential distance learners can use to determine if distance learning is appropriate for them. In addition, Johnson includes a section on effective course elements and provides sample course evaluations. The entire text of the American Federation of Teachers' Guidelines for Good Practice in Distance Education is printed in Appendix V, and Johnson even offers tips on how to spot and prevent cheating. She contends that cheating in an on-line course "may well be more easily detected by the instructor" (p. 117) [ emphasis in the original ] than cheating in a traditional classroom.

In this text, Johnson provides information on the course ingredients needed for a successful on-line offering. For those seeking an excellent resource on distance learning-its evolvement, course design considerations, what works, and how to set up effective advisement services- Johnson's book will fulfill the need.