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Chapter One
Characteristics of Distance Education
Definitions of distance education
There are a number of problems in attempting to 'define' distance education. Firstly, used in this sense the term 'distance' has different connotations. It is certainly not restricted to the notion of mere geographical distance from the source of teaching: a high proportion of students enrolled in distance education courses live in densely populated urban areas close to the physical location of the institution from which their course materials are mailed. Although, initially, distance methods may have arisen in some countries (e.g. Australia, France during World War II) because of students' difficulties in travelling to conventional institutions, it would be fair to say now that distance in the physical sense is not a major necessary defining feature of this form of educational provision.
Perhaps the most fruitful use of the term 'distance' is that proposed by Moore (1983:157) in the expression 'transactional distance', which defines the nature and degree of separation of teacher and learner in the educational process:
Transactional distance is a function of two variables called 'dialogue' and 'structure'. Dialogue describes the extent to which, in any educational programme, learner and educator are able to respond to each other. This is determined by the content or subject-matter which is studied, by the educational philosophy of the educator, by the personalities of educator and learner, and by environmental factors, the most important of which is the medium of communication. For example, an educational programme in which communication between educator and the independent learner is by radio or television permits no dialogue. A programme by correspondence is more dialogic, yet not to the same extent as one in which correspondence - or radio or television - is supplemented by telephone communication.
Structure is a measure of an educational programme's responsiveness to learners' individual needs. It expresses the extent to which educational objectives, teaching strategies, and evaluation methods are prepared for, or can be adapted to, the objectives, strategies, and evaluation methods of the learner. In a highly structured educational programme, the objectives and the methods to be used are determined for the learner, and are inflexible. In a linear, non-branching programmed text, for example, there is less opportunity for variation, according to the needs of a particular individual, than there is in those correspondence courses which permit a wide range of alternative responses by the tutor to individual students' questions and assignment submissions. ... In a programme in which there is little structure, and dialogue is easy, interaction between teacher and learner permits very personal and individual learning and teaching.
Using these dimensions, the most distant programme would be one in which there was neither dialogue nor structure - an example would be a wholly self-directed programme of individual reading. At the other end of the continuum, the least distant programme would be one in which there is a high level of dialogue, with little pre-determined structure - for example, an individually tailored tutorial programme. Most of what are commonly called distance education programmes fall somewhere between these two extremes - they have a measure of dialogue, as well as being more or less highly structured. This conceptualisation also helps explain how a student learning in a 'face-to-face' environment, whose sole educational activity is to go to lectures to take notes, can be at a greater transactional distance than a student on a distance education course who regularly meets, corresponds with, or telephones his tutor.
A second factor to consider in attempting any definition of distance education lies in the great diversity of practices, systems, and projects that are commonly covered by the term. Granted, they all have in common, as their defining element, and in opposition to traditional classroom-based practice, the separation in space and in time of teaching and learning activities, with teaching generally based on a combination of structured learning materials and the use of intermediaries (tutors, counsellors, 'animateurs') to assist learners in their use of these materials. But here the resemblance often ends.
Differences are attributable to a number of factors. Firstly, there has been a fairly rapid evolution of methods and structures, especially in the last few decades, which has contributed to considerable diversity in the field of distance education. This is all the more remarkable when contrasted with the conservatism and stability of conventional education: classrooms and lecture theatres, and what goes on inside them, look much the same anywhere in the world, and have done so for a remarkably long time. The similarities in the situations of members of a rural radio listening circle in West Africa, students enrolled in one of the many Indian University Correspondence Directorates, British Open University students working at home on multi-media courses, and 'On-Line College' students in New York State, are not so easy to spot.
The many forms of distance education as we now know them have evolved from a wide variety of different sources. In some countries, a strong tradition of commercial correspondence colleges has survived for a hundred years or more. Postal tuition, combined with weekly or monthly lessons of printed or cyclostyled course materials, is still a basic model which has often been adopted relatively unchanged by many publicly financed institutions. In other countries, most notably in Latin America, radio broadcasting organisations were among the pioneers of distance education, and this is reflected in the structure of many current systems where there is less emphasis on print and individual correspondence tuition, and more on locally organised listening groups with trained 'animateurs'.
The last decade has seen the creation of a number of distance teaching universities throughout the world, many inspired by the success of the British Open University. Many of them use print and broadcast media combined with face-to-face and postal tuition in an integrated manner. These institutions have contributed a great deal to creating a much more positive image for distance education, giving credibility, through the levels of achievement of their graduates, to methods which were previously often considered as second-best, if not third-rate.
For many years, at least in some countries (for example, Australia and the United States), institutions teaching conventional students have also accepted a role in the education of external students. Recently, as the competition for students has increased, more and more traditional institutions have developed new and often very flexible distant study programmes. In the last year or two, in the wealthier countries, the new communications possibilities opened up by data transmission networks and widespread home ownership of micro and personal computers are beginning to be exploited for educational purposes. It is too early to know yet what the longer term impact of projects such as the California-based 'Electronic University' will be, but there is no doubt that networking and electronic mail technologies have considerable potential for improving the quality and nature of tutorial and student contacts in distance education.
Thus the problem in trying to establish a definition of distance education lies in identifying the common features of enterprises as different from each other as correspondence colleges based on postal tuition, radiophonic schools, and university programmes using electronic mail to reach off-campus students.
