The Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century was followed by developments in various fields of technology, which provided educators with various means for a new stage of education. Distance education was one of the main results of this revolution. Broadcasting and communications technology offered educators new and different solutions for adapting and delivering instruction to learners outside the traditional campus. Learners’ and parents’ interests were enhanced dramatically as a result of the great advances in audio-visual media and telecommunication technology, which resulted in an increase in the subject areas offered by distance education institutions.
In response to this interest, distance education
became one of the formal means of education for those who could not attend
schools or universities for cultural, economic, social or geographical reasons.
Since designing instruction for distance education requires understanding the
meaning of distance education and its objectives, the stages that distance
education passed through, the media and their characteristics, and the main
issues in distance education, as reviewed in the distance education literature,
are reviewed in this chapter.
The importance
of defining the meaning of distance education is that it may provide a good
starting point to recognise its elements. First, there is some confusion among
distance educators as to the correct definition of this term. A review of the
term ‘distance education’ in the literature showed that the two terms ‘distance
education’ and ‘distance learning’ have been used almost interchangeably and
there is an overlap between them. This reflects the continuing debate among
distance educators as to which term should be used. Many distance educators
(Moore, 1973; Holmberg, 1977; Rumble, 1989; Moore and Kearsley, 1996) used the
term ‘distance education’ to mean a systematic approach involving the learning
environment, educators and separated learners. Three important definitions of
distance education are offered by Holmberg (1977), Rumble (1989) and Moore and
Kearsley (1996). These definitions are supported by many distance educators.
Holmberg
(1977) offered one of the common definitions of distance education that is both
simple and comprehensive. He defined distance education as follows:
‘a
term that covers the various forms of study at all levels which are not under
the continuous immediate supervision of tutors present with their students in
lecture rooms or the same premises, but which, nevertheless, benefit from the
planning, guidance and tuition of a tutorial organisation’ (p. 9).
In
a concluding discussion on distance-education-related issues, Rumble (1989)
proposed a similar definition of distance education, which can be summarised in
two main points:
1.
Distance education is a
method of education in which the learner is physically separated from the
teacher by space and time.
2.
Distance education
materials are often structured in ways that facilitate learning at a distance.
Recently,
Moore and Kearsley (1996) stated a definition that reflects the recent
developments in distance education technology. They defined distance education
as:
‘the
family of instructional methods in which the teaching behaviours are executed
apart from the learning behaviours, including those that in a contiguous
situation would be performed in the learner’s presence, so that communication
between the teacher and the learner must be facilitated by print, electronic or
other devices’ (p. 197).
According
to Rumble’s definition, the learning materials are important elements and
should be designed to promote effective learning for the learner at a distance.
However, Moore
These
criteria are:
1.
Distance education implies
that the majority of educational communication between (among) teachers and
student(s) occurs non-contiguously.
2.
Distance education must
involve two-way communication between (among) teacher and student(s) for the
purpose of facilitating and supporting the educational process.
3.
Distance education uses
technology to mediate the necessary two-way communication (Garrison and Shale
1987, p. 11, in Garrison and Shale 1990, p. 25).
In
conclusion, it is noted that many key features characterise distance education
as understood from the definitions above:
1.
The separation of teacher
and learner;
2.
The separation among
learners;
3.
The use of one medium (or
more) to deliver the subject matter (e.g., print and post, broadcasting and
tapes, etc.); and
4.
The use of a communication
channel to facilitate interaction and support learners (e.g., post, telephone,
teleconferencing, etc).