Distance Education

Real education consists in drawing the best out of yourself. What better book can there be than the book of humanity?

By Mahatma Gandhi

Alert: The AICTE has clarified that only MBA and MCA through the distance mode will receive recognition by the Council. The students pursuing a career in any education program through distance mode have been requested to check for the approval by the Joint Committee of Distance Education Council (DEC) of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), University Grants Commission (UGC) and AICTE on AICTE's website. Click here to read more.

After food, it is education that has posed as the second greatest challenge for human community. It is a sector where the governments of the world countries have pumped-in more funds but unfortunately education hasn’t reached the grass root level of the human community, even now. The consequences has been disastrous. On one hand we have some of the most outstanding men in the fields such as literature, software technology, engineering, management, medical, biotechnology... on the other we also have substantial inhabit; some of the most illiterates in the globe today. What a striking contrast! But there is no point in shying away from the stark reality.

How can the problem of illiteracy be overcome? There are many who wish to join in the mainstream of Distance Education. The fire to study and educate oneself is no doubt a healthy indication but that often got drained due to the lack of proper facilities. It was a stumbling block that was removed with the emergence of distance education.
Distance education has really opened a new window of opportunities for those who desire for further studies. In a way it has helped numerous professionals, dropouts (school & college), housewives, etc to accomplish their unfinished dreams. It has immense relevance, particularly in a country like India, where pursuing education is a pricey affair. The whole purpose of providing Distance education is to provide cost-effective, quality education to large sections of our population including those living in remote and far flung areas.

Even we at National Network of Education (NNE) are already in the mainstream of disseminating the education information to all users free of cost. We receive scores of career queries everyday, which again is a shinning testimony of the great curiosity among the discerning users to know about the various options that education has to offer.

Distance Education in Indian Scenario

No wonder, Indian universities top the charts on the number of Distance Education courses at both undergraduate and post graduate

levels. Most universities in India now have Distance Education programs offering a wide variety of courses. The Indian government while realizing the need for distance education opened the prestigious Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in 1985, which offers students degrees widely accepted in the job market as any other recognized Distance Education course.

Since distance is no longer an impediment to pursue a course and complete them as most universities have study and examination centers in many cities, the interest in Distance Education is growing very rapidly in India and is expected to double up in the next decade. This Directory on Distance Education will serve the purpose of making it easy for students to choose courses in Distance Education along with full details on Universities offering them.

For instance a mere fifteen years since its inception IGNOU has carved a niche for itself among the premier educational

institutions in the country. The University has been a pioneer in Distance Education and the recipient of the Centre of Excellence in Distance Education award

conferred by the Commonwealth of Learning in 1993.

IGNOU, New Delhi is a premier open university in India that has more 7,50,000 students with extremely varied profiles, spread throughout the length and breadth of the country. The University has an efficient and effective networking of 46 Regional Centers (5 of which are Army Command Centers, 8 are IAF Command Centers and 4 Navy Command Centers) and over 630 Study Centers, all over India. As an Open University, IGNOU has come a long way since 1985, having crossed national boundaries providing higher education as well as assisting other developing countries in this regard.

Similarly most universities of India also impart distance education to meet the growing demand. Our team in NNE has made endeavors for the benefit of our users in providing all possible information regarding distance education. In the due process we have tried our best to incorporate all the courses of all the major universities and institutions offering distance education. The task has never been easy but we have left no stone unturned in giving a total package for our users.

Global Concept of Distance Education

In the developing world, since the 1950's, the population has doubled to over 5 billion people, most of whom want to be literate and want greater educational opportunities for themselves and their children. The majority of this expanding population is in Asia where there are massive problems of poverty, illiteracy and disease. In most developing countries, such as Bangladesh, distance education offers the promise of a system of information distribution through which new ideas, attitudes and understanding might begin to ooze through the layers of the disadvantaged environments.

