Published by: Zimbabwe Open University

P.O. Box MP1119

Mount Pleasant

Harare, ZIMBABWE

The Zimbabwe Open University is a distance teaching and open

learning institution.

Year: 2000

Reprinted: October 2013

Cover design: B. Pillay

Layout: T. Mombo

Printed by: ZOU Press

Typeset in Times New Roman, 12 point on auto leading

© Zimbabwe Open University. All rights reserved. No part of this

publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Zimbabwe Open
University.
 To the student
The demand for skills and knowledge
and the requirement to adjust and
change with changing technology, places
on us a need to learn continually
throughout life. As all people need an
education of one form or another, it has
been found that conventional education
institutions cannot cope with the
demand for education of this magnitude.
It has, however, been discovered that
distance education and open learning,
now also exploiting e-learning
technology, itself an offshoot of e-
commerce, has become the most
effective way of transmitting these
appropriate skills and knowledge
required for national and international
development.
Since attainment of independence in
1980, the Zimbabwe Government has
spearheaded the development of
distance education and open learning at
tertiary level, resulting in the
establishment of the Zimbabwe Open
University (ZOU) on 1 March, 1999.
ZOU is the first, leading, and currently
the only university in Zimbabwe entirely
dedicated to teaching by distance
education and open learning. We are
determined to maintain our leading
position by both satisfying our clients
and maintaining high academic
standards. To achieve the leading
position, we have adopted the course
team approach to producing the varied
learning materials that will holistically
shape you, the learner to be an all-round
performer in the field of your own
choice. Our course teams comprise
academics, technologists and
administrators of varied backgrounds,
training, skills, experiences and personal
interests. The combination of all these
qualities inevitably facilitates the
production of learning materials that
teach successfully any student, anywhere
and far removed from the tutor in space
and time. We emphasize that our
learning materials should enable you to
solve both work-related problems and
other life challenges.
To avoid stereotyping and professional
narrowness, our teams of learning
materials producers come from different
universities in and outside Zimbabwe,
and from Commerce and Industry. This
openness enables ZOU to produce
materials that have a long shelf life and
are sufficiently comprehensive to cater
for the needs of all of you, our learners
in different walks of life. You, the
learner, have a large number of optional
courses to choose from so that the
knowledge and skills developed suit the
career path that you choose. Thus, we
strive to tailor-make the learning
materials so that they can suit your
personal and professional needs. In
developing the ZOU learning materials,
we are guided by the desire to provide
you, the learner, with all the knowledge
and skill that will make you a better
performer all round, be this at certificate,
diploma, undergraduate or postgraduate
level. We aim for products that will settle
comfortably in the global village and
competing successfully with anyone. Our
target is, therefore, to satisfy your quest
for knowledge and skills through
distance education and open learning
Any course or programme launched by ZOU is
conceived from the cross-pollination of ideas
from consumers of the product, chief among
whom are you, the students and your employers.
We consult you and listen to your critical analysis
of the concepts and how they are presented. We
also consult other academics from universities
the world over and other international bodies
whose reputation in distance education and open
learning is of a very high calibre. We carry out
pilot studies of the course outlines, the content
and the programme component. We are only
too glad to subject our learning materials to
academic and professional criticism with the
hope of improving them all the time. We are
determined to continue improving by changing
the learning materials to suit the idiosyncratic
needs of our learners, their employers, research,
economic circumstances, technological
development, changing times and geographic
location, in order to maintain our leading
position. We aim at giving you an education
that will work for you at any time anywhere and
in varying circumstances and that your
performance should be second to none.
As a progressive university that is forward
looking and determined to be a successful part
of the twenty-first century, ZOU has started to
introduce e-learning materials that will enable
you, our students, to access any source of
information, anywhere in the world through
internet and to communicate, converse, discuss
and collaborate synchronously and
asynchronously, with peers and tutors whom
you may never meet in life. It is our intention
to bring the computer, email, internet chat-
rooms, whiteboards and other modern methods
of delivering learning to all the doorsteps of
our learners, wherever they may be. For all these
developments and for the latest information on
what is taking place at ZOU, visit the ZOU
website at www.zou.ac.zw
Having worked as best we can to prepare your
learning path, hopefully like John the Baptist
prepared for the coming of Jesus Christ, it is my
hope as your Vice Chancellor that all of you,
will experience unimpeded success in your
educational endeavours. We, on our part, shall
continually strive to improve the learning
materials through evaluation, transformation of
delivery methodologies, adjustments and
sometimes complete overhauls of both the
materials and organizational structures and
culture that are central to providing you with
the high quality education that you deserve. Note
that your needs, the learner ‘s needs, occupy a
central position within ZOU’s core activities.
Best wishes and success in your studies.
_____________________
Prof. Primrose Kurasha
Vice Chancellor