Editors's Note

From this issue onwards, Tutor Connexxions or TCX (which is less of a mouthful) will appear not just as html pages but as a complete e-newsletter which you can download as a PDF fi le. You can then read it at leisure without needing to be online. Or you could print it out to read it anywhere.

In fact, you might not even have to download it as we plan to automatically e-mail the latest issues to all tutors the moment they are published.

In addition, TCX now has its own International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), putting it for the first time in the global database of periodicals maintained by the ISSN International Centre. This means that it is now identifi able globally, not to mention archived by the National Library.

As you would have noticed, TCX has a fresh new look. We hope you like it. The change is not just cosmetic, though, for it includes also a new cycle and a new editorial direction.

From Issue 18 onwards, TCX will be e-published five times a year: twice during the long semesters; once in the short semester. This new regularity represents OUM's strengthened commitment to enhancing continuous dialogue with all tutors. On the practical side, it allows OUM to communicate important seasonal reminders to all tutors on tutor-related matters.

Aside from the regular columns, each issue, starting with Issue 18, will be thematic. It will have an average of six features clustering around a theme related to teaching and learning at OUM. We feel that this will allow a more thorough treatment of the key issues which tutors in open and distance mode ought to be cognisant of, if not actively think through. In the end, what we aim to achieve with this approach is not simply to collect and exhibit unchanging truths but to provoke refl ection and debate about the grey areas in the fi eld of teaching and learning.

In Issue 18, we focus on adult learners. This seems like a logical, if not crucial, place to start. After all, adults constitute about ninety percent of OUM's learner population. Forthcoming issues will examine the "good and evil" of exams as an assessment tool (Issue 19) and OUM's full transition to English as the medium of teaching-learning (Issue 20). So, if you have something in mind which you'd like to develop and contribute, write to us! Do contact us even if you have something in mind that falls outside the foci.

TCX is ultimately about you - tutors who represent the face of OUM to learners on the ground. Let us hear from you. Or better yet, come on board as regular contributors. We're open to ideas and suggestions on how to improve TCX for you.