Education

An Insight
As the name suggests, distance education is an educational program, in which a lesson is delivered to students from a physical distance. The instructional gap between the teacher/instructor and the students is bridged with the aid of communication technologies such as the computer, instructional audios and instructional videos, and is supported by print aid like study guides and textbooks.

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The rapid change in technology and the swift shift in market conditions and people’s needs are the main drivers of the spread of distance education. However, its popularity can be attributed to the educational opportunities it offers to adults, to those with limited mobility, to workers, and to people with limited time to attend a class in regular classroom settings.

Is it Effective?
As to its effectiveness, several studies comparing the effectiveness of distance education to that of classroom instruction have shown differing results. However, almost all of those studies support the claim that distance education can be as effective and successful as conventional education, provided that the appropriate method and technology are used for a certain instructional content, there is an interaction among students, and there is a timely feedback between the instructor and the students regarding the lesson, assignments, course and etc.

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Types
As dynamic as the innovation in technology is, distance education has seen a series of changes and improvements in its pedagogy, technology and design of instructional systems. And while radio, tele-course and broadcast learning remain a viable form of distance education, the introduction of new technologies has led to the development of new distance education programs that use advance technology and method. The following are just a few of them.

Mobile learning, or mLearning is a type of distance education that utilises mobile devices such as cell phone, MP4 player, portable digital assistants (PDAs) and other portable media gadgets. It is built around the concept of “information on the palm of your hands,” and is particularly popular because of the mobility it offers to distant learners. A study by Bharat Inder Fozdar & Lalita S. Kumar, published in The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol. 8, No. 2 (2007), suggests that mobile learning can enrich students’ learning experience and is an effective student retention tool in open and distance learning (ODL).

Welcome to an Apple Farm

Online learning is a type of education, in which the lesson is communicated through the Internet. It is currently one of the most popular types of ODL worldwide, and is the fundamental base of virtual schools, the educational institutions that deliver all student services and education programs through the Internet technology. The growing number of online learning programs and the people enrolling in virtual schools can be attributed to online learning’s effectiveness, perceived convenience, flexibility and low cost.

Study Hard for your Dreams

E-learning, or electronic learning is a type of distance education, in which the computer is used as a medium to deliver a lesson. In e-learning, the computer and the network hold a significant role in the learning activity; however, this does not make the computer the central element of the activity, because the instructional content can be delivered via other electronic media such as audio/video tape, interactive TV and satellite broadcast.