Distance education

Distance education

Main idea

According to Schlosser und Simonson(2009) distance education can be defined as an ‘’institution-based, formal education where the learning group is separated, and where interactive telecommunications systems are used to connect learners, resources, and instructors’“.

Main objectives

Open Accessibility: For open courses, most institutions don’t require any specific entry requirements or qualifications, so all students are welcomed to attend, regardless of their educational background or work experience.
Freedom of Time: separation of teacher and learner in time or place, or in both time and place. Some open distance learning courses do however require online presence during assignments, group and project work and/or exams.
Freedom of Pace: Learners are not required to complete a programme of study within a specific time. Instead, learners learn at their own pace and make their own decisions about the learning path that is to be followed for their programme.
Freedom of Place: Learners are not required to fulfil a residency requirement at the host institution. Most learners do not (have to) leave their home or workplace as they pursue a programme of study.

How is it used? (environment, target groups, premises, facilities, etc)

In the last quarter of the 20th century, open and distance learning emerged as a viable means of broadening educational access for people who could not spend whole terms in classrooms. With the introduction of open and distance learning programs, other aspects of education were also re-considered and re-designed, including admissions policies, enrolment systems and support, learning resources and experiences, the role of instructors, and the place for alternative educational approaches.
There are different categories of potential learners. There are some who never been able to enter into any institution of higher learning. There are some who just need additional knowledge in a particular discipline. There are still others who are in need of refresher courses to cope with the latest development in their perfection. For all of those there is need for distance learning or correspondence education.
Distance education facilities are needed for those individuals who look upon education as a life-long activity or to acquire knowledge in a new area.

When, where and by whom was it created?

Distance education has become the most significant change to the process of teaching and learning of the last decade (Simonson 2012).
The term distance learning can be used to describe any of a number of instructional situations. Although it is thought of as a new term, distance learning has been around for well over 100 years. One of the earlier forms of distance learning was done through correspondence courses started in Europe. This stayed the primary means of distance learning until the middle of this century when instructional radio and television became more popular (Imel, 1996). As technology has changed, so has the definition of distance learning. Videotaped lectures have been a standard in university and professional courses for the last two decades (Moore & Lockee, 1998). Audiotapes and lessons sent through the mail have been used in correspondence courses to teach subjects such as foreign language for quite some time (Teaster & Blieszner, 1999). Today, the Internet and compressed video have taken distance learning in new directions, allowing distance learning to occur in real time. Live video instruction is the most popular and fastest growing delivery mode in the United States (Ostendorf, 1997).