The Journal of Distance Learning made its first 
appearance in 1995. It was launched at the 
annual DEANZ Conference, which was held 
in Auckland, and was the result of a great deal 
of discussion and planning. The membership 
of the Association felt that the time was right 
to develop a Journal as a sign of the increasing 
professionalism of the distance education 
community in New Zealand, and that a vehicle 
was needed in which to publish articles and 
o t h e r  material a b o u t  distance and o p e n  
learning. I a m  pleased t o  say that the Journal 
is still alive and well and it is one of a small 
number of refereed journals in the world that 
focus on distance and open learning. 

This issue contains a range of articles. In the 
first one, Bill Grote looks at quality assurance 
in tertiary education in Australia, the UK, the 
U S A  and New Zealand and presents an 
institutional perspective by examining some 
of the quality assurance processes in place at 
The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. He 
a s k s  w h e t h e r  it is time to d e v e l o p  an 
international quality assurance system for 
tertiary education. 

Two articles follow which report on research 
carried out on distance learning programmes 
in New Zealand. Cynthia White reports on 
s o m e  research that examined how adult 
distance learning students of Spanish accessed 
and evaluated different textual forms in their 
course. Then Rachel McCahon reports on 
research that she conducted with library 
studies students about the forms of support 
that they found helpful with their studies. She 
argues that one of the challenges for large scale 
distance and open learning providers is to find 
support strategies that maximise students' 
chances for course completion. 

Editorial 

Next, in a report from Otago University, 
Andrew Higgins describes some of the flexible 
learning strategies that were integrated into 
five of the University's courses, and student 
reactions to these strategies. Finally, there are 
two book reviews to tempt you into a library 
or bookstore. 

This is the last issue of the Journal that I will 
edit. Claire McLachlan-Smith is taking over 
the role of editor and she will bring a fresh 
perspective and new energy to the task. I wish 
her well hnd encourage all readers of the 
Journal to consider w r i t i n g  material for 
possible publication. The Journal is one of the 
ways that we keep our association healthy and 
vital. 

I would like to thank the DEANZ Executive 
for their support and encouragement during 
my time as Chair of the Editorial Board and 
editor. I would also like to thank all of those 
people who submitted articles or who acted 
as referees. The peer review process can be 
very time-consuming and sometimes quite 
challenging. Thank you for rising to that 
challenge and helping to keep our Journal 
going. 

Andrea Mcilroy 
Editor 

journal of Distance Learning, Vol5, No 1, 2000 ©Distance Education Association ofNew Zealand 

-

3