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Distance Education is a technology driven formal education process and system where students and instructors are separated by distance and/or time. New media information technologies are most frequently used to communicate and transfer material and assessment in today’s form of distance education. This form of education may be used by students who are in remote areas, students who are not able to attend the institution or students who do not have a great deal of time and need flexible courses. Many private and public, non-profit and for-profit institutions offering courses and degree programs through distance education throughout the world. Distance education requires structured and well-designed courses, specialized teaching techniques and methods of communication, as well as specific administration activities.
A distance education teacher must shift between an instructor, a coordinator and a moderator.
As part of being a coordinator, teachers must coordinate collaboration with activities, such as discussing assignments, assigning partners and establishing due dates. Organising meeting times, offering ways to contact themselves, updating students on the course accomplishments and advising students about changes or revisions in the course are also part of the coordinator role of teachers. Teachers must also design and organise the course (Moore and Anderson, 2003, pp. 116).
The part of the moderator role requires teachers to facilitate discourse (Moore and Anderson, 2003, pp. 116). To do this successfully teachers must establish conditions for communication, maintain communication and maintain that it is is collaborative among students. This will promote a shared understanding and identity among the students and also create a sense of a learner community. Teachers must be responsive and maintain the balance of contributions from students (Moore and Anderson, 2003, pp. 394).
The teaching presence should unify and focus the transaction of instructing and learning so that students are able to, not only work collaboratitively between themselves, but also with the teacher (Moore and Anderson, 2003, pp. 391).
One of the most important roles of the teacher is to provide support for students when working with new communication technologies and the Internet and World Wide Web (Moore and Anderson, 2003, pp. 392). Teachers should make participants comfortable with the system and the software in use.
The final role of a teacher in distance education is that they must evaluate the students’ learning and also the course. This is a highly important step in distance education teaching.
The main challenge that distance education teachers face is to develop a sophisticated understanding of the new technologies and how a student is able to use them to enhance their academic performance and also to develop an understanding of the new media communications and the advantages and implications that these hold for the distance education community and for teacher-learner communications (Moore and Anderson, 2003, pp. 122).
A challenge to distance education from teachers is that they see it as a threat to their job security, it involves extra responsibilities and increased class sizes, which leads to increased difficulties in coordinating student schedules (Distance Education Part 1, 2005, [URL]). Some teachers are resistant to the change that distance education brings.
The level of technical infrastructure and the level of training provided to teachers has an effect on teachers’ communication with students. Teachers also need to be able to make accommodations for students’ needs with consideration to culture, physical abilities and learner styles preferences, which becomes difficult without face-to-face contact (Brewington, McQuaid, Newman and Samuel, 2003, [URL]).
Distance education can provide teachers with a flexible work environment so that they can achieve a balance between their work and their personal lives. It also reduces commuting time and decreases some of the extra expenses that being a teacher brings about (Distance Education Part 1, 2005, [URL]).
Distance Education
Distance Education - Students' Perspective
Distance Education - Students with Special Needs
InnoVisions Canada (2005) “Distance Education Part 1,�? retrieved October 3, 2005, from http://www.ivc.ca/distance_ed1.html.
Brewington, B., McQuaid, J., Newman, R., and Samuel, J. (2003) Distance Education – Best Practices: A Manual, retrieved October 3rd, 2005, from http://www.rdnewman.com/manual/teachers/index.html
Moore, M. G., and Anderson, W. G. (ed) (2003) Handbook of Distance Education, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc
Laura harris 16:56, 27 Oct 2005 (EST)
