Distance education

Distance education

Distance education or distance learning is a field of education that focuses on teaching methods and technology with the aim of delivering teaching, often on an individual basis, to students who are not physically present in a traditional educational setting such as a classroom. It has been described as "a process to create and provide access to learning when the source of information and the learners are separated by time and distance, or both."Distance education courses that require a physical on-site presence for any reason (including taking examinations) have been referred to as hybrid or blended courses of study.

Contents

History and development

Distance education dates 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.

Modern distance education initially relied on the development of postal services in the 19th century and has been practised at least since Isaac Pitman taught shorthand in Great Britain via correspondence in the 1840s.

 The University of London claims to be the first university to offer distance learning degrees, establishing its External Programme in 1858. This program is now known as the University of London International Programmes and includes Postgraduate, Undergraduate and Diploma degrees created by colleges such as the London School of Economics, Royal Holloway and Goldsmiths. [6] In the United States William Rainey Harper, first president of the University of Chicago developed the concept of extended education, whereby the research university had satellite colleges of education in the wider community, and in 1892 he also encouraged the concept of correspondence school courses to further promote education, an idea that was put into practice by Columbia University. In Australia, the University of Queensland established its Department of Correspondence Studies in 1911.

More recently, Charles Wedemeyer of the University of Wisconsin–Madison is considered significant in promoting methods other than the postal service to deliver distance education in America. From 1964 to 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 UK which imported these ideas when establishing in 1969 The Open University, which initially relied on radio and television broadcasts for much of its delivery.[9] Germany's FernUniversität in Hagen followed in 1974[10] and there are now many similar institutions around the world, often with the name Open University (in English or in the local language). All "open universities" use distance education technologies as delivery methodologies and some have grown to become 'mega-universities',[11] a term coined to denote institutions with more than 100,000 students.

The development of computers and the internet have made distance learning distribution easier and faster and have given rise to the 'virtual university, the entire educational offerings of which are conducted online.[12] In 1996 Jones International University was launched and claims to be the first fully online university accredited by a regional accrediting association in the US.[13]

In 2006, the Sloan Consortium, a body which arguably has a conflict of interest in the matter, reported that:

    More than 96 percent of the very largest institutions (more than 15,000 total enrollments) have some online offerings, which is more than double the rate observed for the smallest institutions.

and that almost 3.2 million US students were taking at least one online course during the fall term of 2005.[14]

Today, there are many private and public, non-profit and for-profit institutions worldwide offering distance education courses from the most basic instruction through to the highest levels of degree and doctoral programs. Levels of accreditation vary: some of the institutions receive little outside oversight, and some may be fraudulent diploma mills, although in many jurisdictions, an institution may not use terms such as "university" without accreditation and authorisation, often overseen by the national government - for example, the Quality Assurance Agency in the UK.[15] In the US, the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) specializes in the accreditation of distance education institutions.[16]

Technologies used in delivery

The types of available technologies used in distance education are divided into two groups: synchronous learning and asynchronous learning.

Synchronous learning technology is a mode of delivery where all participants are "present" at the same time. It resembles traditional classroom teaching methods despite the participants being located remotely. It requires a timetable to be organized. Web conferencing, videoconferencing, Educational television, Instructional television are examples of synchronous technology, as are direct-broadcast satellite (DBS), internet radio, live streaming, telephone, and web-based VoIP.

The asynchronous learning mode of delivery is where participants access course materials on their own schedule and so is more flexible. Students are not required to be together at the same time. Mail correspondence, which is the oldest form of distance education, is an asynchronous delivery technology and others include message board forums, e-mail, video and audio recordings, print materials, voicemail and fax.

The two methods can be combined in the delivery of one course. For example, some courses offered by The Open University use periodic sessions of residential or day teaching to supplement the remote teaching.

Other technology methods used in the delivery of distance education include online three-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds. A popular 3D virtual world, Active Worlds, is used for synchronous and asynchronous learning. Active Worlds provides opportunities for students to work collaboratively.

Major benefits of use: an institutional perspective

Diana G. Oblinger, writing specifically of the US context, has identified four broad reasons why educational institutions might embrace distance learning:

    Expanding access: distance education can assist in meeting the demand for education and training demand from the general populace and businesses, especially because it offers the possibility of a flexibility to accommodate the many time-constraints imposed by personal responsibilities and commitments.

    Alleviate capacity constraints: being mostly or entirely conducted off-site, the system reduces the demand on institutional infrastructure such as buildings.

