What is Distance Education System?
Distance education is that form of education in which there is no fade-to-face interaction between the teacher and learner. The concept of lifelong learning also increases the importance of Distance Education. With the increasing population and limited educational infrastructure, Country is not able to accommodate all learners in face-to-face education system.
Most importantly, there are many learners who for some reason or other cannot afford face-to-face education. These entire factors make a fertile ground for the emergence of distance education in a thickly populated country. The report of UNESCO: Learning: The Treasure Within, 1996, emphasized on alternative forms of education.
In simple words, distance education can be defined as that mode of education which is imparted from a distance or in which the element of face-to-face interaction is missing.
The basic approaches which provide the tenets of Distance Education are as follows:
- Correspondence study
- Home study
- Independent study
- Internal studies
- Continuing Education
- Distance Learning
- Self-Academic Help
- Learner-oriented Education
- Technology or Media Based Education
- Distribution over a Wide Area
- Flexibility
Features of Distance Education:
There is a quasi-permanent gap between the teacher and the learners throughout the learning programme.
Influence of an educational institution that takes care of both the planning and preparation of study material and in the provision of student support services.
There is a provision for two-way communication so that dialogue could initiate from the learner’s side.
It makes use of media technology which may be print, audio, video or computer to unite teacher and the learner and carry content of the course.
There is quasi-permanent absence of the learning group throughout the length of learning process so that people are usually taught as individuals and not in groups with the possibility of occasional meetings for both didactic and socialization purposes.
