Distance Education is much similar to the previous days’ correspondence courses, wherein students need not be present at the institution and can connect/communicate with the teachers via post. Distance education is an advanced form of this which involves online education. Distance learning offers interactive participation of the candidates over the internet. Few terms that are synonymous with Distance Education are distributed learning, e-learning, m-learning, online learning, virtual classroom, etc.
Who-
Distance education is mainly designed for Working professionals, non-working individuals, homemakers, students, and students who once discontinued studies from all age groups and almost all streams.
Why-
1)Distance learning can spread its access to education and training for both the general population and businesses since its flexible scheduling structure minimizes the effects of the time bindings imposed by personal responsibilities and commitments. It is a much more economical and cost-effective form of learning and it reduces the cost significantly than traditional education. It reduces the cost of high priced textbooks which a student needs to incur in traditional education by offering free course materials digitally and also waive off the huge cost of transportation in comparison to traditional education.
2) It increases the potential to access more experts in the field and to students from diverse geographical, social, cultural, economic, and experiential backgrounds.
3)Distance education programs can act as a catalyst for institution innovation and at least are as effective as face to face learning programs.
4)It also provides a broader method of communication within the realm of education. With the technological advancements and the variety of tools and systems available, communication appears to increase in distance education amongst students and their mentors as well as students and their classmates.
5) It increases the communication between the students and their classmates and it is an improvement made to provide distance education students with as many opportunities possible as they would receive in in-person education.
6) Distance education also offers to form a feeling of support as whoever a student or a professional is taking the education is having ongoing and regular access to their instructors and also to colleagues and classmates.
7) Distance education offers individuals a unique opportunity to get benefit from the expertise and resources of the best universities available.
So, it’s proven that it’s the most economical and cost-effective form of learning which provides every individual an opportunity to receive inputs from the best expertise and best universities.