Perhaps the most comprehensive general definition of distance education is that first proposed by Keegan in 1980 and subsequently modified in 1986. Keegan's definition is based inter alia on an analysis of the definitions proposed by Holmberg (1977), Peters (1973), and Moore (1973). Keegan (1986: 49-50) identifies seven principal characteristics which he regards as being essential for any comprehensive definition:
- the separation of teacher and student
- the influence of an educational organisation
- the use of technical media
- the provision of two-way communication
- the absence of group learning, with students taught largely as individuals (while retaining the possibility of occasional seminars)
- participation in the most industrialised form of education
- the privatisation of learning (in that learning occurs away from the group)
Separation of teacher and student
The separation in space and time of teaching and learning is a basic feature of distance education. It is worth stressing that this separation is not the exclusive prerogative of distance education systems. Some proportion of learning activities in conventional systems takes place apart from the presence of a teacher, increasingly so as one passes up the scale from school to university education, while many distance education systems include elements of face-to-face contact with teachers. What is particular to distance education practice in this respect is that the overall design of a system is premised on this separation, and that therefore the role of the teacher, and the nature of the transactions between teacher and learner, are completely changed.
The role of the institution
Distance education needs to be differentiated not only from conventional classroom based education but also from private study at home. People learn a great deal through their own efforts. What distinguishes distance teaching is that there is an institution that is consciously teaching its students.
Use of technical media
The use of 'technical' communications media in an integrated manner to provide the basic teaching elements is the factor which has perhaps most marked the recent growth of distance education, if the mass media can be used successfully as a principal vehicle for teaching, and as a substitute for a classroom teacher, then considerable economies of scale are theoretically possible. In addition, people who are unable to benefit from traditional education because of physical, economic, or social barriers to access, can be reached. Much of the rhetoric surrounding the use of the term 'open' in the distance education context stems from this notion of the relative accessibility to the public at large of print and broadcast media, compared with the relative difficulty of obtaining access to resources for face-to-face teaching. However, it is clear that mere physical access to print and broadcast media does not necessarily imply that they can be used effectively for educational purposes: potential learners need to be capable of studying independently and to know how best to use these media for learning. This can be problematic, especially for media which have become almost exclusively associated with the provision of entertainment or information.
Two-way communication (between individual students and mentors)
The technical means of communication most commonly used in distance education, with the exception of correspondence by post (which can be very slow), telephone (instantaneous, but also asynchronous in the case of answerphones), two-way radio (instantaneous), and electronic mail (both sychronous and asynchronous), are all one-way. One-way communication is a characterististic of educational technology, with which distance education is often confused (Keegan, 1986:44). The dominance of one-way communication in distance education explains why so many distance education systems are felt to be 'information processing' or 'systematic' models which basically treat learning as the processing, storage and retrieval of information, and in which the learner is a 'passive' recipient of educational messages devised by those who produce the materials. Keegan argues that 'it is important that (he student in a distance education system can profit from dialogue with the institution that provides the learning materials', and that 'the student should be able to initiate this dialogue' (1986:44).
Two-way communication between the individual student and his or her mentor (eg. tutor or counsellor) is thus regarded as an essential component of a distance education system. Students may communicate with their tutors or counsellors in writing, by telephone and two-way radio, or in individual face-to-face meetings. In some instances, these contacts may be public - for example television or radio phone-in programmes which enable students to speak with the teachers reponsible for the design of a course (as opposed to local tutors who may not have been associated with its development). Generally, however, they are more private, involving discussion of assignment work that the student is submitting for evaluation or personal difficulties encountered in studying at a distance.
Group learning
Learning in groups is a feature of many distance education systems. In his 1980 definition Keegan argued that 'the possibility of occasional seminars' was a defining characteristic of distance education. At the very minimum, this would imply the organisation of regular face-to-face meetings of students in a particular area, with or without the presence of a tutor, counsellor, or 'animateur', or occasional longer seminars or workshops (such as the contact programmes run by many of the Indian universities' Correspondence Directorates, or the British Open University's residential summer schools). Subsequently Keegan modified his view. He argues that the presence of a learning group is fundamental to most conventional education whereas distance education does not compel students to join a group: 'most distance education systems treat the student basically as an individual' (Keegan, 1986:45). He holds (ibid.:46) that 'the separation of the learner from the learning group throughout the length of the learning process is a characteristic feature of this form of education which distinguishes it from conventional, oral, group-based education', although he accepts that many distance education systems do make use of group-based learning. This leads him to his summary conclusion that distance education is characterised by 'the quasi-permanent absence of the learning group throughout the length of the learning process so that people are usually taught as individuals and not in groups, with the possibility of occasional meetings for both didactic and socialisation purposes' (ibid.:49). However, new communications technologies are now being used to permit group interactions at a distance, either synchronously via audio and telephone conferencing, or asynchronously through computer conferencing (textual teleconferencing using terminals in students' and tutors' homes linked through the telephone networks to a host computer).
An industrialised form of education
We owe to Peters (1973) the introduction into the definition of distance education of a strong emphasis on the quasi-industrial nature of distance education systems. Peters is right to point out that the mass production and distribution of learning materials, as well as the logistical aspects of administering and coordinating the activities of dispersed populations of students and tutors, involves the application of principles drawn from the industrial sector. The division of labour that revolves around specialised tasks and technologies associated with the development and production of learning materials is a marked feature of some forms of distance education. The skills of production/operations management are needed to ensure that materials are developed and produced and services delivered on time to students. Explanations of these processes tend to be couched in the language of 'classical management' (based on the ideas of Max Weber, Henri Fayol and Frederick Taylor) which emphasise organisational structures embodying 'rational' working arrangements designed to operate in predictable fashions.
The introduction of such principles into an educational institution can be problematic. It is not always easy to match the relatively creative activities of course development to a rigidly scheduled production system, while many educators, used to a high degree of personal autonomy in their day-to-day work, resent the loss of autonomy that is implicit in such regularised and task differentiated systems. For some the environment proves stressful. This raises problems of interpersonal behaviour both within the productive group and between groups that require a more human-relations approach to management if understanding is to be achieved. Also the 'packaging' of knowledge which the quasi-industrial nature of many a...
