Distance education is that form of education in which students are present in faraway destinations and not available physically at schools or universities. It can also be termed as long distance learning, e-learning, virtual classrooms, online learning or distributed learning. Distance education is linked with correspondence courses in which the students correspond by post. It includes online education that consists of about 51 percent of hybrid, blended and 100 percent distance learning. Recent developments in distance education include Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), open access and large scale of interactive participation via network technologies and World Wide Web. (Wikipedia)

Distance learning engaging the world

Learning without the face to face presence of a teacher in the classroom is called distance learning. It is done by having to go through correspondence courses of the student with the teacher or the institute; this is very common practice in UK. (Matthews, 1999) About 270,000 undergraduates get their degree by distance learning every year whereas about 108,000 postgraduates get their degrees every year by distance learning and correspondence courses. Through internet these courses are widely delivered and provide tuition or study courses to individuals. Distance learning at undergraduate level involves learning at home by the learning materials sent by a school, college or university to the student by internet or mail.

The tuition provided to these students is by virtual learning methods, telephone, email, or other electronic sources. It may include face to face discussion with a tutor and online attendance sometimes. In distance educations students can study according to their own will at their chosen time and place without having to contact a face to face teacher. Technology is the most important element for distance education. (Midgley, 2018)

Forms of distance education

1.      Online learning of Distance education

In this form of distance learning the main source of delivery of information is through the internet. These online learning mechanisms provide online courses simultaneously or metachronously to students. Every instruction of the course is provided from a distance and not face to face.

2.      Blended learning of Distance education

Blended learning consists of a blend of online as well as face to face teaching methods. It consists of dividing load of work and doing it online either in the class time or after the class time. It consists of having less classroom sessions a week and using the time to study more online, it is also known as hybrid course.

 Sometimes several weeks of consecutive classes are arranged to complete the course early and keeping more time for online study after the early completion. It also includes having face to face summer learning courses in the campus and doing the rest online throughout the year with lab work or online teaching courses every week.

3.      Flipped classroom of Distance education

It is a form of blended learning in which a series of pre-recorded lectures are provided to students and they study these online and not in the class time. The classroom time is utilized only for discussion over the lecture and related activities. 

1.      E-Learning of Distance education

E-learning includes various forms or digital learning that is completely online such as blended learning, hybrid learning, digital classroom learning etc. it is greatly used in the corporate training sector.

2.      MOOCs of Distance education

MOOC stand for Massive Open Online Course. It is a type of distance learning course that is open for any one with no requirement of other academic qualifications to qualify for it. It has no credit hour issue and no fee or just some at the completion of course for the certificate.

3.      Open learning of Distance education

Open learning is a type of educational policy. It removes the barriers for learning. No prior qualification is required to enroll for this type of learning and any student can easily take advantage of such learning courses even those having disabilities like a visually impaired student will be provided with audio tapes to get the education course. It is flexible and scalable and everyone has to use available technology of online and distance learning to get access. It includes specially designed online materials with in built learning support and assessments, educational services, and policies to remove barriers to learning caused by cost of service or lack of qualification.

4.      Open educational resources (OER)

Open learning consists of availability of educational learning material and open content available to everyone without any charges all over the internet for digital learning. It covers different formats for making distance education easier like video recorded lectures, open text books, clips from YouTube, textual material that is web based to help in independent study, animations, simulations, graphics and diagrams, MOOCs, test having automated answers, PowerPoint slides and lecture notes etc. for this to be open educational resource it should be available free for educational purpose.

5.      Flexible learning of Distance education

It is a form of distance learning in which an individual learner can learn in a flexible way according to personal ease of time availability or any other social or geographical constraint instead of being bound by the time and rules of any educational institute. It includes distance education with the ability of delivering face to face training in a campus or workplace by organizing extra classes in the campus or during a weekend. It is also associated with openness and ease of access for learners like distance education. (Bates, 2008)

Effects of technology on distance education

Distance education consists of different developmental stages. It consists of

·         The correspondence education

·         The use for integrated multiple or the one way media like broadcasting and recorded media like video cassettes, CDs or flash drives etc.

