مطالب

The main purpose of this research is to explore various countries experiences about developing blended learning system in distance education universities. Blended learning, as a third wave in developing learning environment, has become commonplace after the resident and e-learning environments in universities. The goal of this movement is improving learning qualities, extending the boundaries of education and decreasing educational costs. In this study, a qualitative approach and a comparative method were used. The qualitative method was used to understand the social contexts of distance education universities and comparative approach was applied to compare universities in terms of observable categories. Among 17 distance mega universities in the world, four universities, including Indirah Gandhi National Open University in India, Anadulu Open University in Turkey, Open University of China ( OUC) , and Alberta Open University in Canada were selected using purposeful sampling. The data collecting tool consisted of a checklist that was prepared with emphasis on 10 categories of social and cultural features of the countries including general situation of public and higher education, distance education, policies related to blended learning, learning management system, content development and presenting method, learning activities and resources, support system, interaction systems, teaching and assessment method, and evaluation system of learning quality. The required data were also collected through note taking procedure from sites of universities and related articles and books. For data collection and analysis, George Brody's four-step method ( Description, Interpretation, Proximity, and Comparison) was used . At first, required data was gathered from articles, university web sites, and interaction with informed people through note taking. Next, data were interpreted after continuous review with regard to university social and cultural contexts. In the third stage, data was organized and categorized based on similarity and differences and then were compared. Results showed that each four universities uses British open university framework in organizational structure. Each university included blending learning in their system based on their polices. Along with self-learning textual content, the universities started providing electronic content and designing learning activates with using ICT possibilities, while the Athabasca University emphasizes on individual and group learning activities. In each four universities, using educational TV as a learning aid is common place. Support services system in each university is Commensurate with social and cultural conditions. Online synchronous and asynchronous teaching is part of teaching activities in each university, but its quality is different. Learning assessment in different in four universities, but formative and summative evaluations are emphasized in all universities. Quality assurance system in Athabasca and OUC is based on PLAR, in Anadolu University based on the Bologna scheme, and in Indirah Gandhi, based on Council of Higher Education. In this research, for developing blended learning in Payame Noor University, a framework is provided at the end.

Textbooks are the most important forms of media in open and distance universities. As a result, they should have features that enable the distance learners to attain in-depth learning without the presence of an instructor. This study aims to design a comprehensive model for open and distance university textbooks through analyzing the textbook concept using the hybrid model. In the initial stage, a review of literature up to 2011 was done (119 cases) using several databases.  Then, a field study was carried out by assessing 2 textbooks from open universities of England. Finally, data collected from the two previous stages were analyzed and evaluated, using Strauss and Corbin's method, and a proper model was proposed for open and distance university textbooks.

Website is the first interaction tool between user and organization in every online business. The basic goal of every website is to provide information through its content. Nowadays, website content is considered to be a strategic issue for online businesses which will contribute to user attraction and retention. In this paper a soft decision making approach is taken towards the website content selection problem. To tackle this problem, a multi criteria decision making algorithm is proposed based on PROMETHEE outranking methodology. To overcome the shortening of this methodology facing the inherent uncertainty in decision problems, a new method is developed, where the characteristics of the alternatives are represented by intuitionistic fuzzy sets. Finally, a numerical example for content selection of Iranian universities’ website is given to illustrate application of the intuitionistic fuzzy PROMETHEE method. The outcome shows the effectiveness of intuitionistic fuzzy PROMETHEE in accommodating the imprecise information in comparison with fuzzy PROMETHEE and original PROMETHEE.

The purpose of this study was to determine the predictive power of goal orientation and mental health according to psychological needs of students in distance education System in the academic year of 2016-2017. The statistical population of the study was 1471 students in distance education system among which, by using Cochran formula, 295 individuals were selected as participants through simple random sampling method. The research instruments consisted of three questionnaires measuring goal orientation, psychological needs, and mental health variables. The results show that the components of psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and interactions) have predictive power of goal orientation and mental health. In conclusion, it is necessary to pay attention to the components of psychological needs (autonomy and independence, competency and interactions) in students' educational environments in order to reduce stress levels, to create relaxation and strengthen the targeting. Although, in modern teaching methods, the emphasis is placed on students 'autonomy and independence, the use of combined teaching methods with regard to the benefits of communicating as well as paying attention to students' autonomy is a good way of enabling university students to have mental health and transition goals.

Background: The aim of the present study was to predict cognitive failures in the elderly based on personality dimensions and lifestyle and examine the mediating role of negative emotions as a model. Materials and Methods: This research is of correlation type and its statistical population included all the elderly in Tehran. In the present study, 150 elderly persons participated by convenience sampling method. Research instruments were cognitive failures, Eysenck Personality Inventory, lifestyle scale and Negative emotions. In order to analyze the data, the path analysis and stepwise regression analysis were used. Results: The results showed that personality dimensions and lifestyle can significantly and negatively predict emotions and cognitive failures and finally with respect to the proposed model, it was found that lifestyle and personality dimensions could significantly predict cognitive failures through the mediation negative emotions. Conclusions: The result obtained from this study can be used to identify the groups vulnerable to cognitive failures and make necessary recommendations to the experts to understand the causes and etiology, consultation and prevention of cognitive failures.

Background: This study aimed to compare quality of working life and memory self-efficacy beliefs in people with different circadian rhythms and physical activity levels. Materials and methods: The study took a causal-comparative method. Subjects consisted of 149 fixed and rotating shift employees, working in health enters and hospitals that were participated based on inclusion criteria. The subjects completed demographic, international physical activity, quality of working life and memory self-efficacy questionnaires. All data were analyzed using two-way ANOVA and Bonferroni post hoc test. Result:The results show that the quality of working life and memory self-efficacy are different in fixed and rotating shift employees at three levels of high, medium and low physical activity. Employees with fixed shift and high and medium physical activity level have higher quality of working life and memory self-efficacy than other employees. Moreover, quality of work life of fixed shift employees with medium and low physical activity is better than quality of working life of rotating shift employees with medium and low physical activity, and quality of working life of rotating shift employees with high physical activity levels were significantly better than quality of working life of rotating shift employees with medium and low levels of physical activity (PConclusion: Choosing active lifestyle is recommended to fixed and rotating hospital employees in order to avoid reduction of quality of working life and memory self-efficacy.