Drawing upon the well known model of the British Open University, countries such as Pakistan, India and China have combined modern methods of teaching with emerging technologies in order to provide low-cost instruction for basic literacy and job training. Turkey has recently joined those nations involved in large scale distance learning. Only twelve years old, their distance education program has enrolled almost one million students and is the 6th largest distance education program in the world.
Because of the economies of size and distribution, both industrialized, and developing countries have embarked upon distance education programs. In the early 1980's, record numbers of students in developing countries have gained access to higher education through distance education programs. In many cases, local experts are not available to develop original programs in the language and culture of the people. For this reason, the majority of educational programs is either used intact from the host country or is superficially translated with very few adaptations to the local culture. When this is done, the results are often unsuccessful. The cultural values of the program designer become dominant, desirable, and used as the standard.
There are many examples of programs from North America, Australia, Great Britain, and Europe that were purchased but never used in Africa and Asia because the material was not relevant in those countries. Because the appropriate design of instructional material is a critical element in its effectiveness, the issue of "who designs what and for whom" is central to any discussion of the economic, political, and cultural dangers that face distance educators using information technologies. There have been a variety of efforts to identify theoretical foundations for the study of distance education. Thus far, there has been little agreement about which theoretical principles are common to the field and even less agreement on how to proceed in conducting programmatic research.

Method of Distance Education

In the Distance Education

mode of education, students may not be required to be present in a classroom, but that also maybe a question of option. For example in the Open Universities in India, especially in the Indira Gandhi National Open University, week end contact sessions are held. These are optional, but for certain courses which have practical components such as those for computers, attendance to the tune of about 90% is compulsory.

Distance education these days are offered as an electronic classroom or Virtual Learning Environment that it may or not be a part of a distance education set up. Electronic classrooms can be both on campus, and off campus. We would call such institutions as using a 'flexible' delivery mode.
Distance Education may also use all forms of technology, from print to the computer. This range will include radio, television, audio video conferencing, computer aided instruction, e-learning/on-line learning through internet etc.
Distance Education has traversed four to five 'generations' of technology in its history. These are print, audio/video broadcasting, audio/video teleconferencing, computer aided instruction, e-learning/ online-learning, computer broadcasting etc. Yet the radio remains a very viable form , especially in the developing nations, because of its reach. In India the FM Channels are becoming very popular and is being used by the national open university ( Indira Gandhi National Open University) and its consortia plus the state open universities, to broadcast educational programs of variety on areas such as teacher education, rural development, programs in agriculture for farmers, science education, creative writing, mass communication, in addition to traditional courses in liberal arts, science and business administration.

Older models of distance education utilized regular mail to send written material, videos, audiotapes, and CD-ROMs or other media storage format (e.g. SDRAM or Compact Flash cards) to the student and to turn in the exercises. Today's distance education course makes use of E-mail, the Web, and video conferencing over broadband network connections for both wired physical locations and wireless mobile learning. In some countries, the material is supplemented by television and radio programming. To compete with the conventional sector, course material must be of very high quality and completeness, and will use modern technologies such as educational animation. Distance education also involves time to time interaction with the faculty of the University that offers the course.

University for Distance Education

The mode of distance learning offers great learning opportunities to all and everyone. This is the mode of education which reaches to learners through easiest modes, viz; booklets, broadcast, telecast or web. There is no dearth of institution offering courses at different levels- certificate, diploma, post diploma and degree etc. Both government as well as private institution takes part in this unique mode of imparting education to all.To study under distance learning mode, candidates do not require attending actual classes; however, covering the course, completion of assignments, and credits in a given course are some necessary barriers which one must have to clear. The courses in distance learning are available from institution across the world in number of disciplines ranging from arts to archeology, and commerce to computers. A diploma / degree through distance learning considered as equivalent to regular programme in the related discipline. The government of India recognized universities play key role in imparting distance education to all in general and to Indian learners in particular.

Jammu University

Distance Education Courses Offered by Universities

Agriculture	Arts	Commerce
Education	Computer & IT	Engineering
Hotel Management	Health Sciences	Journalism
Law	Management	Mass Communication
Others	Pharmacy	Performing Arts
Science	Teachers Education	Travel & Tourism
Vocational	Yoga	Biotechnology
Media Studies

ININ NEWS

Thursday, January 27, 2011