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Distance education has always been an integral part of Australia’s education system. Two way radio communications has been used for several decades to educate children who live in remote areas of the country. Education via radio was the primary means for teaching these children, without these children ever meeting their teachers. Communication in the form of distance learning allowed for effective education which has developed and evolved today. E-learning in Australia is a growing field.
Australia is an active participant in providing tertiary education online through various different providers across the country. Australia offers a wide range of course and programs electronically.
Along with many undergraduate degrees offered online there has been an increase in the number of institutions offering MBA courses online. Eleven institutions across Australia now offer MBA degrees online which have proved to be popular in Australia and across the Australia.
Non-university post-secondary education (VET) once only offered through TAFE colleges is now offered by around 5000 providers across the nation, as a result VET is now more widely available to the workforce. VET courses are now also offered through versatile methods from traditional face-to-face teaching, through to distance education modes, to online and flexible delivery.
Charles Sturt University (CSU) is one of Australia’s leading providers in online education, teaching over 18,000 students via distance education and another 10,000 students on campus. The students study the same curricula but teaching methods on campus necessarily vary from those used for distance. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are a prime method for teaching both groups with statistics showing that there is an increase in the use of ICT’s for both groups.
Australian institutions also offer online courses to nations around the world. Australia‘s Royal Melbourne Institute (RMIT) has launched degree and diploma programs through the African Virtual University (AVU) - an IT-powered drive to usher African students into the global economy. Australian courses offered online are also available to many other nations around the world.
Australian companies contiually need to retrain and re-skill employees. The methods undertaken by employees to complete this training in increasingly aided by the use of technology. Online occupational training and other forms of e-learning is an increasing market in Australia. A study in 2003 found that the training market in Australia was over US $2 billion, with that figure expected to rise in the future. While the majority of training is still instructor led, accounting for 70% for all training in Australia, while 30% of training is technology-delivered. Online content and learning management systems account for the majority of technology based training.
Many businesses today are turning to online instruction to train employees as it is a cost effective and flexible. The mining industry and financial industry have also used online trainging as a significant method to train employees. The health industry is undertaking online courses with NSW Health first online course being introduced in 2002, with technology now a popular means of training employees.
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Jessica Strudwick 16:14, 27 Oct 2005 (EST)
