Distance education, or distance learning, is a field of education that focuses on the pedagogy and andragogy, technology, and instructional systems design that aim to deliver education to students who are not physically "on site". Rather than attending courses in person, 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 and through other chatting ways. 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.

History

Distance education dates back to at least as early as 1728, when "an advertisement in the Boston Gazette...[named] 'Caleb Phillips, Teacher of the new method of Short Hand" was seeking students for lessons to be sent weekly.^[1] Modern distance education has been practiced at least since Isaac Pitman taught shorthand in Great Britain via correspondence in the 1840s.^[2] The development of the postal service in the 19th century led to the growth of Commercial correspondence colleges with nation-wide reach.

The University of London was the first university to offer distance learning degrees, establishing its External Programme in 1858.^[3] In Australia, the University of Queensland established its Department of Correspondence Studies in 1911.^[4] Another pioneering institution was the University of South Africa, which has been offering Correspondence Education courses since 1946. In New Zealand, university-level distance education or extramural study began in 1960 at Massey University. The largest distance education university in the United Kingdom is the Open University 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 (in English or in the local language), and more than a dozen of them have grown to become 'mega-universities' ^[5], a termed coined to denote institutions with more than 100,000 students.

Charles Wedemeyer of the University of Wisconsin at Madison is considered the father of modern distance education in America. From 1964-1968 the Carnegie Foundation funded Wedemeyer's Articulated Instructional Media Project (AIM) which brought in a variety of communications technologies aimed at providing learning to an off-campus population. According to Moore's recounting, AIM impressed the British who imported these ideas and used them to create the first Open University, now called United Kingdom Open University (UKOU) to distinguish it from other open universities which have emerged. UKOU was established in the late 1960s and used television and radio as its primary delivery methodologies, thus placing it in the forefront of applying emerging technologies to learning. It is fair to say that all "open universities" use distance education technologies as delivery methodologies.^[6]

There are many private and public, non-profit and for-profit institutions offering courses and degree programs through distance education. Levels of accreditation vary; some institutions offering distance education in the United States have received little outside oversight, and some may be fraudulent diploma mills. In many other jurisdictions, an institution may not use the term "University" without accreditation and authorisation, normally by the national government. Online education is rapidly increasing among mainstream universities in the United States, where online doctoral programs have even developed at prestigious research institutions. ^[7]

In the twentieth century, radio, television, and the Internet have all been used to further distance education. Computers and the Internet have made distance learning distribution easier and faster. ^[8]

In 2006 the Sloan Consortium reported that more than 96 percent of the largest colleges and universities in the United States offered online courses and that almost 3.2 million U.S. students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2005 term. ^[9]

In Ontario, Canada the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities established the elearnnetwork.ca in 2007 to provide access to students in small and rural communities across Ontario who wanted to pursue college or university courses from their community by distance education.^[10]

Technologies used in delivery

The types of available technologies used in distance education are divided into two groups: synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous technology is used in distance education lessons in which learning is occurring in different places but at the same time. Asynchronous technology is used in lessons in which learning is occurring in different places but also at different times.

Synchronous technologies

• Telephone
• Videoconferencing
• Web Conferencing

Asynchronous technologies

• Audiocassette
• E-mail
• Message Board Forums
• Print Materials^[11]
• Voice Mail/fax
• Videocassette

There are also Learning Management Systems or Learning Management Content Systems which can be used for both Synchronous and Asynchronous learning.

Types of distance education courses

• Correspondence conducted through regular mail
• Internet conducted either synchronously or asynchronously
• Telecourse/Broadcast, in which content is delivered via radio or television
• CD-ROM, in which the student interacts with computer content stored on a CD-ROM
• PocketPC/Mobile Learning where the student accesses course content stored on a mobile device or through a wireless server
• Integrated distance learning, the integration of live, in-group instruction or interaction with a distance learning curriculum ^[12]

Distance Education has traversed four to five 'generations' of technology in its history.^[13] These are print, audio/video broadcasting, audio/video teleconferencing, computer aided instruction, e-learning/ online-learning, computer broadcasting/webcasting etc. Yet the radio remains a very viable form, especially in the developing nations, because of its reach. In India the FM Channel is very popular and is being used by universities, to broadcast educational programs of variety on areas such as teacher education, rural development, programs in agriculture for farmers, science education, creative writing, mass communication, in addition to traditional courses in liberal arts, science and business administration. The increasing popularity of mp3 players, PDAs and Smart Phone has provided an additional medium for the distribution of distance education content, and some professors now allow students to listen or even watch video of a course as a Podcast ^[14]. Some colleges have been working with the U.S. military to distribute entire course content on a PDA to deployed personnel. ^[15]

Testing and evaluation

Distance education has long had trouble with testing. The delivery of testing materials is fairly straightforward, which makes sure it is available to the student and he or she can read it at their leisure. The problem arises when the student is required to complete assignments and testing. Online courses have had difficulty controlling cheating in quizzes, tests, or examinations because of the lack of teacher control. In a classroom situation a teacher can monitor students and visually uphold a level of integrity consistent with an institution's reputation. However, with distance education the student can be removed from supervision completely. Some schools address integrity issues concerning testing by requiring students to take examinations in a controlled setting.^[16]

Assignments have adapted by becoming larger, longer, and more thorough so as to test for knowledge by forcing the student to research the subject and prove they have done the work. Quizzes are a popular form of testing knowledge and many courses go by the honor system regarding cheating. Even if the student is checking questions in the textbook or online, there may be an enforced time limit or the quiz may be worth so little in the overall mark that it becomes inconsequential. Exams and bigger tests may be harder to regulate.

Used in combination with invigilators, a pre-arranged supervisor trusted with overseeing big tests and examinations may be used to increase security. Many Midterms and Final examinations are held at a common location so that professors can supervise directly. When the Internet became a popular medium for distance education many websites were founded offering secure exam software and packages to help professors manage their students more effectively.

References

See also

• Open learning
• Electronic learning
• Computer-assisted language learning
• Degree completion program
• Educational technology
• Learning management system
• M-learning
• Virtual school
• Web Conferencing

External links

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of

ICT in Education

• Distance learning at the Open Directory Project
• Database of Accredited Colleges, Universities, Career and Trade Schools, U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education.
• An Instructional Media Selection Guide for Distance Learning, an official publication of the United States Distance Learning Association
• List of open and distance learning professional associations, provided by the Commonwealth of Learning
• elearnnetwork.ca in Ontario, Canada