Distance education courses involve two core activities by the learners:
- Independent study of course materials and resources—the courseware that makes up
the physical, mediated content of the course
- Interaction with other course participants (tutors, instructors, other learners,
resource people).
It is through a package of courseware, specifically designed for independent study,
that the teaching in a distance education course is mediated—using text, audio,
audiovisual, or electronic media. The form that an item of courseware takes, and how it is
studied by the learner, depends on the technology used to support and deliver the media
(for example, text can be delivered on paper, as print, or by the Web, as hypertext files;
video can be delivered as broadcast TV, on cassette, or digitized, in a computer file).
The same technology— as videoconferencing, audiographic conferencing, or the
Web— be used to both transmit content and support interactions, but in most cases
different technologies are used for these purposes.
Print could be said to be the foundation of distance education. More than 85 percent of
distance education programs use print either as the main delivery technology for
courseware or in conjunction with other media and technologies. The importance and quality
of print have increased as the ready access to relatively low-cost desktop publishing and
on-demand printing technology has eased the tasks of preparing, updating, and revising
textual and graphics materials. Distance education programs use several different types of
print materials.
Recorded audio and video can be used in more flexible and effective ways in distance
education than can broadcast programs. Because this technology gives learners the ability
to stop the tape, reflect on a sequence, perhaps do a self-test exercise or carry out a
procedure, and then review the sequence again before moving on to the next, it encourages
more active listening and viewing and thus increases the likelihood of retention and
understanding of the material.
|