    Making money from emerging markets: she claims an increasing acceptance from the population of the value of lifelong learning, beyond the normal schooling age, and that institutions can benefit financially from this by adopting distance education. She sees sectors of education such as courses for business executives as being "more lucrative than traditional markets".

    Catalyst for institutional transformation: the competitive modern marketplace demands rapid change and innovation, for which she believes distance education programs can act as a catalyst.

Casey and Lorenzen have identified another financial benefit for the institutions of the US, stating that distance education creates new graduates who might be willing to donate money to the school who would have never have been associated with the school under the traditional system.

See also

    Continuing education

    Degree completion program

    Electronic learning

    Public, educational, and government access (PEG)

    Sunrise Semester

    Virtual education

    Virtual learning environment

التعليم عن بعد (Distance Learning) 

هو أحد طرق التعليم الحديثة نسبيا. و يعتمد مفهومه الأساسي على وجود المتعلم في مكان يختلف عن المصدر الذي قد يكون الكتاب أو المعلم أو حتى مجموعة الدارسين.

    1 تعريف التعليم عن بعد

    2 خطأ شائع

    3 تطور وسائل التعليم عن بعد

    4 أهداف التعليم عن بعد

    5 أمثلة واقعية

 تعريف التعليم عن بعد

يمكن أن نعطي تعريفا مختصرا للتعليم عن بعد"بأنه نقل برنامج تعليمي من موضعه في حرم مؤسسة تعليمية ماالى أماكن متفرقة جغرافيا" ويهدف إلى جذب طلاب لا يستطيعون تحت الظروف العادية الاستمرار في برنامج تعليمي تقليدي.

خطأ شائع

هناك خطأ شائع في اعتبار أن التعليم عن بعد هو مرادف للتعليم عبر الإنترنت. و في واقع الأمر فإن التعليم من خلال الإنترنت هو أحد وسائل التعليم عن بعد و لكن نظرا لانتشار الأول فإنه اعتبر في أحيان كثيرة مرادفا للتعلم عن بعد.

تطور وسائل التعليم عن بعد

بدأ التعليم عن بعد من خلال بعض الجامعات الأوربية و الأمريكية في أواخر السبعينات التي كانت تقوم بإرسال مواد تعليم مختلفة من خلال البريد للطالب، وكانت هذه المواد تشمل الكتب، شرائط التسجيل و شرائط الفيديو، كما كان الطالب بدوره يقوم بإرسال فروضه الدراسية باستخدام نفس الطريقة. و كانت هذه الجامعات يشترط حضور الطالب بنفسه لمقر الجامعة لأداء الاختبار النهائي الذي بموجبة يتم منح الشهادة للطالب. ثم تطور الأمر في أواخر الثمانينات ليتم من خلال قنوات الكابل و القنوات التليفزيونية و كانت شبكة الأخبار البريطانية رائدة في هذا المجال. و في أوائل التسعينات ظهرت الإنترنت بقوة كوسيلة اتصال بديلة سريعة و سهلة ليحل البريد الإلكتروني محل البريد العاجي في إرسال المواد الخفيفة و الفروض.

و في أواخر التسعينات و أوائل القرن الحالي ظهرت المواقع التي تقدم خدمة متكاملة للتعليم عن طريق الويب، وهي الخدمة التي شملت المحتوي للتعليم الذاتي بالإضافة لإمكانيات التواصل و التشارك مع زملاء الدراسة من خلال ذات الموقع أو البريد الإلكتروني. و حديثا ظهرت الفصول التفاعلية التي تسمح للمعلم أو المحاضر أن يلقي دروسه مباشرة على عشرات الطلاب في جميع أنحاء المعمورة دون التقيد بالمكان بل و تطورت هذه الأدوات لتسمح بمشاركة الطلاب بالحوار و المداخلة.

 أهداف التعليم عن بعد

1- الإسهام في رفع المستوى الثقافي والعلمي والاجتماعي لدى أفراد المجتمع.

2- سد النقص في أعضاء هيئة التدريس و المدربين المؤهلين في بعض المجالات كما يعمل على تلاشي ضعف الإمكانيات.

3- العمل على توفير مصادر تعليمية متنوعة ومتعددة مما يساعد على تقليل الفروق الفردية بين المتدربين وذلك من خلال دعم المؤسسات التدريبية بوسائط وتقنيات تعليم متنوعة وتفاعلية.

 أمثلة واقعية

    الجامعة العربية المفتوحة

    جامعة القدس المفتوحة

    الجامعة السورية المفتوحة