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Rating: 
Summary: A Reader from Akron, OH
Review: A fine overview of a currently-hot topic (among educators, anyway.) Dr. Campbell-Gibson is concerned mainly with the quality of the instruction available, in terms of learner retention, i.e. do the learners finish their course? She is attempting here to provide a tool for the distance educator to use in creating a learning context which maximizes the learner's chances of success. As she says in the Introduction, "There's no one to call. . . . If the distance learner is to succeed, we as faculty must do more than provide access to information. We need to truly understand that learner and design environments that facilitate learning, environments that enhance access to and success in higher education." To this end, the author-editor has assembled a team of many of the top names in the field of distance learning, including an introduction by the much-cited Michael G. Moore of Penn State. The advice and analyses that they offer strike me as the advice of seasoned workers in the field. Two disadvantages of this book are more reflective of the mechanics of the book than of the information it contains. First, for a book primarily aimed at scholars, there is very little space available for marginal notes. Second, the facts offered in support of the authors' conclusions are not cited in APA style, nor any other for the most part: the bibliography is fine, but there is a distinct lack of in-text citations that limits the book's usefulness. Against that is the very reasonable price and the book's currency, combined with the expertise of the authors. In addition, the book is unusually coherent for an edited book with multiple authors. They all seem to be on the same page, and there is little duplication between the various author's chapters.
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