Challenges and Advantages of Distance Learning Systems

Abstract

Distance learning has been around for ages. From the moment you decide you would like to continue your education, the Internet can provide access to detailed information about the many institutions and distance-learning courses currently available to you worldwide – information about the teachers, deadlines, grants and fees. A course web site might include a syllabus, a summary of lessons, notes, links to helpful sites and related research, projects done by students, model assignments and a long list of etceteras considered impractical under the more traditional system. The interactivity of the Web allows for spontaneous feedback and rapid change, without the hassle of endless photocopying. During the course of studies, many different applications of the Internet may be used. For example, distance-learning courses now customarily take advantage of the speed of basic e-mail to forward reading lists, assignments and course support materials. Communication with the course instructor is more efficient this way and questions can be handled more swiftly. According to evaluations from the fall of 1996 at the University of Illinois, the students reported increased their communication with professors 64 percent and the quality of interaction with instructors 57 percent. At the same time the faculty reported increased communication with students 92 percent and the quality of interaction with students 88 percent. Contact between classmates becomes feasible, making group tasks and project work real options for the isolated distance learner. It should also be much easier to stay in contact and keep abreast of developments after the course ends. Post-course support and follow-up can take place via discussion boards or mailing lists at your convenience. The survey mentioned above proved that communication between students increased 43 percent, whereas students commented "I learned much more than I ever had due to the high interaction between student-student and student-teacher."