Advantages And Disadvantages Of Distance Education

We, as humans, fear the unknown, and change is after often at the root of our fears. One of the greatest catalysts for change is today’s rapid technological development, but the concept of traditional education has always been the same. Even that is changing, and as to be expected, there is a substantial amount of fear and apprehension towards distance education. With this, students are presented the chance to overcome of a

“Can You Be Educated from a Distance,” an insightful essay by James Barszcz, brings to focus some of the benefits and disadvantages of Distance Learning education (DL). In it, Barszcz discusses the mechanics of DL courses available to students, the quality of education DL can offer, and some reasoning behind its rapidly growing popularity. “Can You Be Educated from a Distance” is an engaging article that students of all ages can benefit from.

Many advocates of distance education are ardent about their venue and very critical of traditional education. These online education devotees view traditional classes as being unchangeable, inflexible, teacher-centered, and static (Angiello, 2010). However, proponents argue that many simply would not be able to get a degree without distance education—the full-time police officer, the mother of four, or the individual living in a rural area approximately 100-200 miles away from any educational institution. Many individuals desperately need distance education courses because they "have jobs, families, civic responsibilities. They are thirsting. But some want us to say, 'Sorry you don’t want to drink the water there, but we can’t bottle our fresh spring water, so you’ll have to come here or drink nothing" (Baker, 1986). Proponents contend that distance education is "as good as" traditional education. In other words, learning occurs as much in distance education as it does in traditional education. However, is this really so? Does distance education work better for some students

All three participates feel that there is a lot that can be done with distance learning. The technology is there. Participant one stated “we have the technology, but our students still

Distance education institutions globally, are faced with the high dropout rate. The isolation of students from their institutions, teachers and other students is the main cause of high dropout rate according to Simpson (2016). As a result, distance education

Distance learning (education) has become an integral part of the education process over the past few decades and is growing in popularity as technology advances.(Willis 1992) describes distance education (as) "the organizational framework andprocess of providing instruction at a distance. Distance education takes place when ateacher and student(s) are physically separated, and technology…(is) used to bridge theinstruction gap." (Coutts 1996). Furthermore, "distance learning activities are designedto fit the specific context for learning, the nature of the subject matter; intended learningoutcomes, needs and goals of the learner, the learner's environment and the instructional echnologies and methods." (American

Alternate platform of learning - Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system of education gained profound popularity around the world by 1960. It was promoted in early eighties when a bill was passed by the Union Government and a central university was founded in the name of Indira Gandhi, former Prime Minister, in 1985. To harmonize various distance learning institutes and maintain high standards of education at national level, the Distance Education Council (DEC) was also formed under the same Act. But in a developing country like India, it seems like a cloud on horizon while implementing the related government policies especially in its rural and suburban parts. Although conventional learning is still popular amongst the students, but ODL is the next generation education system with innumerous advantages like- flexibility, cost-effectiveness, networking, education beyond the borders and many more. This paper deals with the benefits, success, drawbacks and some suggestions to overcome the present problems faced by ODL system in rural and suburban parts of India.

Distance learning does not provide the advantage of building a strong academic or interpersonal relationship with your Instructor. It also does not allow you to express your individuality in the classroom. Distance learning is more of a multimedia-type learning than anything else. This is because distance learning is accomplished via the Internet. Receiving instruction via the Internet is analogous to receiving instruction to, say, a CD ROM.

Online education is a type of distance learning. The student is taking courses without attending a school or university. Instead, online students and teachers interact over the Internet. Online classes can teach students educational responsibility. By forcing them to access the online portal to participate in reading the textbooks/lectures and doing the assignments. Technical abilities is also learned with online classes. Students who lack the tech savvy knowledge can learn how to navigate through the online environment. Being able to access the online portal at any given time of the day is one other benefit to online education. Though online education may seem beneficial, there are more negatives than

The increasing number of open universities being established across the world clearly shows this trend. To add to that, more and more traditional universities are transforming from single mode to dual mode universities, recognising the importance of distance education in providing greater accessibility and up-to-date educational resources (Malaysian Qualifying Agency 2008).

A student not only learns content in traditional classrooms, but they as well learn many other skills due to the social interaction they have with each other. They learn skills that only help them in that specific class, but they learn skill that will help them through their life. Skill such as teamwork, and who to be a leader and a follower. This portion of the course is somewhat always neglected in distance education courses. Being in an isolated environment without any face to face interaction may deplete a student’s ability to socially interact with their peers and professors. This can even be unhealthy in some cases. That being said distance education programs have been continually trying to close the gap of social interaction. Distance education has online communities that try to conduct a social event to provide the social interaction of traditional classroom courses. The social interaction portion of Traditional classroom course appeals more to the younger crowd of student due to them wanting the college experience. The want to be able to make friends and attend social events. Older adults tend not to care as much and want to save time by participating in distance education. It really depends on one preference as to when they decide to participate in distance education or traditional classroom courses.

Education is an important part of people’s lives; it will either make them or break them in the future depending on the careers they choose. Education is greatly diverse today in comparison to the 1950s because of advancements in teaching and other great inventions that provide easier techniques of teaching. One major issue that has been raised is distant learning courses and online education.

The online distant learning programs displayed are only filled with false promises. It also makes life more boring and lonely for students and teachers alike, depriving us of our vital learning communities that make up the joys in our very own intellectuality. Classroom learning programs are the oldest, most efficient ways of learning any criteria, it has been taught by instructors since the age of time within a classroom, making learning is less frustrating when taught by a good instructor, does not ask for a constant computer and internet access in order to do essential academic course

The computer and Internet have become dominant distance learning technologies, and hold the potential to take away from the human aspect of learning, so students do not learn the proper social skills they need to develop early on. Children need to learn to interact with one another, and function properly in a social setting, they learn this primarily within the classroom, and if distance learning alters these classroom settings, then they will not learn how to function in the normal social school setting. Since all schools do not have the tools and financial means needed to establish and support effective distance learning programs, they would not be able to keep up with the advancing technology in education, and therefore their students would not receive the same advantages as other students in the schools around them (Ravaglia & Sommer, 2000). Greenwood (1998) states that schools using distance learning are just contracting out their educational responsibilities and that such courses result in the elimination of teaching jobs. He feels that by using distance learning to teach students, they are minimizing the teacher’s job of actually teaching the students and designing lesson plans, and therefore slowly eliminating the need for teachers in the classroom at all.

However, distance learning is not a new phenomenon. The history of distance education could be traced back to the early 1700s in the form of correspondence education, but technology-based distance education might be best linked to the introduction of audiovisual devices into the schools in the early 1900s. With the development of the postal service in the 19th century, commercial correspondence colleges provided distance education to students across the country. This trend continued well into the 20th century with the advent of radio, television, and other media that allowed learning from distance. In the last decade, distance education has changed significantly with the use of computer-mediated learning, two-way interactive video, and a variety of other technologies. Colleges and universities are forging ahead to provide learning at a distance, and many institutions are making substantial investments in new technologies for teaching.