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The theory goes that to deliver quality distance education we have to focus on pedagogy and andragogy. Technical and instruction systems are made to deliver quality education to students who are not actually on the campus in classrooms but somewhere away. Thus it is convenient for both students and teachers. The students can work at their homes, in an environment where they are comfortable. This can increase productivity as also reduce time and cost wasted on transportation. At the same time it is convenient for the teachers too as they can design the syllabus at home and teach from their home. The students and teachers interact over suitable means of communication like post or internet. They interact in real time to explain and to solve queries and difficulties. The study patterns and time of communication may be decided as suitable to both parties. Certain distance education courses demand that the students be present physically for certain critical coaching or for tests at regular intervals.
Distance learning has become important in recent times due to the flexibility of the course. The various courses available are,
1> Postal mail correspondence course.
2> Courses available on the internet where you can correspond in real time or asynchronously.
3> Courses available on floppies or compact discs. Which can be studied on our home PC.
4> Courses broadcasted over means of mass communication.
Distance education was originally started through post. The widest means of communication available cheap in olden times. The first record for distance postal education dates to around 18th century. Soon it was a booming commercial business and increased rapidly. In the year 1858 Universities started their correspondent courses. The University of London was the pioneer in this regard, starting distance learning degree courses in around 1858. Open University, the University of South Africa were soon to follow starting a variety of distance learning courses. The concept caught on and these courses soon became popular. Soon many institutions sprouted up offering distance education. Some were set up with earning profit as their main objective while some were even non profit organizations.
It is optional for the students to be present on the campus at certain intervals.
Let us make a distinct clarification between open learning and distance learning. In the open educational system the pupil can choose the suitable location and the time. On the contrary in distance learning technique the pupil and the professor are not in the same place and time frame. Thus we can state that not every open learning course uses the distance learning methodology and not all distance learning institutes use the open learning methodology.
Recently, the distance learning program has been taken to new levels. Newer techniques are being introduced to make this method more effective. Distance learning has progressed about five generations of technology. From printing media to live internet broadcast distance learning has come a long way. Due to its flexibility it has gained huge popularity in recent times.
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