I feel less engaged in shameless self-promotion, with this announcement of the 9.3 issue of the International Review of Research on Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL), as Jon Baggaley was the editor in charge of this fine issue.

The issue features a video as well as text editorial by Jon, neither of which should be missed. As usual, each of the 8 main section articles is available in HTML, PDF and MP3 format- no excuse for listening to hot tunes on your IPOD, during this week’s commutes, when you could be engaged learning with some of the world’s best distance education researchers and theorists!! The issue also contains 4 book reviews and 2 “research notes” articles. As always, IRRODL articles are available to all as Open Access resources, distributed under a Creative Commons License. Don’t forget to register for a free email subscription, in case you miss my blog post announcing Issue 10.1 in a few months

EduBloggers, while likely be especially interested in the review of connectivism by Rita Kop & Adrian Hill and a research article on student motivation for blog use by Paul Henry Leslie and Elizabeth Murphy. Adminstrators will enjoy learning about re-engineering distance education processes in a great article by M’hammed Abdous and Wu He. Theorists will welcome both the constructivism article and one on the role of Transaction Theory by Sushita Gokool-Ramdoo as the major theoretical grounding in distance education.

Jon Baggaley has gathered a very international mix for this issue with articles from Japan, Iceland, Ghana, United Arab Emerits, USA and SE Asia – affirming IRRODL’s claim to be the most international of the distance education journals. My thanks to Jon for very ably editing the last two issues of IRRODL, while I was on sabbatical.

This issue also is the final one to be constructed by Managing Editor, Paula Smith. Paula has been the key factor in the timely production and innovations of IRROD over the past 6 years. She leaves to begin her own web 2.0 communications company. I am sure all those who have directly interacted with Paula during the review and publication of IRRODL articles will wish her well and join me in thanking her for her considerable efforts. For those whose only contact with Paula, was indirect through reading IRRODL articles, you have benefited from her keen eye for detail, publishing innovations and competent procurement and distribution of many important works during her tenure. Best wishes Paula, from all your IRRODL friends and subscribers.

Terry Anderson- Editor, IRRODL