DISTANCE EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS – A critical analysis

Before we discuss the critical issues facing the Distance Education Institutions it is pertinent to understand what exactly does success for a Distance Education institution mean? Does it mean increase in enrollment? Does it mean increase in the number of new programmes launched? Does it mean launching new study centres in remote geographical regions? To me a successful DE institution is one which not only has an affirmative answer to the previous three questions but also adds value to the learners through its programmes, i.e., after having undergone the programme a learner should have significantly enhanced his well being in terms of the knowledge gained, his social status and also his ability to be absorbed in the job market. In this process the institution should have also enhanced its goodwill in the society.

Being a distance learner as well as an academic of Distance Education (DE) this author is at a vantage point to view the critical factors for the success of distance education from both the perspectives. However, here the issues have been discussed primarily from the perspective of the learner. This learner feels that the issues discussed below need to be addressed by DE institutions for the success of their programmes as well as the success of the mode of Distance Education itself.

The issue of credibility: There is exists some amount of cynicism about the quality of the DE programmes as well as students enrolled in them in the society as well as the job market. The Batchelor Preparatory Programme of IGNOU, for instance, is a passport to the Batchelor Degree programme for students with no previous education. Such short cut provided by the university has proved to be a pitfall for the students enrolled for the programme. It has invited criticism from all spheres – students, the job market, and the academia. It has led to a blanket ban on employment of IGNOU students by many private sector firms. Rajiv Gandhi University in Arunachal Pradesh is refusing to admit such students for further studies. Also, it has led to confusion in the minds of the existing students as well as prospective learners – many think that after getting a degree from IGNOU they will not get admission for further studies. The DE institutions need to take urgent measures to stem the rot and restore pride and prestige to distance learning.

Inadequate counseling and untrained counsellors: As a learner it has been observed that counseling is not being provided for many programmes. In many programmes the counseling provided is inadequate. Often counselors resort to lecturing as opposed to counseling. The lectures very often do not conform to the course content. Often the staff at the student support centres is not found during the appointed hours of duty. The institutions should ensure sufficient number of counseling sessions through counselors trained in the DE system.

Lack of proper intimation of counseling schedules: It has been observed that often counseling schedules are not displayed on the notice boards, and if displayed, changes in the counseling are not intimated properly. It is important for the DE institutions to have a mechanism for constant communication with distance learners.

Underutilization of ICT facilities: It has been observed that the existing teleconferencing facilities are not functional in some study centres. In some others, the staff is not adept at operating the satellite interactive terminals. DE institutions should have trained staff to handle ICT infrastructure to ensure better utilization of the facilities.

Non-receipt of study materials is a very common complaint among many students. Even more chronic problem is the delay in delivery of study materials. This gives the student very less time for study and submission of assignments. Besides improving the logistics of delivery of study materials, DE institutions should take measures to make the study materials and prospectuses readily available in the market. Students who do not receive the material on time or those who have misplaced their study material can source it from the market.

Delay in declaration of results of Term-End Exams and assignments are yet another chronic problem. Such delays cause uncertainty in the minds of the learner. Often results of the previous term-end exams remain undeclared even as the next term-end exam begins. Hapless students have to appear for the next term-end exam without knowing the fate of their previous attempt. This leads to frustration among the learners. Many of whom get demoralized and drop out from the course. Also, such delays cost dear to the learners in terms of the extra time spent by them. DE institutions must ensure timely declaration of results.

Inadequate student support: Often queries and complaints of students are not attended properly at the Study Centre, Regional Centre, and even the Head Quarter of DE institutions. In a DE system the learner is remotely located and therefore lonely in his/her academic pursuit. Therefore, it is important to be sympathetic towards distance learners’ queries and provide all possible help to them.

Manoj Tirkey,
http://manojtirkey.blogspot.com/
http://edzucate.blogspot.com/

DISTANCE EDUCATION IN THE NETWORKED WORLD

According to Sir John Daniel “Distance Education (DE) is any educational process in which all or most of the teaching is conducted by someone removed in space and/or time from the learner, with the effect that all or most of the communication between teachers and learners is through an artificial medium, either electronic or print”. Therefore, by definition, in DE the normal or principal means of communication is through technology. The advancements of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the last two decades have made DE more relevant today than ever before.

Globally, over the last two decades, the mode of delivery in DE has moved beyond the traditional correspondence system to include more sophisticated systems that may be categorized as follows: television and radio systems, Multimedia systems, and Internet based systems including the broadband networks.

Educational television and radio systems use various delivery technologies terrestrial, satellite, and cable television and radio to deliver live or recorded lectures to both individual home-based learners and groups of learners in remote classrooms where some face-to-face support might be provided. Some systems offer limited audio or video-conferencing links back to the lecturer or a moderator at a central point.

Multimedia systems encompass text, audio, video, and computer-based materials, and usually some face-to-face learner support delivered to both individuals and groups. In this approach, which is that used by the open universities, instruction is no longer an individual’s work, but the work of teams of specialists: media specialists, information specialists, instructional design specialists, and learning specialists. Programmes are prepared for distribution over large numbers of learners, usually located across a whole country.

Internet-based systems are used to deliver multimedia (text, audio, video and computer-based) materials in electronic format to individuals through computers, along with access to databases and electronic libraries. Thus enabling teacher-student and student-student, one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many interactions, synchronously or asynchronously, through e-mail, computer conferences, bulletin boards, chat rooms, instant messaging, etc.

The convergence of all communication networks including the satellite network, the telephone network and the internet has been brought about by bringing all the backbone technologies to a common digital platform. Thus heralding a future that promises to be even more exciting for the distance learner. Learners today can download multi-media educational content via internet from the comfort of their homes. Institutions have also successfully experimented with live web-casting of important events through the internet. It is only a matter of time before live web casting of regular lectures becomes routine.

The spread of broadband Internet communication is stimulating new types of educational organizations and also stimulating re-thinking about the effectiveness of the older ones. Thus the new technologies are being taken up with equal enthusiasm by open universities, correspondence schools, and other DE institutions.

Non-traditional providers, including private profit-oriented new companies are entering the global market, selling educational services online, especially to adult learners in the labour force. In Europe and America some for-profit online programmes have grown twice as fast as the conventional DE institutions’ programmes which have some face-to-face interaction. Some traditional education institutions are responding to such competition by establishing their own for-profit affiliates, while corporations have established their own in-house systems to meet their own needs for ‘just-in-time’ and ‘just-enough’ education.

The growth in enrollment of learners which often includes cross border learners, especially by for-profit providers, has resulted in adverse quality issues. However, a quality culture has been emerging among the DE institutions. All mega universities, including seven in Asia, have developed and implemented Quality Assurance standards and procedures in key areas of distance education activities, and at least three mega universities in Asia have institutionalized a central QA unit and sought the development of a more systematic and coherent quality culture.

Internationally, convergence of traditional campus-based higher education with distance education and the blurring phenomenon between the two modes has been observed. Increasingly, conventional universities have been embracing innovative DE programs and e-Learning. In Korea for instance, of the 201 colleges and universities surveyed in a study, 85 percent of them had implemented e-Learning and are equipped with technical infrastructure and operational supports.

Increasingly, countries and institutions see DE, especially e-Learning, as an alternative mode of delivery to widen access to education, satisfy continuing educational needs of adults, expand trained workforce, and/or train teachers to improve the quality of schooling. Pedagogical changes have been observed in DE. For example, one-way broadcast-based or correspondence courses have been replaced by two-way interactive courses, problem-based, case-based, and/or resource-based learning. Personalized learning and support services have been introduced in several DE institutions as well.

Whereas advanced ICT offers options to both expand educational opportunities and improve upon quality, it poses many new challenges as manifest in the 'digital divide’ in developing countries. However, with rapidly declining tariff rates and prices of handsets, cellular phones with computer like capabilities could become the instrument to bridge the digital divide. Integration of the Internet and futuristic concepts like virtual reality and miniaturized projectors into the mobile phones hold the key to portable education – anywhere, any time.

Manoj Tirkey,
http://manojtirkey.blogspot.com/
http://edzucate.blogspot.com/