Distance Education
Distance education is
also known as distance learning, and is a field of education that
focuses on the
pedagogy,
technology, and instructional systems design that are effectively
incorporated in delivering education to students who are not
physically available to receive their education. In lieu of physical
presence, teachers and students may communicate at times, of their
own choosing, by exchanging printed or electronic media, or through
technology that allows them to communicate in real time.
There are some
distance education courses that require a physical on-site presence
for any reason including the taking of examinations is considered to
be a hybrid or blended course or program. In distance education,
students might not be required to be present in a classroom, but
that also may be a question of option. As for an electronic
classroom or
Virtual
Learning Environment, it may or not be a part of a
distance education set up. Electronic classrooms can be both on
campus, and off campus.
Distance Education
may use all forms of technology, from print to the computer. This
range will include radio, television, audio video conferencing,
computer aided instruction, or
e learning.
In addition, a distinction is drawn between open learning and
distance learning. To clarify our thinking we can say that while
'open' education is the system in which the student is free to
choose the time and place, but distance education is a teaching
methodology used when the student and teacher are separated by time
and place. Thus it follows that not all open-learning institutions
use distance education and not all organizations that use distance
education are open learning institutions. There are also several
cases in which students are in traditional classrooms and are
connected via a video-conferencing link to a teacher in a distant
classroom. This is typical in geographically dispersed institutions.
The term virtual
university is sometimes used to describe an open-learning
institution that uses the Internet to create an imaginary university
environment, in which the students, faculty, and staff can
communicate and share information at any time, regardless of
location.
Distance education
has been around at least since the 1840s. One of the oldest distance
education universities is the
University of
South Africa has been offering Correspondence Education
courses since 1946. The largest distance education university in the
United
Kingdom was founded 1969. In
Germany
the
FernUniversität in Hagen was founded 1974. There are now
many similar institutions around the world, often with the name Open
University, and these are listed below.
Distance Education
has traversed four to five 'generations' of technology in its
history. These are print, audio/video broadcasting, audio/video
teleconferencing, computer aided instruction, e learning/
online-learning, computer broadcasting/podcasting etc. Yet the radio
remains a very viable form, especially in the developing nations,
because of its reach.
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