·         A two simultaneous tele-learning by audio or video conferencing

·         Flexible learning from online interactive multimedia

·         Intelligent flexible media inclusive of high degree automation by which a student can learn online by interactive multimedia (Taylor, 1999)

Are Distance learning and virtual classrooms better then face-to-face interaction?

People who choose distance learning or online learning may have no time to attend regular classes in educational institutes because of their commitments. Having the support of learners in a virtual learning space or in an institute is important to encourage each other and assist in studies. When a distance learner knows that he has a whole community of learners online who can help in study they feel more confident with educational learning. In distance learning there is constant interaction of the learner with the tutor through lectures and tutorials from online forums like Skype, email exchange and phone conversation.

In distance learning there are e-tutors who keep check on their students by contacting them and helping them if they do not appear in discussion sessions. Distance learning can be more supportive at times then face to face interaction because distance learners get direct and 24/7 support from their online tutors and online easy information access forums. Distance learning students can easily meet their peers on social forums. It is academic to distance learning students to get experience of joining societies or social events for interaction. They can have access to universities as well. For distance learners there are always services available online or through phone.

There are student unions for online and distance learning students in campuses to help and improve learning experience of the online student. Distance education for online students can have access to help by social platforms like Skype, Facebook and twitter. (Page, 2013)

Face to face learning versus distance learning

Educational institutes have accommodated a diverse group of learners to study in both on campus and off campus from a distance. A lot of effort and expenses are invested by these institutes to design curriculums for learners gaining distance education to facilitate the distance learners. On the basis of research it is evident that learners enrolled in distance education are usually older in age and are currently doing part time jobs as well to support their family and pay their education dues.

 In face to face education there is a criterion about the age and prior qualification of a learner due to which learners prefer distance and online education. Another point in favor of distance learning is that some learners take these courses to fit more classes in to their schedule to save time and gain knowledge at a faster pace. Students are more receptive in the distance education as compared to face to face learning according to research because distance learning works as a tool to help them in getting their requirements fulfilled. (Guri-Rosenblit, 2009)

Sometimes in distance education in the online classes or assessment student do not take interest and do not understand what the tutor has prepared for them which can be disappointing. In distance education the process of online collaboration of learners with their peers in many cases was not liked by the learner because of distance and unavailability of peers or their interests in any project. Whereas, in face to face learning environment, the students worked well in collaboration for completing their projects outside the class. In distance educations the learners were at times not satisfied with the tutors and their efforts to satisfy the questions of students. (Addis, 2009)

References of Distance education

Wikipedia. (n.d.). Distance Education. Retrieved November 23, 2018, from Wikipedia.org:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distance_education

Matthews, Diane (September 1999). The origins of distance education and its use in The United States. The Journal. Retrieved on November 23, 2018 from http://www.thejournal.com/the/printarticle/?id=14278

Midgley, S. (2018). What is Distance Learning? Retrieved November 22, 2018 from the Complete University Guide: https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/distance-learning/what-is-distance-learning/

Bates, T. (2008). What do you mean by…..?. Michigan

Bates, A.W. (2005) Technology, e-Learning and Distance Education London/New York: RoutledgeFalmer

Taylor, J. C. (1999). Distance education: the fifth generation Proceedings of the 19th ICDE World Conference on Open Learning and Distance education, Vienna, Austria

Page, L. (2013, November 13). Can Virtual classrooms beat face-to-face interaction? Retrieved November 23, 2018 from guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/nov/13/human-interaction-distance-learning

Kaufman, D. (1989) ‘Third generation course design in distance education’ in Sweet, R. (ed.) Post-Secondary Distance Education in Canada: Policies, Practices and Priorities Athabasca: Athabasca University/Canadian Society for Studies in Education

Guri-Rosenblit. S. (2009). Distance Education in the Digital Age: Common Misconceptions and Challenging Tasks

Addis. A. J. (2009). A Comparison of face-to-face and online learning environments to prepare teachers to use technology

Potashnik, M. & Capper, J. (1998). Distance Education: Growth and Diversity. Finance & Development, 35(1), 42-